The University of Oklahoma announced today the appointment of Corey Phelps, Ph.D., as dean of the Michael F. Price College of Business, pending OU Board of Regents’ approval. His role at OU will begin July 1.
Phelps will join OU from McGill University, where he serves as Marcel Desautels Faculty Fellow and associate dean of executive programs and education at the Desautels Faculty of Management.
A national search was conducted for the position, attracting over 45 qualified applicants. The search committee – made up of 11 members representing Price College faculty, staff, students and Board of Advisors, and representatives from the College of Law and the Honors College – interviewed seven semifinalists and invited two finalists to campus. The search solicited feedback from all College of Business constituencies – faculty, staff, students and executive team – and from other college deans and the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, who met with each of the finalists. Phelps was the search committee’s unanimous choice and the preferred candidate of the different College of Business constituencies.
“Dr. Phelps is an innovative, strategic leader, and we are thrilled to welcome him to the University of Oklahoma,” said OU Interim President Joseph Harroz Jr. “His collaborative approach inspires his colleagues and students alike to deliver results. We are confident that his deep knowledge and enthusiasm will drive the Price College of Business to even greater heights.”
As associate dean at McGill Desautels, Phelps oversees three degree programs – the McGill-HEC Executive MBA, the International Master’s in Practicing Management, and the International Master’s for Health Leadership – and the McGill Executive Institute, which delivers non-degree public and customized executive programs. During his tenure, Phelps helped grow annual revenue and surplus from executive education by nearly 25%.
Before joining the faculty at McGill Desautels, Phelps served on the faculty at HEC Paris and the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. Over the course of his career, he has lived and worked in the U.S., France and Canada and has taught or consulted in 20 countries in most regions of the world.
“Dr. Phelps has a proven leadership record of overseeing academic strategy, creating and marketing new programs, advancing academic research and experiential learning, and launching a number of collaborative initiatives by stewarding relationships with campus and external stakeholders,” said Senior Vice President and Provost Kyle Harper. “I have no doubt he will do great things for Price College and its students.”
Phelps’s research intersects strategy, entrepreneurship and innovation, and has been cited nearly 6,000 times and published in numerous leading academic business journals, including the Academy of Management Journal, Information Systems Research and the Journal of Management. His research has garnered numerous awards, including the INFORMS Technology Management Best Paper Award, Journal of Management Scholarly Impact Award runner-up, and the Best Dissertation Award from the Academy of Management Technology and Innovation Management Division. His book – Cracked It! How to Solve Big Problems and Sell Solutions Like Top Strategy Consultants (co-authored with Bernard Garrette and Olivier Sibony) – was published in 2018 by Palgrave Macmillan and has received considerable media attention.
Phelps earned his Ph.D. in business administration and Master of Philosophy from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University and an MBA and B.A. from San Diego State University.
About the University of Oklahoma
Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. For more information visit www.ou.edu.
