Fifth dean: Beck-Dudley made the college ‘stronger than ever’

Twelve years ago last month, the Florida State University College of Business secured a $1 million gift from Bob Sasser, then the president and CEO of Dollar Tree, and his wife, Pam, to name an unknown space in a proposed new building for the college. 

The building didn’t have a name or even a location. But in Caryn Beck-Dudley, it had a cultivator.

As dean of the college at the time, Beck-Dudley used the Sassers’ philanthropic investment as a seed that would take root, spawn branches and blossom in the form of a magnificent showcase facility. Because of her leadership and foundational work, the college now reaps Legacy Hall.

“Caryn got this dream started,” said Michael D. Hartline, the current dean, who succeeded Beck-Dudley and saw the dream through. “She launched the ‘Legacy Lives Here’ fundraising campaign that helped make Legacy Hall happen.”

The college salutes Beck-Dudley, its fifth dean and the first woman to lead the college, as it celebrates its 75th anniversary and prepares to move into its new world-class, five-story facility, which will host its first classes in January 2026. As the largest academic building in the history of FSU, Legacy Hall promises to lead the College of Business into an unprecedented era of achievement.

“We worked very, very hard during my time as dean” to get Legacy Hall funded, Beck-Dudley said during a recent visit to campus. “And driving past it today makes me incredibly proud.”

Beck-Dudley served as dean from 2006 to 2015. Despite the financial challenges of the Great Recession early in her tenure and her own profound personal tragedy later on, she led the college to the precipice of preeminence. For starters, she fostered increased alumni engagement with students, including the creation of what is now called Legends and Leaders Day, and streamlined the college’s Ph.D. program so more students could graduate in a reasonable amount of time. She also established the finance department’s Student Investment Fund, a student-driven vehicle now valued at $8.2 million, dramatically up from its initial investment of $1.2 million. The fund gives finance students real-world experience in researching, pitching and managing investments.

Perhaps most notably, Beck-Dudley intensified and expanded the college’s advancement infrastructure and produced exceptional results. That included a $5 million gift from alumnus Dr. William T. Hold – like Bob Sasser, a member of the college’s Alumni Hall of Fame – to create what’s now the nationally respected Dr. William T. Hold/The Alliance’s Program in Risk Management and Insurance. In 2011, she secured a $4.25 million gift from Jim Moran and the Jim Moran Foundation to help FSU in its effort to become The Entrepreneurial University, creating a culture of integration and innovation across all academic disciplines.

“I loved fundraising. I loved meeting with alumni,” Beck-Dudley said. “I loved all that it entailed, culminating with the vision of a new building.”

She added: “The college needed a new house. It needed a big house. It needed to be an elegant house.”

‘I couldn’t be prouder’

She said serious consideration for a new facility began in 2008 amid exploding enrollment that taxed the college’s outdated and undersized structures: the Rovetta Business Building (RBB), opened in 1958, and the Rovetta Business Annex (RBA), opened in 1984. Bob Mang, a college Board of Governors member at the time and a 2010 inductee into the college’s Alumni Hall of Fame, called Beck-Dudley after visiting another school’s new business building. To become a top business school, the College of Business needed a new facility, Mang told her. Beck-Dudley told him it would be difficult to raise money during the Great Recession. He told her it was the perfect time to start planning.

Beck-Dudley, Mang and others got the support of T.K. Wetherell, FSU’s president at the time, and Wetherell’s successor, Eric Barron, and ultimately launched a successful funding campaign, including the major gift from the Sassers. Their 2012 investment came about 10 years after Beck-Dudley’s predecessor, Melvin Stith, received a major gift from Gary L. Rogers, a 2003 inductee into the college’s Alumni Hall of Fame, to name the dean’s suite in a potential new facility.

“We had to have the vision of creating a centerpiece for business students to be proud of, for alumni to come back to and for future students and potential students to come and see what they could be a part of,” Beck-Dudley said. “I couldn't be prouder of what has happened since I left.”

Beck-Dudley left FSU in 2015 to become business dean at Santa Clara University in California. It marked her third stint as the first woman dean of a business school, following her roles at FSU and Utah State University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in political science. 

In 2020, she became president and CEO of AACSB International, the global standard-setting body for business education and the longtime accrediting body for the FSU College of Business. She retired in 2023 and now spends much of her time in Florida, in North Carolina near her daughter and out West, including her Utah homeland.

In a news release about Beck-Dudley’s decision to leave FSU, Sally McRorie, the university’s interim provost at the time, noted that Beck-Dudley had presided over “an increase in student achievement, a multimillion-dollar capital campaign and the hiring of entrepreneurs-in-residence to better educate students about all aspects of entrepreneurship.”

“Because of Caryn's leadership,” McRorie added, “the college is stronger than ever …”

The ‘Western Direct’ approach

Former colleagues remember Beck-Dudley for her strategic focus, which she maintained with frankness, decisiveness and resolve – consistent with her self-proclaimed “Western Direct” approach to communications and operations.  

“There is a fundamental authenticity to how she lives,” said Joan Gabel, a former College of Business faculty member, including chair of the Department of Risk Management/Insurance, Real Estate and Legal Studies. “She’s very serious; the work needs to be done, and you understand her priorities. But she’s also a lot of fun, and she’s spirited in how she lives her life.”

Friends and former colleagues point out that Beck-Dudley flourished as an administrator even amid spans of extreme adversity: her breast cancer and her husband Lynn’s brain cancer. Lynn Dudley, who served as the first chair of FSU’s Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, passed in 2013. 

Among his survivors were Lynn and Caryn’s children, Michael, now 39, and Stacia, now 34 .

“She did amazing work during a time of enormous challenges,” said Nan Hillis, a 2016 Alumni Hall of Fame inductee who served as chair of the college Board of Governors during Beck-Dudley’s deanship. “She stayed in that leadership role and did what she needed to do.”

Hillis pointed to Beck-Dudley’s fundraising prowess, including her campaign for Legacy Hall and an initiative for board members to increase their financial contributions to the college. 

“Hats off to her,” Hillis said.

Colleagues who flourished

Some former colleagues credit Beck-Dudley for where their careers have taken them. 

Gabel, who now serves as chancellor at the University of Pittsburgh, said her relationship with Beck-Dudley dates to 1996 when they met during a meeting of the Academy of Legacy Studies in Business. Both had law degrees. Gabel was in her first academic position: assistant professor of legal studies at Georgia State University. Beck-Dudley was a professor at Utah State University, where she would become chair of the Department of Management and Human Resources, then dean of the College of Business.

Gabel said Beck-Dudley approached her with friendly support.

“I gravitated toward her to what I would call a ‘friendtor,’” Gabel said. “She immediately became a wonderful friend and a tremendous source of personal and professional advice.”

Gabel hailed Beck-Dudley as “the total package” for her capacity to nurture relationships, including with alumni, administrators and government officials, and identify and seize opportunities that benefit students and the college.

“The combination is incredible,” Gabel said. “It allowed her to get difficult things done and make you glad you had the opportunity to be a part of it.”

Hartline, Beck-Dudley's successor, said Beck-Dudley strengthened the college’s fundraising infrastructure via expansion of its communications and engagement units, increasing marketing, messaging and contact with alumni. 

Also, Hartline said, Beck-Dudley became the first FSU business dean to put one associate dean in charge of all undergraduate and graduate academic affairs. Kathleen McCullough, the senior associate dean for academic affairs, continues that role today. 

In 2011, Beck-Dudley promoted Hartline from chair of the Department of Marketing to associate dean for strategic initiatives – a role she created “basically for whatever special projects the dean needed to get done,” Hartline said. The college continues those objectives through the leadership of Sarah Collins, director of strategic engagement, and Caroline Poole, director of strategic initiatives.

In his new role under Beck-Dudley, Hartline led the planning for a new building, overseeing an updated space analysis, engaging stakeholders and hiring a Tallahassee-based architecture firm to do the initial design.

“She taught me a great deal about advancement,” Hartline said. “She gave me an opportunity to learn and grow. 

“I’ll always deeply appreciate Caryn.”

-- Pete Reinwald