Ken Gordon

Ken Gordon, Ph.D.

Ken Gordon, Ph.D., has over 45 years of experience in consulting, executive coaching, research, and education in international business, spanning over 75 countries — with over 30 years in East, Southeast, and South Asia. In his role as an international business consultant, he has provided services to numerous Fortune 500 companies & SMEs. His primary functional areas of expertise are: global strategic planning, new business development, negotiations, international management, leadership development, & operations management.

He is a Certified Executive Leadership Coach (LPI). His key geographic areas of expertise are: China, most of Southeast Asia, India, Japan, and Korea. He has lived and worked in China, Singapore, Germany, India, Denmark, and France. Prior to Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji’s visit to Denver, Colorado, Dr. Gordon provided the business and cultural briefing for the Colorado Governor’s Office, the Colorado International Trade Office, and the Denver Mayor’s Office of Economic Development & International Trade. He has been a special advisor to the Denver Mayor’s Office and the World Trade Center on the creation of a China Trade Representative Office in Shanghai, China, and served as a member of the Mayor’s China Advisory Committee (CAC) that provides ongoing support, information, and advice to the Mayor’s Office with regards to Denver’s continuing efforts in China.

Dr. Gordon also served on the Colorado-China Advisory Council through the City of Denver’s Mayor’s Office of Economic Development & International Trade (MOED/IT) and the Colorado Environmental Business Alliance (CEBA), and has served on the Colorado-Malaysia Council as well. Dr. Gordon earned his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Business from Northwestern University and his B.A. from the University of Iowa.

As our business continued to expand globally, particularly in Asia, Gordon Pacific, LLC provided us with a very high level of expertise in many areas including international consulting with senior executives, in-country consulting for our business development activities, and cultural education and coaching for both expatriates and cross-cultural teams. We chose Gordon Pacific over similar organizations based on their depth of experience in global business issues and their customized approach to helping us successfully compete in new, diverse locations. Their guidance and expertise allowed us to avoid numerous, common pitfalls related to culture, government, and business issues in multiple locations. As a result, our partnership with GP greatly reduced our overall costs and enabled us to build deeper relationships with both internal and external business partners. In my twenty plus years in international human resources work, I would give GP the highest recommendation out of the numerous firms I have used for international consulting.

David Knipping
Director, International Human Resources, ConAgra Foods
Gordon Pacific’s consulting and executive coaching really made a positive impact to our sourcing operations and overall team effectiveness. Their global expertise, perspective and engagement with my team really added value to the bottom line by allowing us to understand how to address issues of concern now and how to be on the lookout for new challenges that were about to present themselves. Gordon Pacific brings real-life experiences and perspective to their consulting roles. The reality of ‘it could happen to you too’ really had my team thinking about how to protect their business.

Scott Jenkins, VP, Global Sourcing
Lowe's Companies, Inc.
“Ken and Hai Yan of Gordon Pacific are simply brilliant consultants when assessing market and customer needs on behalf of SME and larger enterprises seeking to enter or improve their position in the China market. These are thoughtful and highly experienced professionals you can count on to be engaged, committed and pragmatic in any situation including protracted negotiations. Both will quickly grasp the big picture but will not hesitate to work through the details to assure a successful long term outcome. From mid management to the C suite, no doors stay closed to Ken and Hai Yan.”

J Bors, Vice President
ChemCo Systems