October 29, 2007

Dear Alumni and Friends:

I am pleased to announce that the board of trustees voted today to accept my recommendation that Yash P. Gupta be appointed the inaugural dean of the Carey Business School, effective Jan. 1.

Dr. Gupta is an experienced, innovative and dynamic leader in business education who has served as dean at three prominent business schools, most recently the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.

He is a visionary academic leader. He is a creative and resourceful strategic planner. He is a scholar and a teacher. And he has been a builder of close and meaningful relationships, within schools, within universities, and between the university and business communities.

All these characteristics will stand Dean-designate Gupta in good stead at Johns Hopkins. Building on our strong tradition of business education dating back to 1916 and on our thriving interdisciplinary MBA and other graduate business programs, he will lead us in breaking the business school mold.

There are many business schools across this country, and a number of great ones. Were we to have no aspiration higher than to replicate what exists elsewhere, there would have been no good reason for Johns Hopkins to establish a stand-alone school of business.

But we do have higher aspirations. We intend to create a world-class business school, a school for the future.

Under Yash Gupta's leadership, and in collaboration with other Johns Hopkins divisions, the Carey Business School will educate broadly prepared leaders in finance, industry and entrepreneurship.

Those leaders will be distinguished from their peers by their ability to draw not only on specialized business skills but also on critical cross-disciplinary knowledge from other Johns Hopkins programs.

Yash's track record as dean at USC, the University of Washington and the University of Colorado at Denver confirms that he has the imagination, the energy and the skill to build the Carey Business School into one of the nation's most innovative and respected.

I want to reiterate here what I said in December when I announced the establishment of the Carey Business School: Trustee Emeritus William Polk Carey has made this moment possible. I commend him for his vision. He will long be remembered for his generosity.

I also want to thank Vice Provost Pamela Cranston, who has served as interim dean since the school was born on Jan. 1. Her hard work, and the talent and devotion of the entire faculty and staff, has gotten the Carey School off to a tremendous start.

Thanks as well to the search committee that led the recruitment of our new dean, ably led by Dr. David Nichols and Dr. Edgar Roulhac.

I know that all of you join me in offering congratulations to Yash Gupta and look forward, as I do, to working with him. Hang on tight; we're in for an exciting ride.

More information about Dr. Gupta is available in this week's edition of the Gazette, or in the story that is online now.

Sincerely,
William R. Brody
President, Johns Hopkins University