UNC Strategy Prof New Darla Moore Dean

Peter Brews will become the new dean of the Darla Moore School in January

The architect of a highly successful global MBA program at the Kenan-Flagler Business School is moving south.

Peter Brews, a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the University of North Carolina and former associate dean of its OneMBA program, will become dean of the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business, effective Jan. 16.

Dean Peter Brews, 56, a native of South Africa, won the job over two other finalists, J. Chris Leach, a finance professor at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado in Boulder and Allen J. Morrison, a professor of global management at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland. He was chosen after an “intensive search” conducted by Parker Executive Search, which specializes in higher education search work.

A CHALLENGING JOB AHEAD FOR THE NEW DEAN

Dean Peter Brews, who boasts more than 25 years of international business education experience, will have his job cut out for him. Although the Darla Moore School had successfully distinguished itself for its global focus, that distinction has been diminished in more recent years as more schools have enrolled large percentages of international students, recruited faculty from all over the world, and heaped on more global content throughout their MBA programs. It’s specialization also been less distinctive because schools in other parts of the world, particularly Europe and Canada, have vastly improved their offerings for students interested in a global MBA.

In Poets&Quants’ latest ranking of the top 100 U.S. MBA programs, Moore placed 51st, a four-place improvement on its rank of 55 in 2012. But U.S. News & World Report ranks the school 73rd, and BusinessWeek placed it 62nd on its biennial list last year. The school is unranked by The Economist.

Dean Peter Brews, who taught at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business before a 13-year stint at UNC, seems up to the challenge. He said he is eager to begin working with Moore School faculty, staff, students and alumni as well as business leaders to advance the school’s mission and further enhance its reputation. “There are few business schools more exciting to lead at this time than the Moore School,” Brews said in a statement. “I look forward to guiding the school as it continues on its already impressive path of producing world-class research and developing world-class global business leaders.”

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS WILL OPEN A NEW HOME IN MAY OF 2014

Dean Peter Brews succeeds interim Dean John McDermott who has served in the position since June when Hildy Teegen concluded her tenure as dean after serving six years. Teegen is credited with strengthening the school’s academic curriculum and national standing and was instrumental in the planning and development of the new Darla Moore School of Business building, the university’s most ambitious construction project to date. The building is scheduled to open in May 2014.

Michael Amiridis, executive vice president for academic affairs and provost, said Brews was selected for his exceptional leadership in business and executive education and scholarly achievements in international business.  “Peter Brews’ wealth of business education expertise as well as his extensive experience in the international arena will bring a bold vision to the Darla Moore School of Business,” Amiridis said in a statement.

At UNC Kenan-Flagler, Brews teaches global context to full-time and executive MBA students and global strategy to students in the OneMBA, a program he suggested to the school soon after joining in 2000. In 2006 he was named associate dean of OneMBA and served in this capacity for seven years. Prior to UNC he was assistant professor at Duke University for six years, teaching strategic management and global business strategy in Fuqua’s full-time and executive MBA programs.