On this episode of Deans Counsel, moderators Ken Kring and Dave Ikenberry speak with Bob Bruner, University Emeritus Professor, Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Business Administration and Dean Emeritus of the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. Bob is a giant in the field of deaning, and we're honored to have him on the show. 

As the former longtime Dean of one of the top business schools in the country, Bob has the experience to speak with authority about the temperament that the position demands. A dean must be tough when needed, but also possess strong emotional intelligence -- qualities that are difficult to evaluate in the search process. In this conversation, Bob brings to bear the depth of his knowledge on this tricky intangible, as he addresses:

• The essential importance of clarity of purpose
• The many ways to evaluate temperament
• Knowing how to lead the leaders on your team
• The role of anger in leadership

Learn more about Bob Bruner: https://www.darden.virginia.edu/faculty-research/directory/robert-f-bruner

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at feedback@deanscounsel.com

Thanks for listening.

-
Produced by Joel Davis at Analog Digital Arts

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DEANS COUNSEL: A podcast for deans and academic leadership.

James Ellis | Moderator | Dean of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (2007-2019)

David Ikenberry | Moderator | Dean of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado-Boulder (2011-2016)

Ken Kring | Moderator | Co-Managing Director, Global Education Practice and Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry

DeansCounsel.com

High Fives (full w/brass)

51: Bob Bruner (Virginia) on The Key Attributes of a Dean's Temperament

On this episode of Deans Counsel, moderators Jim Ellis and Ken Kring speak with Jason Wingard, Executive Chairman of The Education Board, Inc. and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Harvard. Dr. Wingard is a globally renowned executive, with deep experience in both the corporate and non-profit sectors, specializing in the future of learning and work. He recently served as the 12th President of Temple University and Professor of Management and Policy, Organizational, and Leadership Studies. 

Dr. Wingard previously served as Dean of the School of Professional Studies and Professor of Human Capital Management at Columbia University. Prior to Columbia, he was Managing Director and Chief Learning Officer at Goldman Sachs.

Dean's Counsel was excited to have this opportunity to pick the brain of someone with such vast experience and success as Jason. Unsurprisingly, this conversation covers many topics, including: 

•Shifting employer expectations and the Great Skills Gap
•Disruption in higher education and the need for universities to revise their curriculum
•the essential importance of teaching Soft Skills
•trending devaluation of the college degree

Learn more about Jason Wingard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wingardjason/

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at feedback@deanscounsel.com

Thanks for listening.

-
Produced by Joel Davis at Analog Digital Arts

--

DEANS COUNSEL: A podcast for deans and academic leadership.

James Ellis | Moderator | Dean of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (2007-2019)

David Ikenberry | Moderator | Dean of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado-Boulder (2011-2016)

Ken Kring | Moderator | Co-Managing Director, Global Education Practice and Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry

DeansCounsel.com

61: Jason Wingard (The Education Board) on Soft Skills & Society’s Shifting Expectations

On this episode of Deans Counsel, moderators Jim Ellis and Ken Kring welcome Paul Pavlou, Dean of the University of Miami's Herbert Business School and Leonard M. Miller University Chair Professor. Recognized as one of the "World's Most Influential Scientific Minds," Paul earned a Ph.D. in Information Systems and a master’s in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California, and a bachelor’s in electrical engineering and managerial studies, magna cum laude, from Rice University. Before arriving at UM, he served as Dean of the Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston, where he helped raise over $150M in philanthropic gifts and commitments. 

With equally impressive backgrounds in information systems and fundraising, Paul is well-positioned to lead Miami Herbert into he future, as well as wax eloquently in this conversation on such subjects as:

•engagement with industry
•alumni relations
•AI integration
•the challenges ahead for higher education
•the transformative life experience of being a dean

Learn more about Paul Pavlou: https://people.miami.edu/profile/8ce09796440f687f7a71e5a0a1aa6526

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at feedback@deanscounsel.com

Thanks for listening.

-
Produced by Joel Davis at Analog Digital Arts

--

DEANS COUNSEL: A podcast for deans and academic leadership.

