Dubai Duty Free finance chief earns doctorate for duty free thesis
Colm McLoughlin, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of Dubai Duty Free congratulates Bernard Creed, Senior Vice President – Finance
Bernard Creed, Dubai Duty Free’s Senior Vice President – Finance, has successfully defended his doctoral thesis “Airport Shopping: A Study of Sequential Purchasing at Dubai Duty Free” at the University of Wollongong in Dubai.
Creed passed his written and oral defense with the highest marks, Dubai Duty Free reported.
Creed has built an empirically tested conceptual model that explains the important factors found in an airport shopping environment that influence sequential purchasing. He used data specific to Dubai Duty Free, Dubai International Airport and external data to build and statistically analyze his model. His research is the first of its kind in the travel retail industry to be recognized at doctoral level, Dubai Duty Free said.
For his work, Creed was awarded with a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).
Commenting on his degree, Colm McLoughlin, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of Dubai Duty Free, said: “Congratulations to Bernard for successfully defending his thesis to earn his doctorate degree. I know that there was a lot of hard work involved on Bernard’s side and I am sure that the findings in the dissertation will be relevant and informative for the duty free industry as a whole.”
Creed has over 17 years’ experience working in the duty free industry, having previously worked for Bahrain Duty Free (1998-2001) and for Dubai Duty Free (2001-2007). Creed returned to Dubai Duty Free in May 2010 to head up the Finance Department as Financial Controller and later becoming Vice President of Finance. He was named Senior Vice President - Finance in September 2016.
In addition to his Certified Public Accountant qualification and doctorate degree, Creed holds a Masters in Business Administration.