Sally Blount Named Dean of Kellogg School of Management

EVANSTON, Ill., March 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Sally Blount, the dean of the undergraduate college and vice dean of the Stern School of Business at New York University, has been named dean of Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern Provost Daniel I. Linzer announced today (March 30). Blount will begin in July.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070801/DCW067LOGO )

Blount, 48, the Abraham L. Gitlow Professor of Management and Organizations at NYU Stern, is an expert in the fields of negotiation and behavioral decision making and has extensive international experience in higher education. In 2007 she was appointed by NYU's president and provost as their special advisor for global academic integration.

"Dean Blount brings a remarkable combination of strong academic achievement and proven administrative experience at both the business school and university levels," Linzer said. "She is someone who has a demonstrable record as both a scholar and as a leader in the field of global business education. We are very excited to welcome her back to Kellogg and Northwestern."

Blount received her Ph.D. in management and organizations from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management in 1992 after earning a joint bachelor's degree from Princeton University's engineering and Woodrow Wilson schools in 1983. From 1992-2001, Blount was on the faculty of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where she was consistently one of the most highly rated MBA and executive education instructors. Earlier in her career, she worked as a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group.

"It is a great honor to be appointed to lead Kellogg," Blount said. "The school has meant so much to me professionally and personally. I am eager to work with our outstanding faculty, students, alumni, administrators, supporters, corporate stakeholders and global partners to keep Kellogg pushing the frontiers of global business education forward."

Blount became dean of Stern's Undergraduate College in 2004 after joining the Stern management department in 2001. As dean, Blount provides strategic direction for NYU's most selective undergraduate college, which enrolls 2,300 students and is consistently top-ranked. During her six-year tenure as dean, Blount has set fundraising records at the college, securing its first-ever $15 million gift, and led the college to become a recognized innovator in undergraduate business education. The average SAT score of the entering freshman class has increased by nearly 50 points, and student participation in global semester study abroad has increased from 25 percent to 75 percent. Under Blount's leadership, the Stern School also has undertaken a complete, donor-funded renovation of its undergraduate campus.

Blount currently teaches courses in management, negotiations and ethics and is the author of more than 30 journal articles on those topics. She has received many academic awards, including two National Science Foundation grants, and has served on academic advisory boards at Princeton University, the National Science Foundation, the Economic Science Association and the Academy of Management.

"Kellogg's legacy of great leadership continues with the appointment of Dean Blount," said Janice Eberly, the John L. and Helen Kellogg Professor of Finance and chair of the search committee for the Kellogg dean. "She sees that an appreciation of markets and understanding of management build great leaders who have an impact on organizations and society. She brings the vision, perspective and experience to lead Kellogg into the future and extend its position as a premier global institution in management education."

Blount succeeds Sunil Chopra, the IBM Distinguished Professor of Operations Management, who has served as interim dean of Kellogg since last September.

"Both President Schapiro and I want to express our sincere thanks to Sunil for his thoughtful and energetic leadership as interim dean," Provost Linzer said. "He has provided strong guidance for Kellogg during this transition period, and we very much appreciate his efforts."

Blount is the mother of three college-age children.

For more information, go to:

http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/New_Dean/

SOURCE Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University