Dr. Brian Whelan

Biography

Dr. Brian Whelan is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Western Carolina University. He has over 20 years of industry experience, holding senior and executive-level roles in marketing, branding, corporate communications, public relations and product management for some of the world’s largest financial services firms. Before entering academia full time in 2019, Dr. Whelan was a Managing Director and Global Head of Corporate and Strategic Communications at Barings, a leading global investment management firm with over $400 billion in assets under management. In this role, Dr. Whelan was responsible for managing the firm's corporate and strategic communications and public relations initiatives across the U.S., Europe and Asia-Pacific. Prior to joining Western Carolina University, he served as a Lecturer in Marketing at the UNC Charlotte Belk College of Business.<br>Dr. Whelan earned his Doctorate in Marketing from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, his Master of Science in Marketing from West Virginia University, and his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Hofstra University.

Education

• DBA, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Marketing
• MS, West Virginia University, Marketing
• BA, Hofstra University, Sociology

Teaching Interests

Dr. Whelan brings over 20 years of marketing communications experience to the classroom, and utilizes a highly interactive teaching method that makes extensive use of real-world business scenarios and exercises created from his experiences in industry. His goal is to demonstrate to his students how academic theory impacts business practice, and he seeks to illuminate the connectivity between academia and practice in all of his courses. Dr. Whelan's primary teaching interests include branding, consumer behavior and digital marketing. He is also a member of the graduate faculty, and teaches in the MBA program.

Research Interests

Dr. Whelan's research has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals. His research focuses primarily on the intersection of branding and consumer behavior; specifically, how individuals form personal attachments and loyalty to brands in a perpetually changing digital world. Dr. Whelan is also actively researching the impact that social media activity has on brand attachment and loyalty, and is acutely interested in the impact that social media activity has on the formation of brand attitudes, brand affinity and brand loyalty among Gen Z and Millennials. He is currently serving as the Associate Editor for the Journal of Applied Marketing Theory.