August 28, 2019
Dear Members of the Carnegie Mellon Community:
I am writing to inform you that Robert Dammon has decided to step down from his role as dean of CMU’s Tepper School of Business. Dammon will continue to serve as dean through the end of the academic year and, if needed, will serve beyond until his successor is named. Dean Dammon then will return to the school’s faculty full time.
I am grateful to Dean Dammon for his service as he enters his ninth year as dean. His dedication during this time has enabled the Tepper School to become one of the world’s leading business schools with a strategic focus on collaboration, innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship.
During his time as dean, Dammon spearheaded initiatives and programs that strengthened and expanded the school’s innovative academic programs, its learning environment for students, faculty and researchers, and fundraising and strategic partnerships that have enriched how our students learn and how our faculty teach.
Some of the exceptional highlights of the Tepper School’s growth under Dean Dammon’s leadership include the launch of several programs that have enriched the school’s educational offerings and research enterprise, including: four new interdisciplinary faculty research initiatives focused on the rapidly changing areas of blockchain, health care, inclusive growth and prosperity, and sustainability; a portfolio of Executive Education programs in the school’s four keys areas of strength (Strategic Leadership, Innovation, Advanced Analytics and Technology); the top-ranked Part-Time Online, Hybrid MBA program, which was one of the first to be launched by a major business school; and the PNC Center for Financial Services Innovation, which supports interdisciplinary research that draws upon the expertise of leading researchers from across the CMU campus.
Under his guidance, Dean Dammon also helped to enhance the Tepper School’s overarching institutional strengths. He led the successful opening of the new David A. Tepper Quadrangle in 2018, which has become a unifying center that has transformed the entire Carnegie Mellon campus. He created new opportunities that have attracted a more diverse community of students, scholars and researchers to Tepper among its undergraduate business and full-time MBA programs and school faculty. And he was instrumental in improving the school’s rankings among the world’s best business programs, including Tepper’s Undergraduate Business Administration program, which is currently ranked number 6 by U.S. News & World Report.
The search committee to find his successor will be formed and announced this fall, with the goal of naming the new Tepper School dean by the end of this academic year.
In the meantime, please join me in thanking Dean Dammon for his outstanding leadership in enhancing the global stature of the Tepper School of Business and Carnegie Mellon University, and for fostering opportunities for success for our students and faculty at the school. I look forward to working with Bob toward continued growth at the Tepper School, and hope you will join me in celebrating Dean Dammon’s accomplishments with him at a later time this academic year.
Regards,
James H. Garrett, Jr.
Provost
Thomas Lord Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering