March 23, 2009
Singh is currently chair of the Department of Marketing in the College of Business at Northern Illinois University near Chicago. She has been at Northern Illinois since 1996 and has held several positions there before being named chair of the marketing department in 2006. As chair, Singh led strategic planning initiatives, managed a faculty comparable in size to that of the Bill Greehey School of Business, worked closely with professional advisory boards, and secured 11 new scholarships and one new professorship in the past three years.
Singh developed the prototype for the Center of Excellence in Global Business and planned and conducted global executive education training for the first international executive education program in the NIU College of Business. She also successfully helped negotiate long-term executive education opportunities with government officials from Egypt and China. Her research and expertise is in global and cross-cultural marketing strategies, electronic commerce and public policy issues in marketing.
“St. Mary’s strategic plan, Vision 2012, compels us to advance the University’s 157-year tradition of providing students with an education built on academic excellence and a sense of global corporate responsibility,” said Cotrell. “Dr. Singh’s background and expertise will not only elevate St. Mary’s national stature, but will also help fulfill the University’s mission of providing the absolute best liberal arts education for our students so that they are well prepared and equipped when they enter the global marketplace.”
Singh will become the Bill Greehey School of Business’ first female dean when she begins her tenure on July 1.
Information Systems Professor Orion “Jim” Welch, Ph.D., has been serving as interim dean since Keith A. Russell, Ph.D., died unexpectedly in April 2008.
“Dr. Keith Russell, the first dean of the Bill Greehey School of Business, had a great passion and vision for the business school and did an excellent job of moving the school to national prominence in short order and there is no question that Dr. Singh is the right person to take the program to the next level,” said Bill Greehey (B.B.A. ’60), Chairman of the Board and Director of NuStar Energy, whose $25 million gift in December 2005 to endow the business school resulted in its being named in his honor. “She not only shares Keith’s vision, but she has the passion, enthusiasm and drive to get the job done. Our students will also benefit from her extensive global marketing experience, which is critical to succeed in today’s global economy. I am very excited about her plans to get the San Antonio business community more involved in what we are trying to accomplish at St. Mary’s. We are training the next generation of business leaders and having the local business community more actively engaged in our program will be a win/win situation for everyone.”
Singh received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Allahabad in India, an M.B.A. from Millsaps College, and a doctorate in Business Administration from Southern Illinois University. She has published and presented numerous times on global marketing, multicultural business management, and ethics and foreign investments.
Very active in the Academy of Marketing Science, Singh served as the program chair for the Congress in Germany in 2005 and currently chairs the electronic and interactive marketing track for the World Marketing Congress to be held this summer in Oslo, Norway. She also serves on editorial boards of two journals – the Journal of the Korean Academy of Marketing Sciences and Managing Services Quality, an Elsevier Publication. She also has been very active in consulting with many companies including Fortune 500 companies.
“St. Mary’s has a long tradition of being a leader in academic excellence,” said Singh. “I hope not only to continue to build on the sound foundation of the Bill Greehey School of Business, but to offer outstanding programs that meet the needs of a globally-connected economy. It would be my goal to ensure that students graduating from the Bill Greehey School of Business have the necessary skills to be ‘global’ business leaders in their own communities, no matter how small or large.”