William Richard King

Last updated

William Richard King, the thirty-sixth President of The Institute of Management Sciences (TIMS), [1] is a retired American university professor who studied and researched management science and information systems at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. He was the Founding President of the Association for Information Systems, co-founder of the International Conference on Information Systems, and the founder of the America's Conference on Information Systems. [2] [3] He has an h-index of 77 when including all of the fields in which he has published, according to Google Scholar.

Contents

Biography

William R. King was born on December 24, 1938, in Southwestern Pennsylvania to Dewey Clark and Cambria Edith (Jones) King. He grew up in a small town called Elrama in Southwestern Pennsylvania. He described himself as a "township kid" at the time he went to Clairton High School. In high school, he was chosen to speak for his class of 450 at the graduation ceremony. In a memoir which was written in September 2011, he recalled a story that happened in tenth grade and he thought his life changed at Clairton High School. [4]

King received his bachelor's degree (with honors) at Pennsylvania State University in 1960. In college, he was in the Air Force ROTC and was named "Outstanding Cadet" in his junior year and "Distinguished Military Graduate" on graduation. After graduation, he worked as an industrial engineer for Pittsburgh Steel Company. Then he enrolled in graduate school and received his master's degree at Case Institute of Technology in 1962, and Ph.D. in Operations Research at Case Institute of Technology in 1964. Professor Russell L. Ackoff was his advisor. [5] King shaped his professional goals with the help of Professor Russell L. Ackoff and he transferred from a jet pilot to a scholar and consultant.

After getting his Ph.D., King was appointed Assistant Professor of Operations Research at Case and served from 1964 to 1965, a very unusual thing for a graduate to be so appointed. From 1965 to 1967, he served as a First Lieutenant in the US Air Force. He was an Assistant Professor of Statistics and Operations Research at the Air Force Institute of Technology.

In 1967, King became an Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Business. [6] In 1968, he was promoted to Full Professor, the youngest person to be so named in the modern history of the University. After arriving at the University of Pittsburgh, King led the redesign of the doctoral program and the creation of a multi-school "MS in Telecommunications" degree, "Techno MBA" and MS-MBA Double Degree programs. These programs grew significantly under his leadership.

King remained at the University of Pittsburgh for 41 years. During this time, he had a number of Visiting (in-residence) assignments at City University of Hong Kong, University of California-Berkeley, Singapore National University, Auckland University, National Sun Yat-Sen University (Taiwan), Travelers Insurance's Research Department, among others. He mentored over 100 Ph.D. graduates. In 2008, he retired as "University Professor", which is the most distinguished academic rank from the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. King married his beautiful high-school sweetheart, Fay Eileen Bickerton, in 1958. They have 3 children and 10 grandchildren. As retirees, they are "snowbirds" who reside at their beachfront home in Port Charlotte, FL in the Winter and at their Pittsburgh home in Fox Chapel Borough in the Summer.

Recognition

William R. King received the Marquis Who's Who Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. [2] In 2004, he received the "AIS LEO Award". [7] LEO Award is an honor to recognize outstanding scholars who have an impact on the field of information systems globally and also have an impact outside the field. In 2002, he was recognized as Institute for Operations Research and the Management Science Fellow (INFORMS Fellow). [8] INFORMS Fellow receipts are expected to be outstanding lifetime achievements in operations research and management sciences and have significant accomplishments in advancing of operations research and management science. [8] In 1999, he was awarded "AIS Fellow Award". [9] AIS Fellow Award is an honor to recognize scholars who have a high degree of professional and personal integrity, and have significant contributions to the field globally. He was awarded Fellow of the Decision Science Institute and a full member of the Association for the Advancement of Science. [10]

Dr. King has a profound impact on the fields of operations research, management science, and information systems. He established AIS (Association for Information Systems) and served as the first president of AIS from 1994 to 1995. His presidency of TIMS (The Institute of Management Sciences) led to the establishment of INFORMS in 1995. [11] He was co-founder of the annual International Conference on Information System. He founded the annual America's Conference on Information Systems.

Research and Professional Activities

King has authored 325 papers (according to Google Scholar) and 19 books.

King's research interest includes strategic planning, project management, information systems in management, system analysis, knowledge management, knowledge management systems, organizational learning, business planning, and strategic use of information systems. His findings in research have been applied to business and finance. King's method has been applied to develop FICO scores. He also developed a concept that laid out the foundation of strategic information systems. The McKinsey Foundation recognized "Systems Analysis and Project Management", a book he co-authored with David Cleland, as a seminal work to management. "Project Management Handbook", which he co-edited, was recognized as the AIIE's Book-of-Year Award. [11]

King was very active throughout his career in the area of journals, having served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Management Information Systems Quarterly (MISQ), as Associate Editor of six other journals and having conceived of, founded and obtained a publisher for the highly-respected journal Information Systems Research (ISR).

In addition to academic activities, King is co-owner of Cleland-King Inc., a consulting firm. He advised corporations and public organizations all over the world. The most interesting recognition King has received was a "King-is-a Liar" demonstration held in Red Square in Moscow. CIA analysts revealed that Vladimir Putin had plagiarized significant portions of one of King's books for his master thesis. [12]

King served as a Senior Staff Member to the US Senate Budget Committee in 1976-1977. Sam Nunn, a United States Senator from Georgia (1976-1997) as a member of the Democratic Party, was the appointer. King is a licensed private pilot and motorcyclist and a certified sailboat captain and SCUBA diver. He jokes that he is also a CPA - Certified Pesticide Applicator - a certification that he found useful to obtain when he bought a farm with an orchard.

