BIOGRAPHY
Dean James M. Danko spent nearly two decades as a successful entrepreneur before taking on leadership roles in higher education. Danko has brought his unique entrepreneurial style to top undergraduate and graduate business schools including Villanova, Michigan, UNC-Chapel Hill, Babson, and the Tuck School at Dartmouth. His work at these schools resulted in increased financial resources, enhanced support for faculty, curricular innovation, improved program delivery and student services, and increased school prestige. In addition to his collaborative leadership style, Danko is best known for his strong support of excellence in faculty research and teaching, his consistent success in dynamic organizational change, and his long-standing commitment to ethics in business education.
Danko was appointed to the Villanova School of Business (VSB) in 2005. Under his leadership, financial gifts to VSB have quadrupled and applications to the school have more than doubled. Student quality has reached an all-time high at both undergraduate and graduate program levels. VSB, which was previously unranked, is now ranked #11 in the nation for its undergraduate program, #11 in the nation for its evening MBA program, and #25 in the world for its executive MBA program by BusinessWeek magazine. Media mentions of the school have risen from fewer than 20 citations to over 500 million brand impressions per year.
Under Danko’s leadership, the VSB faculty has reassessed traditional departments and created new cross-disciplinary working groups. New incentives and awards have been established to recognize exceptional faculty research and teaching. Danko has also reorganized VSB’s administrative leadership team across undergraduate, graduate, executive, and summer programs. VSB has reinvented its undergraduate curriculum, introducing a fresh, highly-integrated learning experience to incoming students in 2008. The curriculum focuses on four areas of business excellence: a global mindset, innovation, ethics, and technology. The team-taught, year-long, flagship course—Business Dynamics—teaches first-year students about the overarching purpose of global business within society, so that the functional knowledge they later gain makes sense within a broader and deeper context.
Danko is regularly featured in the media and invited to speak at conferences as a national thought leader on business school strategy and curricular change. He works closely with the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) on initiatives including accreditation and leadership development. Danko has served three consecutive terms as president and as a member of the board of directors of the MBA Roundtable (MBAR), an international business school consortium that fosters collaborative discussion around the design and delivery of graduate business programs as a way to advance the practice of management worldwide.
JAMES DANKO IN THE MEDIA
Forbes.comIt's Time for Radical Change in Business Education
BusinessWeek.com
B-Schools and the 'Almighty Dollar': A business school dean argues that students should be taught the societal value of business, not profit at any cost.
BusinessWeek.com
James Danko discusses VSB's new undergraduate curriculum
CNBC.com
Business Schools Prepare for a New Wall Street
Biz Ed Magazine
New and Improved B-School Curriculum
Inside Higher Ed
James Danko discusses VSB’s new undergraduate curriculum in "De-Departmentalizing the B-School"
ABOUT VSB
The Villanova School of Business (VSB) is a premier business school that offers undergraduate and graduate programs and executive education.Founded in 1922, VSB is identified by its academic rigor; creativity and innovation; hands-on and service learning opportunities; a firm grounding in ethics; and an applied education that prepares students to become leaders and global citizens within the ever-changing, fast-paced world of business. Villanova is the only university in the world founded by the Roman Catholic Order of Saint Augustine, and the Augustinian values of truth, community, caring, and leading through service permeate the curriculum in all of our programs.
VSB offers seven undergraduate degrees in the fields of accounting, economics, and business administration; seven graduate programs; and an executive MBA program, all of which are accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). The school’s world-class faculty are thought leaders within their respective fields and offer a balanced combination of teaching and academic research that is easily transferrable to real-world business practices.
The school houses four prestigious Centers of Excellence including the Center for Marketing and Public Policy Research, Center for Global Leadership, Daniel M. DiLella Center for Real Estate, and Center for the Study of Church Management. Likewise, VSB faculty are proactive members of cross-disciplinary strategic initiative groups. These include Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship; Financial Services; Analytics; and Corporate Social Responsibility.
BusinessWeek magazine ranks VSB:
#11 in the nation for undergraduate business programs
#11 in the nation for graduate business programs
#25 in the world for executive MBA programs
CONTACT
Web: http://www.villanova.edu/businessEmail: vsbdean@villanova.edu