Lawrence DeBrock, professor of business administration and economics, has been announced as the new dean of the College of Business, pending the Board of Trustees’ approval at its meeting May 21.

As a member of the College of Business’ faculty for 30 years, DeBrock was an associate dean for graduate and professional programs from 2000 to 2007. He has served as interim dean since former Dean Avijit Ghosh was named vice president of technology and economic development in 2008.

“In his role as interim dean he has shown an ability to provide vision and get people to follow him. He is an individual of considerable accomplishment and speaks passionately about the college — its faculty, staff and students and has great support from them. We are delighted to send his name to our board,” said Chancellor Richard Herman in a press release.

DeBrock said serving the College of Business since 1979 has allowed him to develop an understanding of where the college needs to go.

“Recruiters like our students because they are well-trained,” DeBrock said. “We’ll change a few things, but continue to grow the strengths we’ve built over the past couple of years.”

Teaching students how leaders should behave allows them to become better students and improves the stature of the College of Business, DeBrock said.

Additional changes DeBrock said he hopes to tackle as dean include revisiting some issues in the Ph.D. department, developing the master’s programs and increasing the size of the faculty.

“The student-to-faculty ratio is a bit high,” he said.

While most colleges are trying to limit the number of new faculty members, the College of Business is an exception.

The college will be able to take on new faculty members because the faculty size has been decreasing overall.

Last year, the College of Business lost more faculty than it gained, DeBrock said. The high number of retiring faculty members and other opportunities for employment among business professionals are some causes of this trend.

Additionally, there is a demand for business courses across campus. With an increase in faculty, business courses could be made available to students outside of the College of Business.

Colleagues say one of DeBrock’s strengths as dean is the strong support of the faculty he has earned during the past 30 years.

“I think he’s an outstanding choice for our college,” said David Ikenberry, professor of finance. “We’re at a point today that we need to reinstate our position as a leader. We’ve made remarkable strides in the past seven years, but Larry is the ideal person to lead this.”

As far as long-term goals, DeBrock said he just wants to ensure that the College of Business continues to improve.

“Obviously we want to get better, improve and produce stronger graduates to help not just our students, but the state of Illinois,” DeBrock said.