Message From the Dean

Greetings from the Naveen Jindal School of Management. This semester we graduated more than 2,200 students with degrees ranging from undergraduate to PhD and covering every business discipline one can imagine. As I write these words, I can’t help but think about the first Message from the Dean that I wrote in our inaugural issue of Management magazine in the fall of 1997. Back then, I wrote that UTD was the best-kept secret in the nation and that we intended to let that secret out. In so many ways, the Naveen Jindal School of Management has done that over the past 26 years of this magazine’s publication.

We are now ranked No. 2 in the world in research productivity. Our faculty members continue to be prolific researchers across all main business disciplines. Spotlighting and encouraging business research were exactly our goals when we started The UTD Top 100 Business School Research Rankings™ in 2005. Back then we were ranked No. 40. It has been a long journey, but we have proved to the world that nothing is impossible if you are ready to make the sacrifices necessary to get there. The credit goes entirely to our faculty colleagues.

The Jindal School’s visibility continues to improve every year. Our Full-Time and Part-Time MBA (among public schools), Business Analytics (overall) and Supply Chain Management (overall) programs now are all ranked No. 10 or higher in various Business School rankings starting with U.S. News and World Report, the premier ranking entity for universities.

Last fall, we enrolled 10,521 students comprising one-third of all students in the University. In a strategic move to accommodate continued growth in enrollment, we have started planning a third building adjacent to the current buildings. This building will be 120,000 sq. ft. When built, the Jindal School will have nearly 450,000 sq. ft.

Our faculty members continue to lead their fields by not only publishing research papers and books but also organizing thought-provoking conferences and workshops aimed at research and professional development. This was another busy spring semester in which we hosted many colleagues from industry and other academic institutions attending many conferences/workshops hosted by our School. I will highlight a few of these below to illustrate the extent to which we are now among the leading schools in the nation.

At the Jindal School’s 18th annual Fraud Summit, some 800 attendees learned about the latest trends in fraud schemes and fraud prevention.

We held our 17th annual BASS FORMS Conference, in which leading faculty members and PhD students from around the nation presented their current research work in marketing science.

The 15th Annual UT Dallas Project Management Symposium, in cooperation with the PMI Dallas Chapter and the PM World Journal, explored emerging trends in project management and focused on topics relevant to organizations, industries, and the economy in North Texas.

JSOM’s 12th annual Supply Chain Management Directors’ Conference brought a unique colloquium specific to program directors, assistant/associate deans, and center managers who are involved in developing and managing different aspects of supply chain management programs and curricula.

Our eighth Management Information Systems Academic Leadership Conference provided IS faculty, program directors and deans from peer schools opportunities to discuss best practices in MIS academic leadership.

The Jindal School hosted the third annual Labor and Accounting Group (LAG) Conference. LAG is a research association that includes researchers from the Jindal School and other elite institutions. It encourages the development and dissemination of academic research at the intersection of accounting and labor economics.

Our third annual Undergraduate Deans Conference helped other schools’ deans, associate deans and assistant deans understand the fundamental shifts that higher education is facing and helped equip them to adapt their programs to meet those challenges.

Sustainability has become a critically important practice throughout the world, not just environmentally but also in business. The Jindal School’s second annual Global Sustainability Experience featured important discussions about how business can lead the way in expanding the concept of sustainability.

It was also a fruitful semester for student events. The JSOM Finance held FinHack 2023,an innovative and fast-paced hackathon event. It created a collaboration and learning environment to engage students from all business majors, computer science and others. Twenty professionals including 14 alumni attended the event as speakers, mentors and judges. The industry leaders shared their insights on how technology and artificial intelligence continuously shift and impact the financial and other industries.

Jindal School students have been busy accumu-lating competition wins, too. Teams from JSOM took first place in two recent competitions — the Texas Christian University (TCU) Graduate Sup-ply Chain Case Competition April 1, and the 2023 Business Analytics Student Competition held at the UT Arlington. At the Future Business Leaders of America-Collegiate State Leadership Confer-ence, every member of the JSOM team advanced to the national competition, which will take place in Atlanta in June. MBA graduate student Mercedes Johnson placed first in the recent Global Student Entrepreneur Awards pitch competition in Houston for a food-truck-focused mobile app business. We are proud of our students.

Our faculty members have received awards as well. Dr. Sumit Sarkar, Charles and Nancy Davidson Chair, Professor of Information Systems and director of the Jindal School’s PhD Programs was selected by the AIS for having “made outstanding contributions to the information systems discipline in terms of research, teaching and service.” Two faculty members from the Naveen Jindal School of Management — Dr. Guihua Wang and Dr. Anyan Qi — had three papers that were finalists in three INFORMS Best Paper Competitions at the 2022 INFORMS Annual Meeting, held Oct. 16-19 in Indianapolis.

This issue’s theme is, appropriately enough, “Global Momentum.” We live in a globally connected world and everything that is being accomplished by the remarkable members of the JSOM community — students, alumni, faculty, staff and community partners — is creating a ripple effect that is being felt in ever-widening circles. I am proud, delighted and truly humbled to lead those efforts.

In closing, I want to thank our students, alumni, and friends. None of what has been achieved at the Jindal School would have been possible without your constant encouragement and support. Your commitment to our School and higher education is truly inspiring.

Best Wishes,

Hasan Pirkul
Dean and Caruth Chair