Selected publications

Selected books

Related Research Articles

Operations research, often shortened to the initialism OR, is a discipline that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve decision-making. The term management science is occasionally used as a synonym.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heinz College</span> Public policy school of Carnegie Mellon University

The Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, also known as Heinz College, is the public policy and information college of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It consists of the School of Information Systems and Management and the School of Public Policy and Management. The college is named after CMU's former instructor and the later U.S. Senator John Heinz from Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russell L. Ackoff</span> American organizational theorist, consultant and management scientist

Russell Lincoln Ackoff was an American organizational theorist, consultant, and Anheuser-Busch Professor Emeritus of Management Science at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Ackoff was a pioneer in the field of operations research, systems thinking and management science.

Charles West Churchman was an American philosopher and systems scientist, who was Professor at the School of Business Administration and Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He was internationally known for his pioneering work in operations research, system analysis and ethics.

Paul Gray was an American information systems pioneer, and Professor Emeritus at Claremont Graduate University where he was the founding chair of The School of Information Systems and Technology. The School of Information Systems and Technology at Claremont Graduate University is the home of the Paul Gray PC Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Land</span> British information systems researcher (born 1928)

Fred Frank Land is a German-born information systems researcher and was the first United Kingdom Professor of Information Systems. He is currently emeritus professor in the Department of Information Systems at the London School of Economics (LSE). He was married to Ailsa Land, a professor of Operations Research.

Ellis Lane Johnson is the Professor Emeritus and the Coca-Cola Chaired Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerald L. Thompson</span> American mathematician

Gerald L. Thompson was the IBM Professor of Systems and Operations Research (Emeritus) in the Tepper School of Business of Carnegie Mellon University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred W. Glover</span> American computer scientist

Fred Glover is Chief Scientific Officer of Entanglement, Inc., USA, in charge of algorithmic design and strategic planning for applications of combinatorial optimization in quantum computing. He also holds the title of Distinguished University Professor, Emeritus, at the University of Colorado, Boulder, associated with the College of Engineering and Applied Science and the Leeds School of Business. He is known for his innovations in the area of metaheuristics including the computer-based optimization methodology of Tabu search an adaptive memory programming algorithm for mathematical optimization, and the associated evolutionary Scatter Search and Path Relinking algorithms.

William Wager Cooper was an American operations researcher, known as a father of management science and as "Mr. Linear Programming". He was the founding president of The Institute of Management Sciences, founding editor-in-chief of Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, a founding faculty member of the Graduate School of Industrial Administration at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, founding dean of the School of Urban and Public Affairs at CMU, the former Arthur Lowes Dickinson Professor of Accounting at Harvard University, and the Foster Parker Professor Emeritus of Management, Finance and Accounting at the University of Texas at Austin.

Varun Grover is an American Information systems researcher, who is the George & Boyce Billingsley Endowed Chair and distinguished professor at the Walton School of Business, University of Arkansas. From 2002-17, he was the William S. Lee Distinguished Professor of Information Systems at Clemson University, where he taught doctoral seminars on methods and information systems. He is consistently in the top 3 IS researchers in the world. He has an h-index of 100, among the top 5 in his field Grover has around 52,000 citations in Google Scholar and over 13,900 citations in Web of Science.

Ramayya Krishnan is an Indian American Management and Information technology scholar from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is the dean of Heinz College, and is the W. W. Cooper and Ruth F. Cooper Professor of Management science and Information systems at Carnegie Mellon University. Krishnan is also a past president of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS).

William H. Gruber is an American organizational theorist, former professor at MIT, Boston College and Northeastern University, consultant and author, known for his work in the field of computer technology in business in the 1980s.

Jamshid Gharajedaghi is an Iranian-American organizational theorist, management consultant, and Adjunct Professor of Systems thinking at Villanova University. He is known for his work of systems thinking, managing complexity, and business architecture.

Steven Nahmias is an author and professor of operations management at Santa Clara University. He is best known for his contributions to inventory theory, and, in particular, perishable inventory theory. He is also the author of Production and Operations Analysis, a preeminent text in the field. He is currently an Honorary Fellow of INFORMS and MSOM.

Pınar Keskinocak is a Turkish-American systems engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she is William W. George Chair, Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems, and College of Engineering ADVANCE Professor. Her research involves the application of operations research and management science to health care and supply-chain management. She is the former president of INFORMS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Subodha Kumar</span> Indian-born American academic

Subodha Kumar is an Indian American business school researcher and educator and a board member. He is known for his work on web advertising, social media, healthcare, analytics, and disruptive technologies. He is the Paul R. Anderson Distinguished Chair Professor of Statistics, Operations, and Data Science at the Fox School of Business, Temple University. He founded the Center for Business Analytics and Disruptive Technologies at Temple University and directs the Ph.D. Program in Operations and Supply Chain Management.

Ann Majchrzak is an American academic. She is a Professor of Digital Innovation in the Department of Data Sciences and Operations within the USC Marshall School of Business. Majchrzak holds the USC Associates Chair in Business Administration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Keil (professor)</span> Information Systems Researcher

Mark Keil is a Regents’ Professor and the John B. Zellars Professor of Computer Information Systems in the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. He also holds appointments in the Department of Computer Science and the Institute of Health Administration at Georgia State University.

Alok Gupta is an American information scientist, economic engineer, and academic. He is the Professor of Information and Decision, a Senior Associate Dean of Faculty, Research and Administration, and Curtis L. Carlson School Wide Chair in Information Management in the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.

References