Dean without Ph.D. or chair experience unusual?

[James]

To answer above questions: yes, this person has experience at this institution. The choice isn't irrational, but deflating because there were better, more appropriate options. The directions this person envisions are deflating and not some sort of practical necessity.

No nepotism involved here, although we have one glaring but unrelated case of that, too, where the job that person is qualified to do gets appointed at a ridiculously high rank just for the greater compensation.

[kaysixteen]

If we compare higher ed deans to k12 principals, one can ask why someone with no experience as a higher ed teacher, or qualifications (i.e., terminal degree) to get such a position, should be overseeing those who do have the credentials and experience.   I would never ever ever consider hiring someone to be a school principal who did not have at least one year's, and preferably more than this, experience teaching at at least one of the grade levels covered by the school.

[Ruralguy]

I would say that an academic dean (main purpose is to oversea faculty operations) should have had an extensive career in academia, preferably through full professor.
Otherwise, how are they qualified to judge tenure cases or even more fundamentally,  make decisions regarding faculty teaching load and curriculum?  Makes no sense to do otherwise, although I agree that now that the person is there, see what they do and judge them on that. That's not to say you should be silent on such issues, just don't be in constant attack mode if this person happens to do a good job. 

[Aster]

I would say that an academic dean (main purpose is to oversea faculty operations) should have had an extensive career in academia, preferably through full professor.
Otherwise, how are they qualified to judge tenure cases or even more fundamentally,  make decisions regarding faculty teaching load and curriculum?  Makes no sense to do otherwise, although I agree that now that the person is there, see what they do and judge them on that. That's not to say you should be silent on such issues, just don't be in constant attack mode if this person happens to do a good job.

This. Although I would argue strongly that the person is almost certainly going to cause a major headache for your department, both in the short and long term. I've already played the "wait and see" game for nontraditional administrators, and it's never-ever turned out good. Heck, I resigned from my department head position because of this. I was constantly having to either meet and lecture the unqualified administrator on basic college operations, or constantly be cleaning up and fixing the administrator's imbecile mistakes. The loss of departmental productivity and the nosedive in departmental morale was fatally depressing.

In my experience, non-academic administrators are usually hired into academic administrator roles for a few reasons.
1. Nepotism and/or Favoritism
2. No qualified person wants the job (e.g., pay too low, no co-faculty appointment, poor advertising, bad region of U.S.)
3. The administrator(s) in charge of an academic job search are themselves not qualified to serve on an academic job search