Prominent academic and international leader in entrepreneurship and technology Steven Currall will serve as the new dean of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management beginning July 1.
Currall was chosen after an international search supervised by Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef, and will step in for former dean Nicole Woolsey Biggart who announced her resignation in September.
“Dr. Currall was considered highly likely to interact well with our broader community, i.e., the private sector, friends of the Graduate School of Management, and current and potential donors,” said Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef in an e-mail interview. “He has an outgoing, pleasant personality, but one never forgets that he is a highly competent academic.“
Currall has served on the editorial review boards for five prominent academic journals and has received over $16.9 million in research funding, with more than 80 percent from the National Science Foundation.
Although he was born and raised in Missouri, Currall’s career has brought him all over the globe, fostering his personal commitment to viewing the world through an international perspective. He currently holds joint positions at the University College London and the London Business School, which is consistently ranked as one of the top business schools in the world.
“In today’s environment, a leader of any organization must have a global outlook,“ Currall said in an e-mail interview. “From my vantage point in London, I have observed business trends, not only in Europe, but also in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
“The UC Davis Graduate School of Management is training leaders to function in a global market and, during my deanship, I will reinforce the global perspective in the way we educate our students and in the faculty members and staff whom we hire.“
Before taking his current position in London, Currall worked as the William and Stephanie Sick Professor of Entrepreneurship at Rice University in Houston, Texas, where he founded a technology startup branch entitled the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship. In his five-year tenure at the university, he helped launch over 160 successful technology start-ups that together earned more than $300 million in equity capital and more than $4.5 million in external funding.
Working with the Graduate School of Management, Currall hopes to bring this spirit of progress to UC Davis, and to even further improve the graduate school’s profile, which is currently ranked by U.S. News & World Report in the top 40 Graduate Schools in the U.S.
“UC Davis is a world-class university,” Currall said. “The Graduate School of Management is a highly visible and vibrant school that has a strong commitment to quality with respect to hiring terrific faculty members, recruiting wonderful students and building close relationships with its alumni. The school’s commitment to quality was a characteristic that I found extraordinarily compelling and exciting.”
From London to Davis, Currall looks forward to being back in his home country and enjoying a change of scenery. As part of UC policy, his move will be assisted by relocation allowance, which will be provided in addition to his annual salary of $365,000.
MICHELLE IMMEL can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.
