Thursday, October 4, 2001 CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION ONLINE
http://chronicle.com/jobs/2001/10/2001100401c.htm
A Leading Expert on the American Economy Heads Overseas
By JENNIFER JACOBSON
Although her academic interests have focused on the American marketplace,
Laura d'Andrea Tyson, who served as national economic adviser under
President Bill Clinton, is taking her domestic act overseas.
Ms. Tyson, dean of the Haas School of Business at the University of
California at Berkeley, will resign in December to become dean of the London
Business School.
For an economist with such a high-profile domestic reputation, a
trans-Atlantic move might come as a surprise to some people. But, says Ms.
Tyson, it's not as unlikely as it may seem. Her academic interests, she
says, extend well beyond the American economy. She says she has always been
fascinated by how different economies share common problems and how
income-distribution varies among countries. Her new position will allow her
to focus on the U.S. economy and its ties to the global economy from a
different vantage point.
"I'm deeply involved in lots of policy issues in the U.S. and will want to
stay involved in the discussion," she says. "It's possible to do that from
an international location in London." Washington's distance from London, she
notes, isn't very different from its distance from San Francisco.
Ms. Tyson, one of the few female deans at a top American business school,
began her career as a faculty member in the economics department at Berkeley
in 1977, became a professor of business at the Haas School in 1990, and was
appointed dean in 1998. From 1993 to 1996, she served in the Clinton
administration first as head of the Council of Economic Advisers and later
as President Clinton's national economic adviser. She will be on leave from
her faculty position at the Haas School and plans to return to Berkeley at
some point.
As head of the London Business School, Ms. Tyson will be one of the few
women leading a major international business institution, says John Kraft,
dean of the University of Florida's business school and chairman of the
board of the AACSB International, the association that represents business
schools. "Someone just doesn't pick up and leave a place like Berkeley
without there being a good alternative," he says. Of the 382 business
schools accredited by AACSB, only 35 have female deans. The association
estimates that there are about 85 female deans among the 750 American
business schools that award graduate degrees.
For a woman to land a major deanship on an international scale is even more
of a coup, Mr. Kraft says. He doesn't believe that Britain is any less
forward-thinking on the issue than the United States. But he adds: "When you
go international, in some cultures there may be biases against women in such
positions because business deans have to interact with other business
leaders. For example, in Japan you're not going to find women leading large
Japanese corporations. So when you go global, your opportunities get even
fewer when you're a woman." Her appointment should help to change that, he
says. "Unfortunately," he adds, "Berkeley has to find a replacement."
Benjamin Hermalin, a professor of banking and finance at Berkeley, will
serve as interim dean at Haas until the school hires a permanent
replacement. He is now associate dean for academic affairs and chairman of
the business-school faculty.
Mr. Kraft says that Ms. Tyson's appointment also underscores that research
is still a viable aspect of business schools. In recent years, he notes, as
business schools have emphasized M.B.A. programs, scholarly research in the
discipline has declined -- with fewer original articles published on
management, finance, and marketing, for example. Mr. Kraft applauds the
London Business School for bucking that trend by hiring Ms. Tyson, a noted
scholar.
Despite the M.B.A. juggernaut, he says, "LBS went and got someone from a
research institution, which reinforces the concept that research is
important, as opposed to other people they could have gotten from other
institutions or the corporate world."
Ms. Tyson got to know faculty members and officials of the London Business
School last year when, as dean at Haas, she considered forming a "strategic
alliance" with the school. When John Quelch, the London dean, announced in
January that he would step down in June, the school began an international
search to replace him and put Ms. Tyson's name on the list.
Ms. Tyson accepted the job, in part, for personal reasons: She wanted to
fulfill a long-held dream of living in London, where her husband spent much
of his youth. And her son started college at Harvard University this fall,
so it was a good time to try something new.
....
At Berkeley, her annual salary as dean is $218,300.