Dr Hughes was born in Cambridge, NZ and is a graduate of the University of Auckland and Indiana University, USA where he completed his doctorate in Business Economics and Public Policy in 1970.

After graduation, he taught in the areas of econometrics, forecasting, financial and managerial economics at The University of New South Wales in Sydney (1970 - 1978) and most recently at The University of Waikato in Hamilton, NZ (1978 - 2007). At various times, he has taught in MBA programmes at the University of Florida in Gainesville and in the Graduate School of Management at the University of California at Irvine.