People and Places: September 2026
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 Judson Edwards (pictured left) has been named interim provost and senior vice chancellor of academic affairs at Troy University in Alabama. Edwards took the position on 1 July after the University System of Georgia announced that Kerry Palmer would leave the role to assume the presidency at Georgia Southwestern State University. Edwards spent the last 20 years at the Sorrell College of Business, where he was most recently dean and the Adams Bibby Chair of Free Enterprise. The role of interim dean will be filled by Stephen Grice, who retired in 2022 after teaching for 25 years—many of them as the program’s director—in Sorrell’s Carr School of Accountancy. “My top priority is to ensure the leadership transition within the Sorrell College of Business goes smoothly and that the school continues to thrive under the new leadership,” Grice said.
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 Kaustav Misra has become the new dean of the School of Business at the State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz. Misra joins the New Paltz community after serving more than three years as dean at SUNY Fredonia’s School of Business, where he was also the director of the Center for Innovation and Economic Development. His previous appointment at SUNY Fredonia was featured in our February 2023 People and Places article. Misra’s new appointment began on 1 July. Misra succeeds Kristin Backhaus, who has held the role since 2015. Backhaus will remain at SUNY New Paltz as a teaching faculty member and will support strategic public and private partnerships focused on social impact, innovation, and workforce development in local and regional communities. |
 The board of directors of ESCP Business School has appointed Thomas Jeanjean as executive president and dean of the school. He began the position on 24 August. He previously served as deputy chief executive officer for education at the Paris Île-de-France Chamber of Commerce and Industry since 2021, where he oversaw the institution’s education strategy across a portfolio of 14 schools spanning disciplines including management, engineering, design, culinary arts, and technology. Before that, he held several senior leadership positions at ESSEC Business School, notably as deputy chief executive officer and dean of post-experience programs and executive education, and led major strategic, organizational, and international transformation initiatives. Jeanjean began his academic career as an accounting professor at HEC Paris. Jeanjean succeeds Léon Laulusa, who accepted the position of vice president and dean at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai. |
 Grishma Shah has been announced as the interim dean of the O’Malley School of Business at Manhattan University. She assumes the position after more than two decades in various positions at the university in New York City. Shah joined the O’Malley School in 2008 as an assistant professor of management and was appointed associate dean in 2025. She has also spent the last seven years as the director of global business studies. Hany Guirguis previously served as interim dean of the O’Malley School from June 2024 to March 2025, when he assumed the permanent position. |
 On 1 September, Ravi Bapna became dean of the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University in California. Bapna comes to Santa Clara from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where he served as the Curtis L. Carlson Chair in Business Analytics and Information Systems and associate dean for executive education. During his tenure at the Carlson School, Bapna co-founded the Master of Science in Business Analytics and Artificial Intelligence program and established the Analytics for Good Institute, which leverages data science to address societal challenges, including housing equity. Bapna assumes the role upon the departure of Ed Grier, who served as dean for nearly five years and announced his retirement (previously featured in our May 2025 People and Places posting). |
 Donald Andrews has stepped down as dean of the College of Business at Southern University and A&M College in Louisiana. Andrews, who has served as dean since 1998, will continue to serve as the George Leon Netterville/Kellogg Professor at the business school. Previously, he was elected to two terms on the AACSB International Board of Directors. He is also an alumnus of the university. |
 Monash University in Australia has announced that Nick Wailes will be the next executive dean and head of the Faculty of Business and Economics at Monash Business School. Wailes comes to Monash from UNSW Sydney, where he currently holds the dual roles of dean of lifelong learning and director of the Australian Graduate School of Management. He has held several senior appointments within the UNSW Business School since he joined the university in 2013, and previously held roles at The University of Sydney and The University of Auckland. During his tenure at UNSW, Wailes oversaw the revitalization of degree programs and short course offerings to equip graduates and organizations for success in rapidly changing environments. He was influential in establishing UNSW Online and developing specialist online master’s degrees, including MBAX—an online MBA program launched in 2015. He succeeds Simon Wilkie, who is concluding an eight-year tenure as dean and will take a research sabbatical. |
 Dublin City University (DCU) has appointed Theo Lynn as the new executive director of DCU Business School, following his interim leadership of the institution since January. Lynn, who joined DCU in 2006, is a professor of digital business and has held multiple associate dean roles, including industry engagement and innovation, strategic projects, and, most recently, research. As a leader who prioritizes “meaningful impact in Ireland and beyond,” he has secured more than 250 grants representing over 20 million EUR (nearly 23 million USD) in total project funding, many of which are with Irish small businesses. He also co-leads the business school’s research partnership with the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile’s United Against Online Abuse initiative, supporting international research into online hate and abuse in sports. Lynn took on the interim role at DCU upon the departure of Dominic Elliott, who returned to the faculty as a professor of emergency management. |
New ProgramsThe University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business in Indiana has redesigned its Master of Science in Management (MSM) program to improve the student experience and offer specialist study options. Set to begin in the 2027–28 academic year, the program will offer three new concentrations: nonprofit management and leadership, technology and management, and strategic and financial leadership. The new specialized coursework is designed to enable students to gain new skills, develop expertise, sharpen their leadership competencies, and enter the workforce prepared to make an immediate contribution. To better accommodate learners’ needs, the MSM will also transition from a summer to a fall start to align more closely with the traditional graduate academic cycle. Students often undertake the specialized program as a “fifth” year after completing their undergraduate degree. The MSM is a STEM-designated 10-month program intended for learners with less than two years of work experience. As part of the redesign, the one-year residential Notre Dame Master of Nonprofit Administration program will transition into the MSM as the nonprofit management and leadership concentration. Starting in fall 2027, the University of Miami Business School will offer a 10-month Master of Science in Management that aims to open a pathway to business for all university students, regardless of major. The 33-credit hybrid graduate program is designed for recent