Tom Brown has been named the new dean of the College of Business and Technology at Bethel University in Arden Hills.

Brown’s appointment marks a step in Bethel’s academic reorganization, as the university launches a new, unified school of business. The school will bring together Bethel’s business and communications studies programs under one roof, designed to create collaboration with industry leaders.

Coming from Oklahoma, Brown worked as a faculty member at Oklahoma State University for 28 years, with the last seven as the department head of the School of Marketing and International Business at the Spears School of Business. He decided to take the job at Bethel as an opportunity to integrate both his religious faith and experience into one role.

“[The leaders at Bethel] seem to be very innovative and forward thinking and I love what they’re doing. This is a newly created business school, and I’m just blessed enough to have the opportunity to get to play with it for a while,” Brown said in a Monday TCB interview.

Brown will start his new job on Aug. 4. Before he makes any changes, Brown said he needs to see what opportunities are at the business school already.

“I love being in positions where you get to help students, and you can help faculty, and you can build things that are helpful for other people,” Brown said.