I am pleased to announce the hiring of Haresh Gurnani as the new Dean of the College of Business at Stony Brook University. Dr. Gurnani is ideally suited to serve as our next leader of the College of Business, bringing a key set of experiences and skills essential for advancing the upward trajectory of the College, including management of enrollment growth, building industry partnerships, and fundraising. He will begin this new role this summer.

Dr. Gurnani will join us from Wake Forest University, where he holds multiple high-level leadership positions. He currently serves as area chair of Business Analytics, Operations Management, Marketing, and Economics areas in the School of Business. He is Thomas H. Davis Chair in the school, program director of the Mathematical Business Program (joint program between the School of Business and Wake Forest College), and serves on the University’s committee on Network for Inclusive Leadership and Engagement.

As area chair in the School of Business at Wake Forest, Dr. Gurnani has overseen strategic planning, new program development, faculty recruitment and development, research strategy, and accreditation review. Under his leadership of the Mathematical Business Program, enrollment has grown 80% and new partnerships have been developed with industry to identify company projects. Previously, at University of Miami, Dr. Gurnani served as chair of the Department of Management (then, the largest department) in the School of Business. He held other university service roles in Miami, including the University Research Council and University Graduate Council, and served as Board Member in the Center for Advanced Supply Chain Management (CASCM), School of Engineering, and Center for Health Sector Management and Policy (CHSMP).

Dr. Gurnani’s research interests are in operations and supply chain analytics, retail distribution channel design and marketing, healthcare operations and marketing, sharing economy, and sustainability. He led the Center for Retail Innovation at Wake Forest, which raised more than $5 million, as well as strengthened industry partnerships. He currently serves as founding department editor of Production and Operations Management and also holds editorial positions for a number of other premier journals in operations management and marketing.

Dr. Gurnani earned a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology in India, and a master’s and doctorate in operations research from Carnegie Mellon University. He also held faculty positions at University of Miami and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

I want to share my tremendous appreciation for the search committee’s leadership in this process, in particular the search co-chairs: Danling Jiang, Professor of Finance, and Associate Dean of Research and Faculty Development in the College of Business; and Samir Das, Professor and Chair of Computer Science in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The committee members were dedicated representatives who provided thoughtful feedback throughout the search.

I would also like to thank Manny London for his leadership as dean over the past decade. Manny has been the guiding force in the College’s growth and ascendance, which recently resulted in initial AACSB accreditation. Under Manny’s guidance, the College has added several programs, including a Master of Science in accounting or finance and MBAs in several discipline areas and with fully online options. Manny also oversaw the hiring effort to increase the faculty ranks from 15 in 2011 to today’s 40 full-time faculty, 34 of whom have PhDs. Manny leaves a legacy that will be felt for generations in the College.

This is an exciting time for the College of Business at SBU and I am eager to work with incoming Dean Gurnani on the next exciting phase of the college’s development. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Gurnani to the Stony Brook community!

Sincerely,
Carl

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs