Business operations expert to speak at Whitman April 11

Business operations expert to speak at Whitman April 11April 07, 2008Amy Schmitzaemehrin@syr.edu

The Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University will host a guest lecture by John C. Birge, the Jerry W. and Carol Lee Levin Professor of Operations Management at the University of Chicago, on Friday, April 11, at 1 p.m. in Room 101 of the Whitman School building. The lecture, titled “Firm Profitability, Inventory Volatility and Capital Structure,” is free and open to SU students, staff and faculty.

Birge will discuss how firms make debt and production scale decisions that depend on fixed costs necessary to maintain operations. Prior to joining the University of Chicago, Birge was dean of the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University. He also was a professor at the University of Michigan, where he established and led the financial engineering program. He has been a consultant to Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, General Motors, Chrysler, Volkswagen and many other organizations.

Birge holds an A.B. in mathematics from Princeton University and master’s and doctoral degrees in operations research from Stanford University.

For more information, contact Amy Mehringer, Whitman School communications manager, at (315) 443-3834 or aemehrin@syr.edu.