Bio
Dr. Annette L. Ranft serves as the Dean of the School of Business and F.M. Kirby Foundation Chair in Business Excellence. Ranft, who joined the School on July 1, 2022, was among The Wall Street Journal’s list of top female business administrators — one of 11 “shining stars” identified by the national outlet. Before coming to Wake Forest, Ranft was Dean and Wells Fargo Professor of Auburn University’s Raymond J. Harbert College of Business, as well as Dean and Steven P. Zelnak, Jr., Chair at North Carolina State’s Poole College of Management. She has served in leadership roles for more than half of her career in higher education, including roles of Associate and Senior Associate Dean at the University of Tennessee’s Haslam College of Business and as Chair of the Department of Management at Florida State University.
A noted scholar of strategic management, her research has focused on the acquisitions of high-tech firms, strategic leadership, merger and acquisition integration, and knowledge management. She has authored or co-authored more than 40 scholarly publications on management-related topics, and her work has appeared in top journals including the Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, and the Journal of International Business Studies. She has served on the editorial board of the Strategic Management Journal and was the Associate Editor for the Journal of Management.
Committed to excellence in both scholarship and teaching, Ranft has been a mentor for both undergraduate and graduate students and has been an advisor for more than a dozen doctoral students. Before entering academia, Ranft worked as a Systems Consultant for AT&T and as an Account Manager for EDS.
A native of North Carolina, Ranft earned a Doctorate in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business, a Master of Science in Management from Georgia Tech, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Appalachian State University.