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Indiana University has appointed Patrick Hopkins as the next dean of the Kelley School of Business, the university announced Tuesday.
Hopkins has been a member of the Kelley faculty since 1995 and currently serves as vice dean on IU’s Bloomington campus. He will succeed Ash Soni, who is wrapping up a two-year tenure as dean and plans to return to faculty.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Hopkins called the appointment “humbling” and “exciting.”
“I have been here 30 years, and I’ve seen the amazing people that have come before me in this position, but then also contributions of my colleagues over the years,” he said. “Just to realize all of these people who are contributing to the Kelley School, and just the responsibility that comes with this job is certainly humbling, but it’s also simultaneously energizing, because we are doing amazing work.”
Hopkins is a professor of accounting at the Kelley School and has held a variety of leadership roles, including vice dean, executive associate dean of academic programs, and chair of undergraduate programs.
In addition to overseeing the academic and administrative operations of the Kelley School at both the Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses, one of Hopkins’ top priorities will be to strengthen the school’s dual-campus structure, IU said.
Hopkins said while the Kelley School is technically one school with two campuses, it has almost functioned as two separate schools in the past.
“We really didn’t bring the full force of the Bloomington faculty—we have more than 400 full-time faculty—and the depth of research expertise and the breadth of teaching expertise to bring that to the Indianapolis marketplace,” he said. “We’re really excited to try to better integrate across our two campuses, so that we can meet the challenges that exists in Indiana in higher education.”
Part of that effort, Hopkins said, will include bringing the school’s Executive Education program to Indianapolis. He also aims to bring the interdisciplinary collaboration seen on the Bloomington campus to Indy.
He cited a newly forged partnership between the Kelley School and the Jacobs School of Music to launch a music business degree in Bloomington this fall, which he said has generated a lot of interest from the student body.
“We’re actively partnering with other academic units on campus. We’ve been breaking down the silos in Bloomington, and I want to continue to do that in Indianapolis to the extent they might exist and then link our two campuses to really work together effectively in that mission.”
Prior to joining IU, Hopkins worked at the University of Texas at Austin as a teaching and research assistant and served as a lecturer and undergraduate academic advisor at the University of Florida’s Fisher School of Accounting.
Hopkins will begin his new role on March 17.
Ash Soni was named dean of the Kelley School in April 2023 after serving in the role on an interim basis for nearly a year. The university said he plans to take a sabbatical leave before returning to the Kelley faculty.
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