David Spalding
Interim President
Iowa State University
He previously served as the Raisbeck Endowed Dean of the Debbie and Jerry Ivy College of Business from 2013 to 2025, making him the longest-serving business dean in Iowa State history. Since July 2018, he has also served as the vice president for Economic Development and Industry Relations.
During Spalding’s tenure as dean, the Ivy College of Business set new records for undergraduate, graduate, and total enrollment. It also increased undergraduate majors from nine to 14 and doubled master’s programs from four to eight. In 2017, a transformative $50 million gift from Jerry and Debbie Ivy made the College of Business the first named college at Iowa State University. Three years later, the college opened a 45,000 square foot addition to the Gerdin Business Building. Spalding also led the college to achieve its highest-ever U.S. News & World Report rankings for both undergraduate and full-time MBA programs. In 2026, the Princeton Review ranked the undergraduate entrepreneurship programs at Iowa State University #9 in the nation.
Economic development is a top priority for Iowa State, and Spalding has been instrumental in strengthening its impact on students and the Iowa economy. Since 2016, Iowa State has won five Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) Innovation & Economic Prosperity Awards, including the Connections Award in 2023 – the organization’s highest honor.
Before arriving in Ames in August 2013, Spalding spent eight years at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. He served as vice president for Alumni Relations and as the president’s chief of staff. He later became senior vice president and senior advisor to Dartmouth’s president, responsible for implementing strategy, vision and direction for the institution.
Prior to Dartmouth, Spalding spent 29 years in finance in New York City, holding positions with The Chase Manhattan Bank NA, First National Bank of Chicago, General Electric Capital Corporation, Lehman Brothers, and The Cypress Group LLC, a private equity firm he co-founded and co-managed.