Biography

Bob Bruner is the eighth dean of the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. A faculty member since 1982 and winner of leading teaching awards at the University of Virginia and within the Commonwealth of Virginia, he teaches and conducts research in finance and management.

Bruner is a leader of innovations in management education at Darden and globally. He has guided two curriculum design efforts at Darden in which he promoted Darden’s hallmark approach: instruction integrated across fields, an enterprise point of view of the leader and general manager, and high-engagement discussion. He has taught students in the MBA and executive MBA formats, and doctoral students. He has instructed practitioners in executive education courses around the world and is the author and co-author of Case Studies in Finance, now in its sixth edition. Bruner continues to teach and this year will contribute to various courses and teach a seminar to First Year MBA students called “Business and Success.”

Bruner has actively advanced Darden and the field of management education in new frontiers such as entrepreneurship, innovation, globalization and diversity. Before his appointment as dean in August 2005, Bruner served as the founding Executive Director of Darden’s Batten Institute, which focuses on entrepreneurship and innovation. There, he expanded Darden’s Business Incubator, established a Fellows Program, promoted research, and encouraged the creation of new courses, including his “Patents and Corporate Valuation” course. Bruner is also chairman of the Board of the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, an alliance of 17 leading American business schools and over 100 top corporations in the United States that aims to enhance diversity in business education and leadership.

As a financial economist, Bruner is best known for his research on mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and financial panics. His books, Deals from Helland Applied Mergers and Acquisitions, have helped numerous practitioners and students toward successful transactions. His book published in 2007, The Panic of 1907: Lessons Learned from the Market’s Perfect Storm, with Sean D. Carr,attracted wide attention for its discussion of the underpinnings of financial crises. 

In 2011, Bruner led a global task force of Deans for the Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business that produced a comprehensive review of global management education.  The resulting book-length report, The Globalization of Management Education, urged educational leaders to rise to the challenges of globalization.

A native of Chicago, Bruner received a B.A. from Yale University in 1971 and the M.B.A. and D.B.A. degrees from Harvard University in 1974 and 1982, respectively. Bruner served as a loan officer and investment analyst for First Chicago Corporation from 1974 to 1977. He served as a visiting professor at INSEAD, IESE and Columbia business schools. Bruner and his wife, Bobbie, have two sons.

Bruner is one of the world’s few blogging business school deans. He comments on life, business and current events in his popular “Dean’s Blog.”  He also “tweets” regularly on his Twitter account and is often cited in the media around the world. For more information and copies of his papers and essays, visit his website. To learn more about the Darden School of Business, visit www.darden.virginia.edu.

Publications

Faculty Publication