The School of Management’s incoming dean Edward Snyder is not on campus yet, but he is readying himself for his new post.
Though he will not take the helm until next fall, Snyder is already planning the school’s new direction, which will involve increased integration with other Yale graduate and professional schools. To begin getting to know students and administrators, he is working with the admissions office to personally contact recently admitted students, and has also represented the School of Management at two recent events — the European Foundation for Management Development meeting in Lyon, France, and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business in Phoenix, Ariz. He will visit New Haven in April to meet with students and faculty.
In a December interview, Snyder told the News that he thinks one of the most exciting aspects of the SOM is its potential for collaboration with the rest of the University. At the conference in Phoenix, he spoke on a panel about how best to take advantage of the relationship between the SOM and Yale, adding that an interdisciplinary approach to business could help to solve current global problems.
Snyder said he has enjoyed using his time this year, for which he is on sabbatical from the Chicago Booth School of Business, to get to know students and faculty at Yale. He has been helping Bruce DelMonico, the head of admissions at SOM, with recruitment efforts, and spoke with five prospective students.
“It’s good for me to be a small part of [the admissions process] because I learn from the interactions,” Snyder said in an e-mail. “One admit’s decision is coming down to Yale SOM versus Kellogg [Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University]. I made the ‘positive case’ for both. I also, no surprise, made it clear that I hope that it comes out Yale.”
He added that he recently met four current SOM students for dinner in Boston, where he said he had “a great time.” The students had won a dinner with him as part of an auction to raise money for the Internship Fund, which supports students who work at nonprofit organizations over the summer.
Lydia Gensheimer SOM ’11, who attended the dinner, said she was impressed by how interested Snyder seemed to be in getting to know the four students. She said he also used their time together to get their opinions and advice about the school.
“Dean Snyder had asked for our resumes beforehand and basically memorized them,” she said. “This indicated that he cared a lot and put in the time to really get to know us before he even had the chance to meet us. I was very impressed right off the bat.”
She added that she is looking forward to the direction she believes Snyder will take the school, especially in raising its profile in the national and global business communities.
Current Dean Sharon Oster said she and Snyder are talking about the school’s future, and about the upcoming transition.
“Ted and I have spent a lot of time together in the last few months, thinking together about longer term projects for the school,” she said. “I know he has also reached out to deans of the other professional schools. I expect we will have a completely smooth transition.”
Snyder said he is grateful to Oster for her help during this time, and her willingness to head up the SOM for the duration of the year.
As dean at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business — a post he held from 2001 to 2010 — Snyder established a new campus in London and received the largest donation ever given to any business school, among other accomplishments. In an e-mail to the News in December, University President Richard Levin expressed his confidence in Snyder’s ability to improve the school’s visibility in the national and global business community.
Snyder’s arrival as dean of SOM will coincide with a variety of changes at the school, including the construction of a new campus on Whitney Avenue and Sachem Street. The new campus is meant to facilitate the implementation of the updated curriculum that was introduced in 2006, which is intended to prepare students for the changing global economy by emphasizing practical aspects of business management.
In the past few months, the SOM has received several donations for the construction of its new campus, including $10 million from Wilbur L. Ross ’59 and $50 million from Ned Evans ‘64. Evans, whose gift was the largest in the school’s history, died of acute myeloid leukemia Dec. 31.