Clark also introduced mandatory ethics classes last year following several corporate scandals. Together with Harvard University President Lawrence Summers, Clark landed the school at the center of a national discussion on corporate values.

"Harvard Business School has thrived under Kim's creative and energetic guidance," Summers said in a news release.

Summers said Monday he was surprised by Clark's resignation and that he made a "brief effort" to keep him at Harvard. The two men have known each other since they were students in 1976.

Clark remained a supporter of Summers after the Harvard president was criticized for remarks about women in science.

"It became clear to me almost instantly that I was president of Harvard, and the president of Kim's church had spoken, so I was best off accommodating the reality that I faced," Summers said.

Clark too said the move to BYU-Idaho came as an unexpected change and that he had no inclination to leave Harvard, which topped the 2005 list of college rankings by U.S. News & World Report.

"If the president of the church did not call me on the 25th of May, we wouldn't be here," he said. "I probably would have stayed quite a bit longer."

Summers will be searching for a new dean in the next month.

Clark's new position will move him back to the West, where he grew up in Washington and Utah. Clark and his wife, Sue, have seven children and seven grandchildren.

Students at BYU-Idaho will get their first chance to hear from the new president today at a 10 a.m. news conference, followed by a devotional given by Clark and his wife.

BYU-Idaho is part of the Church Educational System, which also oversees Brigham Young University in Provo, BYU-Hawaii and LDS Business College. First created as Bannock Stake Academy in 1888, the school became Ricks Academy in 1903 and later Ricks College in 1923.

The school officially became BYU-Idaho when it switched from a two-year junior college to a four-year institution in 2001.

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Contributing: Bloomberg News

E-mail: estewart@desnews.com