Dr. Hasan Pirkul

Dr. Hasan Pirkul, dean of the Naveen Jindal School of Management, recently received the John J. Fernandes Strategic Leadership Award from the Academy of Strategic and Entrepreneurial Leadership.

Dr. Hasan Pirkul, dean of the Naveen Jindal School of Management and Caruth Chair of Management, was honored for his impact on shaping management education last month at a meeting of the Allied Academies in San Antonio.

Pirkul received the John J. Fernandes Strategic Leadership Award on Oct. 10 at the meeting of the Allied Academies in San Antonio. Presented by the Academy of Strategic and Entrepreneurial Leadership (ASEL), the honor recognizes a university president, provost, dean or other senior academic leader who has demonstrated outstanding leadership.

The award was named for its first recipient, John J. Fernandes, president and CEO of AACSB International – The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business – who described Pirkul as a “very accomplished dean.”

Dean Pirkul has not only been an exceptional leader for The University of Texas at Dallas, but he has also been instrumental in shaping the future of global management education by serving on over 10 accreditation teams and the AACSB Pre-Accreditation Committee.

John J. Fernandes,
The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business

“Dean Pirkul has not only been an exceptional leader for The University of Texas at Dallas, but he has also been instrumental in shaping the future of global management education by serving on over 10 accreditation teams and the AACSB Pre-Accreditation Committee,” Fernandes said. “He has also provided guidance to leaders in management education through his presentations at several AACSB conferences. The world of management education is indebted to Hasan for his service and leadership.”

ASEL presented the dean’s accomplishments by noting that during his 17-year tenure, Pirkul has overseen the transformation of the Jindal School from a small institution, which lacked AACSB accreditation and national program rankings, into a school where the number of academic programs has risen from six to 26.

Under Pirkul’s leadership, student enrollment has soared from 2,200 in 1996 to nearly 7,000 in fall 2013. The number of faculty has risen from 45 to 174, with 20 named professors. The dean oversaw the construction of the school’s new home in 2003, a $38 million, 214,000-square-foot facility, and he is currently managing a $25 million addition to the Jindal School, increasing the school’s physical size by 50 percent.

Pirkul, whose works have been cited more than 2,800 times by scholars, was praised for creating an academic environment that fosters scholarly inquiry, innovative teaching, research productivity and the development of forward-thinking programs – such as health care management and innovation and entrepreneurship – that help drive a technology-based global economy.