Corey Phelps has been named the new John and Karen Arnold dean of Penn State’s Smeal College of Business, effective July 15. Credit: Corey Phelps via Penn State
The 2024 business school dean carousel continues, ending for one school and beginning for another. Penn State’s Smeal College of Business is the latest B-school to get off the ride, welcoming Corey Phelps, dean of the University of Oklahoma’s Price College of Business. Phelps officially starts his new job July 15.
Phelps, who is also the Fred E. Brown Chair of Business at Oklahoma Price and a professor of entrepreneurship and strategy, succeeds Charles Whiteman, who is retiring at the end of June.
“I am extremely excited to take the handoff from Chuck Whiteman and build on the momentum and foundation he’s helped create at the Smeal College,” Phelps says in a news release. “Smeal stood out for me in every way possible — it has an incredibly strong foundation of programs, centers, facilities, relationships and reputation. There is substantial momentum on multiple fronts and an energy to excel.”
SUCCESSES IN OKLAHOMA
Phelps has led the Price College since 2020. Under his leadership, the school raised more than $107 million of a $192 million endowment and reported a 23% increase in total enrollment between fall 2020 and 2023. Phelps also oversaw increases in annual research and professional development funding and growth and diversification in the school’s faculty. Twenty-one new programs were launched at Price under his deanship.
Before Oklahoma, Phelps was an associate dean of executive education and associate professor of strategy and organization at the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University in Montreal. He has also served on the faculties of HEC Paris and the Washington Foster School of Business. He earned a doctorate and MBA from New York Stern School of Business, as well as MBA and bachelor of arts degrees from San Diego State University.
Phelps says he sees great potential for the Smeal College in the larger educational ecosystem of Penn State.
“Beyond Smeal, Penn State possesses strength after strength in its other colleges, which Smeal can both complement and benefit from,” he says. “Most importantly, I’ve been thoroughly impressed with the quality, collegiality and commitment of the people I’ve met across the college and university.
“Smeal has the incredible opportunity and obligation to transform business education to prepare all qualified and motivated students, regardless of background or finances, to be the type of future-ready leaders, professionals and entrepreneurs Pennsylvania and the world need. I can’t wait to get to work on this noble effort.”
‘A FINANCIALLY RESPONSIBLE, FORWARD-THINKING DECISION’
Among other notable acts, outgoing Smeal Dean Whiteman oversaw the downsizing of Smeal’s full-time MBA program from two years to one. The two-year cohort that graduated this year was the school’s last.
“For years, the number of students interested in committing to a full-time, two-year resident program has steadily decreased while other, more flexible learning options have proliferated across the country,” Whiteman said in 2022. “At Smeal, we carefully evaluated our program over several years and arrived at a solution that leverages the strength of our integrated professional graduate portfolio. We considered many factors and, ultimately, made a financially responsible, forward-thinking decision.”
Penn State Smeal’s MBA program is currently ranked 59th by Poets&Quants, down from 32nd when the announcement to downsize was made in August 2022.
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