The university dedicated the Carey Business School last
week at an event where its inaugural dean passionately laid
out his vision for the fledgling academic division.
Nearly 600 people gathered in Homewood's Shriver Hall on
Friday afternoon to celebrate the new school and to honor
its chief benefactor, William Polk Carey. A five-piece
brass band played during the procession as the university's
leaders and special guests walked onto a stage lavishly
decorated with white roses.
President William R. Brody, the first to speak, noted the
historic day that officially marked the creation of the
ninth academic division of Johns Hopkins.
"In each of those [other] eight instances, there was a
clear and compelling case to bring fresh ideas and a new
approach to the study and practice of these disciplines,"
he said. "That is no less true today. This is an opportune
and perhaps even an auspicious moment to bring fresh ideas
to the study and practice of business."
The Carey Business School, which began operations Jan. 1,
2007, grew out of the School of Professional Studies in
Business and Education. It was launched with a $100 million
funding plan, $50 million in the form of a gift from
Carey--the largest gift ever to Johns Hopkins in support of
business education. Headquartered in the university's
Downtown Center, the school maintains a presence at six JHU
locations for its more than 2,400 full-time and part-time
graduate and undergraduate students.
The event featured the official installation of Yash Gupta
as the school's first dean. Before joining Johns Hopkins on
Jan. 1, 2008, Gupta had served as dean of the University of
Southern California's Marshall School of Business from 2004
to 2006 and previously as dean at the University of
Colorado at Denver and the University of Washington. A
widely published scholar in operations management, he also
held faculty positions at the University of Louisville,
University of Manitoba and Memorial University of
Newfoundland.
Provost Kristina Johnson, board chair
Pamela Flaherty and President William R. Brody
Photo by Jay Vanrensselaer/HIPS
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Provost Kristina Johnson introduced Gupta and called him a
man of "high principle, intellectual rigor, passion and
compassion" who will take business education in daring new
directions.
"He is a visionary and an optimist. He believes completely
in the possibilities and opportunities that are inherent in
the creation of a new business school at Johns Hopkins,"
Johnson said. "I am sure you are as excited as I am to see
what ideas and innovations Dr. Gupta will bring to business
education here."
Gupta began his talk by thanking Carey's "outstanding
generosity" that made possible the creation of the
school.
"We are inspired by the Carey family's long tradition of
business leadership, and by their continuing devotion to
the city of Baltimore and its citizens. Thanks to Bill
Carey, we find ourselves at a moment of immense opportunity
and potential."
Gupta said that Johns Hopkins will break the mold of
traditional business schools and expand the business
map.
"And how appropriate for Johns Hopkins: the birthplace of
the modern research university, incubator of the
science-based medical curriculum, home to so many
innovations that have come to define higher education
today," Gupta said. "Breaking the mold is part of our
heritage."
He called for research, study and training that "advances
new ideas, new methods and new leaders in business." He
highlighted his goal for students to learn not only
business skills but also critical cross-disciplinary
knowledge taught in other Johns Hopkins divisions. The new
school already collaborates with others at JHU to offer,
for instance, joint master's/MBA programs in biotechnology,
nursing, public health, communication, information and
telecommunications systems, and government.
During the course of the speech, Gupta echoed the phrase
that "business is the engine that transforms the world."
Carey Business School students will become the catalyst for
this change, he said, advancing innovation and helping the
world, whether it's bringing new technology to the
marketplace or fighting poverty and environmental
degradation.
"Where could one hope to find a better place to do this
than here, among the world-class opportunities of Johns
Hopkins?" he said. "Our students, immersed in this
environment of innovation and discovery, can become true
entrepreneurs by being active participants in the process
of discovery occurring all about them."
He also emphasized the importance of values in business and
asked that students bring them into the classroom.
"Business can only flourish in a successful, stable and
transparent society that plays by the rules," he said.
"Values give business operations a sense of direction and a
sense of purpose."
Greatness and tradition will not happen overnight, he said,
but it starts here and now.
"Today," he said, we plant a seedling. We anticipate its
flower--like the beautiful roses around us, symbol of the
Carey family crest--will be the great achievements our
students one day accomplish. What an exciting journey we
all have, and how proud I am to help launch it on its
way."
William Polk Carey
Photo by Jay Vanrensselaer/HIPS
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During the ceremony, presenters showed a video tribute to
Carey that highlighted his connections to Johns Hopkins and
Baltimore, his strength of purpose and his desire to usher
in a new era of business education. The video included
commentary from family members, Provost Johnson, Michael
Bloomberg, trustees and others.
Carey, a trustee emeritus, is chairman of W.P. Carey & Co.,
a New York City real estate investment firm. The school is
named for his great-great-great-grandfather James Carey of
Loudon, an 18th- and 19th-century Baltimore shipper,
longtime member of Baltimore's first city council, chairman
of the Bank of Maryland and relative of university founder
Johns Hopkins. James Carey is an ancestor of a number of
trustees of the university and of The Johns Hopkins
Hospital.
In 1999, William Polk Carey pledged $2 million to the
university to endow and expand an innovative program
preparing undergraduate engineers to manage businesses or
to start and run their own companies. Today, the W.P. Carey
Program in Entrepreneurship and Management is run by the
Whiting School's Center for Leadership Education and is
open to all Homewood students.
Carey at the event was presented with the first Johns
Hopkins Carey Business School Dean's Medal, a burnished
brass piece bearing a bas relief likeness of James Carey of
Loudon. The university also honored him the previous
evening at a celebration dinner at the George Peabody
Library that was attended by senior Johns Hopkins
administrators, Gov. Martin O'Malley and a number of JHU
trustees, past and present.
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