Kellogg Dean Sally Blount To Step Down

HAD LED NYU’S STERN SCHOOL FOR SIX YEARS BEFORE HER KELLOGG DEANSHIP

Armed with her advanced degrees from Kellogg, she joined the faculty of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where she served for nearly a decade from 1992 to 2001. She then moved to New York’s Stern School as a full professor in management and organizations until, in 2004, becoming dean of NYU’s Stern Undergraduate College of Business for six years and special advisor to NYU’s president and provost for global integration.

When Blount took over Kellogg as dean, she recruited a new senior leadership team, devised a new brand strategy and began an extensive overhaul of many of the school’s long-standing degree programs. She helped to grow the school’s one-year MBA program, redesign its dual-degree MMM program to put more emphasis on design innovation, and create a new master’s in management studies program. Blount expanded the school’s Executive MBA network, integrating students on four continents and seven campuses.

Kellogg launched four strategic initiatives that spurred new levels of cross-disciplinary innovation, research and teaching, most notably by establishing a “growth and scaling” initiative, made major investments in the school’s entrepreneurial offerings, including a pilot quarter program for MBA students in the Bay Area, strengthened its brand and culture and expanded the school’s executive MBA program by developing a new partnership with Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management, enhancing Kellogg’s international standing.

But it was the opening of Kellogg’s new Global Hub that marked the completion of Blount’s seven-year plan to transform the school (listen to Dean Sally Blount’s tour of Kellogg’s new home). Though there had been talk about the possibility of a new home for Kellogg since 2004-2005, little had been done. When she became dean in July of 2010, there was no money, no plans, and no site for a new building. Some influential faculty members favored a renovation of the Jacobs Center, known as the Jake, rather than a brand new home built from scratch.

GETTING THE BUILDING DONE TOOK ‘EVERY OUNCE OF FAITH, GRIT & PATIENCE’

Blount quickly concluded that an upgrade was critical for Kellogg to stay competitive, especially if one believed that online education would not ultimately disrupt a prestige school’s residential programs. “If we were going long on face-to-face education, I realized we had to do it,” she says.

Her direct involvement in the massive project was deep and all-consuming. Blount led the fundraising, oversaw the design, and guided the move-in to the school’s new Global Hub. She even led a group of decision makers on a trip to California to tour the corporate headquarters of Google, Facebook, and Pixar for inspiration and ideas. The project consumed a third of her time as dean and in her own words took “every ounce of faith, grit, and patience” to get it done.

The result: A stunning 415,000 square-foot lakefront building that provides a multitude of collaborative spaces, two atriums, flexible classrooms, faculty offices and conference space (see Kellogg’s Global Hub: A Home With A Little Inspiration From Steve Jobs). It makes Kellogg’s old home–named after legendary Dean Don Jacobs–feel like a dated high school facility.

PROVOST HOLLOWAY TO OVERSEE A GLOBAL SEARCH FOR BLOUNT’S SUCCESSOR

Provost Jonathan Holloway, who formally made the announcement of Blount’s decision, heaped praise on her in the news release about her departure. “Under Sally Blount’s leadership, the school launched and recently completed a seven-year plan to transform Kellogg and the future of business education, including the construction and opening of a new state-of-the-art home for the school, reshaping its degree portfolio, recruiting dynamic faculty and staff, and setting records for fundraising and alumni engagement,” Holloway said in the statement. “We have appreciated her exceptional service, her collaborative approach, and her dynamic stewardship of Kellogg and are excited to have her leading the school for one more year.”

According to the announcement, Blount plans to rejoin the Northwestern faculty after her one-year sabbatical in the 2019-2018 academic year. Provost Holloway will oversee an international search to select Blount’s successor over the next 12 months. It is the second major deanship to open up in recent months. In June, UC-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business announced that Dean Rich Lyons would step down at the end of June of 2018 after an 11-year run.

“Since becoming dean in 2010, Sally Blount has been a bold leader for Kellogg and an inspirational trailblazer in business education and beyond. She has expanded Kellogg’s global reach and reputation and laid a strong foundation for its future,” said Northwestern President Morton Schapiro in a statement.

‘LETTING GO OF CONNECTION’

In late July, presumably after Blount took her latest retreat, she wrote an essay on the merits of  silent reflection. The dean noted that she started going on retreats as part of a spiritual practice inspired by the Jesuits. But over time her annual sojourns began to nourish her professional work life. A major benefit of a retreat, wrote Blount, is “letting go of connection.”

“Each day I experience a growing sense of freedom – a freedom that comes with not being so interdependent, so hemmed in by the words and opinions of others; a freedom to truly hear your own voice and fully experience the natural world. It’s a place of deep centeredness and completeness that both grounds and untethers your thinking.”

This summer, amidst the Rhode Island woods, Blount heard her own voice and decided to untether herself from a job that allowed her to put a lasting stamp on a world class institution.

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