After a five-month national search, California State University, Sacramento, announced Friday that Sanjay B. Varshney, an associate professor from the State University of New York, will lead the business school.

Varshney will take the job held for six years by Felicenne H. Ramey, who resigned in July 2003 after strengthening ties between the CSUS College of Business Administration and the local business community.

The incoming dean vowed Friday to continue his predecessor's work with the local business community. He said he also will stress international teaching and exchange programs and support faculty efforts to achieve scholarly growth.

At SUNY's Utica campus, Varshney built a strong, engaging and supportive business advisory council, said Ric Brown, vice president for academic affairs at CSUS.

The campus link to the business community is of "huge" importance, Brown added. He described Varshney's strengths in this area as a selling point but also touted his ability to secure corporate sponsorships for academic awards.

The 37-year-old Varshney will take the post July 15 and will earn an annual salary of $145,800. He will preside over a $9 million budget, a 90-member teaching staff and a school with some 4,000 students.

"The positioning of the college couldn't be any better," said Varshney in a telephone interview from his home in suburban Syracuse. "I look forward to a rewarding opportunity to capitalize on the strengths and work on the weaknesses."

Both Varshney and Brown said fund raising and building endowments for academic chairs and for scholarships will be important roles for the new dean.

The incoming dean also told faculty and staff at CSUS earlier this month that he and colleagues at SUNY Institute of Technology quadrupled the school of management's operating budget and won $100,000 from the Sloan Foundation for graduate programs.

Brown said scholarship and endowment development also will be at the top of Varshney's list of responsibilities.

He will guide CSUS through the re-accreditation process with the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The accreditation sets a standard of achievement that strengthens the business school's appeal to students and their future employers.

Varshney, whose academic credentials include degrees in accounting, economics and finance, served four years as dean of the school of management before moving into teaching last fall.

He would say only that he resigned as a matter of integrity. Published accounts said he and five other academic leaders stepped down following a no-confidence vote in the campus president over his leadership style.

Academic leaders at the university said last fall that they would resign if the president stayed. The president did stay, and the faculty later vowed to work with him.

Brown said he was aware of the resignation and campus turmoil.

"We did discuss that," Brown said, "and I told Dr. Varshney that this president and I are committed to his success, as is the entire college of business."

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Sanjay B. Varshney
History: Associate professor of finance, the State University of New York Institute of Technology, School of Management. Formerly dean of the institute.
Assistant professor of finance at University of San Francisco from 1996-98.

Education: Bachelor's degree in accounting from Sydenham College of Bombay University, master's in economics from the University of Cincinnati and Ph.D. in finance from Louisiana State University.

Age: 37

Family: Married to Nisha Varshney, an occupational therapist. The couple have one child, 18-month-old Sohil.

Home: Manlius, a suburb of Syracuse, N.Y.

Dean's salary: $145,800

Appointment effective: July 15