The University of California-Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business is on the hunt for a new dean.
Eric Spangenberg, who for the past five years had served as dean of the school—this January ranked No. 8 among U.S. Public MBA Programs by the Financial Times—last week said in a letter to colleagues that he had decided to “transition to a faculty position in the Merage School following the 2019-20 academic year.”
“I am enthusiastic about reengaging in full-time scholarship,” Spangenberg said in the letter. “I believe it is time for me to make further significant contributions as a consumer psychologist, adviser and Merage School professor.”
Merage School administrators and donors told the Business Journal the move caught them by surprise. The school’s set to begin the public phase of a comprehensive capital fundraising campaign this fall.
A “national search for the next dean, and associated conversations with the faculty, will begin soon,” said UCI Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Enrique Lavernia, in a separate memo last week.
The business school offers four MBA programs, as well as Ph.D., specialty masters and undergraduate business degrees. It had about 2,000 students as of a few years ago.
Spangenberg came to UCI from Washington State University’s College of Business, where he held the same role.
Over the past five years, the Irvine school “revised its MBA curriculum and introduced three new specialty master’s programs in entrepreneurship, business analytics and finance,” among other advances, Lavernia said in a letter thanking the outgoing dean for his efforts.
Spangenberg touted efforts at becoming “a more diverse and inclusive business school over the last five years,” noting the school is the first Top 50 ranked business school in history to enjoy a faculty of more than 50% women, among other advances.
“Strong engagement with the local community and alumni have resulted in greater diversification of the Dean’s Advisory Board,” he said. “I am pleased to say that the Merage School arguably looks more like the world we live in than any other top business school in the country.”
