Letter From the Dean

Photo by Paul L. Newby II

Interim Wisconsin School of Business Dean Barry Gerhart mingles with guests at the Homecoming Bash

Interim Dean Barry Gerhart greets Bruce Ellig (BBA ’59, MBA ’60) and other alumni and friends at WSB’s Homecoming Bash, one of many Business Badger events he participated in this summer and fall.

Among the many joys of serving as the interim Albert O. Nicholas Dean has been the opportunity to meet so many passionate, loyal Wisconsin School of Business alumni. From our Wisconsin at Work events across the country to the sea of red at our Homecoming Bash, I’ve had many meaningful interactions that reinforce the inspiring nature of our Business Badger community.

It’s this vibrant community of alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends that remains the School’s greatest strength. With the search for a new dean underway, I am confident that WSB’s next leader will feel right at home among this supportive, welcoming network when he or she arrives on campus in 2019.

We continue to move forward on our strategic initiatives to advance WSB as a premier broad-based business school. These include steps to grow enrollment, launch new and expanded M.S. degrees, and deliver hybrid and online programming that provide flexible pathways to business education.

We have much to celebrate this fall, including the 50th anniversary of our arts administration program. I invite you to read more about our pioneering legacy in this field. At the same time, we continue to push ahead into a new era of business education, exploring innovative technologies like cryptocurrency and how they’re shifting the way we work in many industries and disciplines.

This year also happens to be the 25th anniversary of the construction of Grainger Hall—a timely opportunity to reflect on the tremendous generosity of the Grainger family and how their gift has impacted so many WSB students and alumni in this last quarter of a century. Whether inside the walls of Grainger Hall or in businesses and communities around the globe, Business Badgers are leading, innovating, and achieving.

I am pleased to share a small sample of these achievements in the pages that follow. As a UW–Madison alum, faculty member, and now interim dean, I am proud to be part of this community with you.

Together Forward,

Barry Gerhart (Ph.D. ’85)
Interim Albert O. Nicholas Dean
Professor of Management and Human Resources
Bruce R. Ellig Distinguished Chair in Pay and Organizational Effectiveness