AT THE HELM

Steven Bolander has been at the school since 1999 Photo:  Michael McCord

As dean of The Whittemore School of Business and Economics, Steven Bolander is in essence the CEO of small but influential company. Bolander has an annual budget of $20 million, oversees an administrative staff of 20 and as many as 85 faculty members, 60 of them either tenured or an on a tenure track.

Bolander, who arrived at WSBE in 1999, has spent most of his career in academia (he was previously at Colorado State University) after working as program manager for Rockwell International.

Under Bolander’s watch, WSBE has received national recognition for the first time as one of the top 100 business schools. It has expanded the scope of its undergraduate and graduate academic programs including its first international offering in Korea, developed even more partnerships with the private business sector and has seen significant growth in its research centers.

These research centers include the nationally known Center for Venture Research, the William Rosenberg Center of International Franchising (named after the founder of Dunkin’ Donuts) which was founded in 2002 and the recently announced Enterprise Integration Research Center which will build a virtual network linking state-based uniform commercial code databases with federally based patent database.

“We’ve developed a balance between our teaching and research activity,” said Bolander who talked to Ventures about the school’s evolution and the importance of business education today.

On academic changes

When I first came here, we began working with faculty of developing a solid core foundation for the future. We targeted eight different areas to create, for example, a heavier focus on technology, on writing and communication skills. This was a major programing change and we believe it has led to a lot of student interest.

On the graduate level, some early modifications we enacted were positive but they didn’t have the impact we’d hoped for. We had more success with an intensive one-year MBA program.

Why the new program in Korea?

We looked at doing things in Japan but that can take quite a while to develop. We made a quicker organizational inroad in Korea through one of our faculty members and we were able to design, develop (a Master of Science in Management Technology) and offer it. It’s basically a one-year program and we team teach with Korean faculty with members from our own full-time staff faculty. About three-quarters of the program takes place in Seoul and then student will come for the rest of the program. We think it’s one of those programs that help separate us from other schools.

On business education trends

It’s important today to integrate the world into the classroom. One of the (academic) challenges we all face is to make the educational experience relevant to today’s working environment. We see more internships and more interaction with private industry.

On being an academic leader

One difference from private industry is that we have shared governance with the faculty. It’s often been compared to “herding cats,” because faculty members are considered independent contractors who often go into different directions (of teaching methods). It’s my job to orchestrate a process to keep us going in the same direction.

On attracting talent

Remaining financially competitive in this market is one of our biggest challenges. The demand for instructor is greater than the supply of instructors and we have experienced that pressure to find good teachers. We recently recruited a new accounting professor and offered what we thought was a competitive salary but another state institution offered $40,000 more.

Leisure reading

For pure enjoyment, I enjoy the Western novels of Louis L’Amour. I spent 35 years in Colorado and while what he does in totally fiction, he places it in the real history and locations of the west. He attempted a much more realistic view what the west was like.