Eli Jones has been named the dean of Texas A&M’s Mays Business School and will start July 1.
Jones, the dean of the Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville since 2012, is an alumnus of A&M, where he earned three degrees, including a PhD. in marketing in 1997.
Jones will replace interim dean Ricky Griffin, who has served since Jerry Strawser stepped down to become the university’s vice president of finance and adminstration.
Jones interviewed at Texas A&M on Feb. 5-6. He received the Mays Business School’s Outstanding Doctoral Alumni award in 2009.
On Tuesday, he called the UA a “great institution” and said that the “positive momentum of the Walton College and the entire region” made his decision to leave difficult. But he said that working for his alma mater would allow him to be closer to his family.
“There is nothing sweeter than the sound of home,” Jones said in an A&M news release. “My wife and I are excited about returning to Aggieland and becoming an integral part of my alma mater. Texas A&M University and Mays Business School have been on an upward trajectory for some time, and I know that’s definitely a tradition that the talented faculty, dedicated staff and wonderful students want to continue.”
Jones was dean at LSU’s Ourso College of Business before coming to Arkansas and was associate dean and professor at the University of Houston.
Also this week, The Associated Press reported that Sharon Gaber, the UA’s provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, was one of two finalists vying to become the next president at the University of Toledo in Ohio.
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