New Dean Has Big Plans For Ross

The Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan

For example, students can use the Zell Lurie Institute, Ross’s entrepreneurship center, as a platform for launching their own businesses. Concerning investment, DeRue says Ross has more than $8.9 million in student-led venture funds, monies that students are able to actually invest. Two of the funds — the Zell Early Stage Fund of $250,000 and the Real Estate Investment Fund of $125,000 — are new.

“The school invests, our donors will invest, we create a real estate fund, and our students are the committee,” DeRue says. “They make the decisions. It’s a class, so we’ve got faculty involved who are able to teach them about real estate in the context of them actually investing.”

LIFE-LONG EDUCATION AT ROSS

The third piece of DeRue’s vision is making education at Ross a life-long pursuit. Traditionally, he says, higher education tends to be a one-time transaction. You pay, you get your degree, you leave. But educational development doesn’t need to end there, DeRue asserts.

“Let’s say you come and get your MBA at Ross, and you’re 30 years old when you graduate. Five years later, you get a promotion, or you change careers, or you change jobs and you have a need for new skills. How do you do that? You don’t really have a good option, unless your company does training and development,” DeRue says.

Ross launched a new program last year that gives graduates tuition-free access to executive education there — for life. “It fundamentally changes the value of an MBA,” DeRue says. “Now you invest in our tuition, and you have a life-long partner in your personal and professional growth.”

In March, he says, nearly 50 people participated in the program.

WHY HE WAS HIRED  

“I’ve been in business education, and I come from the private sector,” Scott DeRue says. “I think a lot about strategy. I think a lot about where we need to go, and how we can transform the organization to put us in a leadership position.”

It’s why he was hired, he says. He considers himself a thought leader about higher education and business education in particular, and he hopes his contributions as dean will move the school quickly and efficiently into a new world of business education.

DON’T MISS: MEET THE MICHIGAN ROSS CLASS OF 2017 or ROSS NAMES ‘FAVORITE SON’ ITS NEW DEAN