Leadership transitions at Jones School

With the start of the new school year, two key leadership transitions have taken place at the Jones Graduate School of Business: Jeff Fleming, the Fayez Sarofim Vanguard Professor of Finance, has been named deputy dean, while outgoing Deputy Dean K. Ramesh, the Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Accounting, will continue to serve the school as academic dean for special initiatives.

JEFF FLEMING

“We are extremely happy that Jeff has accepted this leadership role,” said Bill Glick, dean and the H. Joe Nelson III Professor of Management. “I would like to offer my sincere thanks to Ramesh for his service as deputy dean over the last two years. He deserves tremendous credit for his contributions across the school, including the relaunch of the Master of Accounting, which he will continue to drive through its relaunch, and crafting and implementing our strategies around energy, health care and entrepreneurship.”

Glick said Ramesh has also made an impact on the dissemination of the school’s faculty research and demonstrated the importance of thought leadership through the development of a new website, Business Wisdom at Rice, which is slated to launch soon.

As deputy dean, Fleming will manage faculty recruitment, promotion, tenure and other processes as well as research staff and budgets. He will support Business Wisdom at Rice and other faculty branding efforts, work closely with area coordinators and other deans on strategic issues and oversee the Ph.D. program led by Professor Jennifer George.

“I look forward to this opportunity to rejoin the dean’s leadership team and especially to supporting the academic research mission of our faculty,” said Fleming, who previously served as senior associate dean of academic affairs from 2010 to 2013.

Ramesh will lead two key university efforts emanating from the president and provost’s offices: digital education and enhanced connections between the Jones School and the Department of Economics. “Both of these initiatives are very important to the school,” Glick said.

In addition to his role as deputy dean, Fleming will continue his research and teaching as part of the finance group. A member of the Jones School faculty since 1993, he teaches courses on futures and options in the MBA program and a course on business economics in the MBA program for executives. He received the Jones Graduate School Excellence in Teaching Award in 2000 and 2003. His research interests include option pricing, implied volatility, volatility modeling and the role of information flow in financial markets. Two of his papers were finalists for the Smith-Breeden Prize awarded annually by the Journal of Finance.