College of Business announces new dean

After an eight-month search, the more than 5,100 students and 335 faculty members in the College of Business now have a new dean Moez Limayem.

Limayem, who served as associate dean for Research and Graduate Programs at the University of Arkansas, was introduced to faculty, staff, alumni and Tampa businesspeople in the College of Business atrium Tuesday. He buddied up to the crowd early by asking if everyone liked his gold-colored USF tie and thanked those involved in his hiring by saying, I think you did a great job.

But Limayem, who had 14 years of experience in executive training at Hong Kong, Switzerland, Canada and the U.S., arrived with more than jokes. He outlined his main strategic thrust and priority of principles for the college, with student success as the main focus.

Job placement will always be our priority, and our interest in students does not end with graduation, he said.

To ensure student success, Limayem said he would work with the University toward creating statewide, national and global profile rankings over the College of Business, as well as expand the colleges research programs.

I always find the best way to illustrate the importance of research is to take any textbook, and what youll find at the end are references, he said. These references and the people who did the research make the textbook possible. Without these researchers and this research, we would not have good textbooks.

Other principles listed include increased and improved community engagement with the Tampa business community and supporting USFs goal of achieving membership in the Association of American Universities (AAU). AAU membership requires member universities to have excellent graduate innovation, undergraduate education and high-impact research, Limayem said.

Limayems hiring also resulted in an employment opportunity for his wife, Alya Limayem, next year. As a recent recipient of a Ph.D. in food safety from the University of Arkansas, she will join USF as a research assistant professor in the Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology.

When you hire a dean or a senior faculty member, you very often accommodate a spouse, said College of Arts and Sciences Dean Eric Eisenberg. So a new position was created for her.

Salary and benefit package figures were not available by the time of printing, according to University spokeswoman Lara Wade-Martinez.

Eisenberg headed the search for the College of Business new dean after former dean Robert Forsythe announced he would not return to the position after the 2011-12 academic year. Both Eisenberg and Provost Ralph Wilcox said Limayem was their top choice.

Just last week the (College of Business) was ranked 51st nationally and 24th among public (universities) according to U.S. News and World Reports list of the best schools for 2013, Wilcox said. A previous recruit from the University of Arkansas, Coach Stan Heath, has had a pretty good year at the University of South Florida. Now Moez, will you lead the University of South Florida into the nations top 32 ranked Colleges of Business?