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With more than 20 years of business and
higher education experience, James Goodrich joined the Atkinson
Graduate School of Management as dean in July from The Graziadio
School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University where
he served as associate dean since 1997.
 Goodrich
brings a unique perspective unlike any other dean, as his daughter,
Jessica, is a 2001 graduate of Willamette University.
“We were very pleased to welcome Jim Goodrich to Willamette,”
said University President Lee Pelton. “Jim brings to this
post the reputation and vision Atkinson requires for developing
new community partnerships, fund raising and faculty recruitment.
His leadership and expertise in managing international business
programs will be especially appreciated by faculty, students and
Atkinson alumni.”
 Goodrich,
who replaced former Dean Bryan Johnston, previously served as director
of the Westgate Center for Management Development, Eberhardt School
of Business, University of the Pacific from 1991-97, and as professor
and chair of International Business, School of Business and Public
Administration, also at the University of the Pacific from 1989-91.
He earned his undergraduate degree in international relations from
Occidental College; his master’s degree in public administration
from the University of Kansas, Lawrence; and his Ph.D. in public
administration from the University of California, Los Angeles. He
has been a guest professor at schools in Latin America and Europe.
Goodrich recently spoke about his duties as the new dean and his
vision for the Atkinson school.
What are your short-term goals for the Atkinson School?
Our goals fall into two areas – visibility and viability.
We want to continue to build our visibility with business. The more
we do for businesses and the public sector, and the more they have
experience with us, the more likely it is they’ll keep us
in mind when it comes time for them to figure out which program
to support and which MBAs they are interested in hiring. I think
it all works together.
Diversity is another goal of ours. I do think we have a rich resource
in our international students – more than 25 percent of our
students are international. That’s great. We have the highest
percentage of international students in any program in the University.
But again those are all things that need to be pursued. We need
to develop additional corporate relationships, and my hope would
be to develop international relationships – develop partnerships
and opportunities for both faculty and students.
Where do you see Atkinson in five and 10 years?
 That
gets to the viability side. The viability side means we need to
get to a higher level of support for our program and our students.
That will include somewhat of an expansion. Right now we take in
70 students per year. We have already set a goal to take in another
10 students per year over the next three years for a goal of 100
students per year coming into the program. We think we can do that
and still maintain our quality and selectivity. We also need support
for that. We’ll need additional space and facilities.
Ultimately we need to consider the possibility of developing our
own facilities off campus or partnering with others, since there
are a number of people in the business community who are interested
in our programs and can’t come to campus. Five years from
now, I hope we have a variety of services that will enhance our
viability in the sense of other sources of revenue, other market
segments that we’re serving. A key challenge will be to make
sure we’re doing that in a quality way.
Do you see Portland as your number one geographic area
to target?
Yes, because that’s where the majority of the business
community is in Oregon. My instincts are that if you go to the larger
urban area you’re going to have an easier time connecting
with more people within the business community, but we’re
not going to neglect Salem. We are going to continue to maintain
these ties we have with the public sector and the business community
here. Certainly I want to have a greater presence and visibility
in Portland and we’re exploring that now. It’s an exciting
time. With the right place, right time and right people, a lot of
good things can happen.
What do you see as Atkinson’s biggest challenges?
Recruiting faculty. It is very, very difficult to recruit
business faculty. In the entire country this year, I understand
there’s less than 1,200 total doctorates granted in all business
related disciplines and 600 of those are probably going into industry.
That leaves less than 600 or so in the pipeline for all graduate
schools in the country and there are more openings than that in
the top 50 business schools. I’m not sure that many people
outside our immediate area have heard of us. I want to put more
efforts into our marketing. We’ve got to cast a wider net
to recruit faculty and students and that’s our biggest challenge.
How do you think your knowledge as a Willamette parent
helped you in your position?
As a parent, I have already been on the receiving end of
the marketing efforts of Willamette University. It has given me
the opportunity to look at the University from the outside in. Since
my daughter applied to so many schools, we went on the Northwest
tour back in the spring 1997. I could easily see the difference,
the impression you get being at Willamette. What kind of impression
you make on people is very important and it’s tougher to see
from the inside. I think what we do here at our school is not unique,
but the way we do it, the execution, turns out to be very important.
What are some of your hobbies?
I enjoy playing golf. My father’s a dog trainer and
so I like to go hunting with the dogs for pheasants. I like to do
outdoorsy things. My wife is a hiker. I like the area for that because
I think it’s really conducive for outdoor activities.
What one fact do you think alumni and students would be
surprised to know about you?
When I first started, my ambition was to be a foreign corespondent.
To this day, I am really involved in consulting and international
business is my area. My wife and I enjoy traveling and we like to
think that we have friends all over the world.
– Michelle Maynard
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