Former University Provost and current Kellogg Prof. Robert Duncan leaves Northwestern January after 32 years to become dean of Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business and Graduate School of Management.
Duncan said he is sad to leave NU, but called being a dean “the best administrative job in a university.” He will oversee the school’s 5,000 undergraduates and 676 graduate students. Michigan State’s 13-person search committee has worked since October 2000 to find a permanent dean, said Kathy Walsh, Broad College’s director of marketing.
Excited to work with undergraduates and improve the college’s leadership development program, Duncan said he wants to stay focused on the “academic side of things” while serving as dean. Duncan’s appointment includes a tenured professorship in the school’s Department of Management.
“I am really looking forward to going there and working with some great people,” he said. “There is a sense of energy and enthusiasm.”
In his new job, Duncan said he plans to utilize his administrative experience as provost and his time at Kellogg, where he learned the intricacies of a top business school. Currently the Richard L. Thomas Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change at Kellogg, Duncan served as NU’s provost from 1987 to 1992.
“Obviously I’ve had a great opportunity to learn here under (former Kellogg Dean) Don Jacobs and (former University President) Arnold Weber when I was in the provost’s office,” he said. “I’ll take away some things I’ve learned here, but it’s also a new world, so I’ll do some things differently over there.”
Jacobs, who retired as dean of Kellogg on June 30 after 26 years, said Michigan State could not have found a better person to run their business school.
“Bob Duncan knows what we’ve done because he’s been a part of it,” Jacobs said. “He’s seen a lot of wonderful things that we’ve implemented, but I’m sure he’ll implement ideas there with his own personal touch. He doesn’t need my advice because he’ll do a great job on his own.”
Although Jacobs said Kellogg has a history of hiring talented people to replace those they lose to other institutions, he admitted to a “great deal of sadness to see (Duncan) go.”
“We will continue to hire good people, but whenever you lose a good person, you’ve lost a good person,” Jacobs said. “Bob was not only a Kellogg resource but a very important resource to the entire university.”
Although Duncan aims to make Broad College “one of the best” in globalization, leadership and technology, he admitted finding it difficult to walk away from NU. As chair of the the committee on athletics and recreation, Duncan said he felt no conflict cheering the Wildcats during last week’s football game against the Spartans.
“You can’t walk away from 30-plus years at an institution and turn your back,” he said. “Northwestern is in great shape. There will be no vacuum when I leave. You always have to have challenges in your career and push yourself, and I realize this is something I need to do.”
