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Samant named interim dean of business college

June 30, 2009

KALAMAZOO--Dr. Ajay Samant, an international finance expert with an established track record in academic administration, has been tapped to lead Western Michigan University's Haworth College of Business while a national search for a new dean is conducted.

Samant, a member of the WMU faculty since 1992, will take the reins of the business college as interim dean, replacing Dean David Shields, who is leaving the University after three years to accept a post as dean of Mercer University's Stetson School of Business and Economics in Atlanta. Samant's appointment is effective July 1, according to Dr. Timothy Greene, WMU provost and vice president for academic affairs.

"We will conduct a national search for a new dean, but we will be doing so with the comfort of knowing the college is in terrific hands in the short term," Greene says. "Dr. Samant has the experience and institutional knowledge to keep the college on its forward trajectory."

Samant has served as associate dean of the college since 2007. Prior to taking that post, he served for four years as the chair of the Department of Finance and Commercial Law and developed a new program in personal financial planning.

An expert in international finance, he has served as a visiting professor at New Zealand's Massey University and University of Waikato, and he also served for four years as a research officer with the Reserve Bank of India's Department of Economic Analysis and Policy. Samant earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Bombay in 1979 and 1981, respectively, and a doctoral degree from Indiana University in 1992.

Greene says the national search for a new dean will get under way shortly and will be led David M. Powell, dean of WMU's College of Aviation.

Media contact: Cheryl Roland, (269) 387-8400, cheryl.roland@wmich.edu

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