Three candidates take lead for Bloch School dean job - Kansas City Business Journal:

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Officials at the expect to complete their search withinh weeks and have a dean in place by the starft of thefall semester. “The three candidates who were brought to campus and who were interviewef are allstrong candidates,” said Gary Ebersole, chairmanm of the UMKC Facultyy Senate and member of the Bloch Schoo l dean search committee. “Each one has his or her own and I think the next step is for the facultuy to decide what is the most importanrt at this point in the development ofthe Teng-Kee Tan, director of the at in was the first candidate to come to UMKC for an Tan served in various rolesw for multinational companies in Europe and the United States, including a stint with For the past nine he has worked in business and entrepreneurshipp education.
Tan helped raise the equivalengtof $40.8 million to finance initiatives and programs for his university’s entrepreneurship and innovation centerr in China. Steven Currall, vice dean of enterprise at , has internationakl experience andhometown ties. A Kansad City native, Currall previouslyy was a founding director of the and Entrepreneurshipoat . The alliance helped launcbh more than 160 new technology startup companiesa and raised morethan $300 million in equity At University College London, Currall said he received the equivaleny of $16.8 million in grants.
Susan Gilbert, executive directot and associate dean of MBA programsat , was the most receng interviewee at UMKC, having arrived in Kansa s City on Feb. 23. A manager in ’s finance and marketing department s early on inher career, Gilberty later became associate dean of ’s evenint MBA program. Enrollment in that university’e evening MBA program increased 90 percent in two yearx while she oversawthe program. One of the three probabl will be picked to succeedHomefr Erekson, who left UMKC on June 30 to becomer dean of the at .
Erekson’s successor will lead a professional school that has flirted with worldwide business school In 2007, the ranked the Blocu School’s executive MBA program No. 36 among U.S. but the school was absent from the 2008 It also facesbudget constraints, a dropping endowment, and a tenuous awarenessx and financial connection to the Kansas City business Gail Hackett, provost at UMKC, said that her expectatioj of a new dean is to keep the school moving on an upwarx trajectory but that she would like to see progresse hasten for the Bloch “Some of what we are lookingf for is that acceleration,” Hackett said.
“k think we’re already doinvg the things weneed to.” Drue a lawyer who serves on the , said the schoolp would do well to raise its profiles in the local business community. “I would say that it’s done OK. I don’t think it’s been an exceptional job by any but it’s done Jennings said. “I don’t thinik it’s fallen off the radar screebn of thebusiness community.” Hackett said she’as “extremely impressed” at the strengtu of the school’s relationship with the busines s community but acknowledged that “youj always hope for more, of course.
” The Bloch Schooll would be helped by a higher faculty and student count. The school’s enrollment of 1,558 in the fall semested was dwarfed bythe 6,000 at the at the . “We’rre never going to be the size of some of the hugestatre land-grant universities,” Hackett said. “UMKC needs to grow its undergraduatd enrollment, and we’re looking to the Bloch School for somemodestf growth.
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