Interim Executive MBA Program Director Named

The UT Dallas School of Management has named executive education expert and longtime faculty member Dr. David Springate interim director of its Executive MBA (EMBA) program and launched a national search to find a full-time replacement for program director Dr. Jasper H. Arnold III who died last month after a brief illness.

In announcing the appointment and search, School of Management Dean Hasan Pirkul noted Dr. Springate’s long experience in executive education.

“David will maintain the excellence of our program as we go forward,” Dean Pirkul said. “We appreciate his willingness to lend his capable leadership while we search for a new EMBA program director.”

Dr. Springate joined the UT Dallas School of Management faculty full time in 1988 as an associate professor of finance. In 1991, he was appointed the school’s first associate dean for executive education and, in that same year, founded the UT Dallas EMBA program. He directed the program until 1999 when Dr. Arnold assumed its leadership.

Before coming to UT Dallas, Dr. Springate worked in private investment banking in the U.S. and in Switzerland. He also taught on the faculties of IMD, the internationally respected global business school in Lausanne, Switzerland, and at Southern Methodist University.

He holds a Doctor of Business Administration degree from Harvard University and an
MBA from the University of Western Ontario in Canada. He also holds bachelor’s degrees from the University of Alberta and from the Royal Military College of Canada.

Last August, Dr. Springate stepped down from his position as associate dean for executive education to found the Center for Finance Strategy Innovation at UT Dallas.

“Jasper Arnold made great strides toward accomplishing the school’s goal to build the pre-eminent EMBA program in the Southwest at UT Dallas,” Dr. Springate said. “I am happy to be able to help continue that work.”

In recent years, the UT Dallas EMBA program has gained national and international recognition. For two consecutive years, in 2007 and 2008, Financial Times ranked it as the top EMBA program, overall, in Texas and among the top 20 EMBA programs in the world. Most recently, in December, The Wall Street Journal ranked it No. 6 among EMBA programs in return on investment for alumni.

Dr. Arnold had served as EMBA director at UT Dallas since 1999.

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