College President James Freedman yesterday appointed Colin Blaydon, a former dean of the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration, as interim Tuck dean.
Blaydon will take over when the current dean, Edward Fox, leaves on Sept. 1. Blaydon, currently a Tuck professor of business administration, served as dean from 1983 to 1990.
"It is a pleasure and a privilege to be part of the faculty at Tuck, and I look forward to serving the school as interim dean," Blaydon said in a press release.
Fox announced his resignation in March after being denied a requested second four-year term following a standard review.
After Fox's resignation, Freedman and interim Provost Bruce Pipes met with Tuck faculty to discuss the search process for a dean.
Tuck administrators said there was not enough time to conduct a national search for a successor and opted to have an interim dean.
Each Tuck professor was asked to submit a list of his or her top three choices for interim dean from within the faculty of the business school. Freedman then appointed Blaydon from the short-list.
Blaydon will serve as the interim dean until a replacement can be found. A search process is expected to begin soon, Pipes said, although he said he does not know now what the process might entail.
Pipes said he is unsure when a new dean will be found but the search may take as long as a year.
"I'm pleased to be able to do [the job]," Blaydon said. "I'm happy to help out."
Pipes said faculty may have suggested Blaydon because he is familiar with the position.
Blaydon said he resigned in 1990 because he felt he had served a complete term.
Pipes said an interim dean may not be quite as involved with long term projects as permanent deans.
Blaydon graduated from the University of Virginia in 1962 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. He earned a master of arts and a doctorate of applied mathematics from Harvard University in 1967.
Before becoming Tuck dean in 1983, Blaydon served as an assistant professor at Harvard Business School and vice provost at Duke University.
After resigning as Tuck dean, Blaydon spent one year at Harvard as a visiting research professor and then worked as a partner in a consulting firm and directed two engineering companies.
Blaydon returned as a professor to Tuck last fall.
He is also presently director and senior advisor to the economic management and consulting firm Putnam, Hayes & Bartlett Inc., where he was elected partner in 1981.
Blaydon is on the Board of Directors of LTV Corporation, Tom's of Maine, the University of Southern California Business School and the Whiteman School. He chairs the board of ITP Systems Inc.
Neither Blaydon nor Freedman were available for comment yesterday.
