Tuck Dean To Step Down in 2015

Headshot of Tuck Dean Paul Danos

Tuck Dean Paul Danos

Dartmouth College’s Tuck School Dean Paul Danos, the longest serving dean of any top business school in the world, announced today (March 25) that he will not seek reappointment after his fifth four-year term ends in June 2015. His announcement came on the first day of Tuck’s spring term.

In a letter to the Tuck community, Danos laid out his future plans. “I am looking forward to my final year as dean and to assisting Tuck with its mission of providing students with the best possible preparation for business leadership. I am excited to get back into classroom teaching, and to continue my writing and board work and participating in the greater Dartmouth community. I especially look forward to having more time for family and personal pursuits.”

DEAN ADDED NINE CENTERS, A MASTER’S IN HEALTH CARE & A SUMMER BUSINESS PROGRAM

Dean Paul Danos, who joined the school in 1995, is credited with boosting the school’s status among domestic and international rankings (Poets&Quants Rank: 9), attracting top-notch students and faulty, and innovating the MBA curriculum. Under his watch, the school expanded the size and scope of its programs, adding nine centers and initiatives, a master’s in health care delivery, a fast-track summer business program for undergraduates, as well as an expansion of the B-school’s executive education portfolio.

During his deanship, Danos also built up the school’s reputation for academic research by bringing in thought leaders such as Ken French in finance and Kevin Keller in marketing. He grew the full-time faculty from 36 to 51 members, and increased full-time enrollment by a third, to four incoming sections of 60 students each from three when he arrived. When he steps down, roughly half of the B-school’s 10,000-plus living alumni will have graduated under his deanship.

These changes did not come without controversy: Critics feared the push to publish would dilute the school’s reputation for top-notch teaching. Others feared increasing the class size would weaken the school’s student caliber. Both concerns proved largely unfounded gauging from BusinessWeek’s 2012 biennial survey of B-school graduates, where Tuck received an A+ grade in both “teaching quality” and “caliber of classmates.”

PRESERVED TUCK’S CLOSE-KNIT AND COLLABORATIVE CULTURE

Danos is credited with preserving Tuck’s close-knit and collaborative atmosphere over two decades–a top priority for a school that closely guards its culture. The bonds are so strong that some 70% of alumni annually reach into their pockets to support the school, more than any other B-school in the world.

Dartmouth President Phil Hanlon expressed high praise for Danos in no uncertain terms. “Dartmouth is forever grateful to Dean Paul Danos for his 19 years of outstanding service. His commitment to the quality of the MBA program and to preparing students for a lifetime of responsible leadership has earned Tuck a unique place among the world’s top graduate schools of business,” he said in a press release.

Danos previously served as a senior associate dean and chaired professor of accounting at the University of Michigan. He received his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin and a BS and MBA from the University of New Orleans.

Hanlon will form a search committee for the next Tuck dean. The results will be announced in early 2015.

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