Long-Time WashU Prof Heads West To Become Public B-School Dean
University of Utah’s Eccles School of Business will have a new dean in July
Kurt Dirks has spent nearly all of his academic career at Washington University in St. Louis. Now he’ll have to get used to new surroundings — and WashU will have a huge hole to fill.
For almost a quarter of a century, Dirks has been the Olin Business School‘s Bank of America professor of managerial leadership — and he has also been much more: senior associate dean of programs, interim dean, acting provost of Washington University, and senior advisor to the chancellor of WashU, among other roles. Since 2022 he has been the director of the Olin School’s Bauer Leadership Center, advancing “values-based leadership” through programs and research.
But Dirks — a prolific fundraiser for Olin, helping to raise over $30 million in gifts to support students and faculty research — is leaving his long-time academic home, headed to his first non-interim deanship. Today (March 18), Dirks was introduced as the new dean of the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business, a job he will start on July 1.
UTAH ECCLES WAS RANKED 55TH BY P&Q IN 2023-2024
Kurt Dirks on his appointment to the deanship at Utah Eccles: “Public universities changed my life by launching me into a rewarding career that I could not have imagined or achieved otherwise”
As Eccles’ dean, Dirks will oversee a professional MBA program ranked No. 5 in the West by U.S. News and
World Report, and an undergraduate entrepreneurship program ranked No. 2 in the region by Princeton Review. Eccles, home to four institutes and five centers that support research and policy work in economics and societal change, ranked 55th in Poets&Quants‘ 2023-2024 aggregate ranking, down from 49th in 2022-2023. Utah’s B-school was ranked 48th overall by U.S. News in 2023, down from 40th.
Eccles’ online MBA program was 17th in P&Q‘s most recent OMBA ranking, up an incredible 16 spots in one year, the single biggest one-year improvement for any school in the ranking. Its undergraduate program was ranked 84th overall by P&Q this year.
Washington Olin, meanwhile, fares better in the various rankings than Utah Eccles, beginning with an entrepreneurship program that Poets&Quants has ranked No. 1 for five straight years. The Olin School also had the 28th-best MBA program in P&Q‘s most recent ranking, down from 23rd in 2022; U.S. News ranked Olin’s MBA 37th best in the U.S., down from 29th. On the undergrad side, P&Q ranked Olin 11th in 2024.
“Dr. Dirks joins our campus with extensive experience and understanding of what it means to achieve excellence in research and teaching and the importance of leading by example,” University of Utah Provost Mitzi M. Montoya says in a news release.
“I look forward to working with him as he collaborates across campus and our community to help the U achieve its mission of supporting student success and positive societal impact.”
DIRKS EARNED A PH.D. FROM MINNESOTA CARLSON IN 1997
Dirks owes much to public universities. He earned a business bachelor’s degree and a master’s from Iowa State University in the early 1990s, then got his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management in 1997.
“I’m excited to join the University of Utah — one of the nation’s great public universities,” Dirks says in the Eccles School’s news release. “Public universities changed my life by launching me into a rewarding career that I could not have imagined or achieved otherwise. I look forward to helping students from all backgrounds have the potential to do the same as they attend the U and pursue their passions.”
Dirks replaces Rachel Hayes, who became interim dean in 2021 and was hired in 2022 to complete the term of former dean Taylor Randall after Randall was appointed as president of the university. A professor in accounting and faculty member at Utah since 2005, Hayes is also the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Presidential Endowed Chair in Ethical Financial Reporting and associate dean of faculty and research. “I’m grateful to Dr. Hayes for her steady leadership of the Eccles School,” Montoya says. “Students, faculty and staff have been bolstered by her dedication to academics at the school and institution.”
DON’T MISS RANKING: THE WORLD’S BEST MBA PROGRAMS FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN 2024 and RANKING: POETS&QUANTS’ BEST ONLINE MBA PROGRAMS FOR 2024
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