By AMANDA BRONSTAD
Geoffrey Garrett, vice provost and dean of the UCLA International Institute, has emerged as the leading candidate to head the Anderson School of Management, raising concern among some insiders who question both the process and Garrett’s qualifications.
Garrett, who had been chairman of a committee formed to find a replacement for outgoing Dean Bruce Willison, is the choice of UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale, who said selection is “not a popularity contest” and that “it’s my decision.”
The chancellor is expected to finalize his choice within the next month.
“The faculty thinks this guy is absolutely wrong,” said one business leader with close ties to UCLA, citing Garrett’s lack of links to the business school.
The faculty choice appeared to be Al Osborne, an associate professor of global economics and management, and Anderson’s senior associate dean. Osborne founded the school’s Harold Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.
In addition to Garrett’s role at the International Institute, which is not part of the Anderson School, he is director of UCLA’s Ronald W. Burkle Center for International Relations. He shares a globalist view with Carnesale, who took part in arms talks with the Soviet Union and teaches an undergraduate course in global affairs and security.
Returning a call to Garrett, Lawrence Lokman, assistant vice chancellor of university communications, said Garrett declined comment “other than to say he is proud and very honored to be considered formally for the dean’s position.”
Neither Willison nor Osborne returned calls.
The process to replace Willison, the former president and chief operating officer of Home Savings of America and H.F. Ahmanson & Co., began in February, when Carnesale assembled a 10-member search committee.
The committee, consisting of Anderson School faculty, faculty from other schools within UCLA, the university’s vice chancellor of finance, and representatives of the business community, embarked on a search to find someone who could reverse the school’s shifting fortunes.
Carnesale was given a short list of four candidates in April. He declined to name those selected, but said several senior Anderson faculty members asked him to consider Garrett.
Samuel Culbert, a professor of human resources and organizational behavior at the Anderson School, expressed concern.
“There was a short list,” he said. “And then, at the 11th hour, the chancellor decides to name this guy. Personally, not being on the committee, I didn’t know anything about him. When I looked at his credentials, he’s terrific. But the process smells.”
If Garrett, a career academic, does land the job, it would signal a new approach for Carnesale, as he seeks to return the school to a Top 10 nationwide ranking, up from 12th in U.S. News & World Report’s latest business school survey.
“His choice is extremely, extremely important, probably more now than it has been historically,” Leamer said. “We’re on the verge of some kind of partial privatization in which the school is going to have to raise more of its own revenue and become less dependent on the state. We need leadership to help us get through those times and make sure privatization works the best for the school. Like it or not, we’re in a transition phase.”
Bronstad is a staff writer at the Los Angeles Business Journal.
