Al Niemi, who’s been dean of Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business since 1997, plans to step down from that position in May 2017 to focus on teaching full-time. SMU’s provost and vice president for academic affairs, Steven C. Currall, is working to create a search committee to identify Niemi’s successor.
In a letter announcing the development, Currall said Niemi had “increased the school’s national and international visibility,” citing high rankings for the school’s BBA, full-time MBA, Professional MBA and Executive MBA programs in such publications as Bloomberg Businessweek, The Economist and U.S. News & World Report. The letter also called Niemi an “effective fundraiser” who had increased the school’s endowment from $78 million to more than $200 million.
Niemi will remain in his faculty position—he holds the William O’Neil Chair in Global Markets and Freedom—after retiring as dean. He currently teaches both a graduate and an undergraduate course called “Evolution of American Capitalism” three days a week. He also teaches a certificate program in American capitalism for non-credit in the winter, and the same program at the SMU-in-Taos (N.M.) campus in the summer.
