Susan Fournier, a professor at BU for 13 years, became dean of the Questrom School of Business on August 27, 2018. The school’s first woman dean, Fournier is a leading international expert on brand marketing and is credited with pioneering the subfield that explores the relationships consumers form with brands, products, and organizations. She was formerly a marketing professor and Questrom Professor in Management, an endowed chair. Her latest research examines the challenges of celebrity branding based on her 20-year analysis of Martha Stewart’s brand.

She succeeds Kenneth W. Freeman, Questrom’s dean since 2010. During his tenure, undergraduate student enrollment increased by nearly 30 percent and BU trustee Allen Questrom (Questrom’64, Hon.’15) and Kelli Questrom (Hon.’15) and their foundation made the $50 million gift that led to the renaming of the school in 2015. The school also transformed its programs to emphasize ethics and global citizenship and better meet changing student and employer needs.

“I intend to further establish our reputation as a preeminent academic institution with a reputation for research that matters, teaching that inspires, and faculty and staff who care,” says Fournier. “We need strong partnerships with industry and organizations that can provide data and questions for research that impact practices, policy, and society, and also collaborations in the development of courses and projects that provide hands-on, experiential learning. I have a deep appreciation for the stakeholder perspective from having worked and lived on the other side.”

Fournier says she also wants to increase Questrom’s focus on new, targeted master’s degree programs in healthcare, social impact, and digital specialties while expanding interdisciplinary engagements between departments and with other schools at Boston University.

“Questrom has already begun breaking down barriers between traditional academic disciplines that operate in outmoded silos in favor of interdisciplinary programming,” she says. “Eliminating those boundaries in hiring, curriculum, research, and other interfaces is the future of business education and perhaps education in general.”

President Robert A. Brown says Fournier leads the school at an important point in its history. “Susan assumes the role of the dean of the Questrom School of Business during an exciting time for the school, for business education, and the University,” he says. “I look forward to working with her to continue the journey of increasing the quality and impact of the school’s education and research programs.”