Eli Jones

Dr. Eli Jones is a Dean Emeritus, Professor of Marketing, and the Lowry and Peggy Mays Eminent Scholar at Texas A&M University. He held esteemed leadership roles as Dean of Mays Business School at Texas A&M, Dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, and Dean of the E. J. Ourso College of Business at Louisiana State University.

He has received prestigious national and international awards for his contributions to marketing education, the sales and sales management discipline, and his community and profession. These awards include the highly-regarded American Marketing Association (AMA)-Irwin-McGraw-Hill Distinguished Marketing Educator Award, the Academy of Marketing Science Distinguished Educator Award, and the Society for Marketing Advances Distinguished Scholar Award, which recognizes those who have left indelible marks in marketing and who have blazed trails for future generations. He is also an AMA Fellow. In 2016, the AMA Sales Special Interest Group awarded Jones the Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors an individual who has made meaningful contributions to the academic sales discipline over a sustained time.

His most cherished awards are from his alma mater, Texas A&M University. As a doctoral student, he received the Association of Former Students’ University-wide Teaching Award (1996-97). Additionally, he received the Marketing Department’s Doctoral Student Teaching Award (1996-1997) and the Marketing Department’s Doctoral Student Research Award (1995-1996). In 2009, Jones was recognized as a Mays Business School Outstanding Doctoral Alumnus, and in 2022, he received Mays Business School’s Outstanding Alumnus Award.

Jones has published over 50 peer-reviewed academic research articles in top academic journals and co-authored or solo-authored five professional books on sales, leadership, and personal development: Making Differences Work, Run Toward Your Goliaths, Run Toward Your Goliaths: The Study Guide, and Selling ASAP: Art, Science, Agility, and Performance, the Professional Edition and textbook.

He thrives at the intersection of academia and business, having worked in professional B2B sales and sales leadership for three Fortune 500 global companies before becoming a professor. He also actively engages with the business community. His service on boards, including the global board of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), AMA, First Financial Bankshares, Inc., Insperity, and the Invesco Funds Complex, is a testament to his dedication to and involvement in the business community.

Eli Jones holds a Doctorate in Marketing, an MBA, and a Bachelor of Science in Journalism, all from Texas A&M University.