IU professor to create graduate program in South Korea

After 28 years of service at IU, finance professor Robert Klemkosky will retire next August to create a new business graduate program at Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea. \n"I am excited, it is going to be a real challenge," Klemkosky said. "It's a big change in my life." \nKlemkosky, who will serve as dean of the M.B.A. program at Sungkyunkwan University, said he has already begun scouting professors to teach at the new institution. The program is a joint project between Sungkyunkwan University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management.\nCraig Holden, an associate professor of finance in the Kelley School of Business, said one of the main challenges Klemkosky will face by starting a new program will be building a reputation.\n"It is a long, slow process," he said. "You can't jump to the front of the pack in a year." \nHolden said Klemkosky was well suited to start the process.\n"He has very strong people skills," Holden said. "He has a long administrative track record and he has preformed excellently over all those tours of duty."\nSKKU has had several foreign professors, but this is the first time a Korean graduate school has appointed a non-Korean dean. \n"In order to become a world renowned M.B.A. program, SKKU signed a collaborative deal with Sloan MIT program and hired a foreign dean," SKKU's President Jung-don Seo announced in a press release. "It is hoped that this experiment can serve as a model through which Korea might upgrade its system of higher education."\nKlemkosky has considerable experience in teaching, administration and establishing new programs. While part of IU's Kelley School, he has served as the chairman of the finance department twice and was associate dean of research and operations. He has been involved in the development of several overseas graduate programs, such as the English M.B.A. program in the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.\nKlemkosky said IU's affiliation with and among several international universities has provided him with opportunities to teach in Venezuela, Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia, Hungary, France, Finland, Slovenia and South Korea.\nKlemkosky plans to hire 20 faculty members for the new program and is advertising the post openings in academic journals in the United States.\nHe said he hopes to recruit several American professors, but the majority of the professors will be South Korean and Asian.\n"We probably won't hire the 20 faculty members we need the first or maybe even the second year," Klemkosky said. "So what we probably will do is invite a lot of IU faculty members to teach." \nRobert Jenning, chairman of the finance department in the business school, said Klemkosky has always focused on individual student attention.\n"His strength is mentoring students one on one. He has, over the last 20 years, worked with M.B.A. students to get them jobs in investment careers," Jennings said. "He is exceptionally well connected in the investment industry. He understands academics well and he understands what business wants well, and he is able to meld these two together."\nKlemkosky said he plans to keep his home in Bloomington after he retires.\n"I am going to have an office here, to do what I can for the school, stay involved with fund-raising and the M.B.A. students," he said. "I am not leaving completely."\n-- Contact staff writer Rami Chami at rchami@indiana.edu.