Andrew Karolyi, the Charles Field Knight Dean of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, has been reappointed to the position for a five-year term, effective July 1, 2024, Provost Michael I. Kotlikoff announced Oct. 2.

The Cornell Board of Trustees Executive Committee voted Sept. 14 to approve Karolyi’s reappointment.

Karolyi, also a professor of finance and holder of the Harold Bierman Jr. Distinguished Professorship in the college’s Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, was appointed as dean in April 2021, after serving as dean in an interim role.

“Andrew’s leadership has been collaborative, respectful, and visionary,” Kotlikoff said. “He has stepped into the deanship at a pivotal moment in the history of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, fostered excellence in the Cornell Dyson, Nolan and Johnson schools, and has established a clear strategy to support collegewide initiatives. Andrew has the vision and support of the college to continue to enhance its position of one of the world’s leading colleges of business.”

Said Karolyi: “I am delighted, honored and fully aware of the expectations and the responsibilities that come with an opportunity like this.”

Before he was named acting dean following the departure of former Dean Kevin Hallock, Karolyi served as deputy dean and dean of academic affairs of the college. He took the reins of the SC Johnson College just five years after its 2016 launch, which brought together the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration.

Bringing three schools together “clearly was a situation where we needed to listen,” Karolyi said. “Those in leadership roles at each school and in the college needed to listen to their own constituencies, our alumni, faculty, staff and students, and to the broader community about the concerns and the opportunities. We needed to hear from our distinguished colleagues in all three schools about what made them tick, what made them successful in their own ways. We have done that, and we are on the move.”

Building a sense of community in the college has been one of Karolyi’s main objectives, and he said he’s looking forward to continuing that process.

“That’s what energizes me more than anything else about the reappointment,” he said. “We still have much work to do to build a sense of college. It is better and continues to get better; I sense that, I hear that from my faculty and staff colleagues, from our alumni leaders, and it’s gratifying to see it come alive.”

Among Karolyi’s accomplishments as dean:

• A 20% increase in enrollment across the college’s three schools in the professional master’s programs, including the launch of three new master’s programs, two in partnership with eCornell and one with Peking University;
• Fundraising as part of the “To Do the Greatest Good” capital campaign that has reached more than 80% of the college's goal of $500 million;
• Establishment of the Paul Rubacha Department of Real Estate, managed by both the SC Johnson College and the College of Architecture, Art and Planning. The department was established in conjunction with a $30 million gift from Paul Rubacha ’72, MBA ’73;
• Hiring more than 30 new faculty members affiliated with each of the three schools and across all eight of the college’s disciplinary areas; and
• Launching the “Building a College, Living our Values” college strategic plan involving a streamlining of leadership roles and responsibilities and more cross-school student learning opportunities and cross-school faculty teaching and research opportunities.

Karolyi focuses his research on investment management with a specialization in the study of international financial markets. He has published extensively in journals in finance and economics, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics and Review of Financial Studies, and has published several books and monographs, most notably “Cracking the Emerging Markets Enigma” (2015).

He serves as global chair of the board of Responsible Research for Business and Management, an international organization dedicated to supporting research in business and management. He is also vice chair of Principles for Responsible Management Education, a United Nations initiative that engages more than 800 business and management schools around the world to ensure they provide future leaders with the skills needed to balance economic and sustainability goals.

Those affiliations, Karolyi said, are important in terms of putting Cornell at the forefront of leadership in the world of business education – “continuing to leverage Cornell’s name for the influence that it can exert in management education around the world,” he said.

Karolyi received his bachelor’s in economics from McGill University in 1983, and a master’s in economics from the University of Ottawa in 1985. He worked at the Bank of Canada from 1983-85 in its research department, then earned his MBA (1987) and Ph.D. (1989) in finance at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.