About the Authors
The handbook was written by the first four contributors. The primary authors of each chapter are on its title page; however, all four authors contributed to each chapter. The handbook has four illustrative examples; the Roughneck North American Strategy was written by Eric R. Johnson; the Geneptin was written by Sean Xinghua Hu; the Data Center Location written by Gregory S. Parnell; and the Data Center portfolio was written by Terry A. Bresnick.
Dr. GREGORY S. PARNELL is a professor of systems engineering at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. His research focuses on decision and risk analysis for defense, intelligence, homeland security, and environmental applications. He has also taught at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the Air Force Institute of Technology. He has taught over 60 1-week decision analysis professional courses for government and commercial clients. He has been Chairman of the Board and is a senior principal analyst with Innovative Decisions, Inc., a decision analysis consulting firm. Dr. Parnell is a former president of the Decision Analysis Society of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS) and of the Military Operations Research Society (MORS). He has also served as editor of Journal of Military Operations Research. Dr. Parnell has published more than 100 papers and book chapters and has coedited Decision Making for Systems Engineering and Management, Wiley Series in Systems Engineering (2nd ed, John Wiley and Sons, 2011). He has received several professional awards, including the U.S. Army Dr. Wilbur B. Payne Memorial Award for Excellence in Analysis, MORS Clayton Thomas Laureate, two INFORMS Koopman Prizes, and the MORS Rist Prize. He is a Fellow of MORS, INFORMS, the International Committee for Systems Engineering, the Society for Decision Professionals, and the Lean Systems Society. He received his BS in Aerospace Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo, his ME in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Florida, his MS in Systems Management from the University of Southern California, and his PhD in Engineering-economic Systems from Stanford University. Dr. Parnell is a retired Air Force Colonel and a graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.
Mr. TERRY A. BRESNICK is the cofounder and Senior Principal Analyst at Innovative Decisions, Inc. He has had extensive experience in applying decision analysis to complex problems of government and industry. Earlier, as an officer in the U.S. Army, and currently, as a consultant in the private sector, Mr. Bresnick has demonstrated his expertise in the areas of decision analysis, risk analysis, strategic planning, resource allocation and budgetary analysis, evaluation of competing alternatives, cost–benefit analysis, and business area analysis. He has facilitated more than 1,000 decision conferences and/or workshops for government and private sector clients. He has been an Assistant Professor of Systems and Decision Analysis at the U.S. Military Academy, is a certified Financial Planner, a Fellow of the Society of Decision Professionals, and a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Virginia. Mr. Bresnick was awarded the David Rist Prize by the Military Operations Research Society for his work on an innovative military application of decision analysis. He received a BS in Engineering from the U.S. Military Academy, an MBA in Decision Science from George Mason University, and an MS in Statistics and the Degree of Engineer in Engineering-Economic Systems from Stanford University. Mr. Bresnick is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army.
Dr. ERIC R. JOHNSON has helped clients facing decision challenges throughout his career. This has included work through consultancies, as well as working within the client organization. He has extensive experience in pharmaceuticals and oil, gas, and electric utilities, having worked for Schering-Plough, Portland General Electric, Pharsight, and Decision Strategies, Inc. before taking his current position at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Dr. Johnson is a Fellow and Board member of the Society of Decision Professionals. He is a member of the Decision Analysis Society of INFORMS and won its Decision Analysis Best Practice award in 2002 for a decision analysis of development decisions for a drug codenamed Apimoxin. He has a BA in philosophy from Reed College and a PhD in Management Science and Engineering, focusing in decision analysis, from Stanford University.
Dr. STEVEN N. TANI has been a professional decision analyst since 1975. During his career, he has helped numerous clients in both the private and public sectors make good choices in difficult decision situations. He has also taught many courses in decision analysis and its application. He was manager of the Decision Analysis Executive Seminar Program for SRI International and serves as an instructor in the Strategic Decision and Risk Management program in Stanford University’s Center for Professional Development. Dr. Tani is a partner with Strategic Decisions Group (SDG), and in 2004 was named the first SDG Fellow. He is a Fellow in the Society of Decision Professionals and has served as a Board member for that organization. He holds a BS degree in Engineering Science and MS and PhD degrees in Engineering-Economic Systems, all from Stanford University.
Dr. SEAN XINGHUA HU is Head of Bionest USA and Managing Partner, North America at Bionest Partners, a global strategy/management consulting firm. He has been a decision analysis practitioner and professional decision analyst for many years. Dr. Hu joined the Life Sciences Division of Strategic Decisions Group (SDG) upon its acquisition by IMS Management Consulting in 2006 and served as its Leader of Personalized Medicine Strategy Consulting. A recognized thought leader in the field of personalized medicine strategy, Dr. Hu has been a pioneer in applying decision analysis framework and analytics to advising pharmaceutical and diagnostic industries in the development and commercialization of personalized medicine and optimization of related R&D and commercial decisions. Dr. Hu was the only representative from the management consulting industry to serve on the multiyear FDA Personalized Medicine Initiative Consortium, responsible for decision analysis/probabilistic modeling. This FDA Consortium effort led to the publication in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery (November 2011) a landmark article, of which Dr. Hu is a colead author, describing an analytical approach to evaluate personalized medicine R&D and commercialization strategic alternatives based on decision analysis concept. Among the several academia-oriented extracurricular appointments, Dr. Hu serves on the Editorial Board of the peer-reviewed journal Personalized Medicine. Dr. Hu holds a BS degree in Organic Chemistry from Peking University, China, a PhD in Genomics from New York University, and an MBA in Strategic and Entrepreneurial Management from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.