Heads Management

On the Cusp of George Mason University’s 30th-anniversary celebration of its prestigious School of Management, one man entrusts the school’s reputation in the hands of another.

By Forrest Glenn Spencer

George Mason University School of Management’s new dean, Jorge Haddock (Photography by Jonathan Timmes)

October marks the 30th anniversary of George Mason University (GMU) School of Management (SOM), one of the premier business colleges globally. Many celebrations and events are planned for the coming weeks, including the inaugural Patriots of Business Awards at the college’s gala on Saturday, Oct. 10. This past June, SOM had a change of leadership with Richard Klimoski stepping down as the school’s dean and Jorge Haddock stepping in as his replacement. Northern Virginia Magazine spoke with both men about SOM’s past achievements and future opportunities.

What are some of the anniversary activities being planned?
Richard Klimoski: The goal is to engage more alumni, especially those who have [spanned] the 30 years. So, among other things, we have done interesting stories for our graduates—from the classes of ’78 and ’79—and had a series in bringing back some of those “mature” graduates, if you will. One of our signature programs had to do with a luncheon discussion around timely topics, depending on the industry sectors. We’re also having more events relevant to our alumni chapter. We’re using that quite a bit. I had an advisory board that met four times a year, and we had some signature programming during those meetings.

Jorge Haddock: As we usually do in the Commonwealth: We honor the past but celebrate the future. The school has come a long way in 30 years with its successes and accomplishments, and it’s a moment [to] look at opportunities that will move us forward.

Dr. Klimoski, you must be proud.
RK: As young as we are we have quite a few students who have come through—some 20,000, which are our alumni for SOM alone. We take pride in contributing to the region. Students come from the region, and many of [the] graduates stay. It’s a very vibrant place, even in these difficult [economic] times.

How has SOM changed under your deanship?
RK: Our growth. … As Mason has grown, we have grown. We’re one of the dynamic areas of the university. We’ve been able to expand our faculty, and they make the place. If you don’t have good professors you cannot have a great educational experience. We had 52 full-time professors in 2001, and now we have 85. That’s a bright point. We have added programs; in particular, [a Master of Science] in accounting program that has caught on for the region—and it’s terribly important because there are many professional services organizations. We have also made commitment “themes”—such as challenges around corporate governance and business ethnics—so we have some programming we didn’t have before. We are very, very interested in business venturing and startups, so we made commitments to entrepreneurships. We’re recognizing it’s a global economy so we have programming and assets in the area of global business education. One other brightening point is that we get recognized for some of these things—business school deans love and hate rankings; so far we are gaining—and we’re well positioned in our reputation and rankings.

Dean Haddock, would you concur?
JH: The school has been quite successful in building quality undergraduate programs and creating quality part-time programs at the graduate level. I think the major opportunities are to grow the full-time programs and executive education programs. At the same time, expand the regional reach as a matter of our reputation as well as a national and international reach as a matter of improving the reputation of the school. The potential lies with the full-time graduate programs and students, and looking to a Ph.D. or doctorate degree.

How do you accomplish that reach?
JH: The rankings are [the] toughest one but the most effective. For us to improve in the rankings we have to make the school familiar to a larger number of business school deans and recruiters. For business students, it’s [more] important than other schools or disciplines that they get the exposure to the international world because business is an international industry. That’s why the national and international reach is important to the quality of education for the students.

Why did GMU create a business school?
RK: I think it had to do with the tradition of a modern university. The entity before was a department, and there was a normal evolution. It’s like any business startup: You develop structures over time, and the scales get bigger, and you need a different kind of unit, from a department to a college.

Any feedback from the students about their future?
RK: They have many concerns, but they are mostly optimistic. There’s the discussion on how you can add value to your organization and to move ahead during these tough times. They believe that getting the M.B.A. degree will help them not only survive, but thrive. Some alums are coming back and taking a course to add value to the marketplace, or using our counseling and career-management services.

SOM is a rather diverse college.
JH: Within the disciplines and culture backgrounds, it’s very diverse, which is one of the [attractive qualities] of SOM and Mason. The richness is the diversity. RK: With our location in the region, we have been blessed by a lot of folks from around the world. I think recently we have gone out of our way to be more open to that; for example, we have a special arrangement with some Chinese universities for their undergraduates, and we’re working for some special arrangements for Russian universities and a German university.

Dean Haddock, that ties in with some of the ideas you are pursuing.
JH: International business is a great opportunity for the school and the potential that exists, and we can capitalize on the successes and the quality of the faculty to really move toward international business education and create more partners abroad. I am interested in the relationship between government and industry—the business of government, with our location. We’re well positioned to create a name in how to teach business with government.
RK: One other thing we’ve done more is short-course engagements with foreign students. We have a hotel and conference center being built, and we’ll have an executive education component there. Our goal is to be able to bring in mostly graduate students or business executives and have them stay on GMU’s campus and take advance study with SOM.

But you have challenges, such as funding issues, as other schools face budgetary cuts.
JH: The way that I am approaching things—when you look at executive education—is to look at the opportunities from other sources.

What comes next for you, Dr. Klimoski?
RK: Staying at GMU as a senior faculty member. I’ve got a book idea that I have been working on, and I’m very interested in teaching, so going back into the faculty and continuing to add value to Mason.

These are exciting times for SOM.
RK: The last 30 years have been very successful. If you plotted some of the metrics it’s been quite a trajectory.