Edward A. Snyder

Administrative Oversight Committee
Dean of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Sunil Kumar, an expert in operations research, joins the University of Chicago faculty and the Institute's leadership as the dean of Chicago Booth School of Business in January 2011. 

Kumar previously was senior associate dean for academic affairs and Fred H. Merrill Professor of Operations, Information, and Technology at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. In those roles he oversaw the school’s M.B.A. program and also led the faculty groups in marketing and organizational behavior.

Kumar’s research interests include performance evaluation and control of manufacturing systems, service operations and communications networks. He co-developed a factory simulator for teaching operations management that has been used in classes at more than 50 business and engineering schools. He has published dozens of scholarly research articles and has served as the editor of the Stochastic Models area of the journal Operations Research. At Stanford, he taught courses in operations management, technology, critical analytical thinking, and revenue management.

Born in India, Kumar received a Master of Engineering degree in computer science and automation from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Mangalore University in Surathkal. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1996 after receiving his PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.