Bernard T. "Bernie" Ferrari, an accomplished corporate strategist and management consultant to Fortune 50 companies, has been named the next dean of The Johns Hopkins University's Carey Business School.
Ferrari, whose appointment is effective July 1, is the second dean to lead the Carey Business School since it was established in 2007. He succeeds Yash P. Gupta who stepped down last June.
Ferrari, 63, is a former director at the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, where he spent nearly two decades as a partner and senior healthcare consultant. He led McKinsey's healthcare practice and the firm's North American corporate strategy practice. After retiring from McKinsey in 2008, Ferrari founded the Ferrari Consultancy, where he currently serves as chairman. The consultancy serves clients in the financial services, transportation, energy, medical products, aviation and heavy equipment manufacturing sectors, and consults with clients on their business strategies.
Ferrari began his career as a surgeon. Prior to joining McKinsey, he was chief operating officer and assistant medical director of the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans. He previously served as vice chairman of the Department of Colon and Rectal Surgery.
"Dr. Ferrari is a proven leader, visionary strategist, and expert communicator, who values deeply the importance of building partnerships," said Ronald J. Daniels, president of Johns Hopkins, who recommended the appointment to the executive committee of the university's board of trustees. "He has a keen understanding of the challenges and opportunities in business education. He appreciates the critical importance of investing in the best and brightest faculty devoted to discovery, to excellence in teaching, and to being engaged university citizens.
"Throughout my conversations with Dr. Ferrari, I have been impressed by his intellect, energy, and passion," Daniels added. "I know he will be a wonderful colleague."
Lloyd B. Minor, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, chaired the search committee that identified Ferrari. "We found Dr. Ferrari to be uniquely qualified for this important leadership position. He is poised to build on the Carey School's many successes and to enhance its partnerships with other Johns Hopkins schools, particularly in the areas of healthcare and the life sciences," Minor said. "Dr. Ferrari shares Johns Hopkins' commitment to excellence, and he appreciates the integral role the Carey Business School plays in that pursuit."
Ferrari is a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Rochester where he has been actively engaged with the Simon Graduate School of Business. He is also a trustee of the Juilliard School and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
His papers have been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, McKinsey Quarterly and The New England Journal of Medicine. His book, Power Listening: Mastering the Most Critical Business Skill of All, was published earlier this year.
The Carey Business School was established with a gift from Trustee Emeritus Wm. Polk Carey and opened in 2007. Its business programs include several joint degree programs with other Johns Hopkins schools, partnerships Ferrari said attracted him to the institution.
"Johns Hopkins is an amazing constellation of 10 very bright stars," Ferrari said, referring to the Carey School and the schools of Arts and Sciences, Education, Engineering, Medicine, Nursing and Public Health, as well as SAIS, the Peabody Institute and the Applied Physics Laboratory. "This university is a collaborator's dream."
"The disciplines embedded in a business school relate to many of the disciplines in these other world-renowned schools," Ferrari said. "The opportunities for creative knowledge building among faculty, students and staff abound. I am honored to have been chosen to lead the Carey Business School and I look forward to being a part of this great university."
Ferrari is a cum laude graduate of the University of Rochester from which he also received his M.D. He earned a J.D. magna cum laude from Loyola University School of Law and an M.B.A. from Tulane University School of Business. He is married to Linda Ferrari, a former commercial banker and active docent at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Source: Johns Hopkins University