Delaney To Step Down From Deanship At Katz

John T. Delaney, dean of the Katz School

After an eight-year run as dean of the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business, John Delaney said yesterday (Sept. 11) that he plans to step down from his position.

“In light of the arrival of the new chancellor and all of the inevitable changes that will follow, the timing for change at Katz/CBA is appropriate,” Delaney said in a statement.

Delaney will remain dean until Pitt selects a successor and will then return to Pitt’s business faculty.

Delaney became the sixth dean of the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and College of Business Administration in 2006.  He earned his bachelor’s degree in industrial relations from LeMoyne College in 1977 and his master’s and doctorate in labor and industrial relations from the University of Illinois in 1980 and 1983. He previously worked at Columbia University Graduate School of Business, University of Iowa and Michigan State University.

EXPECTS TO FIND A SUCCESSOR BY THE SPRING OF 2015

The university said it will form a search committee in the coming weeks to replace Delaney by spring. A spokesperson told the student newspaper that the University has not determined who will sit on the committee, if the search will be open or closed and if the University will hire a search firm.

Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor Patricia Beeson said she is pleased Delaney will remain at the university following his resignation. “It has been my pleasure to work with John Delaney, both in his role as dean and in his participation in the activities of our Council of Deans,” Beeson said in a statement.

The school said that under Delaney’s leadership, Katz developed innovative experience-based learning programs and incentives that encourage students to combine theory and practice. “Along with enhancing offerings of consulting projects, client fellowships, and case competitions, Delaney was instrumental in opening the financial analysis lab in 2008, which provides real-time stock market data, a financial trading simulator, and other tools to help students understand worldwide financial markets,” the university said in a statement. “This focus on experience-based learning has become a distinguishing feature of the university’s business programs and has contributed to the elevation of the MBA program in national rankings.”

Over the past eight years, Delaney also worked to strengthen and diversify the faculty and staff through key hires, and worked to create a culture of planning in the schools. This culture of planning was instrumental in the 2013 reaccreditation of Pitt’s undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral business programs by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Delaney has also played an important role in bolstering fundraising by reconnecting with donors and Katz’s more than 27,000 alumni, who live and work in more than 90 countries. This growing global community, along with the Katz Executive MBA Worldwide programs in Prague and São Paulo, contributes to the university’s global presence, according to the school.

DON’T MISS: AN INTERVIEW WITH KATZ DEAN JOHN DELANEY