CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Dr. Mohan Rao, Associate Professor of Decision Sciences in the College of Business at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, is the new President of Southwest Decision Sciences Institute (SWDSI). Rao will serve as SWDSI president until March 2018 and then as the past president until 2019.
SWDSI is the southwest regional subdivision of the Decision Sciences Institute (DSI). DSI, an international organization with divisions in Europe and Asia, is a leading organization for the rapidly growing field of big data, business intelligence and data analytics.
Rao teaches Operations Management and Management Information Systems courses and has more than 90 peer-reviewed journal publications, proceedings and presentations.
Rao began his service with SWDSI in 1998. He presented several papers at SWDSI and served many times as a paper reviewer, discussant and session chair. Since 2001, he has served SWDSI in leadership roles, including track chair and Proceedings Editor. He was the Vice President of Finance from 2003 to 2006. As the Proceedings Editor and the Program Chair-Elect in 2014, he initiated a paperless approach, got approval and moved the Proceedings to online only. The new process improved the quality of the Proceedings and saved a lot of paper.
To be elected president of SWDSI, one must have a five-year commitment to serve and a five-year commitment of support from their university administration. In 2014, Rao ran for SWDSI Vice-President for Programs and Meetings Elect (Program Chair Elect) and got elected. During 2015-2016, he served as the Program Chair of the SWDSI Conference in Oklahoma City. During 2016-2017 he served as the President-Elect, and on March 10, 2017, he assumed the position of President of Southwest DSI.