(Courtesy of Sy Syms School of Business) Dr. Noam Wasserman has been appointed the new dean of the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University, effective May 2019. He will take the reins from Michael Strauss, interim dean of Sy Syms, who led the school for two years and served as associate dean for six years before that.
Dr. Wasserman, who holds a Ph.D. in organizational behavior and a master’s degree in sociology, brings to the position more than 15 years of expertise in higher education. A prominent authority on business startups, Dr. Wasserman is the Lemann Chair in Entrepreneurship at the University of Southern California (USC) as well as the founding director of USC’s Founder Central Initiative. Prior to that, he was a professor at Harvard Business School for 13 years.
“Dr. Wasserman embodies the values for which Yeshiva University stands,” said Dr. Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University. “His appointment represents our commitment to growing the quality of our education, preparing our students for greater success in the marketplace of tomorrow and bringing Jewish values to the world. We are excited for Dr. Wasserman to lead our business school into its next great era.”
“As chair of the search committee, I can attest to Dr. Wasserman’s passion and commitment to driving YU and Sy Syms to the next level,” said Michael Strauss, interim dean. “He brings a new perspective to our school during this critical period of change in the landscape of business education.”
Michael Strauss will serve as associate dean under Dr. Wasserman during the next academic year, working closely with Dr. Wasserman to build and expand Sy Syms as well as continuing to devote much attention to mentoring his students.
Dr. Wasserman has authored two books, the second of which, The Founder’s Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup, won the Academy of Management’s “Impact on Practice” award. In addition to contributing to numerous scholarly publications, he has been published in the Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review and was a columnist for Forbes and Inc. He has a PhD from Harvard University, an MBA from Harvard Business School, a BSE in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a BS from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
“I am very excited to be the next dean of the Sy Syms School of Business,” said Dr. Wasserman. “YU is the world leader in bringing the timeless wisdom and ethics of Judaism to cutting-edge real-world problems, and I plan to work with our faculty, staff and students to deepen and extend that tradition.”
