Iowa State business dean aims to expand school's impact

David Spalding describes himself as the "nontraditional candidate" for his position.

While an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, he majored in history with a minor in economics — a path that would have taken him down the road toward law school. Then he got an internship back in his hometown of Louisville, Ky.

"I worked for a total of almost a year in internships during the time I was an undergrad, and I found that I really enjoyed the banking work," he said. "Building on that internship, I decided not to go to law school and decided to switch and go into business."

The former Wall Street banker is now finishing his first academic year as the fifth dean of Iowa State University's College of Business. Spalding said he is focused on providing students with more hands-on experiences they can take with them when they start a career. That includes starting Cy-Biz labs, which task students to work together and solve a problem for a company.

Spalding sat down with The Des Moines Register recently to discuss his career, his role as dean and his goals for ISU's College of Business.

Q. What did you enjoy about banking work?

A. "First of all, I enjoy working with numbers, I'm comfortable with numbers. ... Secondly, what you're doing in banking is what I call an intellectual sale. You're selling a product, but the product is one where you have to have a deep understanding of the customer's financials, the customer's needs, the management."

Q. When you first came to ISU, what did you want to focus on?

A. "One thing that I looked at from the outside is, our student population (in the business school) is only about a third women. I think we really have a responsibility to educate all the future business leaders of Iowa and we really need to bring more women into our college."

Q. Why is there that disparity between women and men at the school?

A. "There's a perception versus reality gap. I think we need to do a better job of explaining to high school girls what the opportunities are for them in business and how Iowa State's College of Business can help them achieve what they need to have in terms of education, in terms of internships, to have a career in business."

Q. What is the idea behind Cy-Biz labs?

A. "One area is increasing the number of live cases that are offered in the classroom. Those live cases in the classroom really give our students a chance to deal with real-world, practical business problems, typically working with a company where a company comes in, presents a problem, students do some work on it and ultimately present a solution back to the business.

"The other piece that we'll be doing with Cy-Biz labs is business consulting. Essentially having businesses bring business problems to us."

Q. Is this new for the college?

A. "We've done some of the live cases, we have not really done this consulting work, so this consulting work is really taking it to another level. There are companies out there that are small businesses, they can't really manage an intern, but they still have business needs; so by having a team of students come help them with a problem on a consulting basis, the business gets some benefit out of that, they also have a chance to see some students they may be interested in hiring."

Q. During your tenure, what else would you like to see happen?

A. "I think we also need to work to increase the number of Hispanic students that we have in our college. We have to look at the student situation the way Wayne Gretzky always talked about playing hockey: 'You don't go where the puck is, you go where the puck is going to be.' The Hispanic population is really the only population that is growing and it's growing quite rapidly here in the state. We need to be positioned to be the school of choice for Hispanic high school graduates, we need to be the school of choice for women high school graduates, and if we're not that, we're not really where education is headed in this state."

David Spalding

AGE: 59

FAMILY: wife, Marianne; son, Andrew; daughter, Megan

EDUCATION: bachelor's degree in history from Dartmouth College, 1976; master's degree in business administration/ finance from New York University, 1984.

CAREER: David Spalding is the fifth dean of Iowa State University's College of Business. He previously worked at Dartmouth College, serving most recently as senior vice president and senior adviser to the college's president. Before joining Dartmouth, Spalding spent 29 years in the financial sector in New York. He worked in leadership roles at both the Cypress Group and Lehman Brothers, and worked with other companies.