Search Committee Formed to Recommend Candidates for Walton College Dean

A search committee has been appointed to seek, review and recommend candidates for the position of dean in the Sam M. Walton College of Business. Provost Sharon Gaber appointed Ashok Saxena, dean of the College of Engineering, to chair the search committee. The committee will seek a successor for current Dean Dan Worrell, who previously announced his plan to step down from that position at the end of June 2012.

“We anticipate very strong interest in this opening,” said Sharon Gaber, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs. “Walton College is nationally recognized as one of the top business programs. Because of that reputation, we expect to attract top-notch candidates with experience in both the private sector and higher education administration.”

Worrell has served as dean since August 2005. Reappointed in late 2009, he indicated his plans to return to his faculty position in Walton College’s department of management at the end of the 2011-12 academic year.

Walton College has earned a national reputation as a leader in undergraduate and graduate business education. U.S. News and World Report ranks Walton College among the top 25 public undergraduate and graduate business schools in the nation.

In fall 2010, Walton College enrolled 3,394 undergraduate students and 317 graduate students. By their graduation, 78 percent of the undergraduate students of the Walton College class of 2011 who sought employment had accepted an offer, while 86 percent of the 2011 full-time Master of Business Administration class had accepted a job offer by graduation.

In 1998, the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation contributed $50 million to endow the college. At that time this was the largest gift ever made to a public business school in the nation. The current Walton College endowment exceeds $118.4 million.

The Walton College dean search committee is expected to complete its business and make its recommendation to the provost during the spring 2012 semester.

Members of the search committee are:

• Ashok Saxena, chair
• Ann Bordelon, senior vice president and chief financial officer, Sam’s Club
• Fred Davis, Distinguished Professor, information systems
• Alan Ellstrand, management department chair
• Gary Ferrier, economics department chair
• Greg Lee, retired chief administrative officer and international president, Tyson Foods Inc.
• Barbara Lofton, director of diversity programs
• Claudia Mobley, director, Center for Retailing Excellence
• Linda Myers, professor, accounting
• Katy Nelson, senior director of development and external relations
• Bruce Pontious, associate vice chancellor for development
• Carol Reeves, associate vice provost for entrepreneurship
• Reynie Rutledge, chairman, First Security Bancorp
• Kalyn Williams, UGEG student representative
• Tim Yeager, associate professor, finance
• Bethany Haefner, graduate student representative
• Kathy Jones, secretary to the committee