Economist and labor market scholar Kevin F. Hallock has been appointed dean of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business beginning December 15th, Provost Michael Kotlikoff announced yesterday afternoon. The Cornell College of Business, formed in early 2016, integrates the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, the School of Hotel Administration, and the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management.
An experienced administrator, Hallock has served as dean and professor in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) since 2015. His new term as dean of the College of Business was approved by the Cornell Board of Trustees executive committee and will run through June 30, 2024. Kotlikoff said in a statement that a search for a permanent ILR School dean to replace Hallock will begin immediately and an interim dean will be named next week.
“As an accomplished economist, scholar, and administrator, Kevin provides the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business with the leadership to maximize its enormous potential,” Kotlikoff said in a statement. “His thorough familiarity with Cornell’s administrative workings is a significant asset, and the college will be well served by his deep understanding of business administration theory and practice.”
Overseeing the combined schools of the Johnson College of Business is a big job. The decision to unify the three schools under a single umbrella was reached because it promised to make a wider range of opportunities available to students while also increasing Cornell’s ability to draw top recruiters and faculty. But Founding Dean Soumitra Dutta stepped down unexpectedly in February, and L. Joseph Thomas has been serving as interim dean since he left.
Hallock Brings Record of Strong Leadership
As ILR dean, Hallock’s accomplishments were many, including guiding the school through a strategic planning process, investing in student experience and well-being, and introducing a school-wide initiative to unite students, staff, and faculty around a common theme, such as “Technology and the Evolution of Work,” which has been this year’s theme. He also brings fundraising prowess, having raised resources for new investments in IRL faculty and research, expanded human resources, and a transition of ILR’s New York City office to a new home at 570 Lexington Ave, slated to open in January 2019.
“Grateful and Excited to Start This New Chapter at Cornell”
Hallock said he is “grateful and excited to start this new chapter at Cornell” but realizes he has his work cut out for him.
“The Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, in its infancy, faces challenges, like many new organizations, and those challenges are part of what attracted me to this role,” he said in a statement. “But there is also enormous opportunity, outstanding strength, and unique advantages in the college and its three schools. I am excited to work with its talented staff, students, faculty, and alumni, and I am exceptionally optimistic about the future of the college.”
The College of Business notes that it has already celebrated several milestones in its first couple of years. Applications for open faculty positions in 2017-18 increased five-fold over prior years in some areas, the school reports. Not only that, more faculty who have been offered positions have accepted them than ever before, resulting in the successful hires of 20 new faculty. Undergraduate application volume at both the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and the School of Hotel Administration grew by 80 percent between 2016 and 2018. Application volume at the Johnson Graduate School of Management is down just slightly year over year, less than one percentage point. This puts Johnson ahead of many of its U.S. peer business schools, which experienced even greater declines.
An expert on executive compensation, compensation design, and labor markets, Hallock’s research has focused on the complexity of executive compensation contracts and corporate performance and been featured in academic journals including The American Economic Review, the Journal of Corporate Finance and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. The Sloan Foundation and the U.S. Departments of Labor and Education are among many organizations that have helped to fund his research.
Long History of Involvement at Cornell
A longstanding member of the larger Cornell family, Hallock joined the faculty of ILR in 2005 and became its dean in 2015. During his tenure, he also has played an active role on several university committees, including Cornell’s Financial Policy Committee, the Provost’s Budget Model Task Force, and the Cornell Student Experience Initiative’s steering committee. In 2009, he was the founding director of Cornell’s Institute for Compensation Studies.
Outside of Cornell, he has also been active as a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research since 2003. And in 2013, he was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources. He has consulted and served as an expert witness on issues of compensation, executive compensation, stock price reactions to labor market events, and antitrust in labor markets.
Hallock holds a bachelor’s degree in economics summa cum laude from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and master’s and doctoral degrees in economics from Princeton University.
Learn more about the newly appointed dean of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.
