Deans of the SBA - School of Business Administration

Deans of the School of Business Administration

Norton C. Seeber (1969-70 to 1978-79)

Ronald M. Horwitz (1979-80 to 1989-90)

George Stevens (1990-91 to 1994-95)

John Elliott Tower (1995-96 and 2004-05)

John Gardner (1996-97 to 2003-04)

Jonathan Silberman (2005-06 to 2006-07)

Mohan Tanniru (2007-Present)

Norton C. Seeber
1969-70 to 1978-79

Dr. Norton Seeber served as the founding dean of the School of Economics and Management (SEM) at Oakland from its start in July 1969. He resigned in August 1979. Dr. Seeber was originally hired as an economics faculty member in the Department of Business Administration and Economics in 1966 and led the development of the program for the new business school.

During Dr. Seeber's tenure as dean:

The faculty grew from eight faculty (seven economists and one area studies faculty member) in 1969 to 25 in 1979. By 1979 the SEM included faculty with training in accounting, finance, marketing, organizational behavior and operations management.
The undergraduate program offered courses and concentrations in accounting, finance, human resource management, management and marketing.
A Masters of Science in Management was developed and the first students started in 1972.
The SEM moved from North Foundation Hall to the first two floors of West Vandenberg Hall.

In 1978-79 Dr. Seeber took an administrative leave and then resigned from the SEM. He had a BS and MA from the University of Colorado and a PhD from the University of California (Berkeley).

Ronald M. Horwitz
1979-80 to 1989-90

Dr. Ronald M. Horwitz is Professor Emeritus of Finance at Oakland University. From academic year 1979-80 to 1989-90 he served as dean of the business school at Oakland and during 1992-93 was acting vice president for academic affairs at Oakland. During Dr. Horwitz’s tenure as dean of the School:

The graduate business program developed into a more standard MBA program and the title was changed from the unusual title Master of Science in Management (MSM) to Master of Business Administration (MBA) to reflect the change in the program.
The School was also renamed from the School of Economics and Management (SEM) to the School of Business Administration (SBA). This change was a reflection of the change to a school offering a normal range of business courses and majors in accounting, finance, human resources, management information systems, marketing and operations management.
He led the effort to achieve accreditation of the undergraduate and MBA programs by the AACSB in 1988. The AACSB-International is the premier business school accreditation body.
The SBA was reorganized into four departments – Accounting/Finance, Economics, Decision & Information Sciences (DIS) and Management/Marketing.
The first Board of Visitors (BOV) under the chairmanship of James McDonald, President of General Motors, was organized. This is a group of business executives and other managers that provide advice and support to the SBA.

Prior to joining Oakland University, Dr. Horwitz served on the faculty of the University of Detroit for 15 years (1963-74, 1975-79), five of which were as Chair of the Department of Accounting and Finance. He was also associated with the Detroit Office of Arthur Young & Company where he was a Health Care Specialist and Director of Professional Development.

Dr. Horwitz is a native Detroiter, receiving his B.S. (Accounting) and M.B.A. from Wayne State University. He was awarded his doctorate in Financial Administration by Michigan State University and is a Michigan Certified Public Accountant. He is a co-founder of the Accounting Aid Society of Metropolitan Detroit (now Volunteer Accounting Service Team).

George Stevens
1990-91 to 1994-95

Dr. George Stevens was Professor of Management and Dean of the SBA from the academic year 1990-91 to 1994-95. He came to Oakland from the position of interim dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of Central Florida. During Dr. Stevens tenure as dean the SBA earned reaccreditation of its undergraduate and MBA programs by the AACSB in 1994.

In 1995 Dr. Stevens was offered the position as dean of the College of Business Administration at Kent State University in Ohio. Since this was a larger business school with a doctoral program and both he and his wife had graduated from Kent State, he took the position and moved to Kent State as dean. He currently is President of the Board of Governors of Beta Gamma Sigma, the honor society serving business programs accredited by AACSB International. He will leave the deanship and return to faculty status at Kent State in 2009 after 14 years as dean.

John Elliott Tower
1995-96 and 2004-05

Dr. John Tower served as interim dean for the 1995-96 and 2004-05 school years. He was assistant dean of the School of Economics and Management (SEM) from 1974-75 to 1979-80. After a year as the Director of the Evening Extension program, he returned to the SBA as associate dean from 1981 to 1999. During his 1995-96 term as interim dean the SBA developed the evening MBA program off-campus in Birmingham. During his 2004-05 term as interim dean the SBA earned AACSB reaccreditation for its undergraduate and masters programs. In addition, the SBA started offering undergraduate courses off-campus at the Macomb Community College.

Over his varied teaching career from 1968-1999, John taught economics, accounting, finance, and management information systems (MIS) courses. He also was the point person for the SBA in the construction of Elliott Hall, the school's new home, completed in 2000. Elliott Hall received its name from the major donors, Nancy and Hugh Elliott, not from John's middle name. He is currently retired as Professor Emeritus and Honorary Alumnus of OU.

John is a metropolitan Detroiter who lived in Highland Park and graduated from Grosse Pointe High School. He earned a BSE in Industrial Engineering and a MBA at University of Michigan. He received his PhD in economics from the University of Buffalo. He served in the U.S. Army as an industrial engineer at the Quartermaster School, Fort Lee, Virginia. John worked at Columbia University in New York City and taught at St. Paul’s College, the University of Buffalo and Wayne State University before coming to Oakland University.

