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A Leading Expert on the American Economy Heads Overseas

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By Jennifer Jacobson

Although her academic interests have focused on the American marketplace, Laura D'Andrea Tyson, who served as national economic adviser under President Bill Clinton, is taking her domestic act overseas.

Ms. Tyson, dean of the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, will resign in December to become dean of the London Business School.

For an economist with such a high-profile domestic reputation, a trans-Atlantic move might come as a surprise to some people. But, says Ms. Tyson, it's not as unlikely as it may seem. Her academic interests, she says, extend well beyond the American economy. She says she has always been fascinated by how different economies share common problems and how income-distribution varies among countries. Her new position will allow her to focus on the U.S. economy and its ties to the global economy from a different vantage point.

"I'm deeply involved in lots of policy issues in the U.S. and will want to stay involved in the discussion," she says. "It's possible to do that from an international location in London." Washington's distance from London, she notes, isn't very different from its distance from San Francisco.

Ms. Tyson, one of the few female deans at a top American business school, began her career as a faculty member in the economics department at Berkeley in 1977, became a professor of business at the Haas School in 1990, and was appointed dean in 1998. From 1993 to 1996, she served in the Clinton administration first as head of the Council of Economic Advisers and later as President Clinton's national economic adviser. She will be on leave from her faculty position at the Haas School and plans to return to Berkeley at some point.

As head of the London Business School, Ms. Tyson will be one of the few women leading a major international business institution, says John Kraft, dean of the University of Florida's business school and chairman of the board of the AACSB International, the association that represents business schools. "Someone just doesn't pick up and leave a place like Berkeley without there being a good alternative," he says. Of the 382 business schools accredited by AACSB, only 35 have female deans. The association estimates that there are about 85 female deans among the 750 American business schools that award graduate degrees.

For a woman to land a major deanship on an international scale is even more of a coup, Mr. Kraft says. He doesn't believe that Britain is any less forward-thinking on the issue than the United States. But he adds: "When you go international, in some cultures there may be biases against women in such positions because business deans have to interact with other business leaders. For example, in Japan you're not going to find women leading large Japanese corporations. So when you go global, your opportunities get even fewer when you're a woman." Her appointment should help to change that, he says. "Unfortunately," he adds, "Berkeley has to find a replacement."

Benjamin Hermalin, a professor of banking and finance at Berkeley, will serve as interim dean at Haas until the school hires a permanent replacement. He is now associate dean for academic affairs and chairman of the business-school faculty.

Mr. Kraft says that Ms. Tyson's appointment also underscores that research is still a viable aspect of business schools. In recent years, he notes, as business schools have emphasized M.B.A. programs, scholarly research in the discipline has declined -- with fewer original articles published on management, finance, and marketing, for example. Mr. Kraft applauds the London Business School for bucking that trend by hiring Ms. Tyson, a noted scholar.

Despite the M.B.A. juggernaut, he says, "LBS went and got someone from a research institution, which reinforces the concept that research is important, as opposed to other people they could have gotten from other institutions or the corporate world."

Ms. Tyson got to know faculty members and officials of the London Business School last year when, as dean at Haas, she considered forming a "strategic alliance" with the school. When John Quelch, the London dean, announced in January that he would step down in June, the school began an international search to replace him and put Ms. Tyson's name on the list.

Ms. Tyson accepted the job, in part, for personal reasons: She wanted to fulfill a long-held dream of living in London, where her husband spent much of his youth. And her son started college at Harvard University this fall, so it was a good time to try something new.

Ms. Tyson declined to discuss the details of her financial package from the London Business School. At Berkeley, her annual salary as dean is $218,300.