Dean of Leavey School of Business to Step Down
Caryn Beck-Dudley appointed President and CEO of AACSB.
SANTA CLARA, CA, April 29, 2020 – After five years as dean of Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business, Caryn Beck-Dudley will become president and CEO of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB), a nonprofit membership organization representing more than 840 accredited business schools worldwide.
”Caryn’s extensive connections with alumni and Silicon Valley leaders have been a great resource for our students,” said Kevin O’Brien, S.J., president of Santa Clara University. “I am grateful for her contributions to our campus community and wish her the best. Her appointment to the AACSB is the next step forward in a distinguished career.”
Beck-Dudley joined Santa Clara University in 2015 as dean of the University’s Leavey School of Business. The school offers bachelor’s degrees in seven majors and master’s degrees in business administration—through evening and weekend programs—and in finance, information systems, and entrepreneurship with an emphasis on global innovation. The Leavey School of Business is the second-largest academic unit at Santa Clara University with 2,542 students. It offers one of the nation's best undergraduate business programs and last year was ranked No. 33 in Poets & Quants for Undergrads, a leading news source for undergraduate business education.
“Caryn has a compelling vision of how higher education can serve the workforce needs of the future,” said Lisa Kloppenberg, provost of Santa Clara University. “She has been a longtime leader with AACSB and instrumental in overseeing the group's recent new accreditation standards for business schools.”
Beck-Dudley will conclude her deanship in June. Narendra Agrawal, Benjamin and Mae Swig Professor of Information Systems and Analytics, has been named interim dean for the 2020-2021 academic year. He served as the associate dean of faculty from 2010-2015 and chairman of the Department of Operations Management & Information Systems from 2008-2010. Agrawal’s research explores issues related to supply chain management and service operations in the retail and high-technology industries. He has received a number of teaching awards, including the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence every year since 1996, and was voted Professor of the Year by the Executive MBA cohort at Santa Clara University in 2018. A national search will begin later this year for the next dean of the Leavey School of Business.
Dean Beck-Dudley is also the recipient of the Patricia M. Flynn Distinguished Woman in Business Education Award for her contributions to women administrators in management education (WAME). The award recognizes female thought leaders whose leadership, research, and educational initiatives have had an impact on women by making a difference in business education.
Some of Beck-Dudley’s accomplishments during her tenure at the Leavey School of Business include:
- Bringing online graduate programs to the Leavey School of Business in a complete redesign of the MBA curriculum and launching a new online MBA Program, a new online MS in MarTech, and a new MS in Business Analytics degree, as well as a new online MS in Finance and Analytics to launch in Fall 2020.
- Spearheading the Ciocca Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship—formerly the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship—a university-wide hub for Ignatian-informed entrepreneurial thinking across campus.
- Launching a new real estate program initiative with the School of Law, including a real estate minor, conferences, and mentoring for students.
- Refocusing and rebranding the Silicon Valley Executive Center, formerly Executive Development Center. New efforts include a program to support women who want to serve on a board of directors and another aimed at impact investors.
- Starting Conscientious Capitalism, a partnership between the Leavey School of Business and the Center for Conscientious Leadership. The initiative partners with the Markkula Center for Ethics, Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, and the Ignatian Center.
- Developing a new vision for the Center for Food Innovation and Entrepreneurship, formerly the Food & Agribusiness Institute, focused on innovation and entrepreneurship in the food industry
“I have loved my time as dean of the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University,” said Beck-Dudley. “Together with the faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends, we have been able to raise our national profile and add strategic new offerings. While I look forward to this next adventure, Santa Clara University will always remain near and dear to me and I will continue to follow its upward trajectory with pride.”
About the Leavey School of Business
Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, one of the most dynamic business environments in the world, the Leavey School of Business combines academic excellence in the 450-year Jesuit tradition, with an energetic, innovative spirit that typifies the region. Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business offers one of the nation's best graduate business programs ranked No. 13 Executive MBA by U.S News & World Report, No. 22 ranked Evening MBA by U.S News & World Report and No. 25 ranked Online MBA by The Princeton Review. Undergraduate business programs earned the No. 33 spot in Poets & Quants and No. 54 by U.S. News & World Report’s National Universities category.About Santa Clara University
About the Santa Clara University
Founded in 1851, Santa Clara University sits in the heart of Silicon Valley—the world’s most innovative and entrepreneurial region. The University’s stunningly landscaped 106-acre campus is home to the historic Mission Santa Clara de Asís. Ranked among the top 15 percent of national universities by U.S. News & World Report, SCU has among the best four-year graduation rates in the nation and is rated by PayScale in the top 1 percent of universities with the highest-paid graduates. SCU has produced elite levels of Fulbright Scholars as well as four Rhodes Scholars. With undergraduate programs in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, and graduate programs in six disciplines, the curriculum blends high-tech innovation with social consciousness grounded in the tradition of Jesuit, Catholic education. For more information see www.scu.edu.
Media Contact Deepa Arora | SCU Media Communications | darora@scu.edu | 408-554-5125