Poets&Quants has named David Marchick, interim president of American University and dean of the Kogod School of Business from 2022 to 2026, its Dean of the Year for 2026.
Past recipients of the award include Nitin Nohria of Harvard Business School, Sally Blount of Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, Ann Harrison of Berkeley Haas, and three deans who, like Marchick, went on to lead their universities: Jonathan Levin, now president of Stanford; Santiago Iñiguez, now president of IE University in Madrid; and Scott Beardsley, now president of the University of Virginia. Marchick is the first recipient from a Washington, DC, business school.
In naming David Marchick its 2026 Dean of the Year, Poets&Quants described the selection as “one of the easiest calls we have ever made,” wrote Marc Ethier, editor-in-chief of Poets&Quants.
Under Marchick's leadership, Kogod transformed its academic offerings through bold investments in AI, entrepreneurship, and sustainability. Poets&Quants named Kogod the top AI program in the country and its undergraduate program a Top 10 Business School to Watch two years running. The school earned top-50 MBA distinction across the major rankings, including No. 33 in Bloomberg Businessweek's Best B-Schools ranking and a 76-spot climb in U.S. News & World Report, the largest of any business school over the last four years. Kogod raised $43.8 million in three and a half years, more than five times the $8.5 million raised in the five years before.
"The deans on this list lead the most respected business schools in the world, and we are thrilled to see American University's Kogod School of Business among them," said Charlie Lydecker, chair of the AU Board of Trustees. "We saw what he built at Kogod up close: the energy he brings to a room, and the steady hand he brings to a decision. It is why we asked him to lead the university through this next chapter."
"This award has my name on it, but it belongs to the faculty who rebuilt what they teach, the staff who rebuilt how we support students, and the students and alumni and friends who make the case for Kogod everywhere they went. Plus, Kogod's students inspire us every day," Marchick said.
"Dave set a pace at Kogod that the rest of us are still running at," said Casey Evans, interim dean of the Kogod School of Business, who led the rebuild of Kogod's undergraduate curriculum during Marchick's tenure. "He cleared the way for the rest of us to do the work, and we could not be happier to see him, and Kogod, in the company of Harvard, Yale, Berkeley and UVA."
Before leading Kogod, Marchick held leadership appointments in two presidential administrations, served as a senior executive at The Carlyle Group and a partner at Covington & Burling, and played a pivotal role in the 2020 presidential transition. An avid cyclist, he has raised more than $250,000 for AU students through fundraising rides, most recently this July with a 200-mile ride that climbed 29,048 feet, 13 more than the height of Everest, and drew 211 donors from 31 states. He became interim president of American University on July 1, 2026, and in September, the Board of Trustees extended his interim appointment for two years.
Marchick was presented with the award at Poets&Quants' annual business education awards in Orlando on October 18.