People and Places: May 2024
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 Xavier Ordeñana has been announced as the next dean of the School of Business for the Monterrey Region at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico. He most recently was dean of ESPAE Graduate School of Management at ESPOL in Guayaquil, Ecuador, where he will continue as an associate professor. He previously was director of the Graduate School at Universidad del Pacifico in Lima, Peru. Ordeñana has held positions as president and executive committee member of CLADEA, The Latin American Council of Management Schools. He also has served AACSB in many capacities, including as a Global Facilitator and as a member of the Latin American Advisory Council and the Innovation Committee. |
 On July 1, Paul A. Pavlou becomes the new dean of the University of Miami’s Patti and Allan Herbert Business School. For the past five years, Pavlou has been the dean and Cullen Distinguished Chair Professor at the University of Houston’s C.T. Bauer College of Business. Before that, he was senior associate dean for faculty, research, doctoral programs, and strategic initiatives at Temple University in Philadelphia, where he was also the Milton F. Stauffer Professor and co-director of the universitywide Data Science Institute. |
 Manoj K. Malhotra has been named the next Kevin L. and Lisa A. Clayton Dean of the College of Business at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He is the current John R. Mannix Medical Mutual of Ohio Professor of Operations Management at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, where he previously served as dean and Albert J. Weatherhead III Professor at the Weatherhead School of Management. Before that, he was senior associate dean of graduate programs, Jeff B. Bates Professor, and chairman of the management science department at the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Malhotra will begin his tenure at Lehigh on July 1, succeeding Georgette Chapman Phillips, who is retiring. |
 John Duggan has been appointed the new dean of the Leo J. Meehan School of Business at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. Since joining the college in 2014, Duggan has held various roles, including teaching fellow of business, assistant professor and associate professor of business law, chair of the department of business administration, and vice president of the faculty senate. |
 The International University of Rabat has confirmed Nicolas Arnaud in a dual leadership role as the dean of the College of Management and the general director of Rabat Business School (RBS). When he assumes his new role in September 2024, he will begin implementing a new development plan for RBS that aims to accommodate 41,000 students by 2035 across future campuses in Morocco. Arnaud currently works at Audencia Business School in Nantes, France, where he has been involved in directing the Grande Ecole Program and overseeing various training programs. He previously has held positions at Sciences Po Rennes and the University of Angers, both in France. |
 Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, has appointed Kyle Murray as the new dean of the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics for a five-year term beginning July 1. Murray, who currently is a professor at the University of Alberta’s Alberta School of Business, previously was acting dean and vice dean of the school and director of the university’s School of Retailing. He began his career at the University of Western Ontario’s Ivey School of Business, and he also has experience as a visiting professor at INSEAD in France, Monash Business School in Australia, and Technological University Dublin. |
 Jennifer Mueller-Phillips has been named dean of the Raymond J. Harbert College of Business at Auburn University in Alabama. Mueller-Phillips took the position on May 1 after acting as interim dean since September. She joined the Auburn faculty in 2000 as an assistant professor of accounting and became director of the School of Accountancy in 2016. When she served the school as associate dean for academic affairs, she oversaw efforts to enhance student success outcomes, advance campuswide entrepreneurship initiatives, expand global programs, and strengthen student recruitment and retention. |
 Richard J. Buttimer Jr. has been named dean of the Belk College of Business at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, effective July 1. Buttimer has been dean of the Coggin College of Business at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville since 2020. Previously, he was a long-serving faculty member and administrator in Charlotte’s Belk College. His roles included appointments as the John Crosland Sr. Distinguished Professor of Real Estate and Development, senior associate dean, and director of the Childress Klein Center for Real Estate. He follows Jennifer Troyer, who in October was named provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at Charlotte, and interim dean and Rush S. Dickson Professor of Finance Tao-Hsien “Dolly” King.
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 Southern Utah University in Cedar Hills has appointed Ken Hall as dean of the Dixie L. Leavitt School of Business. Hall, who has acted as the interim dean for the past year, has been a lecturer, associate dean, and MBA director at the school. He also has led strategic enrollment planning and hiring committees. He previously was a corporate executive at
Bain & Company, Exxon, Booz Allen Hamilton, and PetSmart. |
 Rich Lyons has been named the next chancellor of the University of California Berkeley. Lyons was dean of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business from 2008 through 2018, and he has been the chief innovation and entrepreneurship officer since 2020. As chancellor, Lyons will succeed Carol Christ, who is stepping down on July 1. He becomes the first UC Berkeley undergraduate alumnus since 1930 to become the campus’ top leader.
