He walks with purpose. Students stop, intrigued by his palpable energy, and he doesn’t disappoint. He chats and connects, mentioning his first job as a janitor and his life trajectory. It’s obvious by the students’ expressions that the conversation resonates.

Who is he? He is Texas A&M School of Law’s new dean, Bobby Ahdieh.

Ahdieh, who brings substantial experience in academic administration to the job, declares his first mission as dean is to get familiar with faculty, staff, students and the Fort Worth community.

“It’s essential that I hear and learn from stakeholders both near and far, including those in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex,” he says. “Their feedback must be at the heart of the law school’s strategic direction.”

While Ahdieh is eager is to engage his stakeholders, they also anticipate benefitting from his high-energy approach to learning and leading. Neal Newman, Texas A&M law professor, describes it as boundless. He is looking forward to the future, especially given that Ahdieh is determined to position Texas A&M School of Law to rise yet further in visibility, reputation and rank. The school currently ranks 80, according to the U.S. News & World Report.

Ahdieh’s track record in encouraging legal innovation at Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia, including in the area of health law and policy, feeds his vision for establishing new programs for both lawyers and non-lawyers in areas of distinctive strength, including health law, cybersecurity, immigration and national security law. Equally, he seeks to build on existing strengths in dispute resolution, intellectual property and innovation, and natural resources law.

With a robust curriculum, empowered faculty and staff and an appealing setting, Ahdieh is confident that the School of Law is poised for greatness and should be a destination of choice for prospective students worldwide.

“Fort Worth is welcoming and unassuming, ​yet also a mecca of culture. It’s so much more than you might expect, and provides the law school incredible opportunities for growth,” he says. 

According to Fort Worth’s Convention and Visitors’ Bureau, Panther City is rich in arts and culinary treasures and boasts the no. 1 downtown in America. Fort Worth consistently ranks high in measures of best places to work, live and do business by Money, Fortune, Site Selection and Newsweek magazines. 

Ahdieh earned a bachelor of arts degree from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a juris doctor from Yale. He has worked and studied law in Moscow, worked as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice and served as a law clerk to Judge James R. Browning of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He is a former vice-dean and a husband and father to three. An admirer of Aggie culture and its deeply-rooted traditions, Ahdieh looks forward to building the Aggieland legacy in Fort Worth/Dallas and beyond.

“It is hard for me to imagine a better summary of the essential characteristics of success in law and leadership than the Aggie Core Values. In direct proportion to our individual and collective embrace of those values will come our success at the law school, as a law school, and in the world beyond.”