Kevin Gwinner, professor and head of the department of marketing and Jon Wefald chair of business leadership, has been named interim dean of Kansas State University’s College of Business Administration. The appointment is effective June 15.
Gwinner was chosen for the position by a search committee.
“Kevin has substantial support from the faculty, and has a long and successful tenure in the college,” said Kirk Schulz, university president. “He will do a superb job in his new post and will certainly help move Kansas State University forward to becoming a Top 50 public research university by 2025.”
“I am confident that Kevin Gwinner in his role as interim dean will keep the momentum built in the college going strongly and will strategically assist the college as it moves into its new physical home,” said April Mason, university provost and senior vice president. “I appreciate Dr. Gwinner’s willingness to take on this important position, at this critical time.”
Gwinner replaces Ali Malekzadeh, who takes the position as president of Roosevelt University on July 1.
Gwinner has served as head of the marketing department since July 2005. He joined the university in 1999.
“I am very humbled to have been provided this opportunity and I look forward to working with the many talented staff and faculty in the College of Business Administration to accomplish our goals,” Gwinner said. “Continued fund raising, new building construction and transition, and enhancing the innovative programs in the college are all important challenges for us to substantially move forward in the next year.”
Gwinner’s research expertise is in the area of understanding and improving aspects of the employee-customer encounter, relational benefits in service businesses and corporate sporting event sponsorship. He has published 36 peer-reviewed journal articles and three book chapters. In addition, his research has been presented more than 47 times at a variety of national and international conferences. His research has been cited nearly 11,000 times in peer-reviewed journals.
Gwinner won the Outstanding Research Paper Award for the best article published in the Journal of Service Research. In 2005, his research on consumer relational benefits was recognized as the most influential article published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science in the prior seven years.
In the community, Gwinner volunteers as board president for the Boy Scout Coronado Area Council, which provides scouting opportunities to 2,600 youth across 32 counties in central and western Kansas.
He received his doctorate in marketing from Arizona State University. He also has a Master of Business Administration and bachelor’s in finance from Arizona State University.
Gwinner joined Kansas State University in January 1999.
