Edward J. Frey Dean and Stephen M. Ross Professor of Business
Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
Sharon F. Matusik is the Edward J. Frey Dean of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and a leading scholar of strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Since assuming the deanship in 2022, she has advanced an ambitious vision for Ross—one that deepens the integration of business, engineering, and technology while expanding the school’s global reach and impact.
Under her leadership, Ross has launched a series of major strategic initiatives. These include the development of a new campus in Los Angeles designed to serve executive learners and Executive MBA students on the West Coast and globally, extending Michigan’s reach into one of the world’s most dynamic centers of innovation, technology, and creative industries. She has also championed new programmatic innovations, including a highly integrated dual-degree program that brings together business and engineering to prepare students to lead at the intersection of technology, entrepreneurship, and scalable enterprise.
A hallmark of Matusik’s leadership is her focus on strengthening the connective tissue between disciplines—particularly business and engineering—to better reflect the realities of modern innovation. She has accelerated efforts to position Ross as a leader in entrepreneurship and action-based learning, building on Michigan’s distinctive strengths to learn by doing, supporting students working with high-growth companies, and addressing complex technical advances and global changes. Her approach emphasizes not only technical and analytical excellence, but also creativity, adaptability, and leadership in uncertain environments.
Matusik also plays a significant leadership role across the University of Michigan. She serves as Chair of the Board of the William Davidson Institute, a nonprofit focused on economic development and market-based solutions in emerging economies, and is a member of the Michigan Medicine Compensation Advisory Committee, contributing to initiatives that span global development, healthcare, and institutional strategy. She also serves on the Board of the premier accreditation body for business schools, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).
Prior to joining Michigan, Matusik served as Dean of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she led efforts to enhance the school’s academic quality, research impact, and student success, and co-chaired a system-wide strategic planning initiative for the $4.5b four-campus University of Colorado system.
An accomplished and widely respected scholar, Matusik’s research examines corporate strategy, innovation, entrepreneurship, and venture capital, with a particular focus on how firms leverage knowledge assets to drive growth and competitive advantage. Her work has been published in leading journals including Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, and Academy of Management Journal, and has shaped understanding of innovation under uncertainty, entrepreneurial finance, and global knowledge flows. She is also co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Entrepreneurship and Collaboration.
Matusik has received numerous honors for her leadership, scholarship, and teaching, including the University of Colorado’s Excellence in Leadership Award. She has served on the editorial boards of top academic journals and on the Board of Directors of the Strategic Management Society, and has mentored doctoral students who have gone on to leading academic careers worldwide.
Before entering academia, Matusik worked as a consultant in employee benefits, managing teams and advising organizations—experience that informs her pragmatic, impact-oriented leadership style.
Matusik earned her Ph.D. in Strategic Management from the University of Washington and holds a B.A. with honors in Economics and English from Colby College.
Bridging rigorous scholarship with real-world action, Matusik aims to guide the Ross School to shape the future of business education—advancing a model that integrates business, technology, and hands-on experience to prepare leaders for an increasingly complex and innovation-driven global economy.