Stanford president John Hennessy and provost John Etchemendy announced today in a press release the appointment of former Department of Economics chair Jonathan Levin as the new dean of the Graduate School of Business (GSB). Levin was chair of the Department of Economics from 2011 to 2014, and is currently the Holbrook Working Professor of Price Theory and professor, by courtesy, at the GSB.

The appointment is the result of deliberations by a search committee convened by Etchemendy around the time of current dean Garth Saloner’s ’81 M.S. ’82 Ph.D. ’82 announcement of his retirement. Saloner had announced in September of last year that he would be resigning the post, citing worries that a lawsuit he was involved in last year would bring negative attention to the GSB and its community.

The controversial lawsuit, first reported by the publication Poets and Quants in early September of last year, includes allegations of wrongful termination from a former GSB faculty member. Saloner is heavily implicated in the lawsuit.

Levin’s appointment starts September 1, 2016, at which point Saloner will return to teaching. In his time as dean, Saloner led the raising of over $500 million for the GSB.

A member of the Stanford faculty since 2000 and full professor since 2008, Levin received his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999 and is renowned for his research in industrial organization, auctions, marketplace design and econometric methods. He is a former Guggenheim fellow and, notably, one of the economists who helped design the Federal Communications Commission’s broadcast incentive auction. His current research interests include the healthcare system and ways to incorporate new sources of data into market research.

“The GSB is devoted to transforming lives by preparing future leaders to change organizations and change the world,” Levin said in the release.

This article will be updated.

Contact Nitish Kulkarni at nitishk2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.