People and Places: October 10, 2023
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 Jeffrey R. Brown has announced that, at the end of this academic year, he will step down as dean of the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois in Champaign. Brown joined the school in 2002 and has served as dean since 2015. During his tenure, Gies has made online education a priority and completed the largest fundraising initiative in the history of the college, including securing a 150 million USD naming gift from Larry and Beth Gies in 2017. In addition to serving as dean, Brown is the Josef and Margot Lakonishok Professor in Business and was the founding director of the Center for Business and Public Policy. Previously, he has served as a senior economist with the White House Council of Economic Advisers. |
 Natalie Wilmot has been appointed the new dean of Lincoln International Business School at the University of Lincoln in the U.K. Wilmot currently serves as deputy dean in the School of Management at the University of Bradford; she joined Bradford in 2019 as MBA director. Wilmot previously worked at Sheffield Hallam University following an initial career in industry. Wilmot, whose scholarly interests lie in the area of international business, will join the University of Lincoln in November. |
 Liad Wagman has been appointed dean of the Stuart School of Business at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Wagman, who has been interim dean since June 2022, has been part of the Stuart community for more than 14 years. As interim dean, he has overseen a 140 percent growth in enrollment. He also has been instrumental in redesigning the curriculum, which includes five new Tech+ majors that blend business with disciplines such as engineering, psychology, information technology, policy, and cybersecurity. Wagman has worked under two White House administrations as technology advisor to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and his research has helped frame digital policies in the U.S. and other countries. |
 Linda Yu has begun serving as the new dean for the College of Business at Utah Tech University in St. George. Yu comes to Utah Tech from the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, where she had been a faculty member and administrator in the College of Business for 20 years. While at Whitewater, she helped develop an online master’s degree in finance, chaired the department of finance and business law for 11 years, and ultimately served as interim associate dean of graduate programs for the College of Business. Prior to her time at Whitewater, Yu was an assistant professor of business at State University of New York Polytechnic Institute.
New ProgramsThe McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University has launched an EMBA program at the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) Academy in the United Arab Emirates. The 20-month program is aimed at senior decision-makers and executives leading public or private organizations in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Africa. Courses cover business and global affairs, public-private partnerships, business analytics, sustainability, fintech, and the future of work. In addition to taking courses at the DIFC Academy, students complete three weeklong residences, including two on Georgetown’s campus in Washington, D.C. The Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas has welcomed the inaugural class to its Master of Science in Product Innovation. The program is offered through the department of strategy, entrepreneurship, and venture innovation and the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Targeted at early to mid-level working professionals, the two-year part-time program incorporates 30 credit hours through summer, fall, and spring terms. Participants take classes online during the week and meet one Saturday per month at the university’s Global Campus in Bentonville. The program will be led by Justin Urso, the director of the McMillon Innovation Studio. ESSEC Business School in Cergy, France, has unveiled a redesigned Global MBA that will launch in September 2024. Students will choose electives in the areas of sustainability, digital leadership, and innovation; participate in learning labs that cover luxury, finance, consulting, and product management; and complete either internships, global field projects, or venture projects. Students also will have opportunities to gain paid work experience, with tuition fees fully covered by sponsoring companies. The University of Chicago Booth School of Business has announced an MBA/MS Biomedical Sciences program designed to provide students with the management knowledge and clinical skills they need to transform healthcare. During the two-year program, candidates will participate in 14 business courses at Booth, as well as the LEAD experiential leadership development program; in addition, they will take six master’s-level courses in the biomedical sciences. Chicago Booth also is now offering an MBA concentration in healthcare to prepare students for healthcare career paths. CollaborationsThe University of Wisconsin–Whitewater is collaborating with the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs Division of Wisconsin Emergency Management (WEM) to strengthen the state’s Cyber Response Team (CRT) Training Program. The CRT and WEM also will be supporting the university’s cybersecurity program and cyber research projects, which look at current and future states of preparedness throughout Wisconsin. “Through this collaboration with WEM, we aim not only to educate today’s professionals in cybersecurity, but to arm tomorrow’s IT leaders to thrive in the face of adversity,” says Balaji Sankaranarayanan, director of the Cybersecurity Center for Business at the university’s College of Business and Economics. The Kelley School of Business at Indiana University (IU) in Indianapolis is offering a dual degree program with the IU School of Dentistry. Students who successfully complete the program will earn a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree as well as an MBA. Students in the third year of their DDS degree programs will begin their business training with Kelley’s Graduate Certificate in Medical Management and take two years to complete the DDS and MBA concurrently. The business courses will be delivered through the Kelley Evening MBA Program across four 12-week quarters every year. The delivery model will combine online and in-person formats. HEC Paris and Bocconi University in Milan have created a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Data, Society, and Organisations. The three-year program, which is expected to draw students from around the world, will assemble its first cohort in September 2024. The first three semesters will be held at Bocconi and will include courses that cover coding and data visualization, machine learning and artificial intelligence, and governance of digital technology in the public and private sectors. The following three semesters will take place at HEC Paris and focus on applying data in areas as diverse a climate change, economic models, government policy, and law. The final year incorporates “data challenge” group projects in which students apply their new skills to social or business problems. Grants and DonationsChapman University in Orange, California, has announced a gift of 10 million USD from the Argyros family, which has resulted in the George L. Argyros School of Business and Economics becoming the George L. Argyros College of Business and Economics. The college will encompass various schools dedicated to research and teaching, including the newly established Burra School of Accounting and Finance. George Argyros, a real estate broker, was Chapman’s longest-serving chair of the board of trustees, from 1976 to 2001. The business school was named for him in 1999. The gift was announced at the launch of Argyros’ Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series, where NBA player Earvin “Magic” Johnson was the inaugural speaker. The University of Miami Patti and Allan Herbert Business School has received a 2.5 million USD gift from Bruce Heard in memory of his wife, Linda. The gift establishes the Bruce and Linda Heard Nonprofit Development Endowment Fund, which will support students interested in interning with politically unaffiliated nonprofit institutions. The endowment will also help create classes in nonprofit management. Linda Heard worked for more than 30 years as a social worker and juvenile probation officer focused on child and family welfare. Both Heards are alumni. The Cornell SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, has received a 1 million USD gift from alum Justin Wai to establish a dean’s discretionary fund. Wai, who graduated from the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration, is head of real estate for Greater China at Blackstone. He also recently has completed a three-year term on the Cornell University Council. 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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