Niall FitzGerald Wants UCD Smurfit to Fulfill its Potential: MBA News

University College Dublin’s Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School (UCD Smurfit) is an ‘under-exploited asset’ according to the chair of its advisory board and former Unilever CEO, Niall FitzGerald.

FitzGerald, in an interview for The Irish Times, said that the UCD Smurfit’s location in the ‘outward-looking’ city of Dublin and the costs of its programs, relative to those on offer in the US or UK, should make the school an attractive proposition.

However, the former head of the consumer goods giant, Unilever, pointed out that the school cannot fulfill its potential if its current financial setup continues – a system whereby much of its annual profits are given over to UCD as a whole.

“The entity today is profitable as a standalone school of business, but much of its surplus goes to the rest of the university. We need to refine the strategy for the next five to 10 years,” Niall FitzGerald said.

Having been brought on board as chair last year by UCD Smurfit’s dean, Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, FitzGerald is likely to stress the need for UCD Smurfit to retain a greater cut of its annual profits when strategic proposals are put together at the end of April. 

UCD Smurfit, together with its undergraduate counterpart, UCD Quinn, retained only €1.3 million from a surplus of almost €9.5 million generated in the academic year 2012/13, with the rest going to the wider university, according to figures in a separate report for The Irish Times. The figure supplied by the business schools is substantial, as UCD’s total surplus to the end of September 2013 is given as €12.2 million, with total income standing at just under €500 million.