After nearly a year of researching more than 250 applications and interviewing 14 candidates, MSU administrators have selected a new dean for the Eli Broad College of Business and Eli Broad Graduate School.
Pending approval from the Board of Trustees, Northwestern University’s Robert Duncan will take over leadership of the schools Jan. 1.
Along with the move from Illinois to Michigan, Duncan said he is excited to be working at a school with an undergraduate and graduate business program.
“This is a great program,” he said. “This is one of the things that really attracted me. There’s always a sense of how we can continue to get better and better.”
Duncan is currently the Richard L. Thomas Professor of Leadership and Change at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
The Broad master of business administration program was ranked 12th overall in the nation by The Wall Street Journal in 2001, and fourth among public universities.
“It’s a new and different time with different people,” Duncan said. “That’s what makes this so exciting. I feel a great amount of pressure to keep the momentum going.
“It’s a high bar to meet.”
Duncan said MSU impressed him with its continual change and use of information technology.
The new James B. Henry Executive Development Center, which is set to open this fall, was created by an $8 million anonymous gift the university received this spring.
Current Dean Don Bowersox said the dean search was long, but worth the wait.
“We got the guy we all wanted,” he said. “We wanted exactly the right person. Our goal is to be a model business program, and we’re going to keep working on that.”
