Sears Named New Dean for TAMIU’s A. R. Sanchez School of Business

A nationwide search for the dean of Texas A&M International University’s A. R. Sanchez School of Business that attracted some 40 candidates has culminated in the selection of Dr. R. Stephen Sears.
           
Provost and vice president for Academic Affairs Dr. Pablo Arenaz said Dr. Sears is an outstanding selection to lead the University’s Sanchez School of Business.
           
“Dr. Sears brings to the dean’s position many years of outstanding administrative experience, including dean of the School of Business and Economics at the University of West Virginia and senior executive associate dean and interim dean of the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University.  Here at TAMIU, dean Sears’ leadership will bring the Sanchez School to the next stage of its development.  He will also serve as a Radcliffe Killam Professor of Finance,” Dr. Arenaz said.
           
A Texas native, Sears holds his Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  His M.S. in Business Administration was earned at Texas Tech University, as was his BA.
           
He is currently professor of Finance at West Virginia University’s (WVU) College of Business and Economics.  
           
His teaching interests include investments and corporate finance for undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and executive MBA and development programs while his research interests focus on options and futures, market anomalies and the pricing of financial securities, asset allocation and portfolio management, secondary mortgage markets, dividend policy, and compensation structure and agency costs.
           
In addition to WVU, Sears has served on the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Texas Tech in Lubbock. Combined, he has been the recipient of nine distinct teaching or academic achievement awards from these universities.
          
A member of multiple professional Finance Associations, he also holds honorary society memberships in Omicron Delta Kappa and Mortar Board, Golden Key, Phi Kappa Phi, Beta Gamma Sigma and Phi Theta Kappa.
           
His publications including books and chapters in three books, Investment Management (Dryden Press), Investment Management, Instructor’s Manual and Testbank (Dryden Press) and “The Secondary Mortgage Markets: Structure and Participants” in Modern Real Estate (Warren, Gorham and Lamont.) His refereed journal articles number 23.
       
He has held leadership or editorial positions with the Southwestern Finance Association, The International Journal of Business, The Journal of Financial Research and The Review of Business Studies and has offered editorial services for numerous academic journals.
           
Sears is married and has two adult children. He enjoys golf, fly-fishing, deep-sea fishing and hunting.

Arenaz said TAMIU is excited to bring Dr. Sears to Laredo at a time when the University is ready to leverage his leadership and work with faculty, staff and other key parties in creating a vision and defining branding for the A.R. Sanchez School of Business. This effort is expected to position the A.R. Sanchez School of Business in the future, he said.

University summer office hours are from 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. Monday-Thursday and from 8 a.m. to 12 noon on Fridays.

Journalists who need additional information or help with media requests and interviews should contact the Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at prmis@tamiu.edu