Dean's Column

Something significant will happen for the Smith School of Business at the Academy of Management’s annual meeting Aug. 1-5, 2014, in Philadelphia. Debra Shapiro, the school’s Clarice Smith Professor of Management, will start a one-year term as president-elect of the professional association. 

The appointment by itself is impressive, considering the Academy of Management represents nearly 20,000 members in more than 100 countries. What adds to the distinction is that when Shapiro emerges as the association’s 71st president in 2015-16, she will be the third Smith faculty member to hold the position. Smith Professor of Management & Organization Kay Bartol held the post from 1984-85, and Smith Professor Emeritus Ken G. Smith led the academy from 2006-07. In the academy’s long history, only three other schools have produced as many presidents. 

Media outlets including Financial Times and Bloomberg Businessweek focus on research output in top academic journals when they rank Smith’s faculty among the best in the world. These rankings are valuable, but the full impact of Smith thought leadership goes far beyond the published contributions. 

Academy of Management service is one example among many. Gilad Chen, the Ralph J. Tyser Professor of Organizational Behavior, started in January 2014 as editor of the Journal of Applied Psychology. Wendy Moe, associate professor of marketing, recently won the 2014 Robert D. Buzzell Marketing Science Institute Best Paper Award. Meanwhile, Smith’s calendar is packed with events such as the Conference on the Regulation of Financial Markets at SEC headquarters May 16, 2014, in Washington, D.C. 

All of these things combine to tell a story of faculty impact and thought leadership that truly spans the globe.

Alexander Triantis
Dean, Robert H. Smith School of Business
University of Maryland