Pat Hopkins
As I begin my role as dean of the Kelley School of Business, I am humbled and energized to work alongside our remarkable community of stakeholders toward our collective mission.
I arrived in Bloomington as a newly minted PhD in August 1995, with little knowledge of our school (which wasn’t even called Kelley then), our larger university, or even the state of Indiana. These last 30 years have expanded my world beyond anything I could have imagined. I quickly learned how lucky I was that Kelley found me and offered me a home.
Over the years, I directly benefited from its collegial and nurturing culture, its creative and entrepreneurial spirit, and the dedication of its hundreds of faculty and staff members and thousands of alums. I am in turn committed to protecting and caring for our people and the school we’ve inherited from the generations who came before us.
Our faculty are leaders in their fields and essential contributors as we refine our curriculum, collaborate across a range of partnerships, develop innovative programs across academic areas, and apply research to myriad issues facing the nation and the world. Our faculty’s remarkable focus, drive, and productivity distinguish us daily among peer institutions and propel us to new heights. Most recently, thanks to our remarkable faculty, the UT Dallas Top Business School Research Rankings placed us at No. 9 in North America and No. 10 worldwide.
Pat Hopkins now leads the school where he has taught for 30 years.
Our staff have been unparalleled, inspiring partners to me, especially since I entered administration. Every day, our staff makes this place run by advising our students, telling the Kelley story to stakeholders far and wide, ensuring an effective and efficient allocation of resources, supporting our faculty, deepening our relationships with alumni, and performing thousands of other vital tasks—sometimes on short timelines—which continually set our school apart.
Our incredible alumni community, 133,000+ strong, leads businesses and communities across the world with Kelley’s deepest values, and we are inspired by the connections and collaborations we see sparking among them daily. Many alumni recruit our students for their companies, return to campus to sit on panels and present to students, and host productive networking events—which all shows how deeply this remarkable community cares about our school and about fostering the next generation of principled leaders.
As I enter this new role, I also reflect on the exceptional leaders we’ve had during my 30 years at Kelley, including Deans John Rau, Dan Dalton, Dan Smith, Idie Kesner, and Ash Soni. My heartfelt thanks and admiration go out to each of them for their leadership, sacrifice, integrity, and unrelenting efforts to elevate our already excellent school over the years. Ash has been a particularly important mentor and friend, and I am deeply grateful for his selflessness and for all he has taught me about facing challenges with patience and grace and about growing the relationships that make our community thrive.
I look forward to serving as Kelley’s passionate advocate and as a tireless partner to all our stakeholders as we rise toward even higher excellence in education, scholarship, and service.
Warm regards,
Pat Hopkins
Dean and Conrad Prebys Professor