SOM Community Welcomes Dean-designate Ted Snyder at Town Hall Meeting

Yale SOM’s newly appointed dean, Edward A. Snyder, met the SOM community at a town hall meeting on Thursday, January 21, 2010. Yale President Richard C. Levin had announced the previous day that Snyder, currently Dean and George Shultz Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, would take over as dean from Sharon Oster in July 2011. (Read more about Snyder’s background in the official announcement.)

Students, faculty, and staff were in the audience; for many it was their first opportunity to hear from the school’s dean-designate and learn about his vision for the school, as well as further details about the leadership transition.

Oster opened the program, saying she was excited to help the audience “put a person and a face to the résumé. I think you’re going to like the person that you see.” Levin spoke next and took a moment to thank Oster for her service to the school — a sentiment that was emphasized with prolonged applause from the audience. Levin also thanked the search committee, headed by Professor Jim Baron, which he said did as good a job as any such committee he’s seen in his time as president of Yale. As a result, said Levin, “We got ourselves a real winner. Ted Snyder is absolutely terrific.”

Snyder outlined why he was interested in taking the helm at Yale SOM, “I’m attracted to the fact that students have broad vision. I’m impressed by the faculty’s commitment to not only world-class research but also to education and the professional development of the students here in a way that is quite distinctive. The eminence of the university is extremely important to me.… I think about eminence in terms of the humanities and physical sciences and social sciences, and Yale’s got it all.”

These points led him to an early formulation of his vision for the school. “Students coming out of great business schools should really understand markets and competition. I also believe students coming out of great business schools should understand organizations — how they work — and networks. A lot of business schools are doing those things well. But the demands of leaders in this century are going to require a third competence. And I don’t yet have a simple tag line for that competence. But I believe it’s going to have to be developed in conjunction with the rest of the university.… We know that the world’s market-oriented economies are not simple. They’re not as simple as, probably, we thought they would be 20 years ago. Politics matters. Differences in institutions matter. Legal frameworks matter…

“I have no doubt that this school is going to have an oversized role in the future. It’s going to have increasing influence in management education and in developing leaders in the years and decades to come.”

Watch video of Yale SOM Town Hall Meeting introducing
Edward A. Snyder. (22:42 - Dean-designate Snyder's
remarks begin at 12:21).

Slideshow
View photos from Dean-designate Ted Snyder's visit to Yale SOM.