As School of Management professor Douglas Rae prepares to join former British Prime Minister Tony Blair as the third teacher of his “Faith and Globalization” seminar, few people know that the class’s previous representative from SOM was former SOM dean Joel Podolny.

Podolny attended two of the seminar’s 14 sessions last year before he abruptly announced his resignation as dean in October, Divinity School professor and seminar co-teacher Miroslav Volf said. Podolny, who contributed economic and business expertise to the seminar, officially left SOM on Nov. 1 to take a position as the first-ever vice president and dean of Apple University.

Rae has now been brought on as a full-time instructor and has undertaken extensive preparation over the past nine months, Volf said. Rae has prepared for five hours for every hour he will be speaking in the class, in addition to attending two meetings with Blair and Volf in London and several others with Rae’s research team in New Haven, Volf said.

This year’s course will feature expanded coverage of economic issues, Volf said, providing a forum for Rae to contribute his wide range of expertise on capitalism and globalization processes.

Rae joined Yale’s faculty in 1967 but took a yearlong leave in 1990 to work as chief administrative officer for the city of New Haven. He is also teaching a lecture, “Capitalism: Success, Crisis, and Reform,” this semester.