Dartmouth Tuck Dean Earns Third Term

Getting the job is just the start. Real leaders want to make a job their own – and leave a legacy that matters.

By that measure, Matthew J. Slaughter has been a leader of significance at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

Today (January 18), the school announced that Slaughter had been re-appointed as the Paul Danos Dean of the Tuck School. Beginning July 1 and lasting four years, this honor will represent Slaughter’s third term as dean. He was originally named dean in 2015, succeeding Paul Danos, P&Q’s 2014 Dean of the Year who served five terms at the helm.

“Matt’s steady leadership and bold vision for the future have been incredibly important to Tuck’s success since he first assumed this role in 2015, explains Michael Ward T’92, chair of the Tuck Board of Advisors in a press release. We are deeply appreciative for all Matt has done and will continue to do for Tuck.”

A STELLER YEAR

The appointment comes on the heels of a highly successful 2022 – one that led Tuck to be named one of P&Q’s “10 Business Schools To Watch In 2023. Last year, Tuck blew past its $250 million fundraising goal for its Tuck Difference campaign. Ultimately, the school raised $331 million dollars (with 81% of alumni supporting the campaign with donations). This total includes a $52.1-million-dollar anonymous gift, which will fund an annual Global Summit at Tuck on health, wellness, and sustainability. In the process this summit will turn Tuck – already a force in social impact – into a learning destination in the intersecting spheres of public policy, healthcare and climate change.

By the same token, Slaughter also introduced micro and macro coursework that address the latest tools and trends in business. With the school’s Practicum, Tuck MBAs can gain experience through industry-driven client projects, with the 2022-2023 year focusing on early-stage venture capital. At the same time, Tuck Sprints programming expose students to emerging developments in real time.

“Tuck Sprints run fast (about five hours of total instruction) to examine a timely, emergent, or topical subject not currently covered in other Tuck courses—or to dive deep into a focused area that expands on material covered at a higher level in an existing course,” Dean Slaughter told P&Q in a 2023 interview. “Sprint Courses this academic year tackle U.S.-China relations; managing business under sanctions; horizon scanning and the latest in foresight methods; mentorship at the intersection of race, gender, and nationality; and decision biases in the NBA. Several more are in the works, too.”

A BUSY TENURE

During Slaughter’s second term, he also prioritized Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, including conducting an assessment of Tuck culture against DEI principles, creating a strategic action plan to address programming and recruiting opportunities, and hiring an assistant dean focused on these areas. In lieu of the COVID pandemic, Tuck invested heavily in technologies and methodologies that enable the school to move seamlessly into virtual or hybrid formats. At the same time, Tuck graduates have enjoyed record pay, with the Class of 2022 topping out at $202,900, including 98% of the class receiving offers within three months of graduation.

Such developments have built on Slaughter’s first term at the helm. From 2015-2019, Slaughter and his team revamped the school’s core curriculum, while being among the first programs to beef up its offerings in key areas like data analytics. Slaughter also turned global learning a centerpiece of Tuck programming, including widening the options available through its TUCKGO experiential learning opportunities. In addition, he increased outreach and programming available to undergraduates, military veterans, and executives.

The only black marks on Slaughter’s resume? Start with rankings.  In the past year, Tuck lost ground in the Poets&Quants, Bloomberg Businessweek, U.S. News, and Financial Times rankings. While Tuck has aggressively invested in faculty, it hasn’t translated into research prowess. The school ranks 37th and 54th in  the most recent ranking of research quality and volume by The Financial Times and the University of Texas-Dallas respectively.

A TUCKIE THROUGH-AND-THROUGH

Slaughter himself could be described as a Tuck lifer. He earned a bachelor of arts and PhD in Economics from Notre Dame and MIT respectively. At MIT, he was supervised by Paul Krugman, who earned the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2008. Slaughter began schooling Dartmouth undergraduates in Economics from 1994-2001. From there, he joined the Tuck faculty in 2002, taking a leave from 2005-2007 to serve on the Council of Economic Advisers in the Executive Office of the President of the United States. After returning, he spent four years at Tuck’s associate dean for the MBA program and three years at the associate dean for faculty. He earned the school’s Teaching Excellence Award in 2012.

“The best part of serving as the dean of the Tuck School is convening,” Slaughter explained during the announcement of his third term. “It’s helping bring together students, faculty, staff, or alumni – the people for whom our mission resonates and seeking a personal connection and transformative experience. The ability to bring those people together, to empower them to see the connections being built and literally or metaphorically getting out of their way – that’s the best part of being dean at Tuck. Tuck has great clarity about mission, great momentum and in the years ahead in new, innovative and unforeseen perhaps ways and yet adhering to our core values, Tuck is going to meet those needs. Tuck is going to have even more impact.  And it’s an honor to be part of that.”

DON’T MISS: MEET DARTMOUTH TUCK’S MBA CLASS OF 2023