Ronald A. Howard

One of the founders of DEF, Professor Howard is academic director of the Strategic Decision and Risk Management certificate program at Stanford University. He supervises teaching and research in the Decision Analysis Program of the Department of Management Science and Engineering and is also the director of the department’s Decisions and Ethics Center. In addition, he is, by courtesy, a professor in the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Professor Howard defined the profession of decision analysis in 1964. His experience includes decision analysis projects in virtually all fields, from investment planning to research strategy, and from hurricane seeding to nuclear waste isolation.

He has been a consultant to several companies and was a founding director and chairman of Strategic Decisions Group, a strategy consulting firm. In 1986, he received the Operations Research Society of America's Frank P. Ramsey Medal for "Distinguished Contributions in Decision Analysis," and in 1998, the first award for the Teaching of Operations Research/Management Science Practice from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). He is a fellow of INFORMS and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Dr. Howard received a BS, an MS, an EE, and an ScD in electrical engineering and a BS in economics from MIT.