Rider Names New Director of Executive MBA Program

Editor's Note: The following is a news release issued by

Dr. John Donovan, associate professor and chair of the management department, has been named director of the Executive Master of Business Administration program at Rider University. He will continue to serve as the chair of the management department.

As a faculty member at Rider University and Virginia Tech, and as a business adviser to several organizations, Donovan has developed deep expertise in employee selection, executive leadership assessment and development, and enhancing team effectiveness and collaboration. In these roles, he has also become very familiar with the educational and development needs of executives and mid-level managers.

“We want to thank Paul Benchner for his leadership in developing an outstanding program with a reputation that has kept growing each year,” said John Farrell, assistant dean for Graduate and Professional Programs College of Business Administration, of the program's outgoing director. “We look to John Donovan’s leadership to help us advance the program academically and extend its reach to executives from the several industries in the region.”

In addition to his membership of the graduate business faculty, Donovan also serves on the Graduate Curriculum Committee that recently revised the MBA curriculum. He has been instrumental in developing an innovative course on Managerial Thinking and Decision Making, as part of the MBA program. He holds a doctorate in industrial/organizational psychology and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from University of Albany, State University of New York.

“I am excited about the opportunity to serve as the director of the EMBA program,” Donovan said. “I believe that this program has enormous potential, and I look forward to developing and growing this program in the coming years.”