Leadership

Simon School Taps Zupan as New Dean

Zupan

Mark Zupan, the dean of the business school at the University of Arizona, begins full-time duty as the new dean of the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration in January.

An economist who specializes in industrial organization, regulation, and political economy, Zupan succeeds Charles Plosser, who stepped down June 30 after serving as Simon dean since 1993.

Provost Charles Phelps, who chaired the search committee, says Zupan was the unanimous choice to head the school.

“We believe that his academic career to date, most notably his work as dean at Arizona, will serve him well in leading the Simon School,” Phelps says. “I should add that Mark emerged from a pool of candidates that was as deep and strong as any I’ve seen during a search here at the University.”

Before his appointment as dean at Arizona in 1997, Zupan had taught at the University of Southern California’s School of Business Administration, where he also served as associate dean of the master’s programs.

He holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and earned his Ph.D. in economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also has been a visiting faculty professor at the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College.

He is coauthor, with E. K. Browning, of Microeconomic Theory and Applications and, with A. M. Marino and T. W. Gilligan, of Microeconomic Cases and Applications.

Since June, Zupan has been consulting frequently with the Simon School’s associate deans to ensure an effective transition.

Plosser, the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and Public Policy, has been a member of the Simon School’s faculty for the past 24 years. He announced last fall that he planned to return to the faculty at the end of the 2002–03 year.