Mittelstaedt has held various academic and administrative positions at Wharton since 1973. Currently, he is responsible for Wharton's $43 million executive education business, with more than 220 programs serving some 8,000 executives and senior managers worldwide each year at the program's 103-room hotel and conference center.

"Bob Mittelstaedt fundamentally understands, from his work at Wharton and his personality, how to build a business school that is totally engaged in business, in education, in business research - he gets the whole picture," said Crow. "He brings an energy, excitement, and entrepreneurial spirit that will lift the school to even greater national prominence."

The Carey School last year received a $50 million gift from Wm. Polk Carey, chairman of W. P. Carey & Co. LLC (NYSE: WPC), a New York City-based investment firm, on behalf of the W. P. Carey Foundation, to endow the ASU Business School.

"I'm honored to accept the deanship of the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University," said Mittelstaedt. "The name alone signals significant strength, ethics, and superior quality, and the people and programs back that up with a high degree of professionalism and expertise. I'm very impressed with the exceptional faculty, staff and student body and I'm looking forward to working with everyone at the W.P. Carey School and across ASU as we push further into what I believe will be an exciting future."

At Wharton, Mittelstaedt was instrumental in developing a number of unique programs for specific audiences, including an innovative program for corporate directors that has run since 1993 in the United States and the United Kingdom, and is being extended to Canada and Spain. He also co-created a number of company sponsored research forums, including the Wharton Electronic Commerce Forum and oversaw the development of knowledge@wharton a respected online business magazine and research resource with 310,000 subscribers worldwide.

Mittelstaedt said he looks forward to advancing the work already underway to position the Carey School nationally and globally as a premier undergraduate, graduate, executive and specialty business education leader.

The undergraduate program at the W. P. Carey School of Business is ranked 21st in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, and the MBA program is ranked 17th in the nation among public programs.