Olin Business School names new head of executive education

Aug. 17, 2009 -- Mahendra Gupta, dean of the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, has named Panos Kouvelis to the newly created position of senior associate dean and director of executive programs at Olin. The new position is part of a strategic restructuring of Olin's executive education to drive a highly synergistic and integrated approach to this important portfolio.

Panos Kouvelis

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In his new role, Kouvelis will be responsible for the strategic development and programmatic effectiveness of Olin's EMBA programs in St. Louis and Shanghai; the Olin Partners' Program open-enrollment seminars; custom executive programs; and the administration of the Charles F. Knight Executive Education and Conference Center located on the Washington University Danforth campus.

Kouvelis has been an active and respected member of the Olin faculty for 12 years. He is the Emerson Distinguished Professor of Operations and Manufacturing Management and director of Olin's Boeing Center for Technology, Information and Management (BCTIM) at Washington University.

"Panos is ideally suited to lead Olin's executive programs given his years of exceptional teaching, renowned research and trusted consulting relationships with business," says Dean Gupta. "His leadership, coupled with our outstanding faculty and staff, position Olin for an exciting new trajectory in providing the very best in executive education to business professionals and their companies today and in the future."

Kouvelis, 48, was born in Lamia, Greece and majored in mechanical engineering at the National Technical University of Athens. He received a dual MBA and industrial engineering degree from the University of Southern California and earned his doctorate at Stanford University. He taught at the University of Texas at Austin and the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University before joining the Olin faculty in 1997.

The recipient of numerous awards for teaching, research and service, Kouvelis has published three books and more than 80 papers in top-quality academic journals. He also serves in editorial positions at several leading management and operations publications. Kouvelis was instrumental in designing a new Master's degree in supply chain management that will launch this fall at Olin.

About Olin's Executive Education

Olin delivers focused and results-driven executive education and development opportunities to members of the business community, in the U.S. and abroad. Cited by Business Week as a leader in creating innovative and specialized executive education, Olin's programs range from the Executive MBA degree to topic-focused seminars and platforms to customized corporate learning experiences that help organizations cultivate high-potential employees and manage cultural change.

www.olin.wustl.edu/executiveeducation