Dr. Memo Diriker, is the Founding Director of the Business, Economic, and Community Outreach Network (BEACON). BEACON is the premier business and economic research and consulting unit of the Franklin P. Perdue School of Business at Salisbury University. BEACON is home to the award winning Community Visioning, ShoreTrends, GrayShore, ShoreENERGY, and Bienvenidos a Delmarva initiatives.
Dr. Diriker specializes in the use of “Scenario Analysis,” and in “Demographic, Business, and Economic Trend Forecasting.” As the Director of BEACON, Dr. Diriker advises a large number of private, public, and nonprofit sector organizations. Some of his current and former clients include U.S. Steel; Allied-Signal; Dow Chemical; Mass Mutual; Federal Express; Chesapeake Utilities; K&L Microwave; MaTech; Midway and Courtesy Chevrolet; The Daily Times of Salisbury; Perdue Farms; Peninsula Regional Medical Center, and the Maryland Baseball Partnership. His current research focuses on the "Three Es: Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Evidence." He is especially interested in exploring the successful deployment of the "Three Es" concept in Government Agencies, Nonprofit Organizations, and Small to Medium-Sized Enterprises.
As the director of BEACON, Dr. Diriker has served as the principal investigator on numerous grants and sponsored research projects, totaling over $6 Million in awards. In addition to a book, Dr. Diriker has authored many articles in academic and practitioner publications, and is a sought-after public speaker. He is currently working on two books on public policy issues related to business, economic, workforce, and community development, with expected publication dates in 2008 and 2009.
Dr. Diriker is a Past President of the Salisbury Sunrise Rotary Club. He has also served as the President of the American Marketing Association in Boston, Massachusetts, and as a former advisor to the Board of Directors of the Sales and Marketing Executives of Greater Boston, Inc. Dr. Diriker recently completed a ten-year stint on WBOC-TV (Channel 16--Cable 6) as the weekly guest of the Wednesday Morning Business Beat segments. He is a regular contributor to the print and electronic media in the Mid-Atlantic Region on Demographic, Business, and Economic Trends in the region. He has also written a Small Business column in the Daily Times of Salisbury for over fifteen years.
Dr. Diriker is the recipient of many honors and awards, including a University System of Maryland Board of Regents Award for Outstanding Public Service, and was named the 2005 Public Health Leader for Wicomico County for his work in designing Marketing and Outreach campaigns for a variety of public health issues.