Dr. Keith Roberts, BYU-Hawaii Vice President of Academics, recently announced that Dr. Clayton Hubner will succeed Dr. Brent Wilson as dean of the University's School of Business, effective August 1, 2006.
Hubner, who was born in Logan, Utah, but grew up in New York, earned his bachelor's degree in finance and his MBA from BYU Provo, and his Ph.D. in operations management from the University of Michigan. He began his professional career in the Netherlands — where he served his mission — as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company. He later taught at the College of William and Mary and then worked in a variety of international and domestic executive positions, including leading the information technology (IT) function of three publicly traded companies. He joined the BYU-Hawaii business faculty in 2003 and has been teaching operations management and the capstone course in business strategy.
Hubner also helped start the Tonga internship program in 2004 with Ron Miller and CITO Dean Robert Hayden, and co-founded with Miller the Human Factors extracurricular group that sponsors student surveys, process flow and improvement projects, primarily at the Polynesian Cultural Center. "Many of the students who have gone through it have gone on to graduate school and gone on to Ph.D. programs, with their work in the Human Factors group as a distinguishing element in their selection," he said.
"I'm happy to serve the university any way that I can," Hubner continued. "I believe the School of Business has an extraordinary faculty of very gifted and extremely dedicated individuals. It's a privilege to be able to work and serve with them.
He praised Wilson and those who preceded him as dean for the "very solid foundation that we can continue to build upon in the future," noting BYU-Hawaii anticipates achieving its accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) in 2007.
Wilson, who has led the BYU-Hawaii School of Business for the past five years, explained the University is in "the final year of what is called AACSB candidacy, and the peer review team will come in March of 2007. This is a one-stage process, and we will know the results soon after."
"Two things that I will look back on with satisfaction will be moving us along the accreditation path, and also helping us lay the groundwork for the Mark and Laura Willes Center for International Entrepreneurship. I didn't start either of those, so I don't want to say they are my ideas, but I think I helped move them along," he said.
In response to Hubner's new position, Roberts said he "has been an outstanding University citizen and has demonstratedleadership and strategic thinking as the co-chair of the strategic Planning and Budgeting Committee. We are delighted that he has agreed to lead theSchool of Business."
In reference to Wilson's service, Roberts said, "Dr. Wilson's dedication and collegial manner have brought the School of Business to a higher visibility and improved reputation in Hawaii and in our target area. It has been his diligence and leadership that has prepared the School of Business so well for the upcoming accreditation."
Originally from Logan, Utah, Wilson graduated from Weber State College, earned his MBA from Northwestern University and his doctorate in business administration from Harvard. After teaching at the Darden Business School at the University of Virginia, he joined the faculty of BYU's Marriott School of Management in 1982 where he focused on international business. He plans to return there and rejoin the faculty.
"I hope we've been able to help the School of Business grow and develop," he continued. "The faculty has expanded: We've added four faculty positions, and we have received approval to create a minor in public management. It will be in place by next school year. That's purposefully intended for students who are not School of Business majors. Business students can minor in it, but we hope this will be attractive for political science, Hawaiian and Pacific island studies, social work and maybe psychology majors."
"BYU-Hawaii has been a great experience. We've enjoyed it, and we're going to be sad leaving," Wilson said of his family's mid-July departure. "But I feel comfortable that things are in place, and the School of Business is going to move ahead."
He added that naming Hubner as his successor is a "good choice. Traditionally the University has appointed deans from the faculty, and I was the exception coming from the outside."
Hubner said he loves teaching and looks forward to the next several years. "There are already a number of initiatives in progress that need to be brought to their completion," such as the accreditation, which is "a very important step forward for the School of Business" and the proposed new Business and Science Building, "which is the first major infrastructure improvement on campus that's purely focused on academics in many years."
"The issue of preparing our graduates to be successful in their chosen careers once they leave the University, and to prepare them to bless the nations from which they came," Hubner said, "is and remains a top priority for all divisions of the University, and will certainly be the same at the School of Business."