James Ellis | Moderator | Dean of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (2007-2019)

David Ikenberry | Moderator | Dean of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado-Boulder (2011-2016)

Ken Kring | Moderator | Co-Managing Director, Global Education Practice and Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry

DeansCounsel.com

63: Paul Pavlou (Miami) on Realizing Moonshot Goals

On this episode of Deans Counsel, moderators Jim Ellis and Ken Kring speak with Adam Goodman, Director of the Center for Leadership at Northwestern University, where he's also a Clinical Professor in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. With a career journey that began as a special assistant to the president of the University of Colorado, Adam has accumulated an incredible amount of knowledge about what it means to lead at the highest academic levels.

In this edifying episode, Adam speaks from experience about a number of topics, including:

•the interdisciplinary nature of leadership studies
•the importance of developing leadership skills in academia
•degree-granting leadership programs
•some practical advice for new deans

Learn more about Adam Goodman: https://sesp.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/adam-goodman.html

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at feedback@deanscounsel.com

Thanks for listening.

-
Produced by Joel Davis at Analog Digital Arts

--

DEANS COUNSEL: A podcast for deans and academic leadership.

James Ellis | Moderator | Dean of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (2007-2019)

David Ikenberry | Moderator | Dean of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado-Boulder (2011-2016)

Ken Kring | Moderator | Co-Managing Director, Global Education Practice and Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry

DeansCounsel.com

64: Adam Goodman (Northwestern) with Leadership Advice for Deans

On this episode of Deans Counsel, we've got all three of our moderators -- Jim Ellis, Dave Ikenberry, and Ken Kring -- onboard to speak with Umaimah Mendhro, Founder and President of One League, an organization empowering highly promising, underserved changemakers to realize global impact. Partnering with Stanford, Harvard and MIT as well as global industry leaders, One League is focused on bringing world class education to a highly engaged and academically accomplished set of students who, because of location and economic or social status, are unable to access top graduate-level business education.

Less than 3% of the students at top schools come from the bottom income quartile. As such, tremendous talent is left behind. By making graduate-level education accessible to these typically marginalized groups, One League is truly a disruptive force for good on today's higher education landscape.

This unique episode touches on numerous topics, including:

•modular and online education
•corporate relations and philanthropy 
•recruiting and mentoring
•Umaimah's advice to other deans

Learn more about Umaimah Mendhro: https://blog.one-league.org/home/

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at feedback@deanscounsel.com

Thanks for listening.

-
Produced by Joel Davis at Analog Digital Arts

--

DEANS COUNSEL: A podcast for deans and academic leadership.

James Ellis | Moderator | Dean of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (2007-2019)

David Ikenberry | Moderator | Dean of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado-Boulder (2011-2016)

Ken Kring | Moderator | Co-Managing Director, Global Education Practice and Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry

DeansCounsel.com

65: Umaimah Mendhro (One League) on Disrupting MBA Education

On this episode of Deans Counsel, Jim Ellis and Ken Kring speak with Gerry Sanders, Dean of UNLV's Lee Business School. In perhaps our most riveting discussion to date, Gerry walks us through his experience during an active shooter incident targeting Lee, and the confusing aftermath.

In addition to feeling firsthand the myriad emotions that arise during and in the wake of this all-too-common, uniquely American occurrence, Gerry received a crash course in university-level crisis communications -- a complicated experience full of hard-earned lessons to say the least.

You'll come away from this episode with some fascinating and instructive insights, including:

•some basic protocols to have in place in the event that the unthinkable comes to your campus
•addressing the need (and prioritizing the response) for information coming from multiple sources (campus, media, personal)
•the cultural shifts that take place following a traumatic event
•managing the communication conflicts between campus and the public

Learn more about Gerry Sanders: https://www.unlv.edu/people/gerry-sanders

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at feedback@deanscounsel.com

Thanks for listening.

-
Produced by Joel Davis at Analog Digital Arts

--

DEANS COUNSEL: A podcast for deans and academic leadership.

