Clark Banach

Dr. Clark Banach is a Teaching Professor of Management and Marketing at the Richard J. Wehle School of Business, Canisius University, and serves as Program Director at Aletheia Research Institution. With 15 years of strategic management experience—including 10 years in consulting where he oversaw 150+ projects—he bridges academic research with private sector expertise in finance and policy analysis.

His academic credentials include:

• PhD in Economics (Dr. rer. pol.) from Freie Universität Berlin
• MA in International Economics from Berlin School of Economics and Law
• MA in International Marketing Management from Berlin School of Economics and Law
• MBA in International Business from Canisius University
• BA in Business Economics (dual degree) from Canisius University

Dr. Banach's research focuses on geoeconomic security, analyzing how Chinese infrastructure investments—particularly through the Belt and Road Initiative—affect global trade flows and maritime shipping networks. His work combines empirical database development with policy forecasting, emphasizing Chinese port investments' bilateral trade impacts and economic security vulnerabilities. Earlier contributions explored organizational innovation through gamification in knowledge firms and digital-era change management.

His 2023-2024 publications reveal a strategic shift toward actionable policy tools, featuring comprehensive databases like Building BLOCS adopted by DG Trade and APEC. These works dissect BRI's second-decade evolution while earlier 2016 studies pioneered frameworks for digital transformation in corporate communication structures.

Key honors include:

• MERICS Futures Fellowship (Mercator Foundation)
• DAAD STIBET Doctoral Awards for East European and North American Studies
• GSNAS Doctoral Fellowship (German Research Foundation)

As Program Director at Aletheia, he leads the Building BLOCS project and oversees data labs (BLOCS, GAPS, MINDS) developing custom analytics for trade policy. His grant-funded work—utilized by international bodies like APEC—specializes in non-partisan economic security forecasting through statistical modeling and database innovation.

Aletheia's labs under his direction focus on behavioral analytics for education/healthcare policy, with BLOCS data systems tracking how infrastructure investments reshape trade networks. The institution's "no cookie" philosophy reflects his commitment to unbiased, privacy-centric research methodologies.