Jamie Prenkert, a year 2017 Poets & Quanta 40-under-40 undergrad professor, is the new dean of the Minnesota Carlson School of Management
Although it conducted a national search, Minnesota Carlson’s 10-month search for a new dean ended up searching just a few states in the Midwest.
The School of Management has named Jamie Prenkert to succeed the outgoing Sri Zaheer, who will step down next year after more than a dozen years at the Deanery.
Prenkert, Charles M. Hewitt Professor and Executive Associate Dean for Faculty and Research at the Indiana Kelley School of Business, has been appointed the 13th Dean of the Carlson School effective July 3, 2023, subject to Board of Regents approval.
NEW CARLSON DEAN HEALED FOR ‘COMMITMENT TO YOU’
Jamie Prenkert
Prenkert previously served at the Kelley School as Chair of the Department of Business Law & Ethics and Associate Dean of Studies. 2017, Poets & Quanta included him in our annual list of the top 40 under 40 undergraduate professors.
He currently oversees the Kelley School’s research mission and serves as the primary administrator for nearly 400 Bloomington-based faculty members across nearly 30 different degree programs. In a letter announcing Prenkert’s appointment, Rachel TA Croson, Executive Vice President and Provost of Minnesota, highlighted the new Dean’s “commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion,” adding that he “is an ex officio member of the Kelley School’s first Diversity, Committee on Justice, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB); organized a semester-long DEIB training series for lecturers and employees; created and oversaw the position of Kelley Bias Incident Support Ombudsperson; and conceived, coordinated and founded the Kinsey-Kelley Center for Gender Equity in Business, a collaboration with IU’s Kinsey Institute.”
Prenkert holds a JD from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana. He was also President of the Academy of Legal Studies in Business for the 2021-2022 academic year.
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In Indiana, Prenkert holds affiliated faculty appointments at the Center for Excellence for Women & Technology, Advocates + Allies for Equity; Center for the Study of Law, Society and Culture; Ostrom workshop; and African studies program. Prior to his academic career, he was a senior litigator for the US Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity.
When Poets & Quanta Profile Prenkert in 2017 for our annual 40 under 40 list, we asked him to use one word to describe his early days in teaching. He chose “exhilarating-intimidating,” adding that while it wasn’t a real word, it accurately described the “strong mix of amusement and intimidation” of the moment.
“I savored every second of it, while at the same time fearing that I wouldn’t live up to the incredibly high standards of my business law colleagues at Kelley, who were multi-award-winning teachers,” wrote Prenkert.
ZAHEER INCREASED CARLSON’S FOUNDATION TO MORE THAN $300 MILLION
Prenkert replaces Sri Zaheer, who announced her retirement in March after more than 11 years as Carlson’s dean, including nine months as interim dean, before assuming the permanent title in 2012. Zaheer will continue to serve as Dean through July 2, 2023.
Zaheer was only the second woman to serve as Carlson’s dean. She raised more than $200 million for the school, more than doubling the B-School’s endowment from $137 million to over $305 million. Under her leadership, the school raised more than $106 million in scholarships alone. She led a major refresh of Carlson’s undergraduate curriculum, which launched this fall, nearly doubling the number of programs from seven to 13 with the new master’s in business analytics, supply chain management, finance and marketing. She also led the launch of a successful online MBA program.
“The school is in a very strong position,” Zaheer said Poets & Quanta March. “Enrollments are off the charts. Our finances have never been better and our results have never been higher. There are some great things that we have achieved.”
According to a letter to the Carlson School community from Minnesota Provost Croson, Zaheer will return to her tenured position as the Elmer L. Andersen Chair in Global Corporate Social Responsibility while serving as a member of the editorial team at the prestigious journal Journal of International Business Studies.
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