James Ellis | Moderator | Dean of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (2007-2019)

David Ikenberry | Moderator | Dean of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado-Boulder (2011-2016)

Ken Kring | Moderator | Co-Managing Director, Global Education Practice and Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry

DeansCounsel.com

66: Gerry Sanders (UNLV) on Crisis Communications in an Active Shooter Situation

On this episode of Deans Counsel, Jim Ellis and Ken Kring speak with Blair Sheppard, Special Advisor to Duke Kunshan University, and previously Dean of Duke's Fuqua School of Business. Blair is responsible for directing all of Duke Kunshan's fundraising, corporate development, non-degree program development and regional development for the newly formed campus in China.

From 2012-2024, Blair served as Global Leader for Strategy and Leadership at PwC, where he focused on building resilient strategies and leadership for PwC worldwide, and further sharpened his ability to see further into the future than most of the rest of us.

In this episode, we hear very compelling observations from Blair about four key mega-trends --  climate, technology, global forces and aging -- that he feels will fundamentally reshape every aspect of society (including business, of course). 

With us, he shares some insight into how business schools, through their research and teaching, must soon lean into these abrupt changes in societal needs. In so doing, he also lends advice as to how we as leaders should go about the change process of taking faculty through this difficult process, touching on topics such as:

- Why some long-held assumptions are no longer holding
- Our rapidly changing world's impact on curriculum
- Rethinking the teaching of strategy
- How Ai will shape demand for the MBA

Learn more about Blair Sheppard: https://www.fuqua.duke.edu/faculty/blair-sheppard

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at feedback@deanscounsel.com

Thanks for listening.

-
Produced by Joel Davis at Analog Digital Arts

--

DEANS COUNSEL: A podcast for deans and academic leadership.

James Ellis | Moderator | Dean of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (2007-2019)

David Ikenberry | Moderator | Dean of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado-Boulder (2011-2016)

Ken Kring | Moderator | Co-Managing Director, Global Education Practice and Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry

DeansCounsel.com

67: Blair Sheppard (Duke) on What's Next in Higher Academia

On this episode of Deans Counsel, Jim Ellis, Dave Ikenberry and Ken Kring speak with John Evans, Dean of the VinUniversity College of Business and Management in Hanoi, Vietnam. Prior to joining VinUni, Professor Evans was the Pro Vice Chancellor and President of Curtin University Dubai campus.

John has held numerous senior leadership roles in Higher Education and has extensive senior academic international experience. He is also an active researcher and publishes and teaches mainly in the fields of Corporate Governance, Financial Control and Financial Accounting. He is a Fellow of the CPA and holds a PhD from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign).

Founded in 2020, VinUni is a private, not-for-profit university that has built strategic collaborations with Cornell and Penn, and represents an emerging trend of "startup" business schools. At only five years old -- and with the business school being a year younger -- VinUni faces a unique set of challenges, far different from the many legacy schools with far more history and experience than VinUni.

In this wide-ranging conversation, John walks our hosts through his experience thus far, discussing such topics as:
- attracting top talent
- establishing VinUni as a research as well as teaching institution
- developing key programs in collaboration with Cornell and Penn
- how the university's startup nature differs from administration and systems creation at legacy schools

Learn more about John Evans: hhttps://vinuni.edu.vn/people/prof-john-evans/

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at feedback@deanscounsel.com

Thanks for listening.

-
Produced by Joel Davis at Analog Digital Arts

--

DEANS COUNSEL: A podcast for deans and academic leadership.

James Ellis | Moderator | Dean of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (2007-2019)

David Ikenberry | Moderator | Dean of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado-Boulder (2011-2016)

Ken Kring | Moderator | Co-Managing Director, Global Education Practice and Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry

DeansCounsel.com

68: John Evans (VinUniversity) on Leading a Business School Startup

On this episode of Deans Counsel, Jim Ellis and Dave Ikenberry speak with Bernard "Bernie" Banks, Director of Rice University’s Doerr Institute for New Leaders (and a Clinical Professor of Management within the University’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business).  The mission of the Doerr Institute “…is to elevate the leadership capacity of Rice students and to improve the practice of leader development in higher education.”  

Most recently, Bernie served on the faculty and senior leadership team at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management from 2016-2024 prior to arriving at Rice.

Bernie retired from the U.S. Army in 2016 as a Brigadier General after having successfully led West Point’s Department of Behavioral Sciences & Leadership in his final assignment.  In addition to having studied leadership extensively, he has led multiple military units ranging in size from 10 to over 3000 people.  

