TCU Neeley Dean Dan Pullin Named University President

Texas Christian University Neeley School of Business Dean Daniel Pullin will become president of the university

After serving as dean of Texas Christian University’s Neeley School of Business for nearly four years, Daniel Pullin has been named president of the entire university.

A highly effective advocate for the business school, the 46-year-old Pullin rose to the top of the list during a national search by the university and search firm Korn Ferry that resulted in public presentations by final candidates in November.  He is one of several B-school deans in recent years to gain a top university leadership position. UCLA Anderson Dean Judy Olian became president of Quinnipiac University, and Michigan Ross Dean Alison Davis-Blake landed the job as president of Bentley University four years ago.

Pullin, whose new role becomes effective Feb. 1 of 2023, has been a passionate and energetic leader of the university’s business school. Under his leadership, Neeley has experienced dynamic faculty and staff growth and curriculum innovation, particularly in the areas of business analytics, sustainable energy and health policy. Graduate enrollment increased, while many rival schools in the Southwest saw double-digit declines. After experimenting with online coursework in the school’s energy MBA, Pullin launched its first professional online MBA, enrolling the first cohort in the fall of this year. The school also has earned increased national visibility, realized development success, and built community and civic engagement in the Fort Worth-Dallas business community, the fastest-growing metro area in the U.S.

Among other things, Pullin helped to put in place a Graduate Student Success team that guided TCU Neeley’s recent rise in undergraduate career outcomes to a Top 10 spot nationwide in Poets&Quants ranking of the best undergraduate business schools. During a time when a number of programs are cutting staff, Neeley increased its team to differentiate the TCU Neeley experience. The school also elevated its MBA orientation experience, creating a more immersive, hands-on opportunity for the entire first-year, full-time MBA cohort. The cohort traveled to Austin, Texas, for the culmination of students’ first MBA-level case competition in front of the senior leadership of Dell Technologies.

DEAN PULLIN CALLED AN ‘INSPIRING LEADER’ WORTHY OF PROMOTION TO UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT

“Daniel is an inspiring leader and cares deeply about our community, which has been built upon academic excellence and an unmatched student experience,” Chancellor Victor J. Boschini, Jr. said in a statement. “For the past four years he has been passionate about his role as John V. Roach Dean of the Neeley School of Business, and he will use that same energy and expansive vision to make an impact as TCU’s president.” Pullin’s appointment will allow Boschini to focus more efforts on fundraising, while Pullin is expected to deal more directly with the university’s day-to-day operations.

He brings to the newly created job an impressive career and resume, with a Harvard MBA and early, albeit, brief stints at both McKinsey & Co. and the private equity firm Hicks Muse Tate & Furst. He was a business school dean at the University of Oklahoma’s Price College of Business for nearly six years before joining Neeley in 2019 as dean and a professor of entrepreneurship and innovation. And he served as chairman for the University of Oklahoma’s Center for the Creation of Economic Wealth for eight years from 2006 to 2014.

His new university role won’t be his first. Pullin had been a vice president for strategic planning and economic development at the University of Oklahoma for more than five years from 2009 to 2014, while heading up the center devoted to economic development. Pullin earned his undergraduate degree in accounting and finance as well as a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Oklahoma.

NEELEY DEAN  ‘HONORED AND HUMBLED’ TO BE NAMED PRESIDENT OF TEXAS CHRISTIAN

“I am honored and humbled to be appointed the incoming president for Texas Christian University,” he said in a statement. “Four years ago, this community welcomed me and my family with the kindness and generosity that only Horned Frogs can offer. I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve TCU in a greater capacity, as I’ve seen firsthand the transformational power of what a TCU education can provide.

As TCU president, Pullin will report to the chancellor and is responsible for overall operations supporting and enhancing the university’s academic mission. He will provide executive leadership to advance the mission, vision and values of TCU, according to the school.

“Daniel will work closely with me and the cabinet to help usher in a new era for TCU under the exciting spotlight of TCU’s Sesquicentennial year,” Chancellor Boschini added. “This includes maintaining the level of excellence for which our community is known, especially our culture of belonging, academic impact and engagement. We share this focus on investing in our people and our community.”

DON’T MISS: MEET TCU NEELEY’S MBA CLASS OF 2024