Colin Johnson, Ph.D., holds a doctorate in economic and social sciences from Fribourg University, Switzerland. He also has an M.B.A. from Manchester Business School and a B.A. from the Open University in the UK.

He has worked in many sectors of the hospitality industry including contract catering, airline catering, two-, four- and five-star hotels, private members clubs, retail restaurants and was assistant catering manager at Manchester United Football Club.

He has held faculty and management positions in seven colleges and Universities in the UK, Switzerland and the US. He was the dean at the Domino Carlton Tivoli Hotel Management School in Lucerne, Switzerland and dean and then founding director of research at the Lausanne Institute for Hospitality Research at the ecole hôtelière de Lausanne.

Before joining San Francisco State University, he served as professor and chair at San Jose State University. He has published in a number of leading hospitality and tourism journals including The Annals of Tourism Research, The Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Quarterly, and The International Journal of Hospitality Management and Managing Service Quality.

His research interests include services internationalization, small and medium size enterprises sustainability and social entrepreneurship.