John Delaney to Step Down, Return to Faculty

John T. Delaney, who has served as dean of the University of Pittsburgh’s Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and College of Business Administration since 2006, will step down from his administrative position. He will return to Pitt’s business faculty once his successor has been identified. A search committee will be formed in the coming weeks with the intention of identifying Delaney’s successor by next spring.

“It has been my pleasure to work with John Delaney, both in his role as dean and in his participation in the activities of our Council of Deans, and I am pleased that he will continue at the University of Pittsburgh in the Katz School and College of Business Administration,” said Patricia E. Beeson, provost and senior vice chancellor.  

Under Delaney’s leadership, the Katz School and College of Business Administration have developed innovative experience-based learning programs and incentives that encourage students to combine theory and practice. Along with enhancing offerings of consulting projects, client fellowships, and case competitions, Delaney was instrumental in the 2008 opening of the financial analysis lab, which provides real-time stock market data, a financial trading simulator, and other tools to help students understand worldwide financial markets. This focus on experience-based learning has become a distinguishing feature of the University’s business programs and has contributed to the elevation of the MBA program in national rankings.

Over the past eight years, Delaney has worked to strengthen and diversify the faculty and staff through key hires, and worked to create a culture of planning in the schools. This culture of planning was instrumental in the 2013 reaccreditation of Pitt’s undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral business programs by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Delaney has also played an important role in bolstering fundraising by reconnecting with donors and Katz’s more than 27,000 alumni, who live and work in more than 90 countries. This growing global community, along with the Katz Executive MBA Worldwide programs in Prague and São Paulo, contributes to the University’s global presence.

Delaney earned his PhD in labor and industrial relations from the University of Illinois in 1983. After receiving his doctoral degree, he served as an assistant and associate professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business until he joined the management faculty at the University of Iowa in 1989. While at Iowa, he served as director of the Industrial Relations Center, university ombudsperson, and chair of the Department of Marketing. In 2000, Delaney joined the faculty of the Eli Broad College of Business and Graduate School of Management at Michigan State University, where he served as professor of management and associate dean for MBA Programs until moving to Pitt.