People and Places: July 2025
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 Marvin Washington will become the next dean of the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Canada. Washington most recently was dean and vice provost of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Alberta. In that role, he oversaw the development of interdisciplinary programming, research, and leadership certificates. His research interests include strategic management, organization theory, and analyzing conflict at the institutional level. Washington joins SFU on October 1. Until then, Carolyn Egri, a management and organization studies professor, will continue to act as interim dean. Ujwal Kayande previously served as dean of the Beedie School of Business from 2022 to 2024, when he decided to return to The University of Melbourne, where he is currently a professor of marketing. |
 Steven Elias has become dean of the Monfort College of Business at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. He began on July 14. Elias spent the last eight years at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, where he was the endowed dean for the Katz School of Business formerly the college’s School of Business Administration. Elias was responsible for securing a 10 million USD endowment to rename the school in 2023—the largest gift in the college’s history. Previously, Elias was the doctoral program director at New Mexico State University’s College of Business, as well as a professor and head of the Department of Management programs. Elias will assume the new role from interim dean Keiko Krahnke. |
 Earlier this month, Barbara Ritter joined The University of Toledo (UToledo) in Ohio as the next dean to lead the Neff College of Business and Innovation. Ritter comes to UToledo from Jacksonville University in Florida, where she has served as dean of the Davis College of Business and Technology since 2020. During her years at Jacksonville University, the college has seen an enrollment growth of more than 200 percent in some programs and expanded into three schools: Aviation and Military Sciences, Business and Communication, and Engineering and Technology. In addition, Ritter currently serves on AACSB’s board of directors. Ritter replaces Anne Balazs, who was dean for seven years and is now retiring. |
 On July 1, Jennifer Chatman became dean of the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley, after serving as interim dean of the school since last August. Chatman joined UC Berkeley in 1993 as a professor and has held a number of academic leadership positions in the following years. During her time on the faculty, Chatman has led efforts to increase the size and diversity of the faculty, helped launch the flex cohort for the school’s Evening and Weekend MBA program, and cofounded the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation at Haas. She is also an alumna of the university. Chatman succeeds Ann Harrison, who stepped down from the role in June 2024. |
 The University of Deusto in Spain has appointed Macarena Cuenca as the new dean of Deusto Business School. She most recently served as a full professor in the Department of Management, a position she has held since 2021. Prior to her academic career, Cuenca worked for nine years at Accenture, where she gained extensive experience in team leadership and results-driven management. Cuenca succeeds Álvaro de la Rica Aspiunza, who will continue his career as the new vice-rector at the University of Deusto. |
 The University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM) has appointed Arturo Rodriguez as dean of the College of Business and Social Science. He joined the ULM faculty in 2007 as an instructor and became director of the William D. Hoover School of Accounting, Financial, and Information Services in 2019. Rodriguez assumes the role from Michelle McEacharn, who is currently the acting provost and vice president for academic affairs. |
 Kwamie Dunbar has been announced as the interim dean for the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Business School in Massachusetts. Dunbar, who joined WPI in 2022, is currently a professor of finance. In that role, he helped launch the institute’s undergraduate and graduate fintech programs and advised student projects with corporate sponsors. He was previously an associate dean of the Welch College of Business and Technology at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. Dunbar also has nearly a decade of experience in finance and asset management for organizations such as GE Capital and MasterCard Worldwide. Dunbar takes on the interim role upon the departure of Debora Jackson, who is returning to the faculty as a professor of practice until December. |
 Susan Andrzejewski has been appointed as the interim president of California State University (CSU) Channel Islands in Camarillo. A faculty member at the school since 2014, Andrzejewski was named interim dean of the Martin V. Smith School of Business and Economics in 2018 and earned promotion to permanent dean in 2021. As dean, she led the school’s accreditation efforts, oversaw the development of two strategic plans, spearheaded the revision of undergraduate curricula, and established a business analytics graduate program (previously featured in our May 2025 People and Places posting). Andrzejewski will begin her new role on August 4, succeeding Richard Yao, who has been CSU Channel Islands’ president since 2022. |
New ProgramsIESE Business School in Spain is introducing a new Master in Finance (MiF) program designed for recent college graduates from quantitative fields of study and who have no more than two years of prior experience. The 11-month, full-time program, which will be taught in English, will prepare students for careers in corporate finance, investment banking, and CFO-track positions in global firms. Students joining the program will be able to tailor their education by selecting a career-focused track in corporate finance, capital markets, or banking and financial innovation, which complements the core curriculum. The MiF program will begin in September 2026 at IESE’s Madrid campus but includes a mandatory international module in New York City. In addition, program candidates are eligible to participate in a banking week in London to network and further expand their industry insights. The new program is offered in collaboration with the School of Economics and Business at the University of Navarra. The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, has launched Tuck Executive Sprints, an initiative to connect busy industry executives with deeply topical programming. Based on the sprint courses offered in Tuck’s MBA program, this new initiative will offer live, online programs that explore timely, emergent, or topical subjects in depth over two sessions. In addition to the discussions held within the core sessions, both of this year’s executive sprints will allow participants to access a post-program “master class” with its faculty leader to follow up on specific challenges and questions. Starting in the fall, the Tuck School of Business will teach two executive sprints, AI and Data for Strategic Advantage and Leading Organizational Change. Each program will have a limited run before it is replaced, ensuring that content remains timely and fresh while allowing executives to engage with multiple programs based on their business needs. Babson College in Massachusetts is introducing an expanded professional and executive education portfolio that will include the institution’s first online learning platform. Delivered in online and flexible formats, the courses are designed to emphasize innovation and help participants develop entrepreneurial mindsets alongside practical, in-demand business