Don Cyr is the new Interim Dean in the Faculty of Business.

For 16 years, Don Cyr has called the Faculty of Business home. And now he’s at the helm of it.

Cyr is the Faculty’s new Interim Dean, taking office in January and serving until June 30, 2013. The Faculty of Business is in a time of transition, with a new building and renewed accreditation in its future. And Cyr hopes to help both of those things move forward during his term.

“The Faculty faces a number of challenges and opportunities over the next 18 months,” he said. “I am very familiar with the Faculty, having been Associate Dean for seven years, so I felt perhaps I could serve it well.”

The Faculty of Business has outgrown Taro Hall, and it needs more space, Cyr said. As its reputation grows, so does its number of faculty and students.

“We’ve been one of the fastest growing business schools in Canada,” he said. “Over a 10-year period, our Faculty has more than doubled in size.”

It will undergo reaccreditation this year through the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

The accreditation “is a stamp of quality in terms of research and education,” Cyr said. “Only about 5 per cent of schools worldwide are AACSB accredited.”

Cyr, an associate professor of Finance, has been at Brock since 1995. He was chair of the Department of Accounting and Finance in 2001 and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Research from 2002 to 2009. He researches investments and finance, and has recently studied the financial applications of the wine and viticulture industry. Outside of work, the St. Catharines resident is a jazz pianist and has given numerous charity performances on campus.

Cyr sees Brock as a boon “not just in the Niagara Region, but in Ontario and Canada as a whole,” he said.

“Brock University is a taxpayer’s dream. It’s well run in terms of its campus, its buildings and the quality of education. Very few areas are served by a university the way that Niagara is served by Brock University.”