Return to academia [in administration] from industry A colleague of mine was a very successful, well funded, highly published post-doc at a top-20 university who abdicated her post for industry. Having grown tired of industry, she now toys with the idea of returning to academia, but dreams of a role in administration (higher level, as [associate/assistant][dean/director of x]). She believes that her experience in industry, coupled with strong academic history, may make her a strong candidate. Yet there are few specific examples I can find of academic-turned-industry-turned-administrator.

Specific questions:


What is the distribution of administrator posts awarded to pure academics (e.g., step-ups from PI/professor) vs individuals already in administrator roles?
What is the distribution of administrator posts made internally vs external hire?
Anecdotes of industry-to-academic administrator success stories greatly appreciated.
In my limited experience, high-level administrator posts filled by current-or-former academics fall under one of the following categories:


Ex-officio with being a Full Professor somewhere (with perhaps some rotation among Professors)
Carried out by regular Full Professors on temporary leave from their academic duties, or in parallel with a much-reduced regular academic workload.
Carried out by Professors Emeritus, or people who academically-retire early from their position as Full Professor to do only managerial work
Populated only by people who have a special long-standing relation with the academic institution (and aren't Full Professors).


I have encountered a few exceptions to the above, but those were extremely rare.