When Richard J. Fox was first recruited in 1967 to apply his entrepreneurial building expertise to a growing Temple community, the newest member of the Board of Trustees wanted to expand the university he referred to as “the best-kept secret in the region” and transform it into an institution of “educational excellence.”
Now, more than 40 years since his arrival, the school bearing his name has been ranked for the seventh-consecutive year among the top 20 Executive Master of Business Administration programs in the country.
In London’s Financial Times 2008 Executive MBA Programs, U.S. Rankings, the Fox School of Business and Management was one of three Philadelphia-area colleges ranked in the top 20, with a global ranking of 51 out of 109. The school’s program was recognized among the top 10 in the United States, top 30 in the world for “Career Progress” and among the top 15 in the world for “percentage of female students.”
“We are pleased that the Financial Times has again recognized the excellence of our EMBA program,” said M. Moshe Porat, dean of the business school. “Being ranked by this prestigious publication is a testament to the exceptional quality of our students, faculty and staff.”
The ranking is assembled using data from two sets of surveys. The first is completed by alumni who graduated in 2005 from their respective programs. The second survey is completed by business school administrations.
In 2008, 109 schools took part in the survey, up from 107 in 2007.
In his attempt to make Temple an icon among local universities, Fox spent more than three decades as a member of the Board of Trustees. During the last 16 years, he has served as chairman of the development committee, providing the university with opportunities to express and display its talents.
Fox, a Central High School graduate and veteran of two international wars, is the founder of the Fox Companies, a construction and real estate management firm that developed the Wachovia Center, studios for Comcast SportsNet and Chesterbrook, a residential housing development.
In 1999, the School of Business and Management was renamed the Richard J. Fox School of Business and Management. The name has also been attached to the Fox Center for Biomedical Physics and the Fox-Gittis Room at the Liacouras Center.
The school’s facilities accommodate more than 6,000 students and 145 full-time faculty members. Alter Hall is currently being constructed adjacent to Speakman Hall, where the school currently resides. Speakman Hall has been home to the school since 1966.
Alter Hall, which is scheduled to be completed in spring 2009, is named for Dennis and Gisela Alter, who donated more than $15 million to the project.
Fox’s goal of instituting Temple as a distinguished educational establishment in Philadelphia, as well as the country, is echoed by students’ aspiring to meet rising expectations.
“[The attention] is really good for [business students],” Sydney McKinney, a junior international business major said. “This will help [students] in getting jobs because [this kind of recognition] looks really good on resumes.”
Tom Rowan can be reached at thomas.rowan@temple.edu.
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