Johns Hopkins University’s Carey Business School today (July 2) announced that it has hired away the dean of the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. Alexander Triantis, who has led the Smith School for nearly six years, will start in his new role on Aug. 15.

“We are delighted that Alex Triantis will be joining Johns Hopkins as the next dean of the Carey School,” said Johns Hopkins President Ronald J. Daniels in. a statement. “An experienced leader known for his great business acumen and exceptional commitment to collaboration, Dr. Triantis is the right person to build on Carey’s great strengths, and seize new opportunities in a complex global business landscape. His experience, drive, and passion will serve our youngest school and Johns Hopkins University well in the years ahead.”

During their search for a new dean for the Carey School, Daniels said that the committee sought an experienced leader and administrator who could build on the strong foundation that Dean Bernard Ferrari established and create and execute a vision for the school’s important next phase of development. The Carey Business School opened in 2007 and now has more than 100 full-time faculty and more than 2,300 full- and part-time students representing more than 60 countries.

‘THRILLED TO JOIN JOHNS HOPKINS’

In moving to Johns Hopkins Carey School, Triantis is departing a school whose full-time MBA program is ranked 40th best in the U.S. by Poets&Quants. The Carey School’s MBA offering is not ranked at all.

“I’m thrilled to join the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School,” said Triantis in a statement. “The school is still relatively young and yet has shown significant growth. I’m excited to be a part of that growth and to be part of a great research university pursuing so many interesting and innovative initiatives.”

An engineer by training, Triantis was inspired to join academia by his father, who was an economics professor. He became a professor of finance at Maryland in 1995, then assumed the chair of the finance department from 2006 to 2011 and was the co-founder of the Center for Financial Policy, before getting the dean’s role in November of 2013 and now as the eighth dean of the Smith School of Business.

He believes a strong business education for the 21st century should be modeled on a three-prong approach that includes interdisciplinary collaboration, experiential learning, and online learning. As dean of the Smith School, he promoted the development of cross-divisional research centers and initiatives focused on AI, cybersecurity, data analytics, enterprise and markets, ethics and regulation, financial and economic policy, and entrepreneurship. He also helped launch a number of new dual degree programs and several new graduate programs and certificates, including a top-ranking online MBA and in-person and online Masters of Science in Business Analytics.

‘SELDOM DO YOU SEE PEOPLE SOLVING PROBLEMS IN SILOS’

“I believe the future of education in business schools—and of course across many educational disciplines—is to establish unique and interesting opportunities for students to apply what they’ve learned and develop the collateral skills they need, such as working with and influencing others, creating inclusive environments, and communicating well,” says Triantis. “In business, you seldom see people solving problems in a siloed environment. Allowing students to draw knowledge from different areas in an interdisciplinary fashion strengthens the learning and makes it more exciting.”

Triantis received his Ph.D. from Stanford University and BASc and MEng degrees from the University of Toronto. Prior to joining the University of Maryland’s faculty in 1995, he was a visiting scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and an assistant and associate professor at the University of Wisconsin.

Triantis says he looks forward to learning about the culture and organization of the Carey Business School and developing a plan to build on the school’s success under Ferrari, who was recently named dean emeritus. Under Ferrari’s leadership, the school launched new full-time academic programs, increased its faculty, and added eight endowed faculty positions. In 2017, the school earned accreditation from the AACSB, considered a “hallmark of excellence” in business education.

Valerie Suslow, vice dean for faculty and research at the Carey Business School, will serve as interim dean until Triantis assumes the role in August.

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