SF State announces new College of Business dean
Linda Oubre has led more than 30 start-ups, championed diversity in academia
SAN FRANCISCO, April 3, 2012 -- San Francisco State University has appointed Linda S. Oubre dean of the College of Business, bringing nearly three decades of success in the start-up world, academia and recruiting to a business school known internationally for its dedication to diversity and social responsibility.
“Linda Oubre has the strong business experience and proven entrepreneurial abilities needed by today’s business schools,” said Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Sue V. Rosser. “She is well positioned to lead the faculty and students in bringing the College of Business to the next level of excellence.”
Linda Oubre, dean of the College of Business.
“I’m really impressed with the College of Business. It has a ‘roll-up-your-sleeves’ entrepreneurial culture and spirit,” Oubre said. “The faculty are as strong as any I’ve seen and they are very dedicated to teaching their students.”
Oubre will start her new role in July and plans to strengthen the profile of the College of Business by expanding connections with the Bay Area’s dynamic business community, known for leading the fields of technology, new media and hospitality. She also aims to use the College’s unique curriculum to attract potential students.
“The goals of social justice and sustainability are something that you don’t see from a lot of business schools,” she said. “But at SF State, we are living it.”
Oubre comes to SF State from the University of California, Davis Graduate School of Management, where since 2011 she directed corporate relations and business development for the Bay Area and served as chief diversity officer.
Oubre has a long and accomplished history as a business executive and academic leader. She has developed more than 30 business ventures from the ground up, most recently as co-founder of BriteSmile, a system of teeth whitening spas that reached a market capitalization of $150 million in just four years. She led the monetization of LATimes.com and managed acquisitions and startups for the Walt Disney Company, including Discover Magazine and The Disney Stores.
At UC Davis, Oubre increased enrollment in the Bay Area Working Professional MBA program and developed a diversity initiative that led to a dramatic increase in African-American student enrollment in one year.
Oubre has also been a business instructor and lecturer at San Diego State University, UC Davis, Northwestern and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She received her undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles and her MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.
“SF State really is the business school for San Francisco and the Bay Area,” she said. “It’s a go-to business school, and that’s what I hope to build on.”
Oubre was born and raised in Los Angeles and now lives in Oakland with her husband Nathaniel, a senior executive at Kaiser Permanente. Her eldest son Nathaniel attends University of Pennsylvania law school and her youngest son Alexander is a junior at Loyola Marymount University.
###
To interview Linda Oubre, contact Philip Riley at 415-405-3803 or hiriley@sfsu.edu
The College of Business at SF State confers approximately 1,200 undergraduate degrees and 225 graduate degrees each year. Business Administration is the largest undergraduate major at SF State.
SF State is the only master's level public university serving the counties of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin. The university enrolls nearly 30,000 students each year. With nationally acclaimed programs in a range of fields -- from creative writing, cinema and biology to history, broadcast and electronic communications arts, theatre arts and ethnic studies -- the University's more than 212,000 graduates have contributed to the economic cultural and civic fabric of San Francisco and beyond.