Dr. Lawrence is a tenured member of the faculty and has been appointed the Poe Family Distinguished Faculty Fellow. He holds a Ph.D. from the prestigious London School of Economics and completed a program at the Harvard Business School that is designed to improve the effectiveness of corporate boards.

Dr. Lawrence's research interests are focused on technological mediated organizational transformation, the application of neo-institutional theory into information systems research as well as the organization and management of the IT function within large organizations. His teaching interests are in the areas of management information systems, technology and organizational strategy, quantitative methods and corporate governance.

While teaching at the London School of Economics he was awarded the highest teaching award that can be bestowed upon Ph.D. candidates for demonstrated excellence in the classroom. Dr. Lawrence's undergraduate and graduate teaching evaluations are consistently amongst the highest in the School of Business Administration. In May of 2009 Dr. Lawrence was selected as the outstanding MBA faculty member by the School of Business Administration's graduate students. In May of 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012, Dr. Lawrence was selected as the outstanding MIS faculty member by UM's undergraduate students. He has also been honored twice by the University of Montana's Division of Student Affairs for the generous support and encouragement he has provided to UM's students through the years. Dr. Lawrence is a member of both the Admissions and Curriculum Committee for the MBA program as well as the Master's of Accountancy program. He also completed a term on the University of Montana's Faculty Senate.

Dr. Lawrence's academic work has been published in some of the leading international journals in the field of Management Information Systems including the European Journal of Information Systems, Communications of the Association for Information Systems and the Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application.

Dr. Lawrence's business background spans technology startups, consulting and real estate including a 60,000 square foot self-storage facility that employs a sophisticated portfolio of technologies to manage security and site access. He is also a member of the Montana Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs (MADE), which is comprised of distinguished members of Montana's business community. In addition, he sits on several boards including the Clark Fork Coalition and Planned Parenthood of Montana.

Prior to entering the hallowed halls of academe, Dr. Lawrence spent six years assigned to the U.S. Forest Service and BLM Smokejumper programs where he made approximately 145 parachute jumps using the Ram-Air, FS-12 and FS-14 canopy systems.

When Dr. Lawrence has a break from teaching and writing, he can usually be found skiing, mountain biking, fly fishing, playing golf or shooting sporting clays.

Mario is UM's assistant vice president for marketing, overseeing marketing, branding, social media and web site development for The University of Montana. He came to UM in January 2013.

Mario spent 10 years managing digital strategy teams at ad agencies WDCW and R2C Group, where he led digital campaigns for clients such as Chase, Vonage, P&G, Alaska Airlines and Philips. He is also the founder of IdeaMensch, a community of entrepreneurs who share stories of bringing their ideas to life. Mario has interviewed over 1,500 entrepreneurs, from the very famous to ones just getting started.

In 2012, Mario orchestrated a record-setting road trip across America, organizing 50 events across 48 states in less than 120 days. His goal? To inspire thousands to start working on their ideas by learning from others who've done so already. Speakers ranged from famous tech entrepreneurs to a pig farmer in Iowa - with sold out crowds from Los Angeles, California to Burlington, Vermont.

Mario is a first generation immigrant from Germany who came to America as an exchange student at the age of 16, landing on a cattle ranch in Hamilton, MT. He is an Ironman triathlete and a 2002 UM business graduate.