In this instructive conversation, Bernie relates to our hosts some of the experiences he's gleaned through his decades as an inspiring leader, touching on topics such as:

- his objectives as Director of the Doerr Institute
- how he measures effectiveness
- acquainting students with the leadership mindset
- creative approaches to leadership development

Learn more about Bernie Banks: https://doerr.rice.edu/people/rice-staff/bernie-banks

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at feedback@deanscounsel.com

Thanks for listening.

-
Produced by Joel Davis at Analog Digital Arts

--

DEANS COUNSEL: A podcast for deans and academic leadership.

James Ellis | Moderator | Dean of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (2007-2019)

David Ikenberry | Moderator | Dean of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado-Boulder (2011-2016)

Ken Kring | Moderator | Co-Managing Director, Global Education Practice and Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry

DeansCounsel.com

69: Bernie Banks (Rice) on Leadership Development at Large Scale

On this episode of Deans Counsel, Jim Ellis and Dave Ikenberry speak with Avijit Ghosh, Dean Emeritus at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Gies College of Business. He also served as vice president/chief financial officer and comptroller for the University of Illinois System since 2018. Dr. Ghosh's Research and teaching interests are in the area of retail and marketing strategy and sales forecasting. His reas of specialization include locational analysis, technology commercialization, entrepreneurship, and marketing strategy.

In this perhaps provocative conversation, Avijit lends his insights into to the state of higher education today, and expounds on such topics as:

- the value proposition: delivering on the promise of higher education
- the cost of higher education as a barrier to accessibility
- delivering multiple avenues for education (not just undergraduate)
- tech transfer
- his perspectives on today's political environment

Learn more about Avijit Ghosh: https://giesbusiness.illinois.edu/profile/avijit-ghosh

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at feedback@deanscounsel.com

Thanks for listening.

-
Produced by Joel Davis at Analog Digital Arts

--

DEANS COUNSEL: A podcast for deans and academic leadership.

James Ellis | Moderator | Dean of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (2007-2019)

David Ikenberry | Moderator | Dean of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado-Boulder (2011-2016)

Ken Kring | Moderator | Co-Managing Director, Global Education Practice and Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry

DeansCounsel.com

70: Avijit Ghosh (Illinois Urbana-Champaign) with Strategic Insight into Higher Education Today

On this episode of Deans Counsel, hosts Ken Kring and Dave Ikenberry speak with Todd Milbourn, the newly-installed 10th Dean of the Edwin L. Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University. He holds the Tolleson Chair in Business Leadership and the Andrew W. Chen Endowed Chair in Financial Investments. An experienced and visionary academic leader, Todd is dedicated to advancing teaching and research, supporting top academic talent, and engaging the business community to help prepare the next generation of business leaders for the opportunities ahead. 

Milbourn came to SMU from the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was the Hubert C. and Dorothy R. Moog Professor of Finance. In his 25 years at Washington University, Milbourn recruited leading faculty from top universities, expanded the Ph.D. program, led the rollout of several specialized master’s programs and facilitated the establishment of four new research centers. In his most recent role as deputy dean, he helped lead the school’s strategic efforts to align with the broader university’s strategic plan and increase engagement with the St. Louis business community. 

In this episode, Todd talks about his experiences in over a quarter century in academia, and his impressions of his new role, less than 100 days into the job (as of this interview date). Subjects discussed include:

- why he made this move to Deaning
- his approach to onboarding
- Todd's strategic planning proces
- what he learned on his "Listening Tour"
- how to construct a leadership team

Learn more about Todd Milbourn: https://www.smu.edu/cox/academics/faculty/todd-milbourn

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at feedback@deanscounsel.com

Thanks for listening.

-
Produced by Joel Davis at Analog Digital Arts

--

DEANS COUNSEL: A podcast for deans and academic leadership.

James Ellis | Moderator | Dean of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (2007-2019)

David Ikenberry | Moderator | Dean of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado-Boulder (2011-2016)

Ken Kring | Moderator | Co-Managing Director, Global Education Practice and Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry

DeansCounsel.com