Dr. Ken Matsuno Named Babson’s Dean of Faculty

April 2, 2019

Dr. Kenichi Matsuno, Babson's Dean of Faculty

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Babson College has appointed Professor Ken Matsuno to be the College’s Dean of Faculty, a role in which he will lead the full- and part-time faculty and serve on the President’s Cabinet, Academic Council, and the Operating and Finance Committee. His appointment is effective on June 1, 2019.

“We are so pleased that Ken has agreed to become our new Dean of Faculty, a crucial role for our campus community,” said Babson President Kerry Healey. “His intellectual curiosity, commitment to the student experience, and extensive management experience will provide our faculty with inspired leadership in the months and years to come.”

For more than 20 years, Matsuno has been a faculty member at the graduate and undergraduate levels in Babson’s Marketing Division. He has taught courses in the integrated first-year MBA program, marketing strategy, marketing communications, global marketing strategy, and marketing research. He has also been a faculty member in both the open-enrollment and custom executive education programs, including programs for Biogen-Idec, DMS, Novartis, Toshiba, and Bio-pharma.

“Ken is deeply committed to teaching, scholarship, and service leadership, and is highly respected by his colleagues,” said Babson Provost Mark Rice. “I have known and admired Ken for two decades and look forward to working with him, the rest of our academic leadership team, and our faculty to advance Babson’s global impact.”

Before starting his academic career, Matsuno worked at Itochu Fashion Systems in Japan, and at Eli Lilly & Co., Indianapolis, Indiana.

He has served as a consultant in the areas of corporate and marketing strategies in such industries as automobile manufacturing, bio-tech and pharmaceutical, and information technology, and his most recent research projects investigate apparent responses and non-responses by businesses to such external forces as population aging, natural disasters, and rising environmental consciousness.

Matsuno’s research has appeared in the Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Product Innovation Management, and Long Range Planning, among others.

He holds a PhD from the University of Tennessee, an MBA from the University of Virginia, a BS from the University of Oregon, and a BA from Aoymama Gakuin University.

“I am incredibly honored to be allowed to serve this great institution,” Matsuno said. “This is a special moment in Babson’s history and I can feel and smell the optimism and excitement in the air.”

His appointment follows a comprehensive search process with several outstanding candidates recommended by the nominating committee. In a message to the Babson community, President Healey and Provost Rice expressed their thanks to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and the Dean of Faculty Nominating Committee–Wiljeana Glover, Lauren Beitelspacher, Jon Dietrick, Nan Langowitz, and Peter Wilson–for facilitating a collaborative and transparent process guided by faculty input and engagement.