DEAN OF BOLOGNA UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOL

1. THE MILLENNIUM BUSINESS SCHOOL WITHIN A MILLENNIAL UNIVERSITY

Bologna Business School was built greenfield with the new century, within the world’s oldest university.
With few resources but complete freedom to experiment, a small group of pioneers gathered around a young Professor of Organizational Behavior to lay the foundations of a new kind of business school, interdisciplinary rather than siloed, deeply intertwined with practice at a time when business schools were becoming increasingly academic, and resolutely international in a country where student mobility still has a high growth potential.

Over twenty five years, the school has become a unique boutique institution, located at the heart of a vibrant and deeply lifestyle economic ecosystem. In 2024, BBS achieved the most prestigious international recognition, EQUIS five year accreditation. The school remains human sized yet continues to grow.

BBS now wishes to organise the next chapter of its life, ensuring continuity of the entrepreneurial values that fuelled its growth while professionalising its governance to start a new and exciting growth phase.
In May 2026, the Founding Dean will become Executive President and the School is looking for a new Dean who will embrace the mindset of a co founder and work closely with the Executive President.

2. THE ROLE OF THE NEW DEAN

BBS Board has established a clear distribution of roles between the Executive President and the New Dean, to be adapted according to the latter’s profile. This dual structure serves two complementary purposes:

• To strengthen fundraising and key client acquisitions, leverage the Founding Dean’s unique influence within the BBS ecosystem and allow him to focus where his impact is greatest.
• To further develop the school’s operational, academic, human, student, and commercial management for the future, without losing its entrepreneurial spirit, thereby enabling it to master its growth.

Together, the Executive President and the Dean will design and lead a distinctive, truly AI augmented, interdisciplinary business school.

3. AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY

Dean’s Core Mission

• Attraction, recruitment, and management of pre experience and post experience students
• Attraction, recruitment, and management of faculty
• Coordination of research and teaching operations
• Academic supervision of programmes
• Oversight of the operating model, which includes joint accountability on the P and L with the Executive President
• Supervision of accreditations and quality assurance systems

Note: The role of the Executive President is to provide strategic vision and leadership on brand equity, key partnerships, organisation’s governance and global reach.

4. THE OPPORTUNITY

A rare and distinguished opportunity for an ambitious academic leader, for example, an accomplished Associate Dean at a top international business school, to step into a full deanship with:

• Academic and operational responsibility for the School
• A strategic partnership with the President
• The chance to scale up from Associate Dean or Dean of a traditional institution to Dean in a supportive yet ambitious environment
• An institution with a strong identity, external credibility, and powerful connections across both professional and academic worlds
• A collaborative leadership model where your impact will be visible, meaningful, and transformative

The Professorship at the University of Bologna is an additional opportunity, depending on the candidate’s profile and according to existing regulations.

5. CANDIDATE PROFILE

Before listing formal qualifications, we wish to highlight two essential dimensions.
We are looking for a co founder in spirit, someone who, though not present at the School’s creation, can embody and reinterpret its founding principles.
And we seek a leader capable of coordinating through identity, not through procedures, someone who inspires alignment rather than enforces compliance.
The capacity to engage for the long term and to carry forward the ambition of the project will be decisive.

Beyond these, we envisage a leader who brings:

• Proven experience in faculty leadership, academic programme management, and accreditation within top tier business schools
• The ability to lead the implementation of a growth strategy with effective cost management
• Strong people management and organisational skills, having demonstrated superior teamwork and inclusive leadership aptitudes
• A record of fostering student success and pedagogical innovation
• Experience in international environments and corporate engagement
• A PhD with significant scholarly track record and legitimacy

6. SELECTION PROCESS

The recruitment process is entrusted by the BBS Governance Bodies to a Search Committee of seven members, combining leading academic and business figures.

Candidates may apply in the format of their choice by contacting:
searchcommittee@bbs.unibo.it

All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality, and each candidate will receive a personalised response.

Interviews will start by the end of January 2026.

A shortlist will be interviewed by the Search Committee, which will make a recommendation to the BBS governance bodies, the final decision makers.

The appointment of the new Dean is expected no later than May 2026.