Biography
Richard L. Wobbekind is Executive Director of the Business Research Division and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Programs at the University of Colorado Boulder. He joined the faculty at the Leeds School of Business in 1985, and has served as Associate Dean since 2000.
As Executive Director of the Business Research Division his responsibilities include developing an annual consensus forecast of the Colorado economy and performing various economic impact assessments of the Colorado economy. Wobbekind also produces the quarterly Leeds Business Confidence Index for Colorado.
Rich is currently the president of the National Association for Business Economics. He also participates annually in the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank Regional Economic Roundtable and is a contributor to the Western Blue Chip Economic Forecast newsletter.
He is a member of the Governor's Revenue Estimating Advisory Committee, the Denver Regional Council of Governments’ Forecast 2035 Advisory Committee, the Colorado Tourism Office Education and Research Committee, the Boulder Urban Renewal Authority and the Boulder Economic Council.
For his efforts in community development and outreach, Wobbekind was awarded the 1997 University of Colorado Bank One Community Outreach Award. In 2006 he was awarded the Robert L. Stearns award for lifetime contributions in teaching, research and service.
Wobbekind teaches MBA students in macroeconomics, public policy, entrepreneurship and managerial economics. He has received three awards for teaching excellence from the students of the Leeds School. Wobbekind has lived in Colorado for more than 34 years and has spent much of his time studying the development of the Colorado and regional economies. He received a BA in economics from Bucknell University and an MA and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