John Gardner
1996-97 to 2003-04

Dr. John C. Gardner, Sr. was Dean of the School of Business Administration at Oakland University from the academic year 1996-97 to 2003-04. During Dean Gardner’s tenure as dean:

He led the establishment of the Applied Technology in Business (ATiB) Program, in which undergraduates students have two years of intense training in information technology and its applications in corporations through projects in those firms. The program and scholarships to the students are financially supported by the corporate partners. He also led the effort to hire the first director of the ATiB program, Dr. Mohan Tanniru, the current Dean of the SBA.
He led the development of an Executive MBA program in Health Care Management in Fall 2000 and a Master of Science in Management of Information Technology in Fall 2001.
The construction of the new home of the SBA, Elliott Hall, was completed.
He continued to explore developing programs internationally in countries such as Russia, China and Lebanon.

Prior to joining Oakland on August 1, 1996, Dr. Gardner was Associate Dean of the School of Management at Binghamton University, New York, Director of Accounting and Undergraduate Programs and held the Price Waterhouse Chaired Professorship in Accounting at the University.

Dr. Gardner holds a bachelor's degree from SUNY at Albany and an MBA and PhD from Michigan State University. He has published in the leading accounting, finance and management science journals and has published a book on accounting research. Dr. Gardner is a veteran of the United States Navy Submarine Service.

Jonathan Silberman
2005-06 to 2006-07

Dr. Jonathan Silberman served as Dean of the School of Business Administration from the academic years 2005-06 to 2006-07. During Dean Silberman's tenure the SBA obtained a grant from the Department of Education to enhance the international aspects of the SBA programs. The highlight of this grant was a trip by MBA students to China and Korea.

During Dean Silberman's tenure as dean:

He led the SBA's adoption of strategic positioning on 'connections into business' and 'career and professional development skills for students'.
He led two initiatives to move forward on 'career and professional development skills' for students:
- The focus of student services was enhanced to include acculturation and preparation for career success. Advising was relocated and renamed the Leadership & Development Center, and the planning for a required program to acculturate students into the profession of business was begun. The ACHIEVE program was implemented in fall 2008.
- The Scholars program, providing students a fast-track through the business program as well as an enriching and distinctive university experience, was developed and admitted its initial class that began in fall 2007.
He established a premier journal lists to encourage and reward high caliber faculty research, and led the development of Departmental target journal lists.
He led the establishment of a minor in entrepreneurship available to students across the university to help Michigan in its economic transition.
He established the Executive-in-Residence program.

Dr. Silberman came to Oakland from Arizona State University at the West Campus where he was the founding dean of the School of Management from 1992-2000. Prior to his appointment at Arizona State University, he held positions at the Merrick School of Business at the University of Baltimore and Old Dominion University. He also was editor of the Tidewater Economic Report and served on the Governor’s Economic Advisory Council for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

A native of New York, Dr. Silberman earned his bachelor's degree in economics from Bowling Green State University and his PhD in economics from Florida State University. His distinguished record of scholarship includes the publication of many articles in refereed journals such as the Journal of Political Economy, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Regional Science, Land Economics, Public Choice, Economic Inquiry, Journal of Technology Transfer, Journal of Travel Research and Journal of Leisure Research. He is currently a faculty member in the Department of Economics at Oakland.

Mohan Tanniru
2007-Present

Dr. Mohan Tanniru was named interim dean in 2007 and then Dean of Oakland University's School of Business Administration in 2008. During Dean Tanniru's tenure in the SBA to date:

Established Excellence through Integration theme and a center to implement the theme: Center for Integrated Business Research and Education - CIBRE with three underlying foundations: Integrative Thinking, Experiential Learning and Global Understanding
- Initiated a virtual and fac-to-face global team interactions to enhance global understanding
- Initiated summer internship and course-embedded internship programs to support experiential learning
- Working with displaced white collar professionals and small manufacturing firms (tool/die industry), students and interested CIBRE affiliates to support integrative thinking
CIBRE Education is streamlining some of the cross-disciplinary (ATiB), career supporting (ACHIEVE) and leadership (Scholars) programs
CIBRE Research is helping to enhance grant-based funding for cross-disciplinary research
CIBRE Outreach is helping to connect the business school with the economic development needs of the region, especially in the areas related to shaping automotive industry future through better supplier relationships, and innovations in health care management

Dr. Tanniru came to Oakland University from the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona as department head of their top ranked MIS program (03-07). Prior to the University of Arizona, he was the first director of the Applied Technology in Business Program (ATiB) at Oakland University (1997-2002), where he developed the curriculum for an industry sponsored undergraduate business technology program. He also was a co-director for Center for Entrepreneurship in IT at OU in 2001-2002, and held administrative positions as MIS Coordinator at Syracuse University (82-97).

Dr. Tanniru received a BS in Electrical Engineering from the Regional Engineering College in Warangal, India, an MS in Engineering from the U of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI, an MBA in Business Administration from the U of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, WI, and a Ph.D. in MIS from Northwestern University.