RORY McDONALD

September 2008

Stanford University Phone: (650) 269-8247

Management Science & Engineering Fax: (650) 723-1614
423 Terman Building Email: rorym1@stanford.edu
Stanford, CA 94305-5015 Website: stvp.stanford.edu/research

Education

Ph.D., Strategy and Organizations, 2011 (Expected)

Stanford University, Department of Management Science & Engineering
M.A., Sociology, 2009 (Expected)
M.B.A., General Management, 2006
Stanford University, Graduate School of Business
M.S., Civil Engineering, 4.0/4.0 GPA, 2004
B.S., Civil Engineering, Summa cum Laude, 3.97/4.0 GPA, 2004
University of South Florida

Research Interests

Interests: Topics at the intersection of strategy, organization theory, and entrepreneurship:

Competition and strategic interaction among entrepreneurs, organizational determinants of
entrepreneurial activity, and the emergence of new industries and business models

Research Methods: Fieldwork, simulation, and statistical methods

Academic Honors

National Defense Science and Engineering (NDSEG) Fellowship (2008-2010)

Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) Fellowship (2008, 2009)
First place, $25,000 in Stanford’s Entrepreneur’s Challenge Business Plan Competition (2005)
Valedictorian, University of South Florida College of Engineering (2004)
Tau Beta Pi National Fellowship (2003)
National Merit Scholar (1998)

Papers

McDonald, Rory and Emily Cox (2008), “Legitimating Venture Capital as Organizational Form
and Asset Class,” STVP Working Paper.

McDonald, Rory (2008), “Competition as Strategic Interaction,” STVP Working Paper.

McDonald, Rory and Isaac Weisberg (2007), “Irreversible Processes: the Case of
Debureaucratization and Entrepreneurship” in revision for resubmission.
 Rory McDonald (page 2 of 2)

Engineering Papers
Ashmawy, McDonald, Carreon, Atalay (2006), “Stabilization of Marginal Soils Using Recycled
Materials,” Florida Department of Transportation Final Technical Report, BD-544-4.

McDonald, R.M. and Ashmawy, A.K. (2004) “Recycled Material Relational Database.” Recycled
Materials in Geotechnics, ASCE GSP 127, A. H. Aydilek, and J. Wartman, Eds.

Teaching

New Venture Lab (AeA/Stanford Executive Institute) (2008)

I served as co-instructor along with Professor Tom Byers for a 2-week executive education course
on entrepreneurship. We led a class of 65 senior managers from high technology companies
through the entrepreneurial process – from generating the initial idea to designing the business
model and setting strategy and finally to pitching their business plans to a panel of Silicon Valley
venture capitalists.

Strategy in Technology-based Companies (MS&E 270) (2008)

Teaching assistant for MS&E course with Professors Kathy Eisenhardt and Riitta Katila

Modeling for Quantitative Analysis (OIT 245) (2005)

Teaching assistant for MBA course with Professors Jeff Moore and Jim Patell

Extracurricular Activities

My family: wife, Anne and three boys, Dane (4), Liam (2), and Finn (6 months)
Menlo Park Ward, religious instructor to 16-18 year old young men (2004-2008)
Community sports: beach volleyball, softball, ultimate frisbee
Boy Scouts of America, Eagle Scout recipient and former Scoutmaster

Employment History

Adaptive Hearing Solutions, Co-founder and Director of Business Development (2005-2007)

Wrote business plan and pitched venture capitalists resulting in several offers of seed funding. I
also led an interdisciplinary team in sourcing strategic partnerships and conducting market
research to commercialize a new digital signal process technology for hearing aid applications.

The Paul Gillrie Institute, Senior Analyst (2002-2003)

Consulted and negotiated purchases on behalf of car dealerships seeking IT solutions

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Full-time Missionary (1998-2000)

Served as Assistant to the President, responsible for the day-to-day operations, language training,
and religious instruction of 160 delegates serving in 30 cities across southern France

Cornerstone Research, economic and financial consulting (summer 2006)

Woodside Group, real estate development (summer 2005)