Cal Poly names interim dean of business college

Kevin Lertwachara will serve as interim dean of the Orfalea College of Business beginning Nov. 1, the university announced. Lertwachara is currently associate dean of the college’s undergraduate programs.

Current Dean Scott Dawson will step down to return to Portland, Oregon after the death of his wife, Bridget, in a bicycling accident in July. Dawson wants to be closer to family and friends, Cal Poly officials said.

Lertwachara joined Cal Poly in 2004 as a professor of teaching information systems. He received the Orfalea College’s Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award in 2009. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology in Thailand, an MBA from Westminster College and a doctorate in operations and information management from the University of Connecticut.

Cal Poly will conduct a national search for a permanent dean of the Orfalea College of Business.

With Lertwachara’s change of assignment, marketing professor Stern Neill will serve as interim associate dean for undergraduate programs, Cal Poly Provost Kathleen Enz Finken announced. Neill came to Cal Poly in 2008 from a teaching position at the University of Washington, Tacoma.

This story was originally published September 27, 2016 at 12:13 PM with the headline "Cal Poly names interim dean of business college."