George R. Burman to resign as dean of Syracuse University’s School of ManagementDecember 06, 2002Cynthia J. Moritzcjmoritz@syr.edu
After 13 years, George R. Burman will step down June 30, 2003, as dean of SU’s School of Management. After a yearlong sabbatical, he will return to the school as a professor of entrepreneurial management. A search committee to find Burman’s replacement will be formed by the beginning of the spring semester.
“This position has been more exciting and satisfying than I expected,” Burman says. “I never would have thought I would remain as dean for 13 years. It’s been a great honor and a pleasure to serve in this capacity.”
Burman adds that he thinks it is time for the school to get new leadership. “It will be good to bring in someone with new energy and new perspectives to continue the improvement of the school,” he says.
He is looking forward to the chance to connect more closely with students when he returns from sabbatical. “Students are what make being in this environment so great,” he comments.
During Burman’s tenure, the School of Management has implemented new curricula for the undergraduate and M.B.A. programs; added programs in entrepreneurial management and management of technology, the M.B.A. Upgrade and a creative freshman course; instituted initiatives to improve the quality of teaching; expanded its career services; and put plans in motion to build a new home.
Under Burman, the school has twice been reaccredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International. Enrollments and student quality have increased significantly during his tenure, as has the school’s fiscal performance.
He looks forward to the continuation of all these initiatives, especially as they help to build the school’s reputation. The new building, for which groundbreaking will take place in the spring, is “a very important improvement that will allow us to do things that we can’t get done in this building.”
University officials laud Burman’s leadership of the School of Management. “My first impression of Dean Burman came from a publication of the remarks he made to faculty at his first meeting with them, during the summer before I came to Syracuse,” says Chancellor Kenneth A. Shaw. “I found his ideas to be focused, on target and inspirational. He hasn’t disappointed me since.”
“When we look back, I am sure that George Burman will go down as one of the finest deans the School of Management has had. His accomplishments are numerous,” says Vice Chancellor and Provost Deborah A. Freund. “I am especially grateful for his getting the school accredited, and for the development of the entrepreneurship program.Of course, his lasting legacy will be the new School of Management building. He has done all of the things to position the school to make its next leap. And if that wasn’t enough, his mild and thoughtful manner has made him a colleague that many others on campus have sought to work with.”
Before coming to SU, Burman was president of American Gilsonite, a subsidiary of the Chevron Corp. From 1985 to 1988 he was manager of planning and analysis at Chevron, and from 1976 to 1985 he held a variety of management positions in the oil and gas and minerals businesses of Gulf Oil Corp. Burman served on the faculty of Carnegie-Mellon University, where he was assistant dean of the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management from 1974 to 1976.
Burman earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering in 1964 from Northwestern University, where he was also named an Academic All American in football. He earned a master’s degree in business administration and a Ph.D. in economics from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago in 1967 and 1973, respectively. At the same time, he pursued a career in the National Football League, playing for the Chicago Bears, Los Angeles Rams and Washington Redskins. He was a member of the Redskins team that took on the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VII. He has served as an expert witness in several court cases on the economics of professional sports.
Burman is a member of the board of governors and the executive committee of Beta Gamma Sigma, the national business honor society. He is a member and past president of the Middle Atlantic Association of Colleges of Business Administration. He is a member of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International, the American Economic Association and the NFL Alumni. He served on the external advisory council of the National Pollution Prevention Center at the University of Michigan and recently completed terms as a director of the New York Mercantile Exchange, as a member of the board of advisors for Preco Manufacturing Inc., as a trustee of the Public Broadcasting Council of Central New York Inc., and as a director of the American Red Cross of Onondaga County. He is also a director of Balboa Life Insurance.