skills. Learners can opt to complete courses individually to earn associated badges, or they can enroll in pre-grouped bundles, like the Early Entrepreneur’s Toolkit—a fully online certificate program for those launching and building ventures—to earn certificates. EDHEC Business School in France and King’s College London Business School in the U.K. recently announced a new joint undergraduate degree focused on business data analytics and AI. Taught entirely in English, the International Business Analytics and Management BSc will equip graduates with a global mindset and cultural intelligence skills to respond to geopolitical instability and technological disruption challenges in ways that preserve the environment. During the program, students will spend their initial two years of study at King’s and the final two years at EDHEC’s campus in Lille. Students will focus on the foundations of business, management, and data analytics during the program’s first half, before specializing in the second half. They will also participate in a mandatory 10-month internship. Students will earn a Bachelor of Science from King’s and an International Bachelor of Business Administration from EDHEC. The program will welcome its first cohort in London in September 2026. The University of Porto’s Porto Business School in Portugal and Woxsen University in India are teaming together to launch a dual doctorate focused on international business leadership. The three-year program will start in January and is designed for senior executives and policymakers interested in addressing complex global challenges. In addition to learning about the complexities of business environments, students will exercise ethical leadership skills, cultivate cultural intelligence, and tackle applied research questions. The dual doctorate program will be taught in a part-time, hybrid format in which students will travel to spend three to four weeks at the partner university. Students can study three specialized tracks: digital, artificial intelligence, and data innovation; strategic business leadership; and global policy and operations management. At the conclusion of the program, students will earn a doctorate from Woxsen and a Doctor of Business Administration from Porto Business School. The University of Chicago Booth School of Business is expanding its MBA program to include a concentration in applied artificial intelligence. The new concentration brings the total number of MBA specializations to 16 and will prepare participants for leadership challenges inherent in the adoption of AI within organizations. The program will draw on the expertise of Booth’s professors to produce content that will equip leaders with technical understanding and strategic insight into organizational dynamics, use cases, and the broader business environment to deploy these tools effectively and responsibly. Students will be required to choose three elective courses from options including AI Essentials, Generative Thinking, Machine Learning, Applications in Finance, and more. This fall, the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University and Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU) will begin offering an undergraduate double-degree in which participants will acquire competencies in management and research. In this new learning experience, students in the Smith Bachelor of Commerce and WU Bachelor of Business programs will split their studies between Smith’s campus in Kingston, Canada, and WU’s campus in Vienna, Austria. Each year, a select group of students from each school will complete the first two years of their four-year undergraduate degree at their home school, followed by their final two years of study at the affiliate school. Participants will earn a degree from both business schools. CollaborationsEmlyon Business School is partnering with Ashoka France, an NGO in systemic social change, to strengthen student training in impact entrepreneurship. The collaboration aims to enhance existing curricula on social entrepreneurship at Emlyon (particularly within the school’s global BBA, specialized master’s in entrepreneurship and innovation management, and executive education programs), design experiential learning opportunities, and contribute to research on the subject. The goal is to help students identify concrete levers to transform this willingness into action during their educational careers. Pepperdine University’s Pepperdine Graziadio Business School in Malibu, California, is partnering with the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine to launch an accelerated MBA that students can complete in one year. The partnership gives Doctor of Medicine students at the Tyson School of Medicine opportunities to develop the necessary skills to lead in clinical settings and the boardroom by pairing medical training with strategic business education from the outset of their careers. Grants and DonationsThe Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa in Iowa City has received a 20 million USD bequest from the family of late University of Iowa benefactor and Iowa native, Henry Tippie. The gift will go toward the creation of a new state-of-the-art business education complex, which will include the construction of a dual-purpose glass atrium, connecting the John Pappajohn Business Building with the historic Gilmore Hall. The 65,000-square-foot planned expansion will include flexible classrooms, collaborative huddle rooms, learning labs, an executive boardroom, mentoring and tutoring space, and a large community gathering space. Centers and FacilitiesLast month, HEC Paris announced plans to renovate and expand its campus in Jouy-en-Josas, France, to reflect the school’s strategic mission and commitment to the future of education. The project aims to create spaces that cultivate dialogue, creativity, and cross-cultural collaboration. Over 40,000 square meters are expected to be developed or renovated during the 230 million GBP (over 300 million USD) construction initiative. As part of the improvements, the new campus will centralize faculty into a single building and provide purpose-built spaces to catalyze interdisciplinary interaction. In addition, the château and its annexes, located on the southern end of campus, will be redesigned for the school’s executive education programs. Project construction is expected to be completed by the summer of 2031. The College of Business Administration at the University of Missouri–St. Louis (UMSL) was renamed the Ed G. Smith College of Business. The name honors longtime donations from Smith, an alum and founder of advertising agency American Direct Marketing Resources. Through this expanded philanthropic investment, UMSL also plans to increase student scholarships, employer engagement, and career-building opportunities as part of the college’s commitment to student success. Wits Business School (WBS) at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa has launched the Mervyn King Centre for Corporate Governance and Sustainability, aimed at creating research that empowers faculty to create skill development through the programs and academic offerings at WBS. Research efforts will cover a full range of ethics, corporate governance, and environmental sustainability topics and equip students with the moral compass needed to lead responsibly. The center will also be integrated into WBS’s Margo Steel School of Accountancy through its postgraduate diploma qualification in specialized accountancy. If you have news of interest to share with the business education community, please submit press releases, relevant images, or other information to AACSB Insights via our online submission form at aacsb.edu/insights/articles/submissions/guidelines. |
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