Lantz Named New SBE Dean
Keith W. Lantz has accepted the position of dean of the School of Business
and Economics effective August 28, Provost Kent Wray has announced.
Lantz is currently dean of the School of Business at Auburn University
Montgomery, in Alabama, a position he has held since 1995. He was formerly
a professor on the faculty of California State University at Fullerton,
where he served as associate dean for accounting and chair of the accounting
department before being named associate dean for development.
Lantz replaces former SBE dean Gene Klippel, who stepped down from the
post June 30 to pursue his teaching and research interests as an MTU faculty
member. Since then, Associate Dean Terry Monson has led the School as
its interim dean. “I’m particularly grateful for Terry’s
leadership during this transition,” Wray said. “He’s done
an excellent job, and both the School and the University have benefitted
from his efforts.”
Lantz was professor and head of Eastern Michigan University’s Department
of Accounting and Finance from 1983 to 1987, and was previously on the
faculties of West Virginia University and Pennsylvania State University.
He has held several posts outside of academia, including serving as a
consultant for Arthur Anderson and as an auditor for Ernst and Young.
“I am pleased to have someone with Keith Lantz’s extensive
background assume the leadership of the School,” Wray said. “With
his experience as an AACSB-accreditation visitor and at Auburn Montgomery,
Keith is well positioned to help the School of Business and Economics
achieve its strategic goals.”
Lantz made frequent trips to the Upper Peninsula long before his visits
in connection with the SBE’s accreditation efforts. “My wife
[the former Michel Valenti] is a native of Ishpeming, and we are both
very pleased to be coming up there,” Lantz said Tuesday from his
home in Montgomery. “She has family all over the area, and her brother
is a graduate of Michigan Tech, so we have many ties to the U.P.”
The SBE recently became the first business school in the Upper Peninsula
to be accredited by AACSB International, a fact that played a role in
Lantz’s decision to move north. “It was a vital point in drawing
me here,” he said. “I hope to build on that accreditation.”
Under Lantz’s leadership, the School’s future will continue
to brighten, Wray predicted. “Keith will be able to project its reputation
in new ways,” he said. “I am looking forward to working with
him as the next dean of the School of Business and Economics.”
Lantz said he hoped to build on the SBE’s accreditation. “We
need to recruit more students and work more with our alums,” he said.
“There’s a need to draw more support, and hopefully, perhaps,
a new building in our future.”
While at AUM, he reorganized the School and instituted a major revision
of its curricula. He serves on the editorial board of “The Southern
Business & Economic Journal” and was a reviewer for “SAM
Advanced Management Journal.” He is a member and former chair of
the Promotion and Tenure Committee at Auburn University Montgomery, a
member of the Faculty Senate, and president of the local chapter of Beta
Gamma Sigma, the business honor society.
Lantz has a PhD in Business Administration from the University of Iowa
with an emphasis in accounting and finance, an MS in Accounting from Oklahoma
State University, and a BS in Accounting from the University of Wyoming.
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8/10/01
