P. George Benson became the 21st president of the College of Charleston in February 2007. Prior to joining the College of Charleston, he was the dean of the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia from 1998 through 2006.
He received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Bucknell University in 1968, did graduate work in operations research in the engineering school of New York University, and received a Ph.D. in decision sciences from the University of Florida in 1977.
From 1993 to 1998, he served as the dean of the Rutgers Business School at Rutgers University. In 1996, Business News New Jersey named Dr. Benson one of the “Top 100 Business People in New Jersey.”
He serves on the boards of AGCO Corp, headquartered in Duluth, Georgia, Crawford & Company of Atlanta, Georgia, Nutrition 21, Inc. of Purchase, New York, SignalONE Safety, Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia, and the National Bank of South Carolina, headquartered in Columbia, South Carolina. In the late nineteen nineties, he served for three years as one of nine national judges for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. In 2004, he was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to a three year term on the Board of Overseers for the Baldrige Award and in 2005 was named to a two year term as Chairman of the Board of Overseers. In March 2007, President Benson was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Foundation for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Program. He is co-author of a leading textbook in business statistics and was a bimonthly columnist for Georgia Trend magazine from 1998 through 2006.
“Jekyll Island is an exciting and important project for the state of Georgia and I am happy to be part of it. I believe Wade’s vision, leadership, dedication, and sincere concern for the environment will be paramount to the success of this project.”
– George
