People and Places: April 2024
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 Craig Crossland has been named the John V. Roach Dean of the Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. Crossland most recently was senior associate dean for academic programs at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business in Indiana. In that role, Crossland was responsible for leading five undergraduate majors, nine undergraduate minors, and eight graduate programs. He helped build the college’s first PhD in management, led the process of reconfiguring the former Mendoza Executive MBA program into a Global EMBA, and co-created ND Boost to support associate professors as they pursue promotion to full professor. He joins the Neeley School on June 30. |
 On July 1, Kurt Dirks will become dean of the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Dirks currently is the Bank of America Professor of Managerial Leadership and director of the Bauer Leadership Center at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Over his career, Dirks has held multiple senior leadership roles, including senior associate dean of programs at the Olin Business School, interim dean, and acting provost of Washington University. He also serves as senior advisor to the chancellor of the university. At the Eccles School, Dirks will succeed Rachel Hayes, who has served as dean since 2021. |
 Royce D. Burnett has been announced as dean of the Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management at Morgan State University in Baltimore. He will assume leadership of the school on July 1. Burnett has spent the last seven years at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, where he has been a professor and the chair for the Strome College of Business’ School of Accountancy. He also has held administrative and faculty roles at Southern Illinois University–Carbondale, the University of Miami, and Oklahoma State University. Burnett follows Fikru Boghossian, who retired in 2023 after a decade of service in the role, and interim dean Ali Emdad. |
 On April 1, John Hadjimarcou became dean of the Woody L. Hunt College of Business at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), after serving as interim dean of the college since last August. Hadjimarcou joined UTEP in 1994 as an assistant professor of marketing and was appointed chair of the department of marketing, management, and supply chain in 2006. He currently serves as Endowed Chair for the Center for the Study of Western Hemispheric Trade. Hadjimarcou has received multiple Outstanding Research Awards from college faculty and the Business College Council, the Faculty Achievement Award for Teaching, and the Outstanding Teaching Award from the University of Texas System Regents. |
 Aarti S. Ivanic has been named dean of the Barney School of Business at the University of Hartford in Connecticut. Ivanic comes to the Barney School from Wagner College in Staten Island, New York, where she has served as the founding dean of the Nicolais School of Business since 2021. Previously, she was the academic director of MBA programs at the University of San Diego’s Knauss School of Business. Ivanic takes her new position on July 1, replacing Carmen Cotei, who has served as interim dean since May 2023. |
 Raghu Tadepalli has announced he will step down as dean of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business at Elon University in North Carolina. He will conclude his deanship following the 2024–25 academic year before taking a yearlong sabbatical and returning to the faculty in 2026. Under his deanship, the school has seen a significant growth in enrollment, expanded the number of full-time faculty, introduced six new undergraduate majors, established two new graduate programs, and added two new centers. Tadepalli also oversaw the 2018 opening of a 30,000-square-foot building to accommodate the business school’s growth. |
 Aston University has appointed Marian Garcia as the new dean of Aston Business School in Birmingham in the U.K. Garcia most recently served as dean of Kent Business School at the University of Kent, where she led the school to attaining accreditation status from AACSB, the Association of MBAs, and the European Foundation for Management Development. Garcia serves as a council member of the Chartered Association of Business Schools and a member of the board of directors of The Academy of Business in Society. She also has undertaken visiting professorial positions and provided external advisory and supervisory support to institutions abroad. She joins Aston in May. |
 The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has appointed Orly Sade as dean of the School of Business Administration. She currently is the Albertson-Waltuch Chair in Business Administration and a professor of finance at the school. Sade is a member of the scientific board of the Society for Experimental Finance and participates in the advisory boards of the Israeli Ministry of Finance’s capital market division and the Israeli Securities Authority. The new appointment is effective in October 2024, when Sade succeeds Nicole Adler, who has been dean for four years. Adler oversaw a significant increase in faculty, an emphasis on the promotion of research, and the establishment of two new research centers. |
 Jonathan Levin has been appointed as the next president of Stanford University in California. Levin, who has been a member of the Stanford faculty since 2000, currently is the Philip H. Knight Professor and dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business. During his time on the faculty, Levin was awarded an endowed chair, becoming the Holbrook Working Professor of Price Theory in the School of Humanities and Sciences. He served as chair of the Stanford economics department from 2011 to 2014, and during that time he helped recruit two future Nobel laureates and four Clark medalists to Stanford. Levin also is a member of President Joe Biden’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Levin will begin his new role on August 1, succeeding Richard Saller, who has been Stanford’s president on an interim basis since September 2023. |
 Peter Møllgaard has been named the new president of Copenhagen Business School (CBS). He currently is dean of the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences at the University of Southern Denmark and previously was dean of the Maastricht University School of Business and Economies. The new position marks his return to CBS, where he held multiple positions from 1996 to 2017, including dean of research, professor of industrial organization, and department head. He is currently serving as chair of the Danish Council on Climate Change, which advises the Danish government on climate policies.
New ProgramsBentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, has launched a six-week executive education program called Leading Business Transformation in Health. It is designed to develop holistic leaders in health through a blend of interactive virtual sessions, collaborative problem-solving group interactions, and hands-on projects. Bentley is partnering with global education company Minerva Project on the development and delivery of the program. In addition to learning about the complexities of healthcare systems, students will develop ethical leadership skills, cultivate emotional intelligence and self-awareness, and become agile problem-solvers. Abilene Christian University in Dallas has launched an online Master of Science in Sports Leadership. Designed to help sports professionals become coaches, administrators, and sports brand leaders, the program will cover topics such as leadership, communication, team development, preventive injury care, and personal leadership styles. It will offer students concentrations in coaching, athletic administration, and analytics. The Open University in the U.K. has launched the Black Leadership Empowerment Programme to support Black business and community leaders. A two-year pilot program will be based in Manchester and will be followed by additional hubs around the country. Through online and in-person modules, learners will develop skills in leadership, communication, influence, problem-solving, and building and maintaining coalitions for change. The program is supported by The Prince’s Trust, AutoTrader, Manchester Airport Group, and Inclusive Companies. The Free Enterprise Institute at the University of San Diego (USD) is exploring ways to support family businesses through a new initiative at the Knauss School of Business. The program will leverage USD’s capabilities in innovation commercialization through the Brink SBDC, an innovation hub hosted at the university, and the San Diego Angel Conference. It will counsel family business owners on topics such as adding and expanding product lines, adopting new technology, refining operations, and acquiring funding. The initiative also will offer mentoring services, networking opportunities, and information about succession planning. CollaborationsNyenrode Business University in the Netherlands is working with B Lab Benelux and Earth Law Center to create an online platform called Onboarding Nature. Launched earlier this month, Onboarding Nature promotes nature-inclusive governance by providing companies with the inspiration, tools, and a legal framework to give nature a clearer role in governance and business operations. Loyola University Maryland’s Sellinger School of Business and Management in Baltimore is collaborating with the Taiwan-Reyhanli Centre for World Citizens to help Syrian refugees in the border city of Reyhanli, Turkey. The Sellinger School and Taiwan-Reyhanli Centre will develop educational programs, conduct faculty and student exchanges, and collaborate on research activities, lectures, talks, and symposiums. The organizations also are considering collaboration possibilities in the areas of marketing, crowdfunding, language support, data collection and analysis, and counseling. The Muma College of Business at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa has partnered with cybersecurity firm KnowBe4 to launch a free Cyber Resiliency Certificate Program open to business students at all levels. In the self-paced 15-hour class, students undergo interactive training to learn the fundamentals of cyber safety in the workplace. USF business students are the first university students in the U.S. to go through the training, which includes webinars, content from the company’s training library, and recently developed student-centric content. Grants and DonationsDartmouth College and the Tuck School of Business in Hanover, New Hampshire, have received a 150 million USD bequest from the late Glenn Britt and his wife, the late Barbara Britt. The gift, which is dedicated entirely to scholarships, will enable Dartmouth to move its “zero parent contribution” threshold for undergraduates from a 65,000 USD annual income to 125,000 USD. Three-quarters of the Britts’ gift will enhance undergraduate financial aid awards, and one-quarter will fund scholarship support for Tuck students. The policy change resulting from the gift will take effect in the next academic year. Glenn Britt, an alum, was a Time Warner Cable CEO. Washington University in St. Louis has received a 20 million USD commitment from longtime donors George and Carol Bauer. The gift will endow the Bauer Leaders Academy, which will offer all students at the university the opportunity to build leadership skills inside and outside of the classroom. Previous gifts from the couple have funded the Bauer Professorship in Organizational Ethics and Governance at Olin Business School, the George and Carol Bauer Leadership Center, and Olin’s Bauer Hall. 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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