Ted Snyder

Edward Adams "Ted" Snyder (born 1953) is an industrial organization economist and the William S. Beinecke Professor of Economics and Management at Yale School of Management. He also served as the dean of the Yale SOM from 2011 to 2019 and of (University of Chicago Booth School of Business from 2001 to 2010. Before that he also deaned the University of Virginia Darden Graduate School of Business Administration) and was Senior Associate Dean at University of Michigan Ross School of Business. He is credited with establishing the Global Network for Advanced Management. Him deaning three top business schools led the Financial Times to call him "a serial dean".

Snyder is a strong defender of management education, having stated that the MBA is the most successful professional degree in modern history based on its general value in developing an understanding of (i) markets and competition and (ii) organizations, networks, and leadership. He foresees a greater weight going forward on a “third competency”, i.e., the ability to navigate the complexities within and across societies.

Snyder has been critical of the “students are customers” view of education, and has articulated an alternative view that sets expectations and emphasizes feedback.

Snyder has had extraordinary success with various business school rankings. At Michigan, when he was Senior Associate Dean in charge of the MBA program and part of a team led by B. Joseph White, the school rose to the No. 2 spot on the BusinessWeek rankings. While at Virginia, Darden reached No. 9 in BusinessWeek. When Snyder arrived at Chicago in 2001, the school never had had a No. 1 ranking and was ranked No. 10 in BusinessWeek. In 2006, during his tenure at Chicago, the school moved to No. 1 in BusinessWeek and has continued to hold the position. Chicago also gained two No. 1 rankings in The Economist during his tenure.

Snyder also is a prolific fundraiser. He first developed a reputation for fundraising at Darden, and later was called a business school turnaround specialist by The Wall Street Journal based on his performance at Darden and Chicago Booth.

Early in his career, Snyder worked as an economist for the United States Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.

Yale University On July 1, 2011, Snyder became Dean and William S. Beinecke Professor of Economics and Management at Yale School of Management.

In naming him to this position in January 2010, Yale University President Rick Levin stated: "Ted Snyder is widely regarded as the most successful business school dean in the nation. He brings experience, enthusiasm, and vision to the Yale School of Management, and he looks forward to maintaining the school’s tradition of preparing students for leadership in business and society by raising their awareness of the context in which business operates. Ted especially appreciates Yale’s openness to collaboration across its schools and departments and its strong institutional commitment to infusing its educational programs with global experiences and global awareness. Ted is also committed to advancing the curricular innovations begun by the SOM faculty three years ago."

Jim Baron, chair of the faculty search committee, stated said that more than 30 business school deans around the world were called for advice on whom to consider and Mr. Snyder's name was the only one that kept popping up. According to Baron, Ted Snyder "was widely regarded by his peers as having done the best job in the last decade or so."

The school's endowment grew from $197M at the start of his tenure to $475M at the end date, not including the effects of David Booth's gift. During his deanship, the cumulative operating surplus at Chicago Booth was $100.4M. This reflected strong performance in terms of program execution, overall management, and development.

The PhD program endowment went from $2.7M in 2001, to over $15.0M as of June 2010. With the help of an array of committed donors, the school increased the MBA student scholarship budget by an average annual increase of 17.1% over nine budget cycles. It also more than doubled number of endowed professorships, and during Snyder's deanship, Chicago Booth enjoyed the highest retention of senior faculty in five decades.

Programmatic initiatives During his tenure, Chicago Booth opened a permanent campus in London, was ready for the expansion of its Singapore campus, and opened the $125M Harper Center in Hyde Park, Chicago. The Becker Center and the Initiative on Global Markets were established during his deanship. The school launched the CRSP indices project, which should generate substantial guaranteed license revenues, and also launched the Nielsen Marketing database projects.

Rankings Chicago Booth moved from 10th in the Businessweek rankings to 1st, and has held the No. 1 ranking since 2006. The school ranked in the top 10 in 74 of 78 rankings during his deanship. The Economist also ranked it No. 1 twice during his tenure. These rankings were significant for the school; while it had been well-ranked prior to his tenure, it never had received a No. 1 ranking.

University of Virginia Snyder was the Dean and Charles C. Abbott Professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business from 1998 to 2001.

At Darden, he directed an expansion of the school's MBA program, worked to improve the diversity of the student body, and significantly increased the school's executive education offerings. In his decanal role, Snyder was on the receiving end of what was at the time the largest gift in business school history, Frank Batten Sr.’s $60M gift in December 1999 to establish the Batten Institute.

Other Snyder received his MA in public policy in 1978 and PhD in economics in 1984 from the University of Chicago. After a professional start as an economist with the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, Snyder joined the faculty at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business in 1982. He served as a faculty member and later as Senior Associate Dean, and was also the founding director of the Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan, which studies emerging markets.

His research interests include industrial organization, antitrust economics, law and economics, and financial institutions. He has published in many academic journals, and at Chicago Booth he co-taught "Economic Analysis of Major Policy Issues" with fellow economists Gary Becker, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1992, and Kevin Murphy, a 2005 MacArthur Fellow. He serves on the Colby College Board of Trustees.

Family Snyder's father was a World War II bomber pilot and his mother was a high-school teacher.