People and Places: March 2026
Article
Transitions
 Wright State University in Ohio has named Rajneesh Suri the dean of the Raj Soin College of Business, effective 1 July. Suri joins Wright State from Drexel University in Philadelphia, where he most recently served as senior vice provost for academic industry partnerships and founding academic director of the Drexel Solutions Institute and the Innovation Engine. In these roles, he provided strategic leadership for universitywide academic–industry engagement, connecting faculty and students with corporate, nonprofit, and community partners through applied research, professional training, and experiential learning opportunities. Suri also founded the Center for Neuro-Business in Drexel’s LeBow College of Business, connecting faculty with industry partners on applied research and curriculum. He also brings industry experience from McKinsey & Company, Unilever, and other global firms. Suri assumes the role from Dawn Conway, who was appointed as interim dean in June 2025. |
 On 1 July, David De Cremer will step down as the Dunton Family Dean of Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business in Boston. De Cremer became dean of the school in 2023. Prior to joining Northeastern, he spent nearly five years at the National University of Singapore, where he was the provost chair and a management professor at the NUS Business School. Rajesh Aggarwal, who joined Northeastern in 2014 as a professor of finance and was appointed to deputy dean in 2024, is currently serving in the interim role while De Cremer is on leave. |
 Jackie Rees Ulmer will step down as dean of the College of Business at Ohio University in June and will return to the classroom. During her five years as dean, Rees Ulmer oversaw the launch of an online undergraduate program and the creation of the Applied Finance Center, and secured funding to support experiential learning initiatives. She previously spent eight years at the Ivy College of Business at Iowa State University and another 15 years at the Mitchell Daniels School of Business’s Krannert School of Management at Purdue University. Katie Hartman, the vice provost for faculty development, will succeed Rees Ulmer as interim dean during the school’s nationwide dean search. |
 Prashanth Bharadwaj has been named the new dean of the Eberly College of Business at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). Bharadwaj served as interim dean from January 2022 to June 2023 and again starting in June 2024. He will continue in the interim dean role until 16 May, when he assumes the permanent position. Bharadwaj, who joined IUP in 1995, most recently served as director of offshore programs and director of the School of International Management. He has also held roles as Eberly College’s dean’s associate, chair of the Department of Management, and assistant director of IUP’s Small Business Institute. Bharadwaj succeeds Stephen Ferris, who has continued his career as chair of the finance, insurance, real estate, and law department in the Ryan College of Business at the University of North Texas. Ferris’ appointment at IUP was previously featured in our 23 May 2023 People and Places posting. |
 Liz Cartier has been selected as the new dean of the Katz School of Business at Fort Lewis College (FLC) in Colorado. She has served as interim dean since last July and has been a member of the FLC faculty since 2018. In the role of interim dean, she oversaw efforts to revitalize key alumni and industry relationships, supported the school’s reaffirmation of AACSB accreditation, and secured funding to increase student access to scholarships and emergency funding. Cartier took on the interim role at Fort Lewis College upon the departure of Steven Elias, who accepted the position of dean of Monfort College of Business at the University of Northern Colorado. |
 West Virginia University (WVU) has appointed Joshua “Josh” Hall as the Milan Puskar Dean of the John Chambers College of Business and Economics for a second five-year term beginning 1 July. As a dean who prioritized continuous improvement, Hall partnered with the Becker Academic Engagement and Success Center, a student support center within the Chambers College, to increase first-generation student retention (which saw a 7 percent increase in 2024 to 82.6 percent), grow student scholarships, and support high-impact learning initiatives. Before his initial appointment in 2021, he served in dual associate dean and department chair roles at WVU. He began his career as a professor of economics at Beloit College in Wisconsin. |
