Queen's University School of Business has chosen an academic to lead the top-rated institution, a signal that it wants to concentrate on research and not only on its MBA and executive programs.
David Saunders, currently dean of the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary, will take up the Queen's post in July. Mr. Saunders, who has a PhD in psychology, also has worked as an associate dean at McGill University in Montreal, where he created and launched the school's MBA Japan program.
"Everybody is upbeat. He's seen as an experienced dean who can step right in and pick up the reins and get going," said Lew Johnson, acting dean of Queen's business school.
Former dean Margot Northey resigned abruptly earlier this year, citing a difference of opinion over policy with Queen's central administration.
Mr. Johnson said the decision to hire Mr. Saunders reflects an "evolutionary shift" at the Kingston, Ont., business school, which is consistently rated as one of the top in the country. "He had solid academic experience, particularly in leadership, and also some solid activities in the business world. . . . A business school dean can't be a pure academic -- in spite of what other schools are doing -- and can't be a pure business person."
The school's main rival, the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario in London, is reportedly poised to hire a businessman as its new dean.
Stephen Menon, a fourth-year business student who sat on the 16-member hiring committee at Queen's, said Mr. Saunders is being brought in "to clean things up."
"They were looking for someone who could really make a drastic change. . . . The major issue for the school is promoting a co-operative environment because there is so much intrafaculty strife. It isn't a positive environment. The focus on research has been ignored."
Mr. Saunders said in a telephone interview that he wants to concentrate on building the school's "intellectual capital."
"That means building up the endowment, scholarships for students and chairs and professorships to retain and attract the very best faculty," said the co-author of three top-selling textbooks on negotiation.
"That's how you stay competitive internationally."