6/23/2009 - Sunil Chopra, currently the senior associate dean for curriculum and teaching at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, has been named interim dean of the school, Provost Daniel I. Linzer announced today.

Chopra, who joined Kellogg in 1989, is also the IBM Distinguished Professor of Operations Management at Kellogg. His appointment as interim dean is effective September 1, 2009.

“Sunil brings a deep understanding of the school, an outstanding record of scholarship and significant administrative experience,” Linzer said. “We will soon begin a national search for a successor to Dean Dipak Jain, who will step down September 1. I am confident that Kellogg will continue to flourish under Sunil’s leadership as interim dean while we conduct the search.”

Chopra’s research and teaching interests are in Operations Management, Supply Chain Management and network design. Besides several papers, he has co-authored the books Managing Business Process Flows and Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning, and Operation. Both books are published by Prentice Hall and are used at several of the top business schools to teach Operations Management and Supply Chain Management respectively. The Supply Chain Management book was awarded the best book of the year for 2002 by the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE). He also has won several teaching awards at Kellogg.

“Kellogg has a strong commitment to excellence based on its culture of collaboration and innovation among its faculty, students, alumni and staff,” Chopra said. “I look forward to building on this vibrant environment where we partner with our students to develop global leaders who make contributions of lasting significance and faculty continue to do path breaking research and develop new pedagogy.”

Chopra has been Senior Associate Dean for Curriculum and Teaching since August 2006. In that position, he is responsible for planning the curriculum, teaching needs and other student activities for the Full-Time, Part-Time and Executive MBA programs. Prior to coming to Kellogg, Chopra was an Assistant Professor at the Stern School of Business Administration at New York University. He has a PhD in Operations Research from SUNY Stony Brook.

CONTACT: Alan K. Cubbage at 847-491-4886 or a-cubbage@northwestern.edu or Megan Washburn at 847-491-5446 or m-washburn@kellogg.northwestern.edu