Business dean steps down from position after 19 years

Walker will now work for the department of marketing.

By Zachary Murdock

Published Oct. 16, 2009

College of Business Dean Bruce Walker announced to his colleagues Monday he would be leaving his position at the end of the summer of 2010 to become a full-time faculty member in the department of marketing.

“I began my career as a faculty member, and that’s how I would like to end it at some point in the future,” Walker said in an e-mail. “Essentially, I intend to help the college fulfill its mission but in a different way than I do now.”

Walker became dean of MU's business school in June 1990 after serving as a faculty member at Arizona State University. During his 19 years with the business school, nearly 85 percent of the school's current faculty and staff members have been hired, according to an MU news release.

"I'm really proud of the team we've created between alumni, faculty, staff and students," Walker said.

The business school has grown in both prominence and size in the last 19 years and in BusinessWeek's list of 2009 Top Undergraduate Business Programs, the school jumped two spots up from last year to 74th in the nation. Walker said he believes the school is held in high regard.

"One of the things I'm very proud of is the quality of the college's degree programs, faculty, staff and activities outside the school," he said.

For 11 years, Walker pushed for a new building for the business school, and in 2002, Walker's vision became a reality with the opening of the Harry and Ann Cornell Hall, the business school's main facility located near Carnahan Quadrangle.

"Dean Walker is among the very best business school deans in the world," said Tom O'Neal, the executive director of advancement in the College of Business. "As proven by his achievements over two decades to bring MU's College of Business from being on probation for academic accreditation when he arrived, and located in what even then was a sadly outdated Middlebush Hall, to not just full accreditation, but to national recognition and high percentile rankings for all of its major programs and now located in one of the world's finest business school facilities, Cornell Hall."

According to the news release, during the past 10 years, the college's degree programs have improved and, in addition to funding and building the school's Cornell Hall, the college has raised millions of dollars for student scholarships and professional-development programs.

Walker said the school is proud to be a major proponent of their professional-development program, designed to take students beyond the classroom and into practical business environments.

"I'm really pleased with our emphasis on professional development," he said. "It really builds on skills and values outside the classroom."

In a news release, Chancellor Brady Deaton commended Walker for his accomplishments as dean.

"One need only enter the doors of Cornell Hall to see first-hand the impact Dean Walker has had on the University of Missouri," Deaton said. "His ability to mobilize generous alumni support, advance the College of Business on the national stage, and serve the highest interests of our students and faculty will have tremendous benefit for decades to come."

Last year, Walker won the 2008 Pacheco Academic Leadership Award, awarded to one administrator across all of the four UM system campuses annually. Next fall, Walker will work on special projects, assist the new dean and teach classes.