The Kate Tiedemann College of Business is getting a new dean as well as a new building.
Regional Chancellor Sophia Wisniewska announced last week that Sridhar Sundaram, a Michigan educator, will become dean on July 1. He succeeds Gary Patterson, who has served as interim dean since June 2014.
Regional Chancellor Sophia Wisniewska announced last week that Sridhar Sundaram, a Michigan educator, will become dean of the Kate Tiedemann College of Business on July 1.
“He brings with him a wealth of knowledge and the leadership skills to develop a clear strategic vision for the college,” Wisniewska said in a news release. “We are excited to welcome him and his family to the USF St. Petersburg community.”
Sundaram will arrive just weeks before the college is scheduled to move into its new four-story building at Third Street S and Fourth Avenue.
Sundaram has worked at the Seidman College of Business at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Mich., since 2001. He started as a professor of finance, then became chairman of the Finance Department, associate dean for graduate programs and centers and academic director of the Executive MBA and Full-Time Integrated MBA program.
He has a doctorate in business administration, accounting and finance from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and a bachelor’s in commerce and accounting from PSG College Arts and Science in India, according to his LinkedIn resume.
His research has been published in scholarly journals, and he has won a number of professional and community awards, according to the USFSP release.
Patterson called Sundaram an “excellent choice” to lead the College of Business.
“He has a track record of developing relationships with community partners that will be critical to our success,” said Patterson in the press release. “And, importantly, he has demonstrated innovation in developing academic programs that prepare students to meet the demands of a dynamic workforce environment.”
Sundaram said he is looking forward to his new post.
“This is an exciting time to become a part of USF St. Petersburg,” he said in the release. “I look forward to the opportunity to lead the KTCOB to its next level of excellence in a business community that is so engaged and committed to its success, and to build on these strategic partnerships as impetus to our growth in the future.”
The College of Business, which now has faculty offices and classrooms in several campus buildings, has been a focus of much attention in recent years.
Kate Tiedemann, an entrepreneur who retired to Pinellas County, gave the college a $10 million gift in September 2014, a month before the college – which was named in her honor – broke ground on its new building. The gift is the largest in the university’s history.
In January, the college announced a $1 million gift from philanthropist Ellen Cotton that will go toward scholarships. The atrium in the new building will be named for her.
The search for a new dean was protracted. Last summer Wisniewska announced that the university’s first search failed to find a candidate with the combination of skills it was seeking. That prompted a second search, which led to Sundaram.
Information from usfsp.edu and the Tampa Bay Times was used in this report.
