UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Following a national search, Charles H. Whiteman has been named the Elizabeth L. and John P. Surma Jr. dean of Penn State's Smeal College of Business. Smeal College is among the largest and highly ranked business schools in the nation. Whiteman is expected to begin July 1, pending approval by the Board of Trustees.
Whiteman will replace Jim Thomas, who has served a combined 13 years as dean of both the Smeal College and, before that, the College of Information Sciences and Technology. Whiteman is currently senior associate dean for the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa. He also serves as interim director for the Institute for Economic Research at Iowa and holds the Leonard A. Hadley Chair in Leadership at that institution.
In his position as senior associate dean at Iowa, Whiteman has been responsible for undergraduate and graduate degree programs; faculty and staff recruitment; promotion and tenure; budgetary operations; college facilities; technology operations; and strategic planning for the business school whose programs are consistently ranked among the top nationally.
"We have found in Charles Whiteman a scholar, a seasoned teacher, a veteran of higher education administration and a strong leader with vast and varied experience that will continue to move our Smeal College of Business forward with exceptional vision," said Robert Pangborn, Penn State's interim executive vice president and provost. "His past positions and his deep knowledge of economics and business constitute a valuable addition to the University's leadership."
Whiteman, who holds a doctoral degree in economics from the University of Minnesota, has more than 32 years of experience in higher education and business. He is a leading economist who advises the State of Iowa’s Department of Management, and he has served on dozens of collegiate and university committees.
With expertise in Bayesian econometrics; dynamic macroeconomics; and time series analysis and macroeconomic forecasting, Whiteman has conducted research which has been supported by a number of grants from the National Science Foundation. He has published dozens of papers and is the author of two books. He has served as associate editor of several economics journals, including Econometrica, The Journal of Econometrics, and The International Economic Review. He has held numerous faculty chair positions at Iowa and as a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Banks of Kansas City, Atlanta, Cleveland and Minneapolis.
Whiteman moved through the teaching ranks at Iowa rising from instructor in 1980 to eventually serve as chair of the Department of Economics from 1997-2000. He was director of the Institute for Economic Research (1990-1997, 2003-2006, 2009-2012); interim dean of the Tippie College of Business in 2006, and has held his current position as senior associate dean of the college for the past six years.
"I am delighted to have the opportunity to lead the Smeal College of Business. The college has exceptional students, wonderful programs, great faculty and staff, and great support from alumni and friends," Whiteman said. "Building on a great foundation, I will work diligently with the Smeal community to move the college forward to greater success and distinction."
The Smeal College of Business educates more than 5,000 students at all levels and hasgraduated more than 70,000 students. Dean Thomas announced in 2010 his plans to step down from the post he has held since 2006 and return to the college as a professor, where he began his career as an assistant professor in 1987.