President John T. Casteen, III announced Tuesday that Robert F. Bruner accepted a five-year appointment as dean of the Darden Business School.
According to Casteen, Bruner has been serving a one-year term since August, but was offered the five-year contract after a special search committee decided he was the proper choice for a long-term position.
"This committee unanimously recommended that I appoint Dean Bruner to a full five-year term, as I did yesterday," Casteen said in an e-mail. "Five years is the customary term for a dean's appointment. This term will begin when Dean Bruner's current term ends."
Bruner said he feels enthusiastic about continuing in his position as dean.
"I am energized by what I find at the school in its opportunities and the promise and talents of its faculty and staff," Bruner said. "I have been dean for 15 weeks, and it's been an opportunity for me to look at the operations of the school and its contribution to the wider University. I find that we have great opportunities to rise and I am doing everything I can to harvest those opportunities."
Among Bruner's goals for his term are promoting Darden's new MBA program, MBA for Executives, which will allow participants to work while studying for a degree.
"The effective launch of that program in June is among my highest priorities," Bruner said. "Another high priority is filling a range of faculty and staff positions at our school necessary for our growth."
Bruner added that a third priority would be promoting the major capital campaign for the school.
The dean will be traveling to Asia this December for a month-long visit to 10 cities including Tokyo, Beijing, Hong Kong and New Delhi.
According to Bruner, the purpose of the trip "is to raise awareness in Asia about the University of Virginia and the Darden School, and specifically to solicit applications for our MBA program."
According to a University press release, the committee chose Bruner, who has been a professor at the business school for the past 23 years, because of "his scholarly works, his expertise in the classroom, his study of entrepreneurship and his international reputation."
Darden's Director of Media Relations Beth Schmid said the process of determining a dean for the school was very competitive.
"They looked at 150 applicants and 120 nominations, and Bruner was still overwhelmingly chosen," Schmid said.
Bruner is the Darden School's Distinguished Professor of Business Administration and was the 2000-2004 executive director of the Batten Institute, an endowed foundation of the business school that highlights "entrepreneurship, innovation and corporate growth."
Bruner received his B.A. from Yale University and a M.B.A. and a D.A. from Harvard.
According to Casteen, the choice of Bruner as dean has been tremendously popular.
"The Darden School's faculty gave Dean Bruner two standing ovations -- one following my report and introduction of him, and the other following his acceptance speech," Casteen said in an e-mail. "I have never seen a school respond so affirmatively to the appointment of a dean. The fit is uncommonly good."
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