Full speed ahead

10/2/2009 - During the past 35 years, the Kellogg School has had two remarkable leaders at the helm: Donald Jacobs and Dipak C. Jain.

The committee that has been convened to search for the school’s next dean faces a challenging task in identifying a leader to fill their shoes. Over the next several months, the 12-member committee, comprised of Kellogg alumni, faculty, staff, several Northwestern University deans and one Kellogg student, will identify the qualities desired in the new dean and nominate candidates for the position. By early 2010, the committee will propose those candidates to Northwestern University Provost Daniel Linzer and President Morton Schapiro.

Until a new dean is named, Sunil Chopra, the IBM Distinguished Professor of Operations Management, will serve as interim dean. Chopra, a distinguished faculty member in the Department of Managerial Economics & Decision Sciences and Operations Management, served as senior associate dean for curriculum and teaching from 2006-09.

The search committee welcomes input from all members of the Kellogg community, said Janice Eberly, the John L. and Helen Kellogg Professor of Finance and chair of the committee.

“The entire community at Kellogg has a stake in the leadership of the school,” she said. “We have a community that has a lot to bring to the search.”

While the committee will keep the candidates names’ confidential, the process will be as transparent as possible, she added. In that spirit, Eberly shared details about the global search.

What is the status of the search for the dean?

The committee is working on getting input from the Kellogg community on what type of leadership meets our aspirations and fits the dynamic future of Kellogg. We’ve reached out to tens of thousands of alumni through e-mail, and hosted forums on the Chicago and Evanston campuses. We’ve also sent e-mails to students and had a forum with our global executive MBA students. We are also having forums with the Full-Time and Part-Time students. We’re talking to the staff, faculty and academic departments, and we sent out a community e-mail seeking candidate nominations and input on what qualities the new dean might possess. We are not yet looking at individual candidates.

While the process is ongoing, have you determined any qualities that you’d like to see in the incoming dean?

The results of our outreach to the Kellogg community will figure importantly in establishing our profile and priorities for evaluating candidates. Clearly, Kellogg has a global presence and a very diverse community. We need a dean who can connect with all the constituencies — alumni, students, faculty and staff — because all of those groups are part of any direction that the school takes. The dean needs to connect with our collaborative community. That’s part of our identity, and a successful dean will appreciate and contribute to that strength.

What are some priorities that the dean should be prepared to address?

We’re still assessing priorities, which is why getting input from the whole community is so important: It helps us identify the issues that we should emphasize in the search and communicate to the new dean. The search is an opportunity to look at the school in a thoughtful way, determine how we see its future and find the leadership that can fulfill its goals.

The committee is comprised of individuals from a variety of constituent groups. How has that strengthened the search?

It’s very valuable. Each of their points of view gives us a different perspective on the role of the dean within the school. We hear from students about the importance of the classroom experience and the culture beyond it. We hear from faculty about the importance of world-class academic standards. We hear from alumni about how they like staying in touch with the school. And we hear from the staff about how they value the Kellogg culture and being part of the community — and these perspectives are only a sample of the many voices incorporated into our discussions. Nonetheless, we have a very strong sense of engagement and common mission.

How can members of the Kellogg community assist in the search?

If they know of specific candidates we should consider, that’s very valuable to share. We’d also like members of the Kellogg community to share qualities that they would value in the dean, and priorities for the school. They can contact the committee through our confidential e-mail: deansearch@kellogg.northwestern.edu.

Kellogg Dean Search Committee members:

• Gregory Carpenter, James Farley/Booz Allen Hamilton Professor of Marketing and Chair of the Marketing Department
• Timothy Feddersen, Wendell Hobbs Professor of Managerial Economics and Decisions Sciences, Director of SEEK
• Roxanne Hori, Assistant Dean and Director of the Kellogg School of Management Career Management Center
• Thomas Hubbard, John L. and Helen Kellogg Professor of Management and Strategy
• Bryan Law (KSM '10), President, Kellogg Student Association
• H. John Livingston (KSM '93), Managing Partner, McKinsey & Company, Chicago
• Matthew B. McCall (KSM MBA ’91, MMM ‘92), Partner, New World Ventures and Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson Portage
• Sarah Mangelsdorf, Dean, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
• J. Keith Murnighan, Harold H. Hines Jr. Professor of Risk Management
• Beverly Walther, Professor of Accounting Information and Management
• David Van Zandt, Dean, School of Law