Moore School of Business - Dr. Hildy Teegen to become Moore School Dean on September 15

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Teegen_Hilde As director of The George Washington University's Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) in Washington, D.C., for the past year, Professor Hildy Teegen has focused on brokering relationships and forging links—with the greater university, with students, with alumni, and with other "outside constituents" such as the government and the private sector.

"I like to identify ways that individuals can get together to work together more successfully," she says.

Dr. Teegen, 41, intends to bring the same sensibilities to the University of South Carolina campus when she becomes dean of the Moore School of Business on September 15.

Her selection was announced May 7 after a six-month search. She will succeed Joel A. Smith III, dean of the Moore School since 2000, who announced last year that he planned to retire.

A Natural Fit

A faculty member at GW since 1996, Teegen was jointly appointed in international business at the School of Business and in international affairs at the Elliott School. Her global background and interests make her a natural fit for the Moore School, which is consistently ranked No. 1 in undergraduate international business and No.1 or No.2 in graduate international business by U.S. News & World Report.

Fluent in Spanish, Teegen has lived in Mexico, Portugal, the Dominican Republic, and Grand Cayman. She has taught international business at GW, the College of William and Mary, the University of Texas at Austin, the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México in Mexico City, the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico, and Universidade do Porto in Oporto, Portugal.

Teegen has written extensively about global business, most recently about interactions between firms, governments and nongovernmental organizations. She is a department editor for the Journal of International Business Studies, the premier academic journal in the field, and was a founding executive board member of the Women of the Academy of International Business (AIB). Still, until last fall, Teegen never contemplated being dean of the South Carolina school known for its international business expertise.

Launching and directing George Washington's CIBER in October 2006, however, got her to thinking. "I discovered that the Center administration that I've been engaged in has allowed me to broker relationships across the university, to forge links not only on the research front but also in programming geared for our students, and to make important connections with outside constituents such as the government and the private sector. That sort of bridge-building has really been the biggest joy in this Center that I've discovered to date... and by being a dean, one is allowed to do that on a broader scale."

Teegen acknowledges that she has not served as a dean, but she views that as "in some ways, a true asset in the sense that I'm coming to this job with a very fresh perspective and will shape my deanship according to the specific nuances of the Moore School of Business." Besides, she says, "a lot of the roles assigned to a dean are roles that I have assumed as CIBER director" at GW. "So, regarding the [necessary] skill set, I have a lot of relevant experience without having had the formal title and position."

Teegen also plans to get a little help, when needed, from her friends --a "very strong network of deans" at schools around the United States and abroad. "I've been consulting with them regularly throughout the [dean search] process, and they'll be an invaluable set of supporters for me as I move forward. I expect to continue to solicit valuable insights from these folks who have had years of experience as deans."

Global Upbringing

Teegen was born outside Chicago, but moved with her family to Grand Cayman Island in the Caribbean when she was eight years old. "My Dad was an entrepreneur who started a farm to grow the fruits and vegetables for the island population and also for the growing tourism industry," she says.

She attended British-system schools there for a while, then went to boarding school back in the United States. After graduating from high school, Teegen headed to Austin to enroll in the Latin American Studies program at the University of Texas.

In 1987, Teegen earned bachelor's degrees in Latin American Studies and International Business and Finance from UT Austin. In 1993, she received her Ph.D. in International Business (with a sub-specialty in Marketing Strategy and Economic Development), also from the University of Texas at Austin.

In 1993, she accepted a position as assistant professor of Marketing at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Three years later, Teegen became an assistant professor of International Business at The George Washington University. She was promoted to associate professor of IB and International Affairs in 2000, and to full professor in 2005. In October 2006, Teegen became director of CIBER at GW.

Transitional Summer

Between now and September 15, Teegen expects to make several visits to the Columbia campus to meet Moore faculty, staff, students, and University officials.

When asked about key tasks she envisions, Teegen commented "I'm going to have to hit the ground running in terms of advancement. In today's day and age, this is largely a dean's job - to ensure that there are sufficient resources in place for the range of things that we'd like to be able to do....I'm eager to do this given the strong story to tell about the Moore School. It will be an enjoyable priority, for sure."

The incoming dean says she also plans to think long and hard this summer about "ways that we can build upon the excellent gains that have been made over many years on the international side and extend those across the entire school." She'll also be considering the role of business in promoting economic and social development in the state and beyond.

"The days of thinking about training future business leaders simply to be future profit maximizers are long gone," Teegen explains. "To serve our students, and, frankly, in order to live up to our mission as a prominent business school in a comprehensive research university, we need to think carefully about the powerful ways that the private sector can be leveraged and can be utilized in order to promote efficiency and to ensure that gains from growth create opportunities for broad segments of society."

Primary Goals

While Teegen says her ideas are still "preliminary," and that she looks forward to vetting these ideas more fully with all of the School's stakeholders, when she arrives in Columbia this fall, she expects to:

move the Moore School further down the road in the strategic planning process already under way. This will probably culminate with a few "strategic focal areas where we will decide to make some fairly strategic investments in terms of faculty hiring as well as the possibility for new program development, funding opportunities for research in some of these key selective areas, and so on."
review the undergraduate program in terms of size, and look at issues related to the quality of offerings.
look at opportunities for synergies among the graduate programs.
focus on ways the school can be more responsive to the demands and the needs of its external constituents.
work to extend the "wins" the school has had in the IB area to additional areas.

Teegen has another major goal, as well—one that is dear to her heart: to attract and retain more female faculty, and to attract more high-quality female students. "I'm hopeful that in my leadership role, I'll be able to serve as a signal to both of those populations that the Moore School is a woman-friendly place to be," she says.

This means initiating more "family friendly" policies as well as working with department chairs and other faculty leaders during the recruiting process to "ensure that we boost those [female] numbers."

Teegen has had considerable experience in this realm. When she joined the faculty at George Washington University in 1996, she was one of only three women faculty members in the IB department. Teegen became a member and then the chair of the IB Appointments, Promotion and Tenure Committee. Today, seven of the 14 IB faculty members at GW are female.

Her service on GW's University Committee on the Status of Women: Faculty and Librarians Member in 2005-2006 also allowed her to speak for more faculty diversity and direct more attention to women's issues.

Finally...

When Teegen and her husband, David Adoff, a builder and real estate broker, move to Columbia later this summer, they'll be bringing their calico cat Chica with them. They'll also bring their love of hiking, swimming, and "outdoor activities of all sorts."

The couple also likes good food, and "we're very pleased to see that there are so many nice restaurant options in Columbia," Teegen says.

Jan Collins
May 2007