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Dear Broad School Alumni:

I have completed my five-year term as dean, and I was scheduled this fall to be reviewed and considered for reappointment to another term as dean. However, after some reflection, I have informed Provost Wilcox that I have decided not to consider another term and will step down as dean effective June 30, 2008. By then I will have been dean for six and one-half years, and it’s time for a change. After my administrative leave, I will move to the Management department as a faculty member and continue my teaching in leadership development. I have been teaching a course, “Leading the Strategic Change Process,” in the MBA and Executive MBA programs. I also plan to work with my Management Department colleagues to develop a unique leadership development program for our undergraduate students. I think this could be a really transformational experience for undergraduate business education.

I am announcing this now so that a search committee can be established by Provost Wilcox as soon as possible and a new dean can be in place by the above date. The provost will work with the Broad College Advisory Council to develop the details of the search process.

I want to thank both President Simon and Provost Wilcox for all their support during these challenging times for the university. I am also grateful for the support of the Board of Trustees. We are all comforted and energized by the fact that the university has great leadership in Lou Anna and Kim. Their willingness to listen and work collaboratively with us to develop solutions to issues has been great. I go to business school deans’ meetings and the topic of discussion is always the confrontations deans are having with their central administration. My colleague business school deans look at me strangely when I respond that I don’t have those problems. I tell them that while we don’t always agree at MSU, there are shared common goals here and a climate of “let’s work together to see how we can fix whatever the problem might be.”

I want to also recognize the great leadership of all the staff in the Dean’s Office. There is an especially capable team of associate deans in place with Michael Mazzeo, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs & Finance, Cheri Speier, Associate Dean for MBA & MS Programs and Shawnee Vickery, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs & Research. Also, all Broad School faculty and staff should be congratulated for over-achieving, given our limited resources. All accomplishments during my tenure are a result of the collective efforts of this team. They are a remarkable group of MSU patriots that bleed green. The Alumni Advisory Board and Capital Campaign Board have been tremendous assets for us in our efforts to move the Broad School forward.

I want to thank all of you for your efforts these past years as we have worked together to make the Broad School the best it can be. During my tenure as dean I have been continually amazed by the commitment, loyalty and generosity of our alumni and your support for the university and the Broad School. We have accomplished a great deal together. However, there is much more to be done. We will have more opportunities during the coming year to discuss this.

I encourage you to go to our website where you can see what’s going on at the Broad School. Check out the videos to see our faculty talk about our efforts.

Thanks.

Bob