People and Places: November 16, 2021

Transitions

Singapore Management University has appointed Bert De Reyck as dean of the Lee Kong Chian School of Business. De Reyck previously served as the founding director of the UCL School of Management at University College London. He also has held positions at London Business School, Northwestern University, the Rotterdam School of Management, Columbia University, Hong Kong University, and CEIBS. He takes over from Gerry George, who has taken a position at Georgetown University but will continue his association with SMU as a visiting professor.

Ujwal Kayande has been named the new dean of Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business in Burnaby, British Columbia. Kayande, who will join the Beedie School in mid-January, is currently an associate dean and professor of marketing at the Melbourne Business School in Australia. There, he has been teaching marketing strategy and business analytics since 2013. He was founding director of the school’s Centre for Business Analytics and also served as co-director of the Delivering Value Through Digital Executive Education program, jointly delivered with the University of Oxford. He previously has held positions at Pennsylvania State University and the Australian National University, and he has held honorary and visiting positions at universities in Malaysia, India, China, France, Germany, and the U.S.

Arjang Assad, the Henry E. Haller Jr. Dean of the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and College of Business Administration at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, announced his plan to retire effective June 30, 2022. Under his leadership, the school has recruited 40 percent of its current full-time faculty, launched an EMBA in healthcare, introduced the first online offerings at Katz, and developed a certificate program in analytics. Assad, who has served as the dean since July 2015, will stay at the school as a member of the faculty.

New Programs

In 2022, ESSEC Business School in France will offer a new MSc in Sustainability Transformation, which combines management knowledge with an understanding of social and environmental issues. Students will be able to specialize in topics such the circular economy, inclusiveness and diversity, food transition, sustainable finance, and climate and biodiversity. The program will include tailored case studies, learning expeditions, and an internship or a thesis.

The University College London (UCL) Global Business School for Health (GBSH) has launched an MBA focused on addressing challenges facing the healthcare sector. The program includes two learning projects: a global health challenge, in which groups look for solutions to health issues in low- or middle-income countries; and a consulting project, in which students work directly with organizations in the public, private, or nonprofit health sector. Applicants to the program are eligible to apply for a number of scholarships, including one for women, one for students from low- or middle-income backgrounds, and one for students who live or work in East London and want to make a difference in their local community.

This fall, Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, will hold the second pilot of its Hatter Angels Network program, in which students research startup companies for potential angel investors. The network was created by a group of Stetson University alumni, who will fund the startups vetted by Stetson students. Launched in spring 2021 with 13 students who researched 16 startups, the pilot program also collaborates with Stetson’s Prince Entrepreneurship Leaders Program, which provides support and guidance for entrepreneurship students focused on launching their own scalable businesses.

Collaborations

Thompson Rivers University’s (TRU) School of Business and Economics in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, has partnered with Nicola Valley Institute of Technology (NVIT) in Merritt, British Columbia, to offer a customized TRU MBA program to NVIT graduates. The first cohort began in September 2021. NVIT is an Aboriginal public post-secondary institute offering programs that meet the needs of Aboriginal communities while focusing on their traditional ways and fostering student success. The program is funded by provincial grants and delivered by faculty trained in working with adult indigenous learners and introducing indigeneity appropriately into curricula.

The University of Illinois’ Gies College of Business in Champaign has partnered with Google to launch the Google Career Certificate programs. Starting in late October, anyone who completes any of the Google Career Certificates, bundled with the Professional Success Skills Certificate from the Gies College, will receive a dual badge of completion from both organizations. The Gies components are asynchronous courses designed by faculty from the school’s undergraduate and graduate programs.

upGrad, a higher education edtech company in India, has launched a flagship one-year EMBA program in partnership with the Swiss School of Business and Management in Geneva. The program offers a mix of synchronous and asynchronous learning in the form of live and recorded lectures. Earlier this year, the two organizations collaborated on the launch of a Doctor in Business Administration program. upGrad plans to add more than 30 international university partnerships in the next year.

