Robert Kleine III Named Dean of WNEU College of Business

SPRINGFIELD — Robert Kleine III has been named dean of the Western New England University (WNEU) College of Business, effective July 1. He succeeds Dean Julie Siciliano, who is retiring after 30 years at WNEU.

Linda Jones, WNEU provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, announced the appointment, citing Kleine’s academic accomplishments and strong record of institutional leadership. “I am pleased to welcome Dr. Kleine as our new dean, and I look forward to working closely with him as we continue to develop new academic programs and to advance the College of Business and the university,” she said.

Kleine was previously associate dean and James F. Dicke professor of Marketing at Ohio Northern University, where he served for 14 years. While there, he collaboratively led the creation of several programs, including a whole-campus entrepreneurial mindset initiative; the pharmaceutical business major, for which he served as coordinator for several years; and, more recently, a risk management & insurance major. Prior to that, he served as marketing faculty, with graduate faculty status, at Arizona State University, and served as a marketing consultant to the U.S. Army Recruiting Command. He earned a PhD in marketing from the University of Cincinnati and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of New Hampshire.

Kleine’s research, published in top marketing journals including the Journal of Consumer Research, Psychology & Marketing, and the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, is widely cited and influential. He received the Ferber Award for best interdisciplinary article based on a dissertation published in the Journal of Consumer Research. The Marketing Science Institute recognizes his work as “essential reading in marketing.”

Kleine is an accomplished educator and certified master teacher. In 2012, he received the Instructional Innovation Award, recognizing his innovative experiential curricular-development efforts. He is a member of Alpha Mu Alpha, Beta Alpha Psi, Beta Gamma Sigma, Gamma Theta Upsilon, and Phi Kappa Phi.

“Western New England University generally, and the College of Business specifically, presents a great opportunity,” Kleine said. “The university is blessed with strong leadership, and the College of Business has an abundance of talented faculty and staff. As dean, I look forward to building on the college’s strengths, working collaboratively across the university campus to strengthen existing programs, and to identifying unique, high-value, differentiated new-program opportunities in ways that positively impact the college’s enrollment and reputation.”