I am honored to have this opportunity to address you as the new Dean and Director of the IBA. The Institute has undergone a transformative period under the leadership of Dr. Ishrat Husain and I begin my tenure with the hope that we can build upon the foundation that has been laid over the past eight years.

In recent years, the Institute has seen the launch of new academic programs, the hiring of many more full-time PhD faculty, and the establishment of new centers and partnerships. We must now ensure that these initiatives continue to be implemented in a way that generates sustained benefits for students, faculty and other members of the IBA community. We must monitor the new academic programs to see how they have been received among students. We must integrate new faculty more fully into the flow of teaching and research. We must see how best to market the offerings of the new centers. And we must manage both new and old partnerships to ensure that they continue to bear fruit.

The further strengthening of the faculty will be among my priorities. I hope to see our faculty recognized inside and beyond the Institute for excellence in both research and teaching. The mission of the Institute can best be served by creating an environment where both scholarship and practice are given adequate weight. Academic rigor is important. So we must aim for high quality research output. But we must also learn from the actual practice of business and public policy. Thus continuing to engage with local industry and public sector organizations and distilling the lessons of experience into case studies and other learning tools will also remain very important.

With the transformations of the past eight years, the Institute is now much more than a business school. With an expanded portfolio of programs including Accounting and Finance, Economics and Mathematics, Computer Science, Social Sciences and Liberal Arts, and with the newly established centers for Journalism and Islamic Finance, the Institute is well placed to fulfil its mission of "developing potential leaders, generating innovative ideas, and promoting creative solutions that address the needs of Pakistan, the region and the global community."

Dr. Farrukh Iqbal
Dean & Director