Apple Inc. is hiring the dean of Yale University's business school to start a project that it calls Apple University.The Cupertino, Calif., computer maker said Joel Podolny, the dean of the Yale School of Management, will join Apple as vice president and dean of Apple University. The company declined to provide details about the university or the position.
Mr. Podolny will be stepping down as dean on Nov. 1, but will stay at Yale until year end, a spokeswoman for Yale said. She said Mr. Podolny will take up his new position in early 2009.
Corporate universities, which typically offer classes to employees, have been introduced elsewhere. One of the earliest and best known is McDonald's Corp.'s Hamburger University, where thousands of employees attend classes each year.
Pixar Animation Studios -- whose largest shareholder was Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs before the studio was sold to Walt Disney Co. in 2006 -- has a program that it calls Pixar University, where it conducts three-month-long classes for new and existing animators.
Mr. Podolny, who has been in his current position since 2005, specializes in organizational-behavior research that combines his expertise in sociology and management. His current research is about how leaders infuse meaning into their organizations. Mr. Podolny previously taught at Harvard and Stanford universities.
