Faculty News
Dean Joel Smith announces plans to retire in 2008
- Faculty News Home
- More Faculty Research
- News Home
- Research Ranking
- Faculty News Archive
- Featured Faculty
- Faculty research
- Bookshelf
The University of South Carolina will launch a
nationwide search for a new dean of its Moore School of Business to replace current
Dean Joel
A. Smith, who announced Tuesday, September 19th that he plans to retire
in 2008.
Smith, who has held the position of dean of the Moore School since 2000, told faculty members and staff of the college of his decision and the university’s search plans at a faculty meeting on September 19th.
Smith said he was announcing his departure now in order to give the university adequate time to name his replacement during 2007 and to avoid disrupting momentum in the college and hindering fund-raising efforts at the Moore School.
“I am very pleased that, with the university’s cooperation, I will be able to meet two objectives that are important to me: that I will be able to retire in 2008 and that I will be able to participate in an orderly transition of the school’s leadership while continuing to play a major role in our fund-raising efforts,” Smith said. “Achieving our fund-raising goal of matching Darla Moore’s gift to us is important to me and is certainly important to our aspirations for the future of the Moore School.”
In April 2004, USC trustee and financier Darla Moore, for whom the school is named, announced a $45 million gift to the Moore School, which required the school to match that amount. The gift was Moore’s second. In 1998, she announced a $25 million gift to the school.
University President Andrew Sorensen praised Smith for his personal leadership and for his commitment to ensuring a smooth transition in leadership at the Moore School.
“Joel Smith has provided tremendous leadership for our school of business,” Sorensen said. “He has worked tirelessly over the past six years to see that the Moore School has maintained its special place of importance here at the university and in the state. I commend him for his personal commitment to ensuring that the Moore School experience a seamless leadership transition because that is critical to the university’s commitment to excellence for our Moore School of Business.”
Under Smith’s leadership, the Moore School’s international-business programs have held their top spots in U.S.News & World Report rankings. Just last month, the undergraduate international-business program was ranked No. 1 in the country, and last spring, the graduate international-business program again was ranked No. 1 among public institutions in the United States.
University Provost Mark Becker, who attended Tuesday’s meeting, said a search committee for the new dean is expected to be formed in the near future and reiterated the university’s commitment to the Moore School.
“The Moore School, including its faculty, its programs, its students and alumni, has long been a source of pride for the university,” Becker said. “To guarantee its longstanding tradition of excellence, in which Dean Joel Smith has played a key role, the administration must continue its commitment to the goals that have made the Moore School nationally recognized by business leaders and business-school deans around the country.”
September 2006