People and Places: January 24, 2023

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Tuesday, January 24, 2023
By AACSB Staff
The University of Porto and University of Wisconsin–Whitewater name deans, and the University of Calgary opens a new home for the business school.

Transitions

José Esteves has been announced as the new dean of Porto Business School at the University of Porto in Portugal. During more than 18 years at IE Business School in Madrid, he has served as professor of information systems, associate dean for MBA and tech and analytics programs, associate dean for full-time MBAs, and head of the information systems department. In his new role at Porto, Esteves will continue the school’s focus on sustainability, entrepreneurship, people leadership, and digital transformation. Esteves will begin his new role in March, taking over from Ramon O’Callaghan, who has led the Porto Business School since 2015.

Paul Ambrose has been named dean of the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater College of Business and Economics. Since joining the UW–Whitewater community in 2005, he has held several roles, from faculty member to department chair to associate dean, before becoming interim dean in July 2021. During his leadership, the college has had its highest graduate program enrollment and has expanded its online degree offerings. Ambrose is also a co-founder of Ekantha Global, a U.S.-based social enterprise that seeks to equip and empower the underprivileged both locally and globally. He officially started his role as dean on January 20.

This spring, Zoe Radnor will become pro-vice chancellor and executive dean of the College of Business and Social Sciences at Aston University in Birmingham in the U.K. She joins Aston from The University of Law in Guildford, England, where she is provost and deputy vice chancellor. Previously, she held leadership roles at City, University of London, and she also was founding dean of the School of Business at the University of Leicester in the U.K. At Aston, Radnor succeeds George Feiger, who will be stepping down after 10 years leading Aston Business School and the College of Business and Social Sciences.

On January 17, Frank Braun became the new dean of the College of Business at the University of Wisconsin in Oshkosh. Braun most recently was a professor in the School of Business at the University of Arkansas–Little Rock, where he also was dean of the College of Business, Health and Human Services. He previously served as dean and professor of business and health informatics at the School of Business at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio. Prior to that, he spent 18 years as a faculty member and held various administrative roles at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights. At UWO, Braun takes over for Barbara Rau, who has served as dean since June 2017 and is stepping down to return to the COB faculty.

New leaders have been announced at CEMS, a global alliance of 34 business schools and more than 70 corporate and social partners who together deliver the CEMS Master in International Management program. Lars Strannegard (left), president of the Stockholm School of Economics, is the new chair, having already served for two years as deputy chair. Strannegard succeeds Greg Whitwell, dean of the University of Sydney Business School. Sherif Kamel (right), dean of the School of Business at the American University in Cairo, has been named deputy chair of the alliance.

New Programs

The Goizueta Business School at Emory University in Atlanta has launched a fully online version of its Evening MBA program. Designed to offer access, flexibility, and convenience to working professionals, the program has no required in-person residencies. Current Emory Evening MBA students already have the option to take core courses either online or on campus; while the new program allows students to complete their entire degrees online, students in the evening programs will be able to choose on-campus or online delivery options on a course-by-course basis. The online courses are offered through Goizueta’s Global Classrooms technology. Students can take anywhere from 24 months to six years to complete the Evening MBA program.


NEOMA Business School in France has announced three new iLearning courses based on storytelling techniques used in the film and television industry. Students acquire knowledge through a gamelike format that requires them to interact with course content before they can progress. Each course casts participants in a specific role, such as chief digital officer. The new courses, which equate to 30 hours of class time, focus on organizational challenges such as digital literacy, change management, and data management.


Centers and Facilities

The University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, has officially opened the new Mathison Hall for the Haskayne School of Business. The four-story, 33,000-square-foot structure attaches to the school’s existing building and unites business students in one home on campus. Funding for the project, which cost 90 million CAN project (about 67.2 million USD), was anchored by a lead gift of 20 million CAN (15 million USD) from Calgary business leader Ronald P. Mathison. Among the building’s key features are 12 technology-enhanced classrooms that promote student collaboration; collaboration spaces where students can study, socialize, and do group work; a floor dedicated to graduate students, which includes academic classrooms and career services offices; and event facilities. The building also includes the Viewpoint Circle for Dialogue, a round 80-person room that has ventilation to allow for Indigenous smudging ceremonies. The building is designed to be eligible for LEED platinum certification.


Collaborations

The School of Management (SOM) at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, and the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Shillong have signed a memorandum of understanding that will provide opportunities for students to travel between institutions and for faculty to collaborate on research projects. Among IIM’s offerings will be entrepreneurship programs that encourage students to launch new enterprises, while the SOM will provide an array of programs dedicated to social innovation, responsible management, and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.


IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland, has partnered with corporate training organization Strategyzer to create an executive education program to help organizations develop new growth ideas. The seven-week program, which launches in March, includes five days of face-to-face sessions on IMD’s campus as well as virtual team coaching sessions. Strategyzer’s founder and CEO, Alex Osterwalder, will join IMD as a visiting professor to support the partnership. He will co-direct the program with Cyril Bouquet, a professor of strategy and innovation at IMD. In the program, corporate teams of three will work together to develop new products and services through art innovation tools and real-life customer experiments.


The Smith School of Business at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, has announced a partnership with Mohammed VI Polytechique University (UM6P) in Ben Guerir, Morocco. The new arrangement expands on an existing partnership between Queen’s University’s Faculty of Arts and Science and UM6P’s Faculty of Governance, Economics, and Social Science. The new arrangement will enable two students in Smith’s commerce program to spend a semester in Morocco each year, while Smith welcomes two students from UM6P.


Grants and Donations

Prairie View A&M University in Texas will receive a donation of nearly 1.2 million USD from ConocoPhillips to support development of student skills in engineering and business analytics. The multiyear contribution will include 300,000 USD to provide scholarships for students pursuing the analytics minor in the College of Business and funding for more professors, tutors, and mentors; 200,000 USD to increase enrollment in and provide scholarships to the Summer Bridge Program for business and engineering students; and nearly 500,000 to support the College of Engineering lab. Additional annual support from ConocoPhillips will provide the university with funding for scholarships, programs, and faculty.


Purdue University’s reimagined School of Business in West Lafayette, Indiana, has received a 4 million USD commitment from aerospace manufacturer Raytheon Technologies. The money will go toward funding the Raytheon Technologies Chair in Integrated Business and Engineering (IBE), a position that will support the intersection of STEM and business. Purdue’s recently inaugurated IBE program is a foundational component of the new School of Business. The gift is an extension of Purdue’s longstanding relationship with Raytheon Technologies.


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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AACSB Staff
The views expressed by contributors to AACSB Insights do not represent an official position of AACSB, unless clearly stated.
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