George P. Tsetsekos Completes 10-Year Tenure As Drexel LeBow Dean

Drexel University LeBow College of Business Dean George P. Tsetsekos, Ph.D., announced today (April 16) that he is resigning his leadership position effective Sept. 1. He will continue to remain an active member of the Drexel faculty and will be named dean emeritus and the George Francis Professor of Finance.

“With the help of dedicated faculty and alumni, we have transformed business education at Drexel during the past 10 years,” Tsetsekos said. “We became a national leader in entrepreneurship, finance and international economics, and the quality of our students and professors has never been stronger. I have completed everything I set out to do when I became dean, including constructing a new LeBow building. Drexel LeBow has a strong foundation and unlimited potential. It is time for a new leader to guide the College through the next phase in its development.”

In a statement to the Drexel Community, President John A. Fry and Provost Mark L. Greenberg congratulated Tsetsekos for “a decade of exemplary service,” adding: “We want to take this opportunity to acknowledge George’s outstanding accomplishments as dean. The college he was appointed to lead in 2002 had a strong tradition of quality business education and the potential to join the world’s best-regarded business schools. Under George, LeBow College has fulfilled that potential.”

Since becoming dean in 2002, Tsetsekos increased the size of the faculty by 51 percent; nearly tripled LeBow’s number of Ph.D. students and more than doubled its M.S. students; recruited consistently smarter freshman classes; and increased the international diversity of the student body. He established centers focused on entrepreneurship, corporate governance, strategic leadership, corporate reputation management, experiential education, and teaching and research excellence; raised $82 million during his tenure from alumni and other donors; and introduced several new MBA programs. Tsetsekos initiated comprehensive collaboration programs with business schools in China, Germany, Turkey, England, France, Chile and Argentina; greatly enhanced the College’s partnerships with the business community; and he opened one new classroom building and is presiding over construction of a 12-story academic center scheduled to open in September 2013.

Those achievements and others brought greater visibility and skyrocketing rankings to Drexel LeBow. The College reached No. 1 in the nation for part-time MBA academic quality, No. 3 in entrepreneurship programs for undergraduate and graduate students, and No. 19 for its Executive MBA programs, including No. 3 for career progression. LeBow faculty are ranked No. 67 in the world in finance research and among the Top 75 out of 1,400 economics departments worldwide in the field of international trade.

“Drexel’s College of Business is one of the best investments I ever made,” the College’s namesake, Bennett S. LeBow, said in November 2010, while announcing his $45 million commitment to help construct a new building for the College; 10 years earlier, he gave $10 million. “I could not be happier on the return on investment from my initial gift.” R. John Chapel Jr., who endowed the dean’s chair at LeBow College, said at the time he made that gift: “I’m very impressed with what Dean Tsetsekos has done. I don’t feel that deans at many other colleges are out doing the types of things he is doing.”

Tsetsekos assumed leadership of LeBow College after having served as Drexel’s vice provost and vice president for academic administration (1997-2002). He joined Drexel in 1988 as an assistant professor of finance, and has served on boards at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia (Economic Advisory Board), The Penjerdel Council, Pennsylvania Economic League, The Conference Board, World Trade Center of Greater Philadelphia, Global Interdependence Center and the Journal of Investing. Educated as an engineer in his native Greece, Tsetsekos holds an MBA in finance from Wright State University and a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Tennessee.