UM Business School Dean Howard Frank
to Step Down in 2008
Howard
Frank has announced that he will
step down as dean of the University of
Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of
Business at the end of the current
academic year. Frank will leave his post
June 30, 2008, to begin a sabbatical and
will return to the Smith School as
professor of management sciences in the
fall of 2009.
I look back with great pride on what
has been accomplished during my tenure
as dean, said Frank. Over the past
decade, thanks to incredibly dedicated
faculty, staff, alumni and friends, the
business school has been transformed and
is now recognized among the worlds best.
I look forward to continuing to
contribute to the Smith Schools growth
and prosperity in the years ahead.
Under Franks leadership, the schools
stature has risen dramatically. One year
after he arrived in 1997, the College of
Business and Management became the
Robert H. Smith School of Business when
it received a $15 million naming gift.
The schools endowment has grown from
just $6 million in 1997 to more than $50
million today, and annual revenues have
quadrupled to more than $60 million.
Frank led the makeover of the schools
curriculum and research agenda,
integrating studies in technology,
entrepreneurship and globalization with
the core business disciplines. The size
of the schools faculty has nearly
doubled, with new hires drawn from
premier research institutions around the
world. The school has established
numerous centers for excellence and
research laboratories, and is now
recognized worldwide for its business
research. The Smith School is ranked No.
5 in the world for research by the
Financial Times.
Dean Frank came to Maryland with
extraordinary accomplishments in
business, government and academe. He
created a technology savvy business
school to lead in entrepreneurship and
globalized business education, said
University of Maryland President C. D.
(Dan) Mote, Jr. Howards focuses on
undergraduate education and research are
both unusual and highly successful. The
remarkable and varied transformations in
the Smith School over the past decade
clearly are a credit to his leadership,
said Mote
The Smith Schools home, Van Munching
Hall, was expanded in 2002, nearly
doubling its size. Another major
expansion is set to be completed later
this year. The school has become the
dominant supplier of part-time MBA
education in the Washington,
D.C.-Baltimore region, with 1,000
students at campuses in Washington,
D.C., Baltimore and Rockville, Md. The
school also established Executive MBA
programs in the U.S., China and Europe,
as well as Executive MS programs in the
U.S. and abroad.
"Howards visionary leadership has
transformed our approach to business and
entrepreneurship education, said Nariman
Farvardin, senior vice president for
academic affairs and provost. He has
attracted the nations top faculty,
developed strong academic programs
coupled with an array of
out-of-classroom experiences for our
students, and then attracted the level
of funding and technological resources
critical to truly globalizing Maryland
business. Though I will miss him as a
dean, Smith students will benefit
greatly from his return to the
classroom.
The search for Dean Franks successor
will begin this fall.
