68: John Evans (VinUniversity) on Leading a Startup Business School

On this episode of Deans Counsel, Jim Ellis, Dave Ikenberry and Ken Kring speak with John Evans, Dean of the VinUniversity College of Business and Management in Hanoi, Vietnam. Prior to joining VinUni, Professor Evans was the Pro Vice Chancellor and President of Curtin University Dubai campus.John has held numerous senior leadership roles in Higher Education and has extensive senior academic international experience. He is also an active researcher and publishes and teaches mainly in the fields of Corporate Governance, Financial Control and Financial Accounting. He is a Fellow of the CPA and holds a PhD from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign).Founded in 2020, VinUni is a private, not-for-profit university that has built strategic collaborations with Cornell and Penn, and represents an emerging trend of "startup" business schools. At only five years old -- and with the business school being a year younger -- VinUni faces a unique set of challenges, far different from the many legacy schools with far more history and experience than VinUni.In this wide-ranging conversation, John walks our hosts through his experience thus far, discussing such topics as:- attracting top talent- establishing VinUni as a research as well as teaching institution- developing key programs in collaboration with Cornell and Penn- how the university's startup nature differs from administration and systems creation at legacy schoolsLearn more about John EvansComments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note!Thanks for listening.-Produced by Joel Davis at Analog Digital Arts--DEANS COUNSEL: A podcast for deans and academic leadership.James Ellis | Moderator | Dean of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (2007-2019)David Ikenberry | Moderator | Dean of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado-Boulder (2011-2016)Ken Kring | Moderator | Co-Managing Director, Global Education Practice and Senior Client Partner at Korn FerryDeansCounsel.com