Dean Eli Jones announces new appointments to Mays leadership

Dean Eli Jones recently announced appointments of new leadership. Duane Ireland was appointed to executive associate dean after serving in an interim capacity for the past year. Annie McGowan was named Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion. Arvind Mahajan (FINC) will take the lead as associate dean for graduate programs and Mike Kinney (ACCT) will become assistant dean. Mike Shaub will become director of the Professional Program in Accounting (PPA).

Ireland served in an interim capacity for the past year. “The interim position allowed us to get to know each other as colleagues and close work partners and enabled members of the college to work more closely with Duane in his new role,” Jones said. “The feedback I received was very positive.”

Ireland is a University Distinguished Professor and holds the Benton Cocanaugher Chair in Business at Texas A&M University. He joined the Department of Management in Mays in 2004. Previously, he served two years as head of the management department.

Annie McGowan was named Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion. Effective Sept. 1, McGowan will head the new Office of Diversity and Inclusion, which aims to realize Mays’ strategic vision as a vibrant learning organization that respects differences and embraces connectedness. “Annie will work with members of our college in the areas of cultural sensitivity and inclusion, diversity in student recruitment and retention and community relations,” Jones said.
McGowan is an associate professor of accounting and has served as the director of the Professional Program in Accounting (PPA) at Mays since 2008. Mike Shaub, Clinical Professor of Accounting, will take over as PPA director when McGowan steps into her new role.

“I am very excited to lead Mays Business School’s strategic effort to foster an inclusive environment where future leaders develop the cultural integrity to honor and leverage individual differences to achieve a competitive advantage,” McGowan said. “If academic institutions are to sustainably supply sufficient numbers of trained graduates to meet the needs of the workforce, diversity must be embraced as a mission imperative. Further, empirical evidence confirms that more diverse learning environments lead to improved problem solving and critical thinking skills because students that learn in them are better able to conceptualize multiple perspectives.”

McGowan will report to Dean Jones and work closely with Christine Stanley, Vice President and Associate Provost of Texas A&M University.

Changes were also announced in top administration of Mays MBA programs, which will have two academic leaders for the first time.

Finance Professor Arvind Mahajan will take the lead as associate dean for graduate programs and Accounting Associate Professor Mike Kinney will become assistant dean. Both positions begin Aug. 1.

After many years of distinguished service in various leadership roles including serving the past year as the interim associate dean for graduate programs, Bala Shetty, an information and operations management professor and holder of the Cullen Trust for Higher Education Chair in Business, will return to a faculty position.

Mahajan, a Texas A&M faculty member since 1980, is a Texas A&M University System Regents Professor, Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence and Lamar Savings Professor of Finance. He has served as director of the Aggies on Wall Street Investment Banking Program and the MS (Finance) Program, and as associate director of the Center for International Business Studies and the Center for International Business Education and Research.

Kinney is a KPMG Fellow. He teaches in the MBA and Executive MBA programs and the executive development programs, and has taught in the PPA. He currently serves as coordinator of the Ph.D. Program in Accounting.