MSU College of Business dean retiring after 37 years

Last edited 12:24 p.m., Aug. 14, 2026 [Editor's note: The headline has been corrected to reflect 37 years.]

Over the course of a 37-year career, David Meinert has reshaped and elevated Missouri State University’s College of Business.

He spent a decade as associate dean of the college – playing a critical role in the renovation and expansion of Glass Hall – before serving as interim and then full-time dean starting in January 2018.

Meinert will retire at the end of the fall semester.

Under his leadership, the College of Business has grown steadily and now boasts more majors than any other. A year ago, the college reported 4,547 undergraduate and graduate students with finance, marketing, accounting and construction as the top pathways, followed by management and information technology and cybersecurity.

He said the college has a 96% job placement rate, awards more than $500,000 in scholarships each year, and offers 33 student organizations, many of which give students the opportunity to compete at the state and national level.

“The biggest thing is that we really leaned into experiential learning,” he said, noting close ties with business and industry leaders has opened doors for students to practice the knowledge they gain in the classroom.

Meinert said winning high-profile competitions garners the attention of employers, and it also helps with recruiting.

Meinert said Glass Hall, which opened in the late 1980s, had to transform from a building densely packed with lecture halls to a modern facility with numerous lab spaces. They are numerous and allow students to problem-solve, practice marketing and cybersecurity skills, train in analytics, pilot business ideas and simulate stock market trading.

“We actually have a security ops center. It’s a simulator where our students are in all-day competitions against professional hackers, where they are literally defending servers,” he said.

Frank Einhellig, who retired as MSU provost in 2022, worked with Meinert to develop graduate programs for business students, including a partnership serving students from China.

“Throughout his leadership career at MSU, he has been entrepreneurial and with a good vision for the future in ways that made education more available,” Einhellig said in an interview. “For example, early online offering of the Master of Information Technology, MBA China programs, contract delivery of Master of Health Administration, undergraduate leadership certificate and much more.”

Einhellig said Meinert possessed the ability to juggle programmatic and personnel issues while figuring out ways to best use space. He said Meinert created flexibility so working students could earn degrees to advance their careers.

“He was always a strong advocate for his college but at the same time, he was a great university citizen, meaning that he was concerned about the whole university,” he said.

Meinert earned a master’s degree in business administration from Northern Michigan University, where he played basketball, and a doctorate in management information systems at University of Mississippi, where he started his teaching career. He was also a prolific researcher whose scientific articles and technical reports were widely published.

He and wife Gail moved to Springfield in 1990 to join the faculty at MSU because it had “one of the largest IT programs in the Midwest,” his area of expertise. He said the annual career fair was huge, drawing employers from many states eager to hire graduates.

“They built it very quietly and placed students very well at big corporations but maybe didn’t market it as well as some other institutions,” Meinert recalled. “It was a little jewel.”

As a first-generation student himself, Meinert said he was drawn to MSU’s commitment to stay affordable and help students who are the first in their families to go to college.

“It resonated with me when I came here. It resonates with me today,” he said. “We work a little harder to make sure we take care of those students that don’t have the background, the support system, and sometimes the resources.”

Meinert said the college made a commitment to cover travel and fees for students who have the skills to compete in career-related competitions. He said the nearly 100 faculty members get to know students, serving as academic advisers and mentors.

The college set up a series of advisory councils aimed at ensuring curriculum and internships are setting students up to succeed in the workplace. Area business and industry leaders serve as guest speakers and work with students on “real world” projects.

“That 96% placement rate is directly tied to us listening to industry,” he said. “If you listen and you take that back to your faculty and you modify your curriculum, when [employers] find what they are looking for, they’ll keep coming back.”

Meinert, 67, initially planned to retire a couple years ago, following the lead of his wife, Gail, but stayed on to help with the presidential transition at MSU. They have two children and plan to travel and split time between the Ozarks and Michigan.

“We love the community. We’ve raised our family here,” he said.