Tuck Dean Announces Leadership Changes in the Deanery

Earlier this summer, Dean Matthew J. Slaughter announced several changes to Tuck’s academic and administrative leadership.

Punam Anand Keller

Deputy Dean
The Charles Henry Jones Third Century Professor of Management

The Charles Henry Jones Third Century Professor of Management Punam Keller has assumed the new role of Deputy Dean at Tuck.

We at Tuck have marveled at Punam’s impact as Associate Dean for Innovation and Growth over the last three years. Her efforts in bringing a thriving Next Step program to life; designing and implementing a new strategy for Tuck Executive Education; and innovating around the Business Bridge concept have strengthened Tuck in ways both large and small. In her new role, Punam will continue this important work while also overseeing our faculty—a broadened scope that will create even greater connectivity between our innovations in the pre- and post-MBA space and the research and teaching endeavors of our vibrant scholar-educators. 

As part of this transition, Punam is working with the Executive Education, Business Bridge, and Next Step teams to evaluate their administrative structure and determine what additional future support they require to achieve their goals.

Connie Helfat

Associate Dean for Research Innovation
The J. Brian Quinn Professor in Technology and Strategy

Connie Helfat, the J. Brian Quinn Professor in Technology and Strategy, has assumed the newly-created position of Associate Dean for Research Innovation. 

With a distinguished record of her own in research innovation, Connie is uniquely suited to help advance Tuck’s research profile. In her role as Associate Dean for Research Innovation, Connie is working to develop ways to increase research energy and presence at Tuck—as a means to strengthen both the reputation and impact of Tuck faculty scholarship and to enhance our ability to attract and retain a dynamic faculty of the future. 

Sally Jaeger

Associate Dean, MBA Program

In her expanded role as associate dean of the MBA program, Sally is charged with setting an institution-wide vision for student engagement at Tuck. As part of this work, Sally will seek out opportunities to build and strengthen the ways we engage with students across the entirety of their experience, while continuing her skillful oversight of our wonderful MBAPO team. As always, Sally and her team will continue to partner closely with faculty deans and faculty more generally on all points of interface between the curriculum and MBA program.

Sally is uniquely qualified to take a holistic look at the student experience at Tuck. During her 25 years with us, Sally has served as associate director and then director of admissions, during which she evaluated more than 22,000 applications to the MBA program and grew the international student population from 13 to 30 percent. And nearly 40 percent of all living alumni—4,153 to be exact—earned their Tuck MBA during Sally’s tenure in the MBAPO.

In her current role as assistant dean and director of the MBA program, Sally has played an outsized role in the lives of our students, working with the Tuck student body on academic, personal, and social issues and serving as a vital partner to the school’s academic leadership on curricular and co-curricular matters.

Gina C. des Cognets T’01

Associate Dean, Planning and Operations

Gina C. des Cognets T’01 has assumed the new role of associate dean, planning and operations at Tuck.

In this role, Gina is tasked with leading the implementation of the dean’s strategic priorities and aligning the operating plans and activities of Tuck’s core service areas with the school’s mission and strategy. Among her responsibilities, Gina will set the overall direction for campus planning and services; communications and marketing; finance; information technology; and institutional research, and do so in a way that is consistent with Tuck’s personal, connected, and transformative values.

Gina brings a wealth of cross-functional leadership experience and deep institutional knowledge to her role as associate dean. During her 13 years at Tuck, Gina has served as associate director and later director of alumni services, and as director of marketing and communications, where she led the successful merger of the Tuck’s creative services and public relations teams. Most recently, as chief of staff and executive director, Office of the Dean, Gina has served as a key adviser on institutional matters and as a trusted deanery partner and member of the school’s senior leadership team.