Message from Jim Baron, William S. Beinecke Professor of Management and Chair, Yale School of Management Dean’s Search Committee

June 18, 2009

Dear Yale School of Management Graduates:

As you know from President Levin's message of April 29, I am chairing the search committee for SOM's next Dean. The other members of the committee are current SOM faculty members Rick Antle, Nick Barberis, Judy Chevalier, Ravi Dhar, Gary Gorton, and Ed Kaplan, as well as Frances Rosenbluth, who is chair of the Yale Political Science Department and deputy provost-designate. A number of SOM alumni — Ellis Jones '79, Linda Mason '80, Ed McKinley '79, Ranji Hopkins Nagaswami '86, and George Wyper '84 — have been asked by President Levin to serve in an advisory role to the committee. The advisory group also includes other prominent Yale College graduates, including current and former members of the Yale Corporation.

The committee has already begun gathering thoughts and ideas from SOM faculty, students, and staff; and from others at peer institutions. We are soliciting wide input in this process, and we are especially eager to hear from members of the SOM alumni community. Your input is enormously important, not only to inform the committee and the search process, but also to enhance our understanding of critical issues and priorities for our alums, which we will communicate to potential Dean candidates. If you would like to express your thoughts regarding the process, desired qualities for SOM’s next Dean, priorities for the school, names of attractive candidates, or anything else that you feel may be relevant to the committee’s deliberations, please contact me via the special email address we’ve established for the committee’s confidential work: deansearch@som.yale.edu.

We will use the SOM Alumni e-Newsletter to keep you apprised of the committee’s efforts as our work progresses. Our hope is that a new Dean will be in place by July 1 of 2010, when the 2010 – 2011 academic year begins, but our primary goal is to identify the best possible person, not to adhere to a deadline.

I’d like to thank President Levin for his confidence in our committee and his commitment, both to the search process and to the School itself. I’d also like to thank — on behalf of the entire SOM Community — Sharon Oster, who is so capably and tirelessly stewarding SOM during this transitionary time. Everyone who knows Sharon (and that is virtually everyone who has ever been affiliated with this institution) is aware of her profound dedication to SOM, but it has never been more evident — or more valuable — than now.

Finally, I’d like to thank you for your help and support in this process. I look forward to hearing from you as we select the next leader who will guide SOM onward and upward.

Jim Baron
William S. Beinecke Professor of Management
Chair, Yale School of Management Dean’s Search Committee