Prof Frank Horwitz, director of the GSB, has been appointed as the new director of the Cranfield School of Management in the UK.

Professor Frank Horwitz, director of UCT's Graduate School of Business (GSB) since 2004, has been named as the new director of the Cranfield School of Management in the UK, one of Europe's leading and globally ranked business schools. He will take up the post on 1 April 2009.

Horwitz is one of the longest-serving GSB members of faculty, having been at the school for nearly 23 years, eight of which were as acting director or director.

There have been many highlights for the GSB under Horwitz's watch. These include four consecutive appearances on the Financial Times' top-100 MBA ratings, a top-10 rating by the Economist Intelligence Unit for executive education, and full re-accreditation by the European Quality Improvement System.

"As management at UCT, we are excited for Professor Horwitz and congratulate him on his new position," said Vice-Chancellor, Dr Max Price. "Professor Horwitz is a leading academic who contributed significantly to the growth of UCT's GSB to its international status, and he leaves a stable and successful business school.

"On behalf of UCT, I wish Professor Horwitz well in his new endeavour."

Horwitz joins two other GSB academics who have secured leading posts overseas - Dr John Affleck was elected as the first lay vice-president of the University of Notre Dame and holds the Notre Dame Chair in Finance in the Mendoza College of Business, and Dr Michael Page was recently appointed Dean of Business at the McCallum Graduate School at Bentley College.

Horwitz described his appointment at Cranfield as a hugely exciting and challenging new opportunity.

"Cranfield is a world player in a highly competitive business school environment and I am deeply honoured to be appointed to lead this top school," he said. "It will no doubt be hard to leave the Graduate School of Business, which has been my career home for so many years."

UCT will work to select a successor to take the GSB reins in 2009.