John G. Lynch Jr.
Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research and CU Distinguished Professor
Professor Lynch shares his thoughts on faculty and leadership, Leeds’ culture of collaboration, and where he sees the business school heading in the future.
What does the role of Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research entail?
John Lynch: My job is to try to work with the division chairs to help our faculty succeed and feel recognized, and ensure they are able to accomplish what they want to in terms of research and teaching. I’m also there to help hire (and keep) the right people. Hiring outstanding faculty is important to our overall success—both tenure-track and non-tenure-track groups. I also orchestrate the personnel evaluation process, and I work with the division chairs to try to help the faculty and staff understand what’s happening more broadly at Leeds, for example, program delivery. Another aspect of my work is assisting Dean Matusik in planning and accomplishing school initiatives by facilitating conversations involving faculty or faculty and staff who collectively help us plan and execute school initiatives.
What is your vision for the Leeds faculty in terms of research?
JL: My goal is for us to be on a winning team and be collectively successful. A critical part of that is business research excellence. It is not possible to be a highly ranked business school without being renowned for business scholarship. By the metrics we track, we have improved more over the last 10 years than any other business school in the world. Every single unit has recruited extremely well.
What do you like best about working at Leeds?
JL: We have a really great culture in the school, and the culture facilitates collaboration. For example, I’m part of a group of faculty and PhD students who study consumer financial decision making that meets bi-weekly to discuss each other’s research. It facilitates this idea that you’re a part of something bigger, and you appreciate the other great things happening in the building.
Where do you see Leeds faculty in the next five years?
JL: We’re number 24 in the world in per-capita publication in the 24 top business journals as showcased in the esteemed University of Texas Dallas (UTD) research rankings. It’s pretty amazing. Our number of tenure-track faculty is very small compared to our peers. We’re trying to grow at all levels. Again, all of our units have done well in recruiting top faculty, so the goal is to be hiring and supporting future faculty superstars.
Since 2005, the University of Texas Dallas (UTD) has published rankings based on the top 100 business schools’ faculty publications in 24 leading peer-reviewed journals in major business disciplines. These rankings are a valuable benchmarking tool for business leaders and academics, shining light on the hottest hubs of business research activity across the globe. Over time, Leeds faculty continue to make impressive gains in total research productivity. And when UTD data are sorted per-capita, the results are even more impressive, with Leeds faculty currently ranked #24 in the world.
