Former dean to serve interim role in B & E

Kenneth R. Biederman, who served as dean of the College of Business and Economics from 1990-96, has been named interim dean of the college, effective immediately, Provost Mel Schiavelli announced today.

Biederman, professor of finance, will serve until a national search can be conducted to replace Dean Dana Johnson, who died Feb. 18.

"It is a sad time for all of us who knew and respected Dana and looked forward to working with her for many years to come," Schiavelli said.

"I am very grateful to Ken for agreeing to serve as interim dean while we search for a new permanent dean. Ken can assume his duties in the college at full speed, having ably handled them previously as dean of the college at the start of the decade," Schiavelli said.

During Dean Johnson's illness, Scott Jones, accounting, and Helen Bowers, associate dean, have been handling the day-to-day work of the college. "We are very grateful to Scott and Helen for their assistance," Schiavelli said.

A committee will be appointed later this spring, the provost said, to conduct a national search for a new dean, who it is hoped would be hired in the next academic year.

After he stepped down from the deanship in 1996, Biederman directed the London Semester Abroad program, has taught undergraduate courses in finance and, last fall, taught in the Executive MBA Program.

Before coming to Delaware in 1990, Biederman was chairman and CEO of Westchester Financial Services Corp., which was acquired by Marine Midland Bank. Among his other positions, he worked as a staff economist for the U.S. Senate Budget Committee and the U.S. Treasury Department, and he was chief economist of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board in Washington.

He was senior vice president and chief economist, and later executive vice president and chief financial officer, of City Federal Savings in New Jersey, prior to becoming treasurer of the state of New Jersey. Before his various positions in the private and government sectors, Biederman was an assistant professor of economics at Georgetown University.

He received his bachelor's degree in economics from Miami University of Ohio and his master's and doctoral degrees in economics from Purdue University.