New ProgramsThe GBSB Global Business School in Barcelona has announced a PhD program in innovation management. Delivered entirely online, the program can be completed in three years on a full-time basis or five years on a part-time schedule. The multidisciplinary curriculum will cover areas such as digital businesses, artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, and technology innovation management. The program is aimed at both practitioners and professionals who wish to research innovation in an academic setting. The program launches in October. Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business will offer a new certificate in global business, beginning in the fall 2024 semester. To earn the certificate, students must take 12 hours from a select list of courses and participate in a global business engagement activity, such as study abroad, international internships, or Business as Mission, which encourages Christian businesspeople to do good in the world. Because the certificate is designed to complement any business major, many of its courses also will count toward major requirements. Vlerick Business School in Brussels has redesigned its MBA program to improve the student experience, increase flexibility for participants, and offer specialist study options. In the new program, participants can undertake a generalized MBA or specialize in the areas of entrepreneurship, digital business, or strategy. Learners have the opportunity to study abroad through two international immersion weeks on different continents. At the conclusion of the program, students participate in real-life projects through the school’s Knowledge in Action Project. CollaborationsEHL Hospitality Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland, has partnered with King’s Business School at King’s College London and the Energy and Environment Alliance to run an education program focused on the practical aspects of delivering high environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards across the hospitality sector. The program is designed to give hospitality managers, investors, and asset owners an overview of the science of climate change and an understanding of new regulatory requirements and data collection methods. It also will help participants promote sustainability, cut down on waste, and build lasting value in their communities. Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford in the U.K. is launching the Future Climate Innovators Summer School in partnership with Burjeel Holdings, a private healthcare provider in the UAE and Oman. The two-week program, which will include lectures, workshops, and hands-on projects, is aimed at 16- to 18-year-olds passionate about tackling climate change. The launch of the summer school follows the inaugural Burjeel Holdings–Oxford Saïd Climate Change Challenge, where student teams from around the world were asked to share their ideas for addressing the climate crisis. Grants and DonationsThe Mays Business School at Texas A&M University in College Station has received the largest single donation in its history: a 25 million USD gift from the Mays Family Foundation. The money will go toward the construction of a new graduate education building in the Mays Business Education Complex (BEC). The new building will support increased enrollments and expanded graduate programs, including a suite of flexible online master’s programs. The current gift brings the Mays family’s total support for the school to 72 million USD. New York University’s Stern School of Business has received a landmark gift from Ideavillage, whose founder and CEO is alumnus Anand Khubani. The gift will be used to annually support up to 40 scholarships in the Bachelor of Science in Business, Technology and Entrepreneurship (BTE) Program, which will be renamed the Khubani BTE Program. Marquette University has received a multimillion dollar gift from alums Perry and Sheila Vieth to found the Vieth Institute for Real Estate Leadership. The multidisciplinary institute will combine the resources of the College of Business Administration, the Opus College of Engineering, and Marquette Law School. The Vieths previously established an endowed real estate directorship and contributed funds to promote real estate excellence in the College of Business Administration. Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island, has announced a transformational gift from alumni Marion and Frank Hauck to create the Hauck Sales Performance Lab. The 5,000-square-foot sales laboratory will be located inside the College of Business’s new hub in the Business Entrepreneurship Center. At the lab, students will hone their sales proficiency and develop strong listening, communication, and relationship skills. The lab will be available to all students, regardless of major. Centers and FacilitiesThis month, the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University in Houston broke ground on a 54.5 million USD building to support the school’s growing student and faculty population. The new 112,000-square-foot structure will include two 120-seat classrooms, two 65-seat classrooms, breakout rooms, faculty offices, dining areas, open gathering spaces, and facilities for private events. The new facility will expand around the existing one, creating public spaces between both. The exterior will include a serrated brick façade that will deflect sunlight and flood-proofing measures that will enhance the school’s resilience to extreme weather. The school has begun fundraising efforts toward a goal of 40 million USD to support construction. The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business in College Park has launched a Center for Artificial Intelligence in Business dedicated to realizing the potential of AI through intentional design and governance frameworks centering on human judgment and creativity. The center will work in conjunction with the university’s newly announced Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute. The inaugural director will be Balaji Padmanabhan, Dean’s Professor of Decision, Operations and Information Technologies. The center was established with seed funding from GRF CPAs and Advisors, which provides audit services to nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Other NewsCoventry University Group in the U.K. has opened a Global Hub in the heart of New Delhi to support the group’s admissions, recruitment, and partnerships portfolio in India and the nearby region. The hub also will act as a base for business development personnel serving the research and enterprise portfolios and for visiting academics from the U.K. Coventry University Group already has Global Hubs in Belgium, the United Arab Emirates, Africa, China, and Singapore. If you have news of interest to share with the business education community, please send press releases, relevant images, or other information to AACSB Insights at [email protected]. |
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