Blair Sheppard has been selected as the new dean of the Fuqua School of Business, University officials announced Wednesday.
Sheppard will assume the role July 1 and succeed outgoing Dean Douglas Breeden upon approval by the Board of Trustees later this month.
"Blair possesses an intimate familiarity with Duke's Fuqua School and its mission, and he's a globally renowned figure for his academic and clinical leadership in the fields of organizational behavior, personnel management and corporate strategy," Provost Peter Lange said in a statement.
A faculty member since 1981, Sheppard has been on leave from Fuqua since 2000, serving as chief executive officer and founder of Duke Corporate Education-a custom executive education company owned by Duke.
Sheppard said that as dean he will draw attention to Fuqua's strength and innovative capacities, pointing out that the per capita research productivity of Fuqua's faculty is among the top three in the world.
"It's an amazingly strong school that is in some ways under-recognized" Sheppard said. "In a way, the previous dean gave me a gift-this wonderful school that isn't known, and I just have to make it known."
Under Sheppard's leadership Duke Corporate Education is currently ranked No. 1 for executive education by both BusinessWeek magazine and the Financial Times.
In addition to his new role as dean, Sheppard will serve as chairman of the company.
"Blair is an academic originally, but he's also very much an entrepreneur, a real businessman," said Gordon Armstrong, director of marketing communication and competitive intelligence for Duke Corporate Education.
During his tenure at Fuqua, Sheppard was known for establishing the school's reputation through a range of projects including the Duke Global-MBA program. Established in 1996, the 18-month program for senior executives combines residential sessions in Asia, South America, Europe and the United States with Internet-enabled distance learning.
Sheppard has also written more than 50 books and articles and has offered consultation to more than 100 companies and governments on corporate strategy, relationship management, structure and leadership.
"He is exactly the type of multidimensional professional whom we feel is needed to lead a business school in today's environment," Lange said.
The new dean was chosen after a seven-month search from among nearly 250 candidates, he added.
Christine Moorman, T. Austin Finch Senior Professor of Marketing and chair of the Fuqua dean search committee, said Sheppard was selected from "an extaordinarily strong pool" of four finalists.
She added that Sheppard met the four "core competencies" established by the search committee of leadership, engagement and relationship management, resource building and program innovation.
"Blair is an extraordinary person with an enormous depth of knowledge and insight regarding business education," Moorman said. "Blair is a top-notch human being that has an enormous capacity to contribute to the school in important ways."
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