Northeastern University, one of the most dynamic and entrepreneurial global universities, seeks to recruit a new Dean for the D’Amore-McKim School of Business (DMSB). This search comes at a time where DMSB, and the University as a whole, remain committed to the belief that leadership in scholarship and education directly relates to the local, national, and global contexts in which we work and live.

Northeastern has embarked on a new academic plan, Beyond 2025, that presents a unique vision of the future of education rooted in experience, emphasizing impact through education and research, and promoting deeply held values of diversity, service, and respect. The Dean will lead DMSB’s efforts to rethink the way education is delivered, with a greater focus on technology, personalization, and lifelong learning. They will build productive and creative partnerships across the University to leverage the strengths and experience of other schools. As the DMSB continues to grow, the Dean will recruit and retain the best faculty and students, expanding the breadth of academic offerings and increasing the research dollars that flow into the School. The Dean will engage outside partners—one of the hallmarks of the Northeastern model—to identify ways the DMSB can address the learning needs of business and address societal challenges. Finally, the Dean will strengthen Northeastern’s position as a truly global university, shaping its activities across all campuses around the world.

World-class scholarship remains essential to DMSB and Northeastern. That said, success in this role is defined by scholarship that links to the experiences of work and life, ensuring that efforts have meaning and impact. New ideas for research will emerge from the intersection of different fields and the engagement with business and community partners. The new Dean will relish the opportunity to redefine what a global business school can do and the impact it has on the world.

Northeastern University continues its astonishing upward path, achieving tremendous advances in academic and research rankings and unprecedented growth in student enrollment and selectivity, faculty and staff numbers, and physical resources. Annual research funding has increased dramatically over the last decade-plus, driven by the work of world-class faculty, physical expansion that creates opportunities for collaboration, and a robust and diverse array of research institutes and centers. Its signature co-op program has expanded in popularity beyond the undergraduate study body, creating a unique learning experience that attracts top students from around the world.

With locations throughout North America, a significant footprint in the UK, and ambitions to grow further, Northeastern is ideally positioned to advance the boundaries of knowledge, create and define new fields of application and economic impact, enrich the lives of students the world over and from all walks of life, and find interdisciplinary solutions to the world’s most pressing issues. The DMSB Dean will lead a school that is central to this success, overseeing more than 165 faculty and 5,700 students.

THE ROLE OF THE DEAN

 

As the chief academic and executive officer of the School, the Dean of D’Amore-McKim reports to the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and serves alongside the other deans and the Chancellor as a member of Northeastern’s academic leadership team. The Dean holds ultimate responsibility for the business school’s human capital – its faculty, staff, students – as well as its long-term planning and material resources, both physical and fiscal. The Dean operates in a hybrid responsibility center management (RCM) university-wide budgeting model, and as such is responsible for the School’s revenue streams, fundraising, and overall financial health, while sharing some central services at the University level. The annual net revenue for DMSB exceeds $150 million, and the School has been generating modest surpluses in recent years. Undergraduate net revenue exceeds graduate revenue by a factor of approximately three. The Dean plays a critical role in promoting D’Amore-McKim externally, with public- and private-sector partners at the local, state, national, and international levels. The Dean is the primary advocate and champion for the School internally, garnering support from University leadership for large-scale initiatives and to seed collaborations that break through academic siloes. Importantly, the Dean is not just the dean in Boston, but across the whole Northeastern global campus network and will advance DSMB programs, partnerships, and research across the entirety of the University ecosystem and the markets it occupies. Reporting directly to the Dean are associate deans for undergraduate programs, faculty and research, graduate programs, and administration and finance, as well as a number of directors and assistant deans. Six academic group chairs in finance, international business and strategy, management and organizational development, marketing, supply chain and information management, accounting, and entrepreneurship and innovation complete the leadership team. DMSB maintains an endowed deanship, the Dunton Family Dean, a gift from Gary Dunton, DMSB ’78, and his wife Lea Anne Dunton.

 

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

 

This role is not for someone looking for traditional measures of success or change that comes in small increments. To that end, the DMSB Dean will address the following opportunities and challenges:

 

The Dean will encourage faculty and students to engage in solutions for the world’s most intractable problems. The Dean—versed in new literacies, systems thinking, and lifelong learning—will seek opportunities for Northeastern’s research to be relevant and impactful.

 

DMSB exists in one of the most vibrant educational ecosystems on the planet. The Dean will aggressively pursue creative partnerships with other deans, institute leaders, and outside stakeholders to create interdisciplinary programs and research endeavors. The disciplinary knowledge in a business school (finance, innovation, management) is directly relevant to the other colleges and an essential ingredient to solutions in society. The Dean should generate these collaborations on a regular basis.

 

The Dean should embrace Northeastern’s belief in world-class scholarship, delivered in customized, practical means, across a lifetime of learning. To that end, the School needs to be the source for new and creative pedagogical methods and programs that serve broader audiences.

 

Many organizations define “global” as simply having campuses in a variety of locations. Northeastern pushed the definition further by having all stakeholders—students, faculty, and partners—all leverage the global reach of the University. Teams work across locations and serve employees on a global scale, and students are afforded practical learning opportunities in an unprecedented number of countries. The Dean must find ways for this reach to grow and become more meaningful.

 

As the ambitions of the DMSB grow, so will the need for world-class faculty. Both tenure-track and adjunct faculty are required at all Northeastern locations, and the Dean will serve as the standard-bearer for quality, engagement, and retention. Additionally, the Dean will work with the admissions team to ensure the most qualified students choose Northeastern as their destination for career development.

 

The Dean will support and build a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable community in the DMSB within the context of a university engaged in and galvanized around the solving of real-world challenges via highly diverse, interdisciplinary clusters of faculty, students, and partners, each bringing their unique perspectives to bear.

 

QUALIFICATIONS AND CHARACTERISTICS

 

Northeastern University has a bold vision and an aggressive plan for the institution’s future. The senior officers of the University embody and cultivate an institutional culture of rigorous engagement, focused on strategic and operational excellence. Successful leaders at Northeastern demonstrate confidence and flexibility, enjoy creative and collaborative planning and problem-solving, and combine outstanding capability in their own domains with appetite and enthusiasm for discussing programs, initiatives, and challenges that span the University. Innovation is a cornerstone of the Northeastern culture. Northeastern seeks a business Dean with exemplary strategic leadership ability and an entrepreneurial spirit. The successful candidate will bring many of the following personal and professional qualities and characteristics:

 

 

The complete Job Description is available

Application materials should include a resume and letter of interest.

Andrew Lee | Isaacson, Miller |

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Additional Information

 

Northeastern University is an equal opportunity employer, seeking to recruit and support a broadly diverse community of faculty and staff. Northeastern values and celebrates diversity in all its forms and strives to foster an inclusive culture built on respect that affirms inter-group relations and builds cohesion.

 

All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

 

To learn more about Northeastern University’s commitment and support of diversity and inclusion, please see