University of Maryland President Appoints Business School Associate Dean Gerald Suarez to Professor of the Practice

College Park, Md. – Nov. 23, 2009 – The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business today announced that university President C.D. Mote has appointed J. Gerald Suarez, associate dean of external strategy, to Professor of the Practice in Systems Thinking and Design.

The Professor of the Practice title is reserved for faculty who have completed their doctorates, demonstrated exceptional teaching, and proven excellence and leadership in contributions to organizations and industry in specific fields. Appointees have attained regional and national prominence and, in some cases, international recognition for outstanding achievement. Though not tenured, they hold a terminal professional degree and the rank of professor.

“This a well-deserved honor and Gerald received this appointment because he exceeds the criteria on all three dimensions,” said G. “Anand” Anandalingam, dean of the Robert H. Smith School of Business. “His significant and extensive contributions to the field of systems thinking have provided value to our students and to many organizations prior to and during his tenure with the Smith School.”

As associate dean of External Strategy, Suarez oversees Smith’s offices of Career Services, Recruiting and Marketing Communications. In 2005, he joined the Smith School as an executive education senior fellow, Ralph J. Tyser Teaching Fellow for the Decision, Operations and Information Technology Department, and executive director of the Quality Enhancement Systems and Teams (QUEST) Honors Fellows program. In 2008 he received the Smith School’s Allen J. Krowe teaching excellence award. He has taught at the corporate, executive MBA, full-time MBA, international, and undergraduate levels and has served as academic director for executive on-site programs at Lockheed Martin Corporation and Scientific Applications International Corporation (SAIC).

Prior to joining the Smith School, Suarez served under two administrations in the White House as the director of Presidential Quality -- the first such post in the institution’s history. He initiated efforts to inculcate systems thinking and organizational redesign into the White House Communications Agency, the White House Military Office and the Executive Office of the President of the United States. He also served as director of Customer Support and Organizational Development for the White House Military Office. Suarez traveled aboard Air Force One and presidential helicopters in numerous missions worldwide. He received many presidential awards and commendations for his work.
Prior to his White House assignments, he worked for the U.S. Navy.

Suarez has been active in the academic world in the United States and abroad. He led the development of the academic vision at the National Graduate School of Quality Systems Management and served as chief academic officer. For 10 years, he was a visiting professor at the Asturias Business School in Spain and has represented the University of Maryland as a consultant and teacher in Shanghai and Tianjin, China. In 2006 he designed and delivered an accelerated MBA train-the-trainer program to a select team of faculty members of the Islamic University of Gaza in Cairo, Egypt. He has produced several publications and instructional videotapes on teamwork, organizational redesign and managing fear in the workplace. Suarez’s work has been showcased in international publications such as the Harvard Deusto Business Review, as well as in national publications such as the Journal for Quality and Participation.

Suarez holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the University of Puerto Rico. He is a frequent keynote speaker at national and international conferences.

He is the Smith School’s fourth recipient of the Professor of the Practice. Hugh Courtney, associate dean of executive programs, and Charles Olson -- logistics, business and public policy and director of the Business Honors Program -- also currently hold the appointment.