Eric Jack, Ph.D., Wells Fargo Endowed Chair in Business Administration and dean of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Collat School of Business, has announced his retirement as dean, pending selection of his successor.
Jack joined UAB in 2001 and taught courses in operations and supply chain management. He served as associate dean from 2008 to 2012 before becoming interim dean in 2012, and was selected as dean of the school in April 2013.
Under Jack’s leadership, the school saw its student enrollment grow by approximately 42 percent. He also facilitated the $25 million gift from Charles and Patsy Collat to name the school, and successfully raised the funds necessary to design and construct a new $37.5 million state-of-the-art building.
“Eric has strategically guided the faculty, staff, facilities and programs at the Collat School of Business to equip its graduates to meet the needs of the business community here in Birmingham and beyond,” said Provost Pam Benoit in announcing his retirement. “I am particularly proud of his leadership in growing the school’s three graduate programs and nine undergraduate programs, including its newest undergraduate major in entrepreneurship.”
Jack has also been a community leader while serving the Collat School of Business. He was president of the Rotary Club of Birmingham from 2018 to 2019, one of the largest Rotary Clubs in the world. A graduate of Leadership Birmingham in 2014 and Leadership Alabama in 2018, he has also served on several nonprofit boards, including the Innovation Depot, the United Way of Central Alabama, the Civic Club Foundation and the Birmingham Museum of Art.
Jack’s life story is inspirational. Raised by a single mother, Jack was one of nine children. The family immigrated to the United States from Trinidad and Tobago. Jack joined the U.S. Air Force and served in both enlisted and officer ranks where he had a highly successful 21-year career in facilities design, construction and maintenance. While in the Air Force, he earned an Air Force scholarship to Georgia Institute of Technology, where he obtained a degree in industrial and systems engineering. He later earned an MBA degree from Wright State University and then a Ph.D. in operations management from the University of Cincinnati Carl H. Lindner College of Business.
UAB will shortly begin a national search for a new dean.