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New York University's Brown Tapped to Lead Lehigh's College of Business and Economics

Posted on: Wednesday, 24 January 2007, 15:01 CST

Paul R. Brown, associate dean for executive MBA programs at New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business, has been named the next dean of Lehigh University's College of Business and Economics.

Brown's appointment will bring to a close an international search process that started in September 2006. Brown led a field of more than 85 candidates from higher education and the private sector spanning North America, Europe and Asia.

"Dr. Brown is truly a leader in the business school community," said Lehigh President Alice P. Gast. "He is a renowned scholar, an experienced academic leader and has significant international and corporate experience. This is a pivotal time for the college and I am excited that he will bring his talents to Lehigh."

The College of Business and Economics at Lehigh is recognized as one of the top undergraduate business programs in the country. Accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), it features an interdisciplinary curriculum that is designed to meet the contemporary challenges facing business today.

"The excitement at Lehigh is infectious, and there are tremendous opportunities for the college to advance as a world-class leader in undergraduate business education," said Brown. "Just as important, Lehigh is in a great position to become a national leader in niche graduate programs emphasizing such timely areas as entrepreneurship, technology and globalization."

Brown will join Lehigh on July 1 after spending more than 20 years at NYU Stern, where he has held a variety of senior academic and administrative positions at both the school and the university level. Along with his role as associate dean, Brown is also the academic director of the TRIUM Global Executive MBA Program, a unique international alliance of NYU Stern, the London School of Economics and HEC Paris.

"Paul Brown has all the leadership attributes necessary to take the College of Business and Economics to the next level of excellence in today's competitive global business educational arena," said Mohamed S. El-Aasser, provost of Lehigh University. "He is passionate about business education within a global context, and has a strong interest in working collaboratively with his peers to build an exemplary business program here at Lehigh."

Brown will lead a college of more than 50 full-time faculty and 1,200 undergraduate students. Two of the college's programs--Computer Science and Business (CSB) and Integrated Business and Engineering (IBE)--have been nationally recognized for building a highly-integrated curriculum that incorporates the business school and Lehigh's P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science.

That commitment to cross-disciplinary education was evident during the search process, which was led by Dean S. David Wu of the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science. "There remain tremendous opportunities for integration and collaboration between business and engineering, as well as the rest of the university," said Wu. "I join my colleagues in saying that I look forward to a new era of innovative partnerships with the CBE."

Brown's research interests focus on financial reporting and analysis, including earnings measurement and management, analyst's earnings expectations, and SEC/FASB policy formation and analysis. He has extensively studied international financial reporting and auditor independence. Brown is also a co-author of a market-leading financial statement analysis and valuation textbook, currently in its sixth edition of publication.

His experience extends well beyond the classroom. A corporate governance consultant and expert, Brown sits on the board of directors of Dassault Systemes, S.A., a publicly-traded software producer and solutions provider whose stock trades on both Nasdaq and the Paris Bourse. He also recently served on the board of directors of another software firm, Dictaphone Corporation, up until the company was sold to Nuance, Inc.

Brown is a Pennsylvania native and earned his bachelor's degree from Franklin and Marshall College in 1972, graduating with Phi Beta Kappa honors. He received his M.P.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was recognized with several prestigious national awards and served as the Fellow of the Graduate School. Brown is Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and prior to entering the academy worked for the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) as a policy researcher.

He will relocate to the Lehigh Valley with his wife, Joan G. Fishman, and 11-year-old daughter, Emma Brown.

For nearly 140 years, Lehigh University (www.lehigh.edu) has combined outstanding academic and learning opportunities with leadership in fostering innovative research. The institution is among the nation's most selective, highly ranked private research universities. Lehigh's four colleges -- College of Arts and Sciences, College of Business and Economics, College of Education and the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science -- provide opportunities to 6,500 students to discover and grow in a learning community that promotes interdisciplinary programs with real-world experience. Lehigh's campus is located in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley -- in Bethlehem, PA (50 miles north of Philadelphia and 75 miles southwest of New York City).

[NOTE: Photographs of Paul Brown, Lehigh University and the Rauch Business Center are available upon request.]

Source: Business Wire

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