Fernandes Strategic Leadership Award
The Academy recognized John Fernandes, CEO of AACSB
International, at its Spring meeting in New Orleans, 2012, through the
first Fernandes Strategic Leadership Award. During the last decade,
Fernandes has driven an unprecedented growth in
quality, accountability, and continuous
improvement in universities around the world.
In recognition of his extraordinary leadership, the Academy
created this award in his honor. The award, called the John J.
Fernandes Strategic Leadership Award,
will be presented periodically to a Dean, Provost, President, or other
senior academic leader who evidences great leadership.If you would like to nominate a candidate for the award, please download the nomination form and instructions. Any interested party may nominate an individual, and self- nominations are acceptable. A Candidate may only win this Award once.
The first winner of the Award was
recognized at the Academy meeting in Las Vegas in October, 2012, when
the Academy recognized the extraordinary leadership of Dr. George
Najjar. Dr. George Najjar served as Dean of the School of Business at
American University of Beirut from its inception in 2000, when it was
established as an independent unit with 13 faculty members. Dr. Najjar
led a curriculum overhaul and introduced an entirely new curriculum for
the BBA and MBA degrees in 2001. In 2003, the School was named the
Suliman S. Olayan School of Business, and in 2004 it launched the
Executive MBA program. In 2009, the School achieved AACBS
Accreditation; no mean feat for a small college in the Middle East!
To date, it has graduated over 6,000 students from its
undergraduate
program and over 1,200 from its graduate programs, and has grown its
full-time faculty to over 45. It now graduates more than 350 students
from its undergraduate program and 60 from its graduate programs every
year. More importantly, under Dr. Najjar’s leadership, the School has
become internationally recognized as being in the top 5% of business
schools worldwide. Dr. Najjar became Provost of the Lebanese American
University on October 1, 2012.