Susan Fournier to Step Down as Dean of Boston University’s Questrom School of Business in June
A renowned expert in brand marketing, she was the first woman to lead the school
The Questrom School of Business’ curriculum and engagement with global social problems were fundamentally changed and expanded under departing Dean Susan Fournier. Photo courtesy of the Questrom School of Business
Susan Fournier to Step Down as Dean of Boston University’s Questrom School of Business in June
A renowned expert in brand marketing, she was the first woman to lead the school
Susan Fournier, who oversaw transformational change and broke ground as dean of Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, will step down June 30 after eight years. She will retire from BU in December.
“I need some time for personal rejuvenation and reflection,” says Fournier, who was Questrom’s first woman dean and the first academic in the post in 40 years. “I think we can safely say there will be another act, but when and where is TBD.”
Fournier helmed Questrom as its dean after 24 years in academia, including 13 as a world-leading marketing and management expert at the school, where she is also Allen Questrom Professor. As dean, she led the first major overhaul of its curriculum in decades, which redefined and moved up, earlier in students’ education, the classes and real-world experiences that businesses demand from interns and employees.
Recognizing evolving technology as essential, both as a teaching tool and academic subject, Questrom during her tenure created its online MBA program that enrolls 2,000-plus students annually, MS degree programs in business analytics and finance, and, starting this fall, an online MS program, AI in Business.
To enable convergence—interdisciplinary, blended-methods studies of societal problems in research and teaching—Fournier presided over the creation of the Ravi K. Mehrotra Institute for Business, Markets, and Society. Endowed by its namesake United Kingdom businessman, BU’s highest-funded institute produces curriculum, events, and research to inform how businesses should be governed and how markets should be designed and regulated to deliver real value in a complex business world.
These and other changes propelled Questrom’s reputation, with its undergraduate business education program ranking jumping from 49th to 36th in U.S. News & World Report, and from 30th to 17th in Poets&Quants.
Fournier says all of these changes were equally important. “The efforts are additive. They all increase our value proposition, or we wouldn’t do them,” she says. But some efforts addressed clear needs when she became dean more than others. “If you are an R1 institution, you better boast a world-class faculty. Other [priorities] come from analyses: ‘Where is there an opportunity? Oh, we can win with an affordable online MBA targeted to mid-level managers.’”
If you are an R1 institution, you better boast a world-class faculty.
The idea for the Mehrotra Institute came about, she says, as negative public perceptions of business rose, following headlines about CEO-to-average employee pay ratios, critiques of social media and tech companies, and other news. “As a business school leader,” she says, “you are struck by the pressing need to get your feet on the ground with programs that are dedicated to helping people understand competition, markets, and the role of business.”
Fournier says that some of the same pressures confronting businesses also bedevil higher education. “It’s a critical inflection point” for higher ed, she says. Might helping higher education during this period of transition be part of her post-BU career? “It could be,” she says. “I believe in education.”
“Dean Fournier has been a dedicated advocate for Questrom and an influential member of the BU and academic business communities in her roles as educator, researcher, and leader,” Gloria Waters, University provost, said in announcing the retirement. “Her steady investments in faculty and staff hiring, impactful research, program innovation, and student employment outcomes have enhanced Questrom’s reputation and brought the school to a new level of competitive standing.”
Waters, who is stepping down herself as provost at the end of the academic year, said in the announcement that she will appoint an interim dean for the 2026–27 academic year, while she and her own successor launch a search for a permanent successor to Fournier.