UPDATED: April 7, 9:40 p.m.

Ken Kavajecz was named the next dean of the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric Spina announced Friday morning.

Kavajecz is currently chair for the Department of Finance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is also a professor of finance. He will begin his time as dean in July.

“We’re really excited about Ken coming to Syracuse. I think he’ll be a great fit and an important part of the community,” Spina said. “In my interaction with him, he came across as someone with a great deal of intellectual depth, someone who really understands the world of business higher education.”

Melvin Stith, current dean of Whitman, announced last April that he would step down as dean at the end of the Spring 2013 semester. Stith has been dean of Whitman since January 2005.

In January, the Whitman dean search committee narrowed to three candidates. After the candidates visited campus, the short list was sent to Spina last month to make the final decision.

Kavajecz said he is excited to come to Whitman because of its great reputation and said that though community is one of Whitman’s greatest assets, it can always be improved.

“A school isn’t a building; a school is a community,” he said. “The closer the community works together and helps each other, because every constituency needs help at some point in time, the stronger it’ll be and the more successful it’ll be.”

Kavajecz described his philosophy for a business school as a three-legged stool, with the three legs being excellence in research, innovative teaching and outreach. These three concepts need to reinforce each other, and Kavajecz said he hopes to promote ideas, projects and innovations that strengthen these interactions.

The first item on Kavajecz’s agenda when he starts his job in July is to meet with the faculty, staff and students at Whitman.

“I can’t do my job unless I understand the strengths within the school and the areas where people think we should spend some time,” Kavajecz said. “No one knows those better than the students, faculty and staff that are in the school.”

Although current Chancellor Nancy Cantor will leave at the end of next year, Kavajecz said he is “very confident” in university leadership and that the university is on a good path.

He also said he agrees with Cantor’s vision of Scholarship in Action. At UW-Madison, Kavajecz said one of the school’s strongest ideals is that “our actions at the university impact the world,” and that this is a philosophy he will continue when he comes to SU.

Lorraine Branham, dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and chair of the search committee, said as someone who was very involved in the search process, she feels good about the choice.

The search committee was impressed with Kavajecz’s experience with both undergraduate and MBA programs, Branham said. During his time at UW-Madison, Kavajecz served as associate dean of both the full-time MBA program and the undergraduate program.

Research is one of Kavajecz’s strengths, Branham said. Although Kavajecz won’t be doing research as dean, his strong research record indicates that he understands its value.

“He can really help elevate the standard of research at Whitman,” she said.

Branham said the undergraduate program under Kavajecz at UW-Madison was very innovative and added that she thinks he can help Whitman improve its rankings.

Whitman was ranked 61st last year on Bloomberg Businessweek’s list of best undergraduate business programs, falling 14 spots from its ranking of 47th in 2011.

But Spina, the vice chancellor and provost, said as long as Kavajecz works with the faculty and staff to improve the overall programs at Whitman, the rankings will take care of themselves.

“The main thing that I see is that he can make the educational experience and research productivity of the school better,” Spina said. “I think the ranking will ultimately improve once we do that.”

Kavajecz agreed and said he thinks rankings are an “imperfect measure” of a business school. But he said they can be used as a tool to understand which aspects of the school need improvement.

Overall, Kavajecz was very highly rated by both the search committee and students and faculty who met with him when he visited Syracuse University, Spina said.

“We all thought he really understood Whitman and Syracuse University. He did a great job of talking about the direction the school should take in the next decade or so,” Spina said. “He really has some good ideas about how to move Whitman forward.”

Published on April 5, 2013 at 12:43 pm

Contact Jessica: jliannet@syr.edu | @JessicaIannetta