Rutgers Business School Appoints New Dean from Within: MBA News

Rutgers Business School’s next dean will again come from within the school’s existing faculty, after the school announced the appointment of its supply chain management department head, Dr Lei Lei.

Lei has been on the faculty at Rutgers Business School ever since she completed her PhD in industrial engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison back in 1989, having already completed a master’s degree at Dalian University of Technology (DUT).

New dean noted for supply chain management contribution

Since that time, she has combined MBA teaching with PhD supervision and editorial work for academic journals. As founding director of the Rutgers Center for Supply Chain Management in 2001, Lei is particularly noted for her contribution to the school’s reputation in this regard. Her expertise within the field of supply chain management includes operations scheduling and logistics performance optimization.

“She [professor Lei Lei] is very proud of our breathtakingly diverse, high-quality, and vibrant students, supportive alumni, and strong partnerships with the business community,” read a university statement in a press release for Rutgers Business School.

The choice to replace the outgoing Glenn Shafer with Lei comes not long after Rutgers announced the rarest of rarities in a US MBA program – gender parity – by posting a 51% proportion of females for its full-time MBA class of 2016.

Shafer, known for his work towards the Dempster-Shafer mathematical theory, was also an appointment from within the school and will have completed his three-year term when Lei takes over in January. However, a student newspaper report from earlier this year questioned whether his tenure had the faculty’s full backing. 

The supply chain management professor and department head, meanwhile, looks likely to be a popular appointment among students, having been a regular recipient of teaching awards at Rutgers Business School.