B. Joseph White, dean of the Business School from 1991-2001 and interim president of the University in 2002, has been named managing director of Fred Alger Management Inc., a New York investment firm.
White, who also is the Wilbur K. Pierpont Collegiate Professor of Business Administration at the Business School, will take a leave from the University to assume overall responsibility of the Alger company. He begins his new position this week.
“I am honored by Fred Alger’s trust in inviting me into a senior leadership role in the firm he founded and, with his late brother David, built successfully over the last 40 years,” White says. “Fred and David both earned degrees from the University of Michigan Business School. I look forward to this new challenge and helping a great firm continue to grow and develop.”
Fred Alger says as the firm continues to expand, it is important to add senior management talent like White to its ranks.
“In addition to being a trustee of the Alger mutual funds since 1999, Joe has a stellar background in both business and academia,” Alger says. “I can think of no one better to join our firm in helping Alger reach even greater levels of excellence in all aspects of our business.”
For much of the past decade, the firm was headed by David Alger, a member of the Business School’s Visiting Committee. He died, along with 33 other Alger employees, during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. The firm’s investment offices were on the 93rd floor of one of the World Trade Center towers.
Because of the work he did for Alger mutual funds and shareholders after Sept. 11, White was named one of the mutual fund industry’s two trustees of the year in 2002.
Business School Dean Robert J. Dolan says that while he is sorry to see White leave the University, he believes Alger has found the perfect person to lead the firm.
“The very characteristics that made Joe such an outstanding leader here at Michigan—his intellect, integrity, compassion and record of accomplishment—will serve him tremendously well in his new position,” Dolan says. “We have gained enormously from having him as our colleague and look forward to his continued success and friendship.”
White joined the faculty at the Business School in 1975, after earning his doctorate in business administration from the University that same year. He left U-M to become an officer of Cummins Engine Co. in 1981, but rejoined the Business School in 1987 as associate dean. He became dean of the school in 1991 and interim president of the University in 2002. From 1992-2001, he also was president of the William Davidson Institute.
White, who has an MBA from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University, serves on the boards of Equity Residential, Gordon Food Service, Kelly Services and Kaydon Corp.
