Dear Members of the Fordham Community,
Photo by Chris Taggart
It is with great pleasure that we announce the appointment of Lerzan Aksoy, Ph.D. as dean of the Gabelli School of Business, effective January 1, 2023. A Fulbright scholar, prolific author, and award-winning professor of marketing, Dr. Aksoy has been serving as interim dean of the Gabelli School since July 1, 2022. From 2015 to 2022 she served as associate dean of undergraduate studies and strategic initiatives within the school.
Dr. Aksoy began her academic career as a marketing professor in the College of Administrative Sciences and Economics at Koç University (Istanbul, Turkey). She joined Fordham’s marketing faculty in 2008 and is the managing director of the Responsible Business Coalition at the Gabelli School. Dr. Aksoy has published over 70 journal articles and is co-author of the NY Times bestseller The Wallet Allocation Rule and co-author/co-editor of four other books on customer loyalty. In 2022, she received the American Marketing Association’s Christopher Lovelock Career Contributions to the Services Discipline Award. This is the highest award presented in the field of service marketing and recognizes exemplary teaching, research, and service. Dr. Aksoy currently sits on the Academic Council of the American Marketing Association (AMA) and will serve as president of the Academic Council beginning in 2024.
Dr. Aksoy is an outstanding teaching scholar and accomplished administrator who will bring to the deanship a broad, strategic, and global vision for the school. She possesses a rare combination of intelligence, generosity of spirit, humility, and ambition for advancing Jesuit approaches to business education. As dean, Dr. Aksoy will ensure the Gabelli School continually offers innovative and relevant degree programs; helps students thrive as future business leaders in a diverse, inclusive community; and produces high-impact research.
The Gabelli School of Business serves just over 2,700 undergraduate students and 1,600 graduate students, and boasts a global network of 40,000 alumni. It is a flagship institution for responsible business strategy; integrating business connections; environmental, social and governance (ESG) research; and expertly designed curricula to develop leaders who are change agents and critical thinkers prepared to act in the service of the greater good.
Dr. Aksoy received her Ph.D. in marketing from the Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; an M.B.A. from George Mason University; and a B.S. in business administration from Hacettepe University (Ankara, Turkey).
We would like to thank the search committee, chaired by Matthew Diller, dean of the law school, for a comprehensive and successful national search that included extensive interviews of 11 semi-finalists and four finalists. From this very talented pool of candidates, Dr. Aksoy emerged as the clear leader best prepared to take the Gabelli School of Business to new heights.
Please join us in enthusiastically congratulating Dr. Aksoy as she assumes her new role.
With best wishes for a rewarding new year,
Tania Tetlow
University President
Dennis C. Jacobs
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
