Dean and Stanley and Pauline Foster Endowed Chair, Rady School of Management
Robert S. Sullivan joined the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego as its founding dean in January 2003. Dr. Sullivan is an expert on entrepreneurship, knowledge management and operations management.
Dr. Sullivan has successfully recruited top-tier faculty, from universities such as the University of Chicago, MIT, New York University, Northwestern, Princeton, Stanford, the Wharton School and Yale. Under Dr. Sullivan’s leadership, the Beyster Institute was integrated with the Rady School, thereby increasing the school’s brand in San Diego and throughout the world. In 2013-14, Dr. Sullivan served as chair of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International), the premier accrediting body for business education. During Dr. Sullivan’s tenure, the Rady School opened and moved to Otterson Hall in June 2007, followed by Wells Fargo Hall in May 2012. In 2004, Dr. Sullivan secured the naming gift for the School, $30 million from the Rady Family Foundation. In 2015, Dr. Sullivan secured an additional $100 million investment to endow the Rady School.
Prior to joining UC San Diego, Dr. Sullivan was dean of the Kenan-Flagler Business School of The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and dean of the Graduate School of Industrial Administration at Carnegie Mellon University.
Dr. Sullivan holds a doctorate in operations management from Pennsylvania State University, a master’s degree in production management and quantitative methods from Cornell University and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Boston College.