August 3, 2004
McCombs School
Welcomes Accomplished
Leader as Director of Executive Education
The University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business welcomes Larry Abeln this week as the new associate dean and director of Executive Education. He will oversee all degree and non-degree programs in the school's executive education portfolio.
Abeln, who earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his doctorate in management from Cambridge University (U.K.), brings ten years of experience in educational administration to the position.
He began his career as the director of alumni relations at the Sloan School of Management at MIT. In 1994, he became the youngest director of any MBA program in the United States when he took on that position at Sloan. Abeln went to Georgetown in 1999, where he served as director of the MBA and executive MBA programs. Under his leadership, the executive MBA program earned a top-ten ranking in BusinessWeek.
Most recently, Abeln was the dean of the business school at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. While there, he implemented a new executive MBA program with an integrated curriculum and strategic plan.
In addition to his career in academic administration, Abeln is a successful entrepreneur, having founded The South End Corporation in Boston.
Alison Davis-Blake, dean of academic affairs at the McCombs School, noted that Abeln’s background in university administration and entrepreneurship will come in handy as executive education readies itself for an expansion into Houston.
“Larry is one of the few people in the executive education business who has in-depth experience leading both degree and non-degree programs in top schools,” Davis-Blake said. “His experience in degree programs will be particularly valuable as we look forward to the Houston Executive MBA program and further tailor our existing degree offerings.”
For information on specific programs at the McCombs School, consult our contacts page. For media information, contact the Communications Director by phone at 512-471-3314 or by email at CommunicationsDirector@mccombs.utexas.edu.