graduates and early-career professionals with zero to three years of work experience and does not require prior business coursework. “The program gives students the management skills needed to expand their career opportunities while allowing them to build on the perspective and knowledge they already bring from their undergraduate studies,” said Linda Neider, professor and chair of the Department of Management and director of the program. Participants will develop skills in leadership, strategy, operations, finance, and analytics before tailoring their studies through one of six concentrations, including artificial intelligence and supply chain management. (The University of Miami recently removed the Herbert name from its business school, which was renamed in 2019 to honor longtime donors, Patti and Allan Herbert. After the deaths of Patti in 2020 and Allan last year, the university and the family mutually agreed to revisit the Herberts’ philanthropic commitments and redirect them to student scholarships.) The Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland in College Park has launched an accelerated one-year, full-time MBA that complements Smith’s existing two-year offering. The university hopes the redesign will offer a higher return on investment and increase accessibility for early-career professionals by removing entry requirements, including an undergraduate business degree, specialty graduate degrees, or transferable credits. The curriculum was created around a “leadership for a rewired world” theme and will prepare graduates to thrive amid intelligent technologies, climate and financial disruptions, and global supply chain realignment. In addition to building universal fluency in modern systems and large language models, students will develop advanced communication skills, learn to cultivate value in real-world deliverables, and become evidence-based decision-makers. CollaborationsThis fall, the University of Mannheim Business School and Heidelberg University in Germany have united to offer a joint PhD-MBA program that will equip participants with the skills, network, and mentorship needed to become successful science-based entrepreneurs. In the 24-month program, doctoral candidates with startup potential in their research projects will continue pursuing their doctorate while earning an MBA at Mannheim Business School, working in interdisciplinary teams to translate scientific discoveries into viable, market-ready innovations within the DeepTech sector. The program targets highly motivated, innovation-driven researchers selected through a competitive process conducted jointly. The doctoral degree is awarded by Heidelberg University, while the MBA degree is awarded by the University of Mannheim. The College of Business at Loyola University New Orleans has partnered with nonprofit healthcare provider Ochsner Health to launch a new Executive MBA program that will provide medical leaders with the business acumen, strategic perspective, and leadership skills to respond to the needs of the organizations and Gulf South communities they serve. Under the cohort-based model, they will learn alongside colleagues from across Ochsner and apply business concepts to healthcare challenges. Participants attend concentrated on-campus sessions on Friday and Saturday once a month, a schedule that allows them to continue working in their professional roles while pursuing the degree. The inaugural cohort of 38 Ochsner physicians, advanced practice providers, and nursing leaders began classes at Loyola University New Orleans in August. The DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University in Canada and ESCA Ecole de Management in Morocco recently signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen curriculum innovation and encourage global engagement in both regions. The schools will establish exchange opportunities for students and faculty to learn, teach, and collaborate across borders, and explore the development of research partnerships. Grants and DonationsLast month, the Costello College of Business at George Mason University announced it will rename the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in honor of Northern Virginia entrepreneur Anil Sharma and his wife, Anupama. Anil is an active angel investor who has invested in and mentored several startups and small businesses, including through his involvement with the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and its Patriot Pitch Competition, an annual entrepreneurial showcase. The recent undisclosed gift will allow the Anil and Anupama Sharma Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship to move beyond individual programs—like the Patriot Pitch Competition, the Honey Bee Initiative, and the SOAR Initiative—to operate as an integrated platform that will strengthen the region’s innovation economy by creating a space where students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and partners collaborate, mentor one another, and develop new ventures. The University of Arizona in Tucson has received a 10 million USD gift from Mary and Felipe Rodriguez to support its Integrated Business and Engineering Program. In honor of their generosity, the program will be renamed the Mary and Felipe M. Rodriguez Integrated Business and Engineering Program. A collaboration between the Eller College of Management and the College of Engineering, the undergraduate program aims to respond to growing demand for graduates with technical expertise and business acumen. The announcement of the degree program was previously featured in our September 2025 People and Places posting. Felipe founded Aeronautical Systems Incorporated (ASI) in 1988 and continues to act as the company’s CEO. Mary joined ASI in 1993 following many years of teaching in London and California. She leads the company’s charitable giving program, which supports STEM education initiatives. The couple has focused their philanthropy on helping universities expand engineering and technical science programs to close workforce gaps. Marquette University in Milwaukee has received an 8 million USD gift from College of Business Administration alumnus Jim Meier. The gift will provide scholarship support for university students, holistic support for student-athletes on and off the playing fields, and funding for strategic initiatives in the College of Business Administration. Meier is a longtime finance executive with MillerCoors and a member of the President’s Advisory Council. Centers and FacilitiesThe University of Dayton in Ohio has received a 15 million USD gift from an anonymous donor to support the construction of a new academic building for the School of Business Administration (SBA). The planned four-story, 153,000-square-foot structure will double the amount of space dedicated to experiential learning, classrooms, and collaboration spaces, and triple the amount of open study areas. In addition to academic and program space, the facility will include an event space, a student-run coffee shop, conference and meeting rooms, a student lounge, and an employee lounge. The location of the new building will be adjacent to the Kettering Labs, expanding support and collaboration between the School of Business Administration and the School of Engineering, which includes current efforts in sales and entrepreneurship and venture creation, as well as future opportunities related to AI and analytics. The gift caps the “silent” phase of the SBA building campaign, allowing the “public” phase to proceed. The public phase of the campaign aims to raise the final 5 USD million before construction starts, with optimism that groundbreaking can occur as early as spring 2027. If you have news to share with the business education community, please submit press releases, relevant images, or other information to AACSB Insights at aacsb.edu/insights/articles/submissions/guidelines. |
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