Grants and Donations

The global professional services firm Deloitte will fund a 250,000 USD scholarship program for students from Grambling State University in Louisiana who pursue a Master of Accountancy (MAcc) degree from Louisiana Tech University’s College of Business in Ruston. The investment will fund graduate assistantships, up to nine undergraduate credit hours for courses taken concurrently in support of the MAcc program, and up to 30 graduate credit hours to support the completion of the MAcc degree. The scholarship’s creation comes on the heels of Louisiana Tech signing a memorandum of understanding with Grambling State, one of the United States’ historically black colleges and universities, to provide an accelerated pathway for Grambling students to achieve the MAcc degree. Through the MOU, Louisiana Tech will also supply resources and support to help students on both campuses sit for the Certified Public Accountant exam. Prior to Deloitte’s scholarship investment, tuition for senior accounting majors at Grambling State who studied at Louisiana Tech primarily was provided through scholarships and graduate assistantships that were funded by Louisiana Tech alumni. The scholarship complements other initiatives at Deloitte intended to support diversity in the accounting profession, including the Making Accounting Diverse and Equitable and Deloitte Tax Scholars programs.

Facilities and Centers

During the international climate conference COP26, held earlier this month, a consortium of German business, academic, and civil organizations announced the FUTURIST Institute for Sustainable Transformation. Based at ESMT Berlin, the new institute will specialize in developing sustainability solutions and supporting companies as they transition to adopting sustainable practices. It was founded by ESMT and the nonprofit Frankfurt Werte-Stiftung and its innovation platform Futury. To mark the launch of FUTURIST, the Werte-Stiftung presented a study, published jointly with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and management consultants Bain & Company, in which it interviewed 20 German CEOs and developed recommendations for action on how companies can become more sustainable. The study found that nine out of 10 top executives believe sustainability will be at least as important as digitalization in the next five years, but 60 percent of respondents still consider sustainability and profitability to be opposites. FUTURIST is made possible by initiative partners Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Post DHL Group, Procter & Gamble, and Schwarz Group. It is supported by BMW Group, Daimler, and Deutsche Telekom.

In 2022, the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management in Germany will open the Frankfurt Competence Center of German and Global Regulation, which is designed to research government regulation and its macroeconomic costs and benefits. The initiators of the center are Roland Koch, professor of management practice in regulated environments, and Julia Redenius-Hövermann, professor of civil law and corporate law. The center will draw on the expertise of professors in the fields of finance, law, digitization, environmental economics, and economic philosophy. In addition, the Frankfurt School is establishing two new professorships whose work is geared toward the new center: a chair in economics that focuses on the macroeconomic impact assessment of regulatory measures; and a professorship in the field of law that deals with financial and regulatory law.

The McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas Austin has established a Business of Sports Institute that will study topics such as talent performance, performance metrics, and branding. It has been funded by a 1.4 million USD gift from Accenture and will be housed in the McCombs School’s Center for Leadership and Ethics. The institute will create a new undergraduate minor in the analytics and business of sports, including tracks focused on data science and analytics, entrepreneurship, and the science of high performance. It will also develop a research program that partners with UT Athletics and professional sports teams, and it plans a series of conferences and events at the intersection of leadership, ethics, and sports.

Other News

Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, has created the BentleyFirst scholarship program, which will allow first-generation students to attend Bentley for the same tuition amount they would pay at the University of Massachusetts. The scholarship is renewable for up to eight semesters or until students complete their bachelor’s degrees, whichever comes first. Scholarships will be adjusted annually so they match the current tuition difference.

The State University of New York in Oswego has launched two new campaigns offering financial incentives to student applicants. The first is a waiver of application fees available to students who apply during November 8 through November 21. The school also has introduced “Free Tuition Plus” scholarships for students who already have secured free tuition through the Excelsior Scholarship program available to New York residents. The “Free Tuition Plus” scholarships cover between 25 percent and 75 percent of a student’s on-campus meal plan cost and are competitively awarded to the top 35 percent to 45 percent of high-achieving first-year students.