DEAN'S MESSAGE
This issue of Vision marks my first as the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Dean. It is hard to believe that four months have passed so quickly. During this time I have held student forums, met with faculty, staff, alumni, and university leaders as I learn about Michigan State University.
I was attracted to the Broad School for a variety of reasons. The faculty and staff here are exceptional in their commitment to excellence. They are always looking at opportunities to be innovative in delivering the best educational experience to our undergraduate and graduate students. Our faculty members are some of the best business-school scholars in the country in creating leading-edge knowledge for the practitioner. The opening of the James B. Henry Center for Executive Development provides an opportunity to expand our outreach to the business community. Finally, and most important, is the support and leadership of the Broad School shown by President McPherson and Provost Simon, which was a major factor in my decision to come here. They see the college as playing a central role in their vision of Michigan State University, and I look forward to working as partners with both of them.
I would also like to thank Eli and Edythe Broad for endowing the deanship. This generous support from the Broads provides us with the resources to support students, faculty, and to make sure our facilities support our mission to be the very best.
I would like to acknowledge the outstanding accomplishments of Dean James Henry. He moved the College forward in the rankings, attracted record-setting resources to the school, and created the executive development center named in his honor. He was an exceptional leader for the school and is a tough act to follow. Don Bowersox also played a crucial leadership role during his tenure as dean. He helped to restructure the school, reorganize the Dean's office, and create a magnificent administrative team for me to work with. He has helped to make my transition very smooth. I will always be indebted to him for his leadership.
My vision for the Broad School is to develop leaders for the global marketplace. At Broad, leadership development is a life-long process. It begins at the undergraduate level, where we teach students the basics about leadership skills, ethics, and values. They then go to work for a few years and return for their MBA.
The MBA program provides an opportunity to reflect on work experience and develop a better understanding about what is required for leadership in the global economy.
Finally, learning continues during the career via executive education at the Henry Center. Executive education provides an opportunity for a leader to remain on the leading edge of knowledge and make sure that they have the tools that will continue to make them effective as leaders in the global marketplace. We will develop leadership updates for our alumni so that opportunities for learning continue. Currently we are setting up a strategic academic vision process to elaborate and expand on this vision. This process will involve faculty, staff, students, alumni, recruiters, and outside experts. It will clearly articulate the Broad School's perspective on leadership education, and will become our brand in the academic marketplace. It defines what the Broad School leadership development experience is all about.
Now that the Henry Center is open we are expanding our executive programs. Everyone that has seen the Henry Center is impressed with its classrooms and other meeting facilities. The Candlewood Suites Hotel also is a major asset for the Henry Center. The large rooms and suites with their desks, computer hook ups, and kitchen facilites provide great working and living space for our participants. The entire complex with the University Club, the Henry Center, and Candlewood Suites makes this one of the best places for executive education anywhere. This facility will be a popular site for companies to run off-site meetings.
We are now developing several new open enrollment programs. We are working with corporations to create company-specific executive programs, and have many of these in place at present. These are programs where a company partners with us to develop an executive program that focuses on a specific set of issues important to them. We then work with them to design a custom program to provide them with the specific topic areas they need. All of our programs will have a emphasis on implementation and strategic change leadership.
I look forward to meeting as many of you as I can as I travel around in the next few months. Working together we can continue to make great things happen.
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Broad Endowment
During the recent search for a dean of The Eli Broad College of Business and The Eli Broad Graduate School of Management, Eli Broad himself took an active role in the process. He facilitated the search by committing to endow the dean's position in perpetuity with a $5 million gift.
This endowment provides additional resources for the dean to use in support of Broad School initiatives. These resources can be used in a variety of ways. For example, they can allow for facility improvement, faculty recruitment and retention, and MBA student support/scholarships.
This type of endowment is at a much higher lever than traditional "chaired" positions. Funding of this nature is essential to move the Broad School forward, for it allows the college to focus on particular needs as they arise. "They are the single most important funds that a dean can have," says Robert B. Duncan, The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Dean. "They give you the flexibility to use them where you need funding the most."
Once again, Eli and Edythe Broad have continued their commitment to making the Broad School one of the best in the nation. "This is a very generous gift," says Duncan. "We are most appreciative of the Broads living commitment and their continuing support."