McDonough School of Business Dean David Thomas will step down Aug. 1 after five years at Georgetown, according to a campuswide email sent by University President John J. DeGioia.

Thomas will take a semester of leave for research before becoming a tenured professor in the MSB.

DeGioia said Thomas has had a significant impact on the university.

“I am deeply grateful to David for his committed leadership and ongoing dedication to our community, and wish to express my sincerest appreciation for his extraordinary efforts over the past five years,” DeGioia wrote in the email.

During Thomas’ time as dean, the MSB has sought to develop both its undergraduate and graduate programs. Thomas led the revision of the MBA curriculum in 2012, and launched the “Global Business Experience” elective for undergraduates and the Global Business Fellows Program, a joint program between the School of Foreign Service and the MSB for undergraduates.

The MSB’s full-time MBA program has seen a 35 percent increase in applications from 2012 to 2015, according to DeGioia.

Thomas also established a Master of Science in finance degree — the MSB’s first online program — and a host of new centers in the MSB, including the Georgetown Institute for the Study of Markets and Ethics and the Global Business Initiative.

The MSB exceeded its capital campaign goal by $30 million, allowing it to endow 13 faculty positions. Thomas’ tenure as dean has also seen an increase in faculty diversity, according to DeGioia.

Before joining the MSB as dean in 2011, Thomas served at Harvard Business School from 1990 to 2011, where he directed the school’s Organizational Behavior Unit and was the H. Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration. Thomas also served as senior associate dean and director of faculty recruitment at the school from 2005 to 2008.

Provost Robert Groves will appoint an interim dean and DeGioia will select a committee to appoint a replacement dean, according to DeGioia.