MBA Roundup: UConn School of Business Dean Steps Down

Hartford Business: “John A. Elliott, dean of the UConn School of Business, will step aside next month and take a position as part of the educational faculty, the university announced this week.

An interim dean will be named later this week, and the university is embarking on a national search for Elliott’s replacement, according to Provost Anne D’Alleva.

lliott joined the staff at UConn in 2012, after stints as business dean at Baruch College, part of the City University of New York. Before that, he taught accounting for 20 years as a faculty member at Cornell University, his Ph.D. alma mater.

He will take a job as part of the accounting faculty within the School of Business.”

To read more, click here.

UPDATE: UConn management professor Greg Reilly has been named interim dean.

DON’T MISS: Anatomy Of An MBA Makeover: UConn’s Flex & OMBA Programs

Kennesaw State University

Kennesaw, GA: “Kennesaw State University is launching a new Rural Management concentration for its Evening Master of Business Administration program in Fall 2025. The program, which is the first rural management MBA program in the country, will empower rural communities to create economic opportunities and improve the quality of life for their residents.

The University System of Georgia this week approved two new concentrations for the Evening MBA program: Rural Management and Business Intelligence. While both additions allow the MBA program to expand its reach and relevance, the Rural Management concentration is unique in that no other university in the state serves that audience.

“Rural counties are experiencing incredible growth right now,” said Renee Bourbeau, executive director of MBA programs for Kennesaw State’s Michael Coles College of Business. “These communities have a need for qualified professionals to fill leadership positions in business and government. Kennesaw State is proud to be the first university in the country to offer an MBA program specifically tailored to their unique economic position.”

To read more, click here.

DON’T MISS: Your Admissions Path To MBA Success with Kennesaw State

A Harvard Business School online classroom

Boston, MA: “As Harvard Business School Online (HBS Online) marks a decade of growth and success, it is a moment of reflection and forward-thinking for the entire team. Since its launch in 2014, HBS Online has transformed online learning by reaching diverse learners worldwide and adapting Harvard’s case-based methodology to a virtual environment. To learn more about this journey, we spoke with Simeen Mohsen, senior managing director of HBS Online, about the most pivotal moments, the challenges the team has overcome, and the vision that continues to drive their evolution.

What pivotal moments shaped HBS Online’s success over the past decade?
Mohsen: In 2014, we took our first big step into online education by launching CORe (Credential of Readiness) and the course platform that would bring it to life. CORe combined Business Analytics, Economics for Managers, and Financial Accounting into one comprehensive program. There was both excitement and uncertainty about how this would be received, but when our first learner completed it, we knew we had something special.

Since then, we’ve hit several pivotal milestones. In 2015, HBS began offering CORe to incoming MBA students as a preparatory program, providing essential foundational knowledge to get them ready for the MBA Program. By 2016, we were welcoming participants in-person to our first Connext conference on campus, creating a space for connection and inspiration.

In the early days, HBS Online was known as HBX. Market research made us realize that people didn’t always connect “HBX” with HBS, so we rebranded as HBS Online in 2019. This helped clarify our identity, and since then, everything public facing has been under HBS Online, though internally, some of us still call it HBX from time to time.

Since the rebrand, we’ve expanded our reach, surpassing 100,000 learners by 2020—another key milestone, and recently reaching 255,000 enrollments.”

To read more of the interview, click here.

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