Bryan Webber has been appointed Dean of the Melville School of Business at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU).
With experience as an academic leader, educator and student advisor, Webber is known for his commitment to student success. He will provide strategic, academic and administrative leadership as he advances the vision of one of Western Canada's largest undergraduate business schools.
“I've always considered KPU and the Melville School of Business leaders in student-focused education, and well-positioned to continue that leadership in a sector that is at an inflection point,” says Webber. “Melville has the core strengths for the future of applied business and technology education — talented and dedicated faculty and staff, great student engagement and success, connection to all facets of the community, and the vision and values to guide the school forward.”
Webber held a variety of roles over two decades at Vancouver Island University (VIU). He joined VIU as a professor in 2005 after four years as an organizational coach in the IT sector and became associate dean in the Faculty of Management in 2017. He later served as the faculty’s interim dean, where he oversaw business, hospitality, and recreation and tourism programs.
He has also served as an organizational development advisor for VIU’s human resources department and has been a longtime contributor to the successful community leadership development program, Leadership Vancouver Island.
Most recently he served at Pacific Coast University for Workplace Health Sciences as an executive director for Executive Education, Continuing Studies and Professional Development, where he led quality assurance initiatives and the operation and growth of non-degree programming.
Webber, who has a master’s degree in Leadership and Training from Royal Roads University, says Melville’s vision — to embolden business and technology learners to become inclusive community builders and conscious changemakers — recognizes graduates need a combination of technical knowledge, practical skills and social awareness to contribute in a dynamic and diverse world.
"Melville is positioned to provide learning experiences that develop both applied technical skills and enduring competencies such as communication, critical thinking, collaboration, inclusion and Indigenous understanding,” he says. “Students will have relevant programs in the configurations and modes that fit for them, and get to live and breathe what they learn, while they learn, in preparation for when they step beyond these doors. Social and Indigenous commitments, and the responsibility to make the world better, are naturally integrated into the learning experience, because that makes all of us better.”
The Melville School of Business at KPU offers undergraduate degrees, diplomas, certificates and post-baccalaureate programs. Awarded the prestigious international accreditation by the association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP), the Melville School of Business meets the rigorous educational standards established by ACBSP and stands as one of the few internationally accredited business schools in B.C.
