For the second time in two weeks, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Badia Ahad announced the departure of one of Emory’s nine deans. In an email to the Emory University Goizueta Business School community on Jan. 12, Ahad shared that Goizueta Dean Gareth James will leave Emory to become the next dean of the University of California, Los Angeles’s Anderson School of Management. James will continue to lead Goizueta through the Spring 2026 semester before beginning his tenure at Anderson on July 1.
In a separate email to the Goizueta community, James wrote that his decision to leave Emory is not due to professional reasons but personal ones. James has served as Goizueta dean since 2022, making him Emory’s second-longest tenured dean.
“I have truly loved my time at Goizueta and living in Atlanta,” James wrote. “It is hard to think about leaving this amazing school and beautiful city, filled with such friendly people. The last four years have been the most fulfilling and exciting of my academic career.”
Last week, Ahad announced that Barbara Krauthamer had resigned from her role as dean of the Emory College of Arts and Sciences. Krauthamer had served for less than three years in the role.
During his tenure, James spearheaded three new degree programs, including the Master of Finance, Master in Business for Veterans and Master in Management, in addition to the Master in Health Administration program, a partnership between Goizueta and the Rollins School of Public Health launching in Fall 2026.
Under James, Goizueta also introduced a business minor in 2023, which Ahad wrote is the most popular at Emory. Ahad applauded James for his contributions to the business school in her Jan. 12 email.
“I am grateful to Dean James for his dedication to the Goizueta community, his vision for the future of business education at Emory, and his commitment to advancing Goizueta’s mission to prepare principled leaders who positively influence business and society,” Ahad wrote.
In his email, James thanked Ahad for recognizing his achievements but emphasized that these changes could not be attributed only to him.
“Let me be clear—those are the accomplishments of our faculty and staff, with incredible support from our students, alumni and school boards. I personally implemented none of them. At most, I created an environment which gave our community the belief and resources to achieve amazing things.”
According to Ahad, the University will commence the search for a new Goizueta dean in the coming weeks. With this new search, Emory is now actively seeking or will need to seek replacements for five deans, including the Emory College, Candler School of Theology, Oxford College and Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, in addition to finding a permanent University president.
Jacob Muscolino (he/him) (28C) is a News Editor at The Emory Wheel. He is from Long Island and plans to major in History and Psychology. Outside of the Wheel, he is involved in Emory Reads and Emory Economics Review. You can often find Jacob watching the newest blockbuster for his Letterboxd, dissecting The New York Times and traveling to the next destination on his bucket list.
