Release Date: Thursday, November 2, 2006

Hoyt to serve as interim dean of UGA Terry College of Business

ATHENS, Ga. — Robert E. Hoyt, a long-time faculty member and department head in the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business, will become interim dean of the college effective January 1.

Hoyt, head of the Department of Insurance, Legal Studies and Real Estate in the college, will fill the vacancy created by the departure of Dean P. George Benson, who will become president of the College of Charleston in 2007. Hoyt's appointment was announced today by Arnett C. Mace Jr., senior vice president for academic affairs and provost.

A faculty member in the Terry College since 1988, Hoyt holds the Dudley L. Moore, Jr. Chair of risk management and insurance. He has received the university's Richard B. Russell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and was a Fulbright Visiting Professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration in Vienna, Austria.

"Dr. Hoyt has demonstrated excellence as a faculty member and administrator during his tenure in the Terry College of Business and the University of Georgia," said Mace. "Rob's experience, administrative skills and knowledge of the Terry College and the university provide an excellent background to serve as the interim dean.

"I look forward to his leadership and to working with him, the faculty and staff, alumni and other constituents to continue building programs of excellence during the interim period until a permanent dean is named."

Mace said a committee will be formed to conduct a national search to recommend a permanent dean for the college. Rebecca White, dean of the School of Law, will chair the committee, and faculty and staff members in the Terry College will be asked to nominate members of the committee, Mace said. He said Ann Die Hasselmo of the search firm Academic Search Consulting Service will assist the search committee.

Hoyt, who also has received the Terry College Teacher of the Year Award, is associate director of the college's Center for Strategic Risk Management. He conducts research in the areas of corporate hedging, enterprise risk management, catastrophe risk management and the economics of insurance fraud.

He has given expert testimony in lawsuits relating to pension valuation and insurance contract interpretation, and has been a consultant to public and private organizations including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

He is a past president of the American Risk and Insurance Association and the Risk Theory Society, and serves on the board of the International Insurance Society. He is a trustee of the Griffith Foundation for Insurance Education and a director of the Spencer Educational Foundation.

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