After more than a year-long search, Thunderbird has found candidates to take the posts of senior vice president of Academic Programs and dean of Faculty.

Professor Robert E. Widing II, currently the inaugural professor and chair of Marketing at the University of Melbourne, Australia, has been hired to fill the post of senior vice president of Academic Programs. Widing is expected to arrive on the Glendale campus at the end of March. Additionally, Dr. John Mathis, who is director of Faculty, has been promoted to serve as dean of Faculty.

"In his new role, Widing will work closely with all program directors and Student Services to ensure that each of our programs delivers on three key dimensions--learning outcomes, student satisfaction, and financial soundness--and that our whole portfolio of programs continues to position us as the world leader in international management," said Thunderbird President Dr. Angel Cabrera.

Widing succeeds Dr. David Bowen, who held the post of dean of Faculty and Programs for more than two years and had planned to step down from the post more than a year ago. Bowen will return full-time to the classroom.

Cabrera praised Bowen for extending his tenure as dean so that his transition into the role of president would be easier, and for overseeing academic affairs during a time of great turbulence in the academic industry.

"It has been an honor to be able to work with him during my first year at Thunderbird," Cabrera said. "I have learned a great deal from him, and I look forward to continuing to work with him in a variety of projects after we complete the transition. We lose a great dean but at the same time we gain a world class management professor for our faculty."

Widing comes to Thunderbird after a five-year term as associate dean of Graduate Studies in Melbourne. Since 1999, he has held the honorary position of visiting research professor of Marketing at Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand. Previously, he held the Coles Myer Chair in Retailing and Marketing at the Melbourne Business School (1994 to 1997) and was adjunct professor at MBS until 2003. Widing received a bachelor of arts (History), an MBA, and Ph.D. (Marketing and International Business) degrees from Ohio State University.

As associate dean of Graduate Studies, Widing led the creation, introduction and growth of 13 master's degrees, with masters-by-coursework enrollments growing from 131 to 628 during his tenure. Over this same period, he was instrumental in increasing the school's entry requirements. The Marketing Area, which Widing has led since its inception in 1998, was recently rated in the "Top Ten" of Asia-Pacific universities for publications over a five-year period (Journal of Marketing Education, 2003). The same publication listed Widing as a "Top-Ten" marketing researcher in the Asia-Pacific region for publications appearing over a ten-year period.

In 1998, Widing was awarded the highest marketing research honor in Australasia from the Australia-New Zealand Marketing Academy. Six of his more than 100 publications have received awards from marketing associations, including the American Marketing Association and the Academy of Marketing Science. He has served as associate editor for the Australian Journal of Management and serves as a reviewer for numerous journals and associations. His publications have appeared in the Journal of Marketing Research, European Journal of Marketing, Asian Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Australian Journal of Management, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Journal of Business Ethics, Psychological Reports, among others. He sits on three advisory boards, has given talks to a wide variety of audiences, and has consulted with numerous organizations, including the ANZ Banking Group, Bristol-Myer Squibb (Australia), Coles Myer Ltd, Crown Casino, Australian Financial Planning Association, Halcyon Management Group, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, KPMG Consulting, Opdicom, U21 Global, Telstra/Sensis, and the Victorian and Australian Governments. He is a dual citizen of Australia and the United States of America.

Mathis has been professor of International Banking and Finance since 1988. Prior to coming to Thunderbird, Mathis was senior portfolio officer with The World Bank/International Finance Corporation and senior financial analyst with The World Bank/International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. For 14 years, he was the chief international economist with Continental Illinois National Bank and before that was with the Chase Manhattan Bank. A graduate of the University of California at Riverside, Mathis received a Ph.D. degree in Economics from the University of Iowa, and taught at the University of Illinois and the State University of New York prior to entering the banking business.

Mathis continues to consult for financial and non-financial corporations in the United States and around the World. He specializes in securitization, trade finance, financial structuring, and financial re-structuring. His work deals with the analysis of changes in the economic and financial environment; projecting and evaluating financial and economic developments globally; identifying the risks and management options and policies associated with domestic and international loans and investments; developing corporate borrowing, liquidity and investment strategies and policies; and formulating financial plans and budgets. He has written and edited several books that are industry standards (including "Offshore Lending by U.S. Commercial Banks"), has contributed numerous articles to prestigious journals, and has been invited to speak throughout the world on international business issues.

A transition plan is being drafted that will shift the responsibilities over the next few months that Bowen had to both Widing and Mathis, Cabrera said.