Edward A. Snyder to conclude service as Chicago Booth dean in summer 2010

Edward A. Snyder, Dean of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, announced that he will conclude his active service as dean at the end of this academic year, following nine years that saw the top-ranked school expand its faculty and move into a new facility. In 2008 the school was renamed in honor of alumnus and donor David Booth.

Since World War II, deans at Chicago Booth have served no more than two terms, and Snyder's second five-term would have ended in 2011. In a letter to the Chicago Booth community, Snyder explained that he thought this was the best time for a transition.

"Given the strong state of our school and what we have accomplished, I believe now is the right time for the school to search for its next dean," wrote Snyder, the George Pratt Shultz Professor of Economics. "On the personal side, I look forward to taking some time to reflect on the challenges facing management education, analyze some major public policy issues and consider my future."

In their letter to the Chicago Booth community, University President Robert J. Zimmer and Provost Thomas F. Rosenbaum praised Snyder for his dedication, achievements and outstanding service.

"Ted's vision for Chicago Booth has been, in his words, 'to be the best business school in the world and recognized as such.' He has pursued that goal by bringing faculty, students and alumni together in a community that shares his dedication to world-changing scholarship and outstanding education," Zimmer and Rosenbaum wrote.

They credited Snyder with helping to recruit many of the world's leading faculty to Chicago, while almost doubling the number of endowed professorships at Chicago Booth. Since 2001 Booth also has enjoyed the highest retention of senior faculty in five decades. Scholarship assistance for students more than tripled during the same period.

The school's global footprint grew significantly during Snyder's tenure, with a planned campus expansion in Singapore, a new campus in London and a key role in the University's new Center in China. On the University's Hyde Park campus, Chicago Booth moved its central operations into a dramatic new building, the Charles M. Harper Center.

In 2008 Snyder announced that alumnus David Booth and his family had made a donation valued at $300 million. The school, formerly known as the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, was renamed in Booth's honor.

The election of a faculty search committee for a new dean will take place in coming weeks, Zimmer and Rosenbaum said.