Stephen Lawrence, an associate dean of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has been named interim dean of the school effective July 1.
His appointment is pending approval by the Board of Regents at the June 30 meeting and will be effective for one year.
Lawrence will take over the post to be vacated by current Dean Steven Manaster, who in March announced he would not seek reappointment when his contract as dean expires on June 30.
"The Boulder campus and the Leeds School of Business are extremely fortunate that Steve Lawrence has agreed to be the interim dean of the Leeds School of Business while the search for a permanent dean is conducted," said CU-Boulder Provost Phil DiStefano. "I have the utmost confidence in Steve's ability to lead the school during this transition."
Lawrence is associate dean for academic programs at the Leeds School of Business, faculty director of the Center for Business Education and an associate professor of operations management.
"My principal objectives as interim dean will be to complete unfinished business in the Leeds School, to continue to focus on work I started as associate dean for academic programs and to generally help for an easy transition to a new permanent dean," Lawrence said.
DiStefano said the search for a permanent dean will start in fall 2004 and a new dean will be in place by July 1, 2005.
Lawrence's priorities as interim dean include, among others, completing the Leeds School strategic plan, overhauling the undergraduate curriculum and undergraduate "experience," revising faculty bylaws and vigorously encouraging student and faculty diversity.
His research interests include technology in entrepreneurial organizations, management of technology, capacity design and planning, and economic scheduling. He also has served the Leeds School as chair of the management division, interim director of the MBA program and as director of the operations management and information systems doctoral programs.
Before joining the Leeds School faculty in 1993, Lawrence taught in MBA, doctoral and executive programs at Washington University in St. Louis, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to that he worked in industry for eight years in operations management, quality management and sales engineering. For five of those years he was vice president of operations for Teetor Casting, an entrepreneurial metal casting firm in Illinois.
Lawrence received his doctorate in operations management from Carnegie Mellon University in 1988. He is an active member of the Production and Operations Management Society, the Decision Sciences Institute and the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science.