Haresh Gurnani to lead Stony Brook College of Business

IIT alumnus’ “vision for elevating educational excellence will leverage the interdisciplinary opportunities” at the flagship institution

Haresh Gurnani, an Indian Institute of Technology graduate has been named as the new dean of the College of Business at Stony Brook University in New York. He will assume his new role in July 2023.

Gurnani will join Stony Brook 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.

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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.

“Stony Brook’s College of Business is a destination of choice for high-achieving students and leading employers competing to recruit them,” said Stony Brook University President Maurie McInnis in a media release.

“Haresh’s vision for elevating educational excellence will leverage the interdisciplinary opportunities that a flagship institution uniquely offers to prepare students to succeed in a dynamic global economy.”

“Haresh is ideally suited to serve as our next leader, 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,” said Carl Lejuez, provost and executive vice president.

“I am delighted to join Stony Brook University as dean of the College of Business at a pivotal time in its history. The recent AACSB accreditation for the College and flagship designation for the university provides a tremendous platform to further elevate the learning, scholarship, and development mission of Stony Brook,” Gurnani said.

“Business education plays a key role in providing valuable opportunities for socio-economic mobility and entrepreneurial growth for students,” he said. “With its rich heritage for inter-college collaborations, I am excited to work with colleagues to identify and develop new partnerships and programs that would continue to make Stony Brook a destination of choice for students in New York.”

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As area chair in the School of Business at Wake Forest, Gurnani has overseen strategic planning, new program development, faculty recruitment and development, research strategy, and accreditation review, according to his official profile.

Under his leadership of the Mathematical Business Program, enrollment has grown 80 percent and new partnerships have been developed with industry to identify company projects.

Previously, at University of Miami, Gurnani served as chair of the Department of Management (then, the largest department) in the School of Business. He held other university service roles at Miami, including the University Research Council and University Graduate Council, and served as board member in the Center for Advanced Supply Chain Management, School of Engineering, and Center for Health Sector Management and Policy.

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.

Read: Indian-American to lead Stony Brook’s College of Business in NY (April 26, 2023)

Gurnani has a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from IIT, 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.

With more than 24,000 students and over 2,800 faculty members, Stony Brook University is ranked among the top 35 public universities by Forbes and one of the top 80 universities in the nation by the US News & World Report Best Colleges listing.