UCI management school first with trio of female leaders

-- Deirdre Newman

The Graduate School of Management at UC Irvine has made history as the

first coed business school with three women in leadership positions,

school officials said.

Jone Pearce was named interim dean of the school in May and will start

July 1. She is now a professor of organization and strategy.

Pearce then appointed two female colleagues to assist her: Mary Gilly,

professor of marketing, who will be vice dean for academic affairs; and

Joanna Ho, associate professor of accounting, who will be vice dean for

educational programs.

Pearce will serve as interim dean for the following school year while

the school continues its search for a permanent dean.

She said she will focus on raising local and national awareness of the

schools’ scholarship and educational program, increasing the number of

full-time scholarly faculty and generating the resources necessary to

improve the MBA program’s national and international rankings.

She replaced Dean David Blake, who is returning to teaching and

research at the school after five years as dean.

“Professor Pearce is a first-rate scholar with a truly international

reputation for excellence and creativity,” Blake said in a press release.

“She brings great strength to her new position.”