Compensation expert Kevin Hallock named dean of ILR School

Kevin Hallock
Robert Barker/University Photography
Professor Kevin F. Hallock has been named the 11th dean of the ILR School.

Professor Kevin F. Hallock has been named the Kenneth F. Kahn Dean of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell President David J. Skorton announced today. Hallock will begin his five-year term Feb. 1, pending approval by the State University of New York Board of Trustees.

A member of the faculty since 2005, Hallock is the Donald C. Opatrny ’74 Chair of Cornell’s Department of Economics and ILR’s Joseph R. Rich ’80 Professor. He also is the founding director of ILR’s Institute for Compensation Studies.

“As ILR celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, Kevin is the perfect individual to lead the school into an even more successful, productive future,” said Skorton. “He brings a wealth of administrative experience to his new role, along with his perspective as a distinguished faculty researcher and internationally recognized scholar.”

Hallock will serve as the 11th dean of the school. He succeeds Harry Katz, who served as ILR dean for nine years and who was slated to step down this June before being appointed interim provost in November; Associate Dean Robert Smith has been serving as interim dean. David Easley will serve as interim chair of the Department of Economics.

“I am delighted that Kevin will be serving ILR as its next dean,” said Katz. “He is a proven leader who has led the universitywide Department of Economics in helping recruit a group of talented faculty members. The future of ILR is bright, and Kevin will bring an energy that makes it even brighter.”

”I am humbled and so pleased to serve as the next dean of the ILR School,” said Hallock. “ILR is a remarkable institution and embodies the very best emphasis on teaching, research and outreach that are all hallmarks of this great university. I look forward to working with our extraordinary students, staff, faculty and alumni in advancing the world of work, and am enthusiastic to get to work as dean.”

Hallock teaches in the Department of Economics and Department of Human Resource Studies. He is a member of the Provost’s Resource Planning Group and the Campus Committee on Mental Health and Welfare. He previously chaired Cornell’s Financial Policy Committee.

His current research is focused on compensation design and labor markets, executive compensation, the valuation of stock options, job loss and the mix of employee compensation. Funding for his research has come from sources including the American Compensation Association, the National Bureau of Economic Research, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of Education and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Hallock has written extensively on compensation in the for-profit and nonprofit worlds. His most recent book, “Pay,” published by Cambridge University Press, won the Richard A. Lester Award from Princeton University in 2012.

Hallock has been published in outlets such as the American Economic Review, the Journal of Labor Economics, the Journal of Public Economics, the Journal of Corporate Finance, the Industrial and Labor Relations Review and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. He was awarded the John Dunlop Outstanding Young Scholar Award from the Labor and Employment Relations Association in 2004.

He has served on the board of directors of WorldatWork and as a member of the Compensation Committee at Guthrie Health. In 2013 he was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources. Since 2003 he has been a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Hallock, 45, earned a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University in 1995 and a B.A. in economics, summa cum laude, from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1991. He taught at the University of Illinois from 1995-2005.

He and his wife, Tina, have two children and live in Ithaca.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that the appointment is pending approval by the State University of New York Board of Trustees.

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Joe Schwartz