Appointment of Gareth James as Dean of the UCLA Anderson School of Management

Dear Colleagues:

I am delighted to announce the appointment of Gareth James as the next dean of the UCLA Anderson School of Management, effective July 1, 2026.

James currently serves as the John H. Harland Dean of Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. During his first three years at Goizueta, the school has flourished, launching three successful new degree programs, establishing two new centers, creating three new endowed faculty chairs, recruiting 22 new full-time faculty — representing almost a quarter of current business faculty — and experiencing a 35 percent increase in student enrollment. Thanks in part to students’ successful career outcomes, Goizueta has seen its full-time MBA ranking by U.S. News & World Report rise from #26 in 2022 to an all-time high of #17; its Poets & Quants BBA ranking is also at a school high of #8. Prior to joining Emory in 2022, he was a member of the data sciences and operations faculty at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business (1998–2022), where he held the E. Morgan Stanley Chair in Business Administration and served in senior administrative roles, including deputy dean (2020–22), interim dean (2019–20) and vice dean for faculty and academic affairs (2013–17). He is widely respected for his visionary leadership, data-informed decision making, strategy, powerful optimism, and commitment to the future of business education and its critical role in preparing the thinkers and innovators of tomorrow.

A statistician by training, James is a noted scholar and researcher whose work has been cited more than 40,000 times. His extensive published works include numerous articles, conference proceedings, and book chapters focused on statistical and machine learning methodologies and he is co-author of the widely cited textbook, An Introduction to Statistical Learning. He has led multiple National Science Foundation research grants and has served as an associate editor for five top research journals. The recipient of two Dean’s Awards for Research Excellence from the USC Marshall School of Business, he is an elected fellow of both the American Statistical Association and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics.

His many accolades also include honors for his superb teaching and mentoring. James is a recipient of the Evan C. Thompson Faculty Teaching and Learning Innovation Award and three-time winner of the Marshall School’s Golden Apple Award for best instructor in the full-time MBA program. He has also been awarded Marshall’s and USC’s highest honors for mentoring junior colleagues and graduate students, including the Dean’s Award for Ph.D. Advising, the USC Mellon Faculty Mentoring Faculty Award, the Evan C. Thompson Mentoring and Leadership Award and the USC Provost’s Mentoring Award. He received his Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Commerce degrees from the University of Auckland and his Ph.D. from Stanford University.

I want to thank the search/advisory committee members for assembling an outstanding pool of candidates for this position and for their roles in recruiting Dean James:

• Michael Waterstone (chair) – dean of the UCLA School of Law
• Heather M. Caruso – associate dean for inclusive excellence; faculty co-director, Inclusive Ethics Initiative; adjunct associate professor of management & organizations and behavioral decision making
• Charles Corbett – professor of operations management and sustainability; IBM Chair in Management
• Henry Friedman – faculty vice chair of curriculum and teaching; professor of accounting
• Jana Gallus – associate professor of strategy and behavioral decision making
• Cassie Mogilner Holmes – professor of marketing and behavioral decision making; Bud Knapp Marketing Professor
• Francis Longstaff – distinguished professor of finance, Allstate Chair in Insurance and Finance
• Kathleen McGarry – professor and chair of the Department of Economics
• Miguel Unzueta – professor and area chair, management and organizations
• Nico Voigtländer – professor and area chair, global economics and management
• Steve Yu – chief operating and financial officer, UCLA South Bay; interim chief administrative officer, UCLA Chancellor’s Organization; president, UCLA Anderson Alumni Network Board of Directors

I also wish to recognize and express my sincere gratitude to Margaret Shih for her dedicated service as interim dean since July 2025, and as faculty chair during the years prior.

Dean James’ distinguished academic and administrative leadership, coupled with his Los Angeles roots, position him well to lead the UCLA Anderson School of Management at this pivotal moment. Chancellor Frenk and I are confident that the school will continue to fulfill its vital role on campus and will reach new heights under Gareth’s capable leadership. Please join us in congratulating him and warmly welcoming him to UCLA.

Sincerely,

Darnell Hunt
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost