Shade Shutters

Dr. Shade T. Shutters is the Director of Economic Transformations at Arizona State University’s Decision Theater. He is also the founding director of the Laboratory for Regional Dynamics and Development, a unit in the university’s School of Complex Adaptive Systems. His research and outreach focus on theoretically grounded methods of identifying a region’s ideal targets for job growth and quantifying the skills gaps that may inhibit growth in specific industries. At Arizona State, Shade has managed several large multi-institutional research and development projects with funding from the US National Science Foundation, US Department of Defense, the US Economic Development Administration, and several philanthropic foundations.

Shade also holds an external faculty position at the Global Climate Forum, a research institute in Berlin, Germany, and is the owner and chief scientist of Shutters Consulting, LLC.

Prior to his entry into academic research, Shade was CEO of Rockford Europe and Director of International Finance of its parent company, Rockford Corporation, a global manufacturing-distribution firm in the consumer electronics sector. He managed a global team conducting business analytics, forecasting, and budgeting as well as developing data dashboards for senior management.

Shade earned his bachelor’s in finance and accounting from Indiana University and a doctorate in systems ecology from Arizona State University. He went on to complete a postdoctoral position in applied economics at the University of Vigo in Spain and now resides in the Greater Phoenix area with his wife and two children.