New Strathclyde Dean gets down to Business

Strengthening the international reputation of success is the key aim of the newly-appointed Dean at the University of Strathclyde Business School.

Professor Susan Hart has this week taken up the post at a time when the Faculty is cementing its position as a leader in Business and Management education. She comes to the post with a wealth of experience, having written well over 100 articles and papers, as well as writing and editing numerous books and publications.

In addition to her distinguished career as an academic, Professor Hart also worked in the private sector, in advisory and research capacities to organisations including RBS, McDonalds and Scottish Enterprise, as well as the SME sector.

In recent years, Strathclyde Business School has made significant progress on a number of fronts. It has made major development of its portfolio of undergraduate degrees - now one of the largest offered in Europe - increased undergraduate numbers, and been ranked first in the UK for Management courses in the most recent National Student Survey.

The MBA is delivered in Glasgow, Europe, the Gulf and Asia, as are several specialist Masters programmes in eight different subject areas, from marketing to hospitality management and entrepreneurship. Research within the School is of the highest calibre, with 22 recent 'best paper' awards, authorship of numerous books, editorship of around a dozen learned journals and the hosting of several high-profile international conferences.

Professor Hart said: "Strathclyde Business School has great potential to develop its reputation as an internationally-renowned centre of excellence. We have been busily refreshing many of our postgraduate courses and we have a new dedicated centre to support our executive development programmes.

"Our research profile is, I believe, among the very best in the UK, we publish in the top journals and amongst our number are some of the most widely-cited academics in business, management and economics in the UK.

"I relish the prospect of leading an organisation of this calibre, enhancing our reputation in business research and education and delivering value to business and management in both national and international arenas.

"It is a very exciting time to be at Strathclyde Business School as we further internationalise our research, industry collaboration and educational activities."

Professor Hart was Professor of Marketing at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, from 1993-5 and was subsequently Head of the Marketing Department at the University of Stirling.

At Strathclyde, she was Head of the Department of Marketing and Vice-Dean Research before taking up her new post, and has held visiting academic roles at Griffith University, Queensland, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Murcia in Spain and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

Professor Hart leads a team of researchers who provide data for the Scotland PLC Awards, in association with PriceWaterhouseCoopers and The Insider magazine. She edits the much-cited Journal of Marketing Management and is a Director of the Scottish Royal National Orchestra.