Haresh Gurnani has been named as the new dean of the College of Business at Stony Brook University, effective July 2023.

“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. “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,”

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. 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.

“This is an exciting time for the College of Business and I am eager to work with incoming Dean Gurnani on the next phase of the college’s development,” said Carl Lejuez, provost and executive vice president, who made the announcement in an email today to the Stony Brook University community. “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,”

“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. 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.”

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. 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, 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 (CASCM), School of Engineering, and Center for Health Sector Management and Policy (CHSMP).

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.

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.

Gurnani succeeds Manny London, who has served as dean of the College for the last decade. Lejuez thanked London in his announcement, and highlighted several outcomes for the College during his tenure as dean. London has been the guiding force in the College’s growth and ascendance, which recently resulted in initial AACSB accreditation. 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. He 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.