Faculty and Staff
Name: Ryan D. Butt
Title: Dean of College of Business
Office Location: SB-101-E
E-Mail: rbutt@lewisu.edu
Phone: (815) 836-5267
Education:
- D.B.A., DePaul University
- J.D., Valparaiso University
- M.S., University of Notre Dame
- B.A., University of Notre Dame
Ryan currently holds the position of Dean of the College of Business and Graduate School of Management at Lewis University. Since his arrival in July, 2017, he successfully led a reaffirmation of accreditation for ten undergraduate and five graduate programs, and gained first-time accreditation for new two new undergraduate and one graduate degrees with ACBSP. During the past several years he secured funding and governmental support in launching a regional business incubator serving the entrepreneurial community on and off campus, as well as a gift to endow a business plan competition for students at Lewis. He continues to be a strong supporter for student experiences through securing mock interview rooms, creating private study/lounge spaces, development of active-learning classrooms and similar initiatives. Ryan has successfully led the College through both a first-time overall strategic planning process and collaboratively established the first College diversity, equity and inclusion mission statement and strategic plan.
Prior to coming to Lewis, Ryan served as the Dean of the College of Business & Leadership at Lourdes University in Sylvania, Ohio. During his tenure at Lourdes, his successes included the design and implementation of an undergraduate business internship program, launching an entirely new, innovative and global MBA program that placed an emphasis on real-life immersions for the MBA candidates. Ryan worked with both undergraduate and graduate students to successfully grow and expand the on-campus fair trade store into a financially sustainable enterprise as well as secured grant funding that allowed him to lead various teams of graduate students to develop and launch viable social-venture entities for regional NGOs.
In the late 1990's, Ryan worked in Kenya for an NGO that provided training and resources to create sustainable business enterprises for street children. This experience was followed by a senior administrative position with a regional nonprofit organization in Northern Indiana, where he began to develop frameworks for social enterprises to be implemented within the organization. This passion for building social ventures led Ryan to establish The Constaré® Group, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in developing social ventures within and between the for-profit and nonprofit sectors both domestically and internationally. It was during these years that Ryan's work with diverse global clients enabled his research initiatives to focus and discern how non-profit organizations conceive, execute and grow effective sustainable income strategies grounded in for-profit frameworks while strengthening their missions.
Ryan earned his BA and MSA from the University of Notre Dame and his Juris Doctorate from Valparaiso University School of Law, where his concentrations included nonprofit, business, and international law. During his time at Valparaiso, he extensively researched and wrote on issues related to tax, compensation, and regulation of the nonprofit sector. He received his Doctorate of Business Administration from DePaul University, where his research interests throughout his course of studies aligned with entrepreneurial orientation within veterans as well as first- and continuing-generation college graduates. Ryan is a frequent presenter at international, national and regional conferences on the topics of global and professional MBA programs; innovative 21st century business curriculum; trends in higher education; sustainability strategies and social entrepreneurship. Ryan has served on several nonprofit boards, at the local, regional, state, and international levels and has traveled for business on five continents.
https://www.lewisu.edu/academics/cob/index.htm
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