Magid has already gained attention with the recent announcement of a $10 million donation to the business school by Donald and Sally Lucas, local philanthropists and SJSU alumni. It's quite an accomplishment for someone who has only been at his post since July 2005.

Magid calls the Lucas gift "transformational." It will allow him to create the Donald and Sally Lucas Graduate School of Business, which will focus primarily on gaining recognition as a global leader in business education. The new school will be launched officially April 1, with students attending classes at the Lucas Graduate School of Business this summer.

Magid is confident he already has most of the building blocks necessary for a successful program: a clear strategy; an excellent faculty; a huge, culturally diverse undergraduate student body ready to step up to graduate level; and support from alumni and local businesses. He also thinks the surrounding community and university are in a perfect position, with one foot in Silicon Valley and the other on the Pacific Rim.

"This is not just a new administration; it's a new vision," says Michael E. Solt, associate dean of the College of Business.

Solt, who has been with the school for 15 years, says, "This administration is really energizing the whole college."

That energy is evident in the long hours Magid spends in his office. "I'll get emails written at 3 a.m.," says Solt. "Bruce works 24/7 trying to push this college ahead."

The Lucas gift--the largest private individual contribution in the university's 150-year history--was the result of this commitment.

"I sat down with Don, and we came up with a shared vision: to allow this graduate school of business to compete and win in the global economy," Magid says.

Then and Now

Magid's focus on what would be his life's work began at a young age. "I felt that the world in which we lived was going to be increasingly global," he says.

Born in Sharon, Mass., he is the son of the co-owner of a wholesale floral company, importing live flowers from South America and vases from China. Magid, fluent in Spanish, helped out in his father's warehouse while a graduate student at Tufts, translating business correspondence from Colombia.

Magid received his bachelor's degree in international affairs from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, in Washington, D.C. While a student, he was awarded a research grant from the Circumnavigators' Club Foundation. The award is given to a student between his junior and senior year to spend three summer months in travel and on-the-scene study.

"I traveled throughout Asia and Europe studying perceptions of the United States and factors that influenced their view," Magid says.

The highlight of his trip was traveling throughout Afghanistan and Iran. Journeying through Afghanistan was a step back in time for Magid. He visited with local tribesmen and saw ancient sites. While in Teheran, Iran, he discovered a bustling, modern city reminiscent of Chicago. When Magid traveled into the interior of Iran, he saw a people who prized the preservation of their ancient culture. Magid says he found the people in both countries open, engaging and interested in meeting Americans.

He went on to attend the Fletcher School of Business at Tufts University in Medford, Mass., just outside of Boston. At Tufts he received master's degrees in international relations and international law and diplomacy. He went on to pursue his doctorate at Tufts, with his research taking him to Venezuela as an adviser to the government's ministry of planning.

Magid's ultimate focus was in academia, until a mentor asked him to consider understanding the business world first before moving into higher education.

"It resonated," Magid says, "and I did that, but I always had this game plan of a second career."

Magid spent the next 20 years in banking and finance, holding senior positions with Bank of America. He credits his many years in the private sector with landing his current position.

"As the business education world changed, they were looking for people with real-world business experience," he says.

Coming West

From 1977 through 1985, Magid worked for B of A's Latin American Division. He was based in Venezuela until 1983, when the bank relocated him to Miami in a similar capacity. Three years later he came to the Bay Area, where he held the position of director of international economics and policy research. At that time, he and his family lived in the East Bay. Then, in 2000, he moved to Michigan State University as executive director of MSU Global, the university's business unit for innovative online global strategy and research. His directive was to develop a five-year plan to increase student enrollment from 800 to 10,000, along with online degree and certificate programs.

Exactly five years later, the goals at MSU Global had been reached. At the same time a search firm called Magid about the dean's position at San José State University.

After meeting the university's president and provost, Don Kassing, Magid says he wanted to be part of the transition team.

"He had this wonderful vision for really 'bootstrapping' this university."

Similar to his own educational experience, Magid says business students today need to think in global terms.

"That's what we're going to infuse into our curriculum," Magid says. Ideally, he would like to see students exposed to global marketplaces in China, India and Japan. Other possibilities include high-tech centers in Finland, Sweden and Israel.

Looking ahead

Establishing exchanges with faculty overseas will further enrich the program and help to heighten the profile of the Lucas Graduate School of Business. It will also enable the school to move out from under the shadow of "our neighbors to the north," Magid says of Stanford University and UC-Berkeley.

With nearly 6,000 business students, he says, "We're one of the largest colleges of business in the country."

Alumni interaction is another goal on the dean's list. Magid says, that unlike Michigan State University, which he describes as an oasis in the middle of a dying auto industry, there is a unique opportunity here to engage alumni.

"At Michigan State, they're from out of the area, they go to school and they leave," he says. "Here, most of the students are from the area. After they graduate, they stay in the area. When you connect with them, they want to support their alma mater."

Fred Najjar, the school's vice president for university advancement, points out that 15 years ago California State Universities were 100 percent state-supported. The concept of alumni donations is relatively new. Since those days, there has been a "push from the CSU system" to supplement university state assistance, he says.

Magid says even with the change, it has taken time to get the word out to alumni. Additional enhancements to help the program grow can only come from private support.

He adds the Lucas donation was a "galvanizing gift and a reflection point where people can begin to understand the concept of philanthropy."

Magid, his wife Alexis, and youngest daughter, Shelby, live in Willow Glen. Their two older children, Mike and Laura, live in the Los Angeles area. The Magids like this area because of its cultural diversity.

Magid is confident in the future of Silicon Valley, "You can really feel the region and the economy coming back," he says.

He sees jobs in the valley increasing, but with an emphasis on a well-educated labor force. He is comfortable with the phrase "global start-ups" and credits them with stimulating new opportunities.

"Obviously, what we do here touches so many lives," Magid says.

He notes that many people in the San Jose are alumni, or have children who attend the school or have businesses that hire SJSU students.

"When you talk to people, almost everybody will know someone who will have some connection to the college," he says. "My goal is to reach out to everybody."