Villanova School of Business Names New Leadership for Graduate and Executive Education Programs
Villanova, Pa., October 25, 2019 - The Villanova School of Business (VSB) is pleased to announce an expanded leadership team to support our growing presence in graduate and executive education. A national search led to the hiring of Manuel (Manny) Nuñez ’03 MBA as the new Associate Dean of Graduate Programs, and Jeffrey D. Kudisch, PhD, as the new Associate Dean of Corporate Relations and Executive Education. Mr. Nuñez will oversee the Part-Time MBA, Online MBA and specialty masters programs as well as enrollment and career strategy services for graduate business students, while Dr. Kudisch will focus on our Executive MBA (EMBA) Program and expanding VSB’s executive education efforts.
“We are delighted to have Manny and Jeff at the helm of this new era for VSB’s graduate and executive education,” said Joyce E. A. Russell, PhD, the Helen and William O’Toole Dean of the Villanova School of Business. “Manny’s work around diversity, equity and inclusion, combined with his academic and industry experience, make him the perfect leader to execute VSB’s strategic plan for its Graduate Programs. Jeff brings a wealth of experience with building bridges between higher education and industry in the public and private sectors alike. We’re excited to see how they elevate our programs to equip students to drive change in business and elsewhere.”
About Manuel Nuñez ’03 MBA
Manny has been affiliated professionally with VSB for over ten years, as an adjunct faculty member, Chair of the Advisory Council for the Elenore and Robert F. Moran Sr. Center for Global Leadership, and most recently as a Professor of Practice in the Management & Operations department. Manny also serves and will continue to serve as the Faculty Director for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at VSB. Prior to academia, Manny spent sixteen years in the private sector as a sales and marketing leader at Merck & Co. where he held positions of increasing responsibility within both the U.S. and International business groups and drove growth for several multi-billion-dollar product franchises. He also spent six years in the public sector serving as Managing Director of the Office of External and Government Affairs at the Inter-American Foundation, a federal agency.
“The pace of change in business today calls for nimble leaders who are also good stewards of an organization’s mission and values,” says Nuñez. “Our mindset at the Villanova School of Business fits naturally with that mandate and I welcome this opportunity to grow our programs to produce forward-thinking, responsible agents of change for this world.”
In addition to his responsibilities at VSB, Nuñez also serves on the board of trustees at Eastern Mennonite University and is a past board member at Patient Ready Clinicians. His many awards include The Joseph C. Bartley OSA Alumni Medallion (the highest award bestowed on a VSB alumnus/a), a Medical Media & Marketing Gold Award, an International Health Care Marketing Association Gold Award and a Merck Senior Executive Leadership Award.
Nuñez received his MBA from Villanova and his BA from Eastern Mennonite University. He also completed a Special Sciences Post-Baccalaureate at the University of Pennsylvania.
About Jeffrey D. Kudisch, PhD
Dr. Kudisch joins VSB from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland where he was a Clinical Full Professor and former Associate Chair in the Department of Management and Organization. He also served as the Assistant Dean of Corporate Relations and Managing Director of the Office of Career Services at the Smith School of Business, where he oversaw talent management and the placement success of undergraduate and graduate business students, including those in the Executive MBA program. In this role, he also worked extensively with employers and alumni to build corporate relationships and programming. Additionally, he has over 20 years of experience consulting and designing executive education programs with private and public sector organizations including McCormick and Company, Stanley Black & Decker, Lockheed Martin, Under Armour, Home Depot, BB&T, M&T Bank, Gables Residential, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), among others.
“It’s an exciting opportunity to join an institution like the Villanova School of Business that’s leading the way on the ideals of servant leadership,” says Dr. Kudisch. “I’m looking forward to advancing these themes within our Executive MBA while developing more transformational learning experiences for executives.”
During his nearly eighteen years at the Smith School, Dr. Kudisch created a variety of strategic initiatives that enhanced employer engagement, alumni engagement, student career readiness and brand. He developed the very successful Annual “Robert H. Smith School Business Summit,” which attracted nearly 900 business leaders, faculty, students, staff, and alumni to exchange insights on current trends and interdisciplinary issues facing thought leaders in the workplace. Dr. Kudisch has successfully taught courses at all levels from executive to undergraduates, and around the world with the Smith School’s partner universities. He has received many teaching and mentoring awards throughout his career, and is a three-time recipient of the Smith School’s top teaching award for faculty. Dr. Kudisch has also served as an executive coach for the Smith School’s EMBA program since its inception in 2003, and has been a contributor to the “Career Coach” column for The Washington Post’s Capital Business newspaper as well as conducting scholarly academic research and presentations at national conferences.
Dr. Kudisch received his PhD in Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, his MS in I/O Psychology from the University of Central Florida, and his BS in Psychology from the University of Florida.
The Villanova School of Business (VSB) undergraduate program is ranked #1 in the nation by Bloomberg Businessweek and its online graduate business programs are ranked #2, and its online MBA program is ranked #13 by U.S. News and World Report. VSB has been at the forefront of business education since it was founded in 1922. Serving over 2,700 undergraduate and graduate students, VSB is home to five Centers of Excellence – the Daniel M. DiLella Center for Real Estate, the Elenore and Robert F. Moran Sr. Center for Global Leadership, the Center for Business Analytics, the Center for Marketing & Consumer Insights and the Center for Church Management – with each designed to foster innovative, cross-disciplinary research and applied opportunities for students. VSB is known for academic rigor; creativity and innovation; hands-on and service learning opportunities; a firm grounding in ethics; and an applied education that prepares students to become outstanding leaders and global citizens within the ever-changing, complex, and fast-paced world of business. For more, visit business.villanova.edu.