SMU announces transition in Cox School of Business leadership

DALLAS (SMU) – Matthew B. Myers, the ninth dean of SMU’s Edwin L. Cox School of Business, has announced he will step down from the dean’s role by the end of the 2024-25 academic year. After a sabbatical Myers will return to the Cox School as the David B. Miller Endowed Professor in Business.

“Serving as dean of the Cox School has been an honor and the highlight of my career,” Myers said. “I wish to convey my great appreciation in being able to serve in this role. During this time, SMU and Cox have achieved remarkable successes. With so many accomplishments over recent years for the school to build upon, 2025 will be the perfect time to bring in new leadership for Cox. A new dean with fresh ideas and experiences will enable Cox to continue its steep ascent in the national dialogue of business education.”

“When Dean Myers joined the Cox School we knew that the external skills and energy he brought to the table would be valuable during an important period in the school’s development,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “His leadership helped launch a new era for the Cox School, well-demonstrated by the dramatic re-imagining of the David B. Miller Quadrangle.”

“Dean Myers’ emphasis on innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology has been important during a period of dynamic change in international business operations,” said Elizabeth G. Loboa, provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs. “We are grateful for the legacy he leaves of connecting students and alumni to exciting business opportunities both in the DFW region and across the globe.”

When Myers joined the Cox School as dean in 2017, the school synthesized its goals into four major categories: building the SMU Cox brand, building new academic programs, building new facilities, and building the school’s endowment. “We set an aggressive target to meet these goals in ten years,” Myers said, “and instead we have met them in seven.”

In meeting these goals, the school has achieved many new milestones, including record-setting enrollment in the BBA program in both class size and quality, as well as record-setting enrollment and quality in graduate programs, doubling the size of Cox’s graduate student class. In addition, the school launched its Online MBA program, its MBA Direct program, rebuilt its MBA curriculum, and will launch a new MS in Real Estate program in the fall of 2024.

Since 2017 the Cox School has also significantly expanded its brand, as indicated by the dramatic increase in BBA applications nationwide, with Cox’s BBA program now ranked No. 26 in the nation by Poets & Quants. In addition, the school has seen a dramatic rise in US News & World Report Fulltime MBA rankings from the low 50s to No. 34, and to No. 27 in Bloomberg Businessweek, among other metrics.

The Cox School has also seen significant success in fundraising since Myers’ arrival. Since the launch of the SMU Ignited fundraising campaign in 2017, the Cox School has received over $300 million in donations, including the largest single donation in school history, a $50 million gift from David and Carolyn Miller. This gift led to the successful navigation of the conceptual stage, design stage, fundraising stage, and completion of the David B. Miller Quadrangle, a 260,000-square-foot, $140 million renovation and expansion of the Cox School of Business.

“It is my belief that, with the opening of the new Miller Business Quadrangle, it is an ideal time to bring a new dean in to lead the next era of the Cox School,” Myers said.

A search for the next dean of the Cox School will begin immediately, Loboa said, with the formation of a search committee. The goal is to conduct interviews in late fall of 2024, and announce the new dean in the spring of 2025.

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