New ProgramsSimon Business School at the University of Rochester and the State University of New York at Geneseo (SUNY Geneseo) have announced a 4+1 program to expand pathways to graduate programs. Under the new partnership, third-year undergraduate students who are enrolled at SUNY Geneseo can apply to continue their studies at Simon Business School. Accepted students can take up to three graduate courses in the final year of their undergraduate studies and apply the credits toward their master’s degree. Learners will also receive a 30 percent discount on their graduate tuition in addition to other available scholarships, grants, and loan programs. Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts is amping up its investment in data analytics with the launch of two new undergraduate programs. The Bachelor in Marketing Analytics degree will teach students how to leverage data to understand consumer behavior, optimize campaigns, measure brand performance, and guide strategic marketing decisions. In addition, students enrolled in the Bachelor in Business Analytics and Applied AI degree will gain experience with predictive modeling, data engineering, algorithmic decision-making, and AI-supported business solutions while also exploring issues of ethics, transparency, and responsible AI deployment. CollaborationsEmlyon Business School in France and Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon (INSA Lyon), a public engineering university, are strengthening their partnership with the launch of a new double degree. The program will combine two disciplinary verticals to prepare students to communicate effectively and bridge technical expertise with managerial vision. Students in the Emlyon Master in Management (MiM) program will complete the first year (Master 1) before joining INSA Lyon to complete the engineering degree over two years. They can choose to study in one of three departments at INSA Lyon, including computer science, industrial engineering, or telecommunications. Conversely, INSA Lyon engineering students will join Emlyon after their fourth year to complete the MiM in one year. Enrollment is limited to 10 students from each institution per academic year. ESSEC Business School, with its main campus in France, has announced plans to launch its third international hub in Mumbai, India, with the goal of developing mutually beneficial relationships with Indian institutions and local partners and enhancing student recruitment and mobility. The hub aims to offer additional multicultural student experiences and provide students with a deeper understanding of global business practices. To support this strategic hub, ESSEC announced its intention to partner with the Indian Business School to establish a talent exchange program and, in addition, with the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore to create a double-degree program in which students will earn a Master of Management from ESSEC and an MBA degree from IIM Bangalore. The Sorrell College of Business at Troy University in Alabama has partnered with Alfa Insurance to launch a business innovation lab open to business students at all levels. The Alfa Insurance Business Innovation Lab is designed to expand educational capabilities that expose students to the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed. The lab is an integral part of Sorrell College’s revised core curriculum, which aims to better prepare business students for the application of AI and analytics, the development of their creative problem-solving skills, and their capacity to readily adapt to change in the workplace. The new center is expected to be open for students in fall 2026. The University of Chicago Booth School of Business has launched a partnership with the personalized learning platform MasterClass to offer a first-of-its-kind certificate program that leverages AI to deliver high-impact learning experiences. The self-paced, 12-week program was built in collaboration with OpenAI and is designed to adapt in real time to participants’ pace, role, and performance, functioning as a personal AI tutor. Participants will engage in AI-native learning experiences, including live labs where AI experts will teach them how to apply artificial intelligence to financial decisions, growth strategy, and other business challenges. They will also learn distinctly human skills, focusing on negotiation, persuasion, and the ability to lead teams through change. As part of the program, MasterClass plans to give enrollees the opportunity to earn OpenAI Certifications. The program will welcome its first cohort in summer 2026. Grants and DonationsThe McCoy College Foundation at Texas State University in San Marcos has announced that the foundation will match a recent 500,000 USD gift from the Richard L. Burdick Foundation. The total 1 million USD endowment will establish the R.L. “Dick” Burdick Dean’s Leadership Academy at the McCoy College of Business. Each academic year, a cohort of 15 business students will be invited to participate in the academy, where they will take part in an executive mentoring program with the dean’s leadership council, professional career readiness sessions, and site visits to local and international companies. Richard Burdick, who founded industrial heating business Thermon and was an active community member, died in 2018 at the age of 88. Other NewsLast month, The Case Centre announced the 39 winners of its 2026 Awards and Competitions, previously known as the European Awards. Now in its 36th year, the annual initiative recognizes global excellence in case writing and teaching and showcases how the case method continues to bring the real world into the classroom of management disciplines. Across nine categories, four of the winning cases focused on business challenges arising from geopolitical uncertainty, three on sustainability-related issues, and two on artificial intelligence. Vanina Farber, one of the 22 individuals recognized in AACSB’s class of 2024 Influential Leaders, and her colleague at IMD, María Helena Jaén, were among this year’s award winners in the Finance, Accounting, and Control category. 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. |