Indiana University

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Thursday, July 28, 2005

Last modified: Thursday, July 28, 2005

Dan Smith named dean of IU's Kelley School of Business

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
JULY 28, 2005

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Daniel C. Smith, 47, a leading researcher and educator on strategic brand management and marketing strategy, will direct Indiana University's Kelley School of Business as its next dean, pending approval by IU trustees. Smith has guided the school in an interim capacity since July 2004. His appointment comes at the end of a 12-month process.

Charles R. Bantz, IU vice president for long range planning and chancellor of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, announced today (July 28) that he will recommend Smith, also the Clare W. Barker Chaired Professor in Marketing, to trustees at the board's next meeting on Aug. 19.

"Dan Smith is an outstanding scholar, an outstanding teacher and has demonstrated a strong vision for leading the Kelley School to international eminence," Bantz said. "What Dan has demonstrated to us is an understanding of the changing world the Kelley School operates within and most importantly a complex vision of how to capture the opportunities that worldwide change offers.

"That he is passionate about the culture of the Kelley School of Business and that his colleagues support him makes it even more likely the Kelley School can successfully meet those challenges," Bantz added.

"Dan Smith has demonstrated strong leadership and organizational skills during the period he has served as interim dean," said IU President Adam W. Herbert of Smith's appointment. "He has won the confidence of both the Kelley School of Business faculty and the business community we serve. I look forward to working with him as we continue to elevate the school to higher levels of national distinction."

The Kelley School of Business, a leader in American business education for nearly 85 years, offers undergraduate and graduate education programs to about 4,600 full-time students on its Bloomington campus and another 1,200 students on its Indianapolis campus. It consistently is ranked highly by corporate recruiters, business developers and national business publications such as Business Week, Entrepreneur and U.S. News & World Report.

"It is a tremendous honor to be asked to serve as the Dean of the Kelley School of Business," Smith said. "The School has a strong portfolio of academic programs, a team of faculty who are nationally recognized scholars and teachers, a collegial culture that embraces constant innovation, and a supportive network of alumni and friends in the business community. I believe we have the raw materials to be the premier public business school in the country.

"The Kelley School also has a long history of solid leadership in the dean's office," he added. "I look forward to continuing that tradition as we take advantage of the many opportunities that lie in front of us."

Since joining the Kelley School faculty in 1996, Smith has held several key administrative positions. He was chair of its MBA Program from 1998 to 2001, and from 2002 to the summer of 2003 he chaired the Marketing Department. He served as associate dean of academics from 2003 until his appointment as interim dean.

"Dan did a fantastic job as interim dean," said Kenneth R.R. Gros Louis, IU senior vice president for academic affairs and chancellor of the Bloomington campus. "The support of his colleagues, and the confidence that I and others have in him, indicate to me that he will have a spectacular deanship. I have told Dan that I will do whatever I can to support his aspirations for the school."

A 15-member search and screen committee submitted an unranked slate of four candidates for consideration, although one candidate later withdrew.

"The search committee, led by Dean Astrid Merget, worked extremely hard to identify the best candidates," Bantz said. "The faculty on both the Bloomington and IUPUI campuses engaged the finalists. President Herbert, Chancellor Gros Louis and I were impressed that the finalists all painted a picture of intense and increasing worldwide competition in the MBA programs as well as other challenges. Given the challenging situation, it was essential that the next Kelley dean have a strong vision as well as the leadership skills to implement that vision."

The appointment of Smith comes with faculty endorsements from both the Bloomington and IUPUI campuses.

"Through his exhibition of strong leadership skills, tremendous passion for his work, the highest level of personal integrity, and his willingness to channel his own ego needs away from himself and into the larger goals of building a great business school, Dan Smith has earned the respect of everyone in the Kelley community," said Patricia McDougall, interim associate dean of academics and professor of strategic management. "He has a clear and compelling vision for the future of the Kelley School, and he will work tirelessly, with strong commitment of those around him, to ensure its realization."

"Of the many strengths Dan brings to this job, in my mind, the most important is his thorough understanding of the Kelley School's various missions, serving residential students in Bloomington, working professionals in Indianapolis on the IUPUI campus, as well as distance-learning students through Kelley Direct," said Steven L. Jones, chairperson of the MBA program and associate professor of finance in the Kelley School at IUPUI. "In addition, he earned the support of the faculty and staff when they saw the tremendous effort Dan put into the job in his year as interim dean."

Everyone involved, according to Bantz, was impressed by the business community's support for the school.

"Through this search, the Dean's Advisory Council and its chair -- Michael Szymanczyk, chief executive officer of Philip Morris USA -- have provided essential counsel on the leader Kelley needs as well as market changes," Bantz said. "The council members represent many points of view, but were united in their love for the Kelley School and their will for it and IU to succeed. We must thank them for their counsel and ask for their support of Dean Smith as he leads the school into a period of change."

Smith received the Eli Lilly Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award in five of the last seven years and the Board of Trustees Distinguished Teaching Award in 2001. In addition, he received a "four-star" rating in three consecutive issues of Business Week's Guide to Leading Business Schools.

Smith's research focuses on brand strategy and product management and has appeared in the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Strategic Management Journal and others.

He is on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Competitive Intelligence, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management and Journal of Market Focused Management. He received outstanding reviewer awards from the Journal of Marketing and the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.

Smith has served as a consultant to many industrial and consumer goods companies including 3M, IBM, Alcoa, Kodak, Oscar Mayer, R.J. Reynolds, Mack Truck, Eli Lilly, Samsung and Saab USA.

He earned a doctorate in business administration from the University of Pittsburgh in 1988, and bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration from the University of Toledo in 1980 and 1982. Before coming to IU, Smith was an associate professor at the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh and an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Smith succeeds Dan Dalton, who led the Kelley School since 1997 and has returned to teaching and founded the Institute for Corporate Governance.


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