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CONTACT: communications@mail.cox.smu.edu

DALLAS (SMU) - To meet the growing demand for education in telecommunications and e-commerce, the Cox School of Business has expanded its Information Technologies and Operations Management (ITOM) department significantly. Four faculty members have joined this department including former Vanderbilt University Professor Bezalel "Ben" Gavish, an acknowledged world expert in the field of telecommunications research and education.

Gavish is editor-in-chief of both Telecommunication Systems and Electronic Commerce Research Journal. He received his bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel. For nearly 30 years, he has worked on numerous consulting engagements with industry leaders, including IBM, GTE, Xerox, the National Institute for Scientific Research, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Bell South, and most recently Motorola Satellite Business Systems. This year he will host two international telecommunications conferences to be held on the SMU campus.

Also new to Cox faculty in telecommunications is Amit Basu, former professor of management in telecommunications and e-commerce at Vanderbilt University. Basu specializes in areas of e-commerce and virtual organizations, database management, intelligent systems in organization, and management information systems. He is the area editor for knowledge and data management for INFORMS Journal of Computing. Basu earned his bachelor's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi, India, before earning an MBA from Southern Illinois University and his master's degree and Ph.D. from the University of Rochester Simon Graduate School of Management. His consulting engagements have focused on information technology in several areas including the health care industry and critical processes in e-commerce start-ups.

Joakim Kalvenes' research focuses in several areas, including network design, group decision support systems, and the use of information technology in the management of buyer/seller relationships. He earned his Ph.D. in management information sciences and an MBA in finance and operations management from Vanderbilt University. Prior to that, he earned a master's degree from The Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration in Bergen, Norway, and a master of science degree in Industrial Mathematics from the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim, Norway.

Neil Keon received his Ph.D. in systems engineering in May 2000 from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering where he also received his master's degree in systems engineering. Prior to that, he received his master's degree in systems science from the University of Ottawa and his bachelor's degree in commerce and management from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He has conducted research in pricing and resource allocation for telecommunications networks offering multiple service classes and quality of service guarantees. His research has also focused on user behavior and network incentives to shift demand from peak periods to improve average utilization of network resources. Keon is a National Science Foundation grant recipient.

With the addition of these distinguished faculty members, the Cox School is now able to offer more than 30 different elective courses that address various aspects of e-commerce and telecommunications. Some of the courses focus exclusively on those subject areas while others integrate other disciplines and address subjects including marketing, entrepreneurship, ethics, investment banking and venture capital.