WEST LONG BRANCH – Monmouth University’s Board of Trustees has announced that Paul R. Brown, current dean of the College of Business and Economics at Lehigh University, has been appointed the eighth president of Monmouth University effective August 1. He will succeed Paul G. Gaffney II who will retire July 31, after 10 years of strong leadership.
“Dr. Brown was our first and unanimous choice to be the new president of Monmouth University. He is an outstanding leader with the qualifications to help Monmouth University continue to prosper as a strong, vibrant institution,” said Chairman of the Board Robert B. Sculthorpe ’63 when making the announcement on Wednesday, March 13.
The board of trustees made the decision at a special meeting on Feb. 26.
“It is with tremendous excitement that I look forward to joining the Monmouth University community as its eighth president,” Brown said. “The university’s enthusiasm and commitment to making its mark on the higher education landscape is palpable across Monmouth’s Board of Trustees, faculty and staff. Students are at the heart of Monmouth, and it is my honor to serve them, as well as the larger university community, in an effort to reach new heights of excellence. I could not be more thrilled with this opportunity.”
Brown is the current dean of the College of Business and Economics at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., a position he assumed in July 2007. Under Brown’s leadership, over the course of a 10-month period in 2010, the College of Business and Economics completed a transformative and wide-sweeping strategic plan. The plan was unanimously endorsed by the faculty and sets the trajectory for the college over the next 10 years. During his tenure, he managed historically high levels of enrollment in both undergraduate and graduate programs and recruited and hired faculty at an unprecedented pace.
In addition, Brown implemented major leadership changes, particularly focusing on undergraduate and graduate program leadership as well as leadership of the college’s centers. During his time at Lehigh, he raised more than $40 million in unrestricted funds and for endowed faculty chairs.
Prior to joining Lehigh, Brown spent more than 20 years at New York University’s Stern School of Business where he held a variety of senior academic and administrative positions at both the school and university level. He served as the associate dean of executive MBA Programs, and academic director of TRIUM, NYU Stern’s global executive MBA program in alliance with the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and HEC School of Management, Paris. He also served as chairman of the Department of Accounting, Taxation and Business Law at NYU Stern.
His research interests in financial reporting and analysis include: financial statement analysis, FASB/SEC policy analysis, international reporting and analysis, earnings measurement and management and managing earnings expectations.
Brown is a professor of accounting with an emphasis on financial analysis and governance. He co-authored Financial Reporting, Financial Statement Analysis, and Valuation: A Strategic Perspective (through sixth edition), a widely used textbook in undergraduate, MBA and executive education programs. In addition, he is the author of the e-Book, Foundations of Financial Statement Analysis, which is used in both traditional teaching and mixed-mode distance learning settings.
Brown graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Franklin & Marshall College where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree, and received his Doctor of Philosophy as well as his Master of Professional Accountancy degrees from the University of Texas at Austin.
Brown and his wife Joan G. Fishman and daughter, Emma, will move to Doherty House, the presidential residence, this summer. Currently, Fishman is the board vice president of the Cancer Support Community of the Greater Lehigh Valley. This fall Emma will begin her university studies at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa.
