Provost Kumar to Give August Graduation Address

Sunil Kumar, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Johns Hopkins University, is the featured speaker at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School’s graduation ceremony, Thursday, August 2, at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore. 

In addition to his leadership position at the university, Kumar is a tenured faculty member of the Carey Business School and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics at the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering.

“Provost Kumar is a distinguished leader and accomplished researcher and scholar,” said Bernie Ferrari, dean of the Carey Business School. “We are delighted to have him as our commencement speaker and to welcome our graduates into the Johns Hopkins alumni community.”

Before joining Johns Hopkins in September 2016, Kumar was dean of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, as well as the George Pratt Shultz Professor of Operations Management. During his five-year tenure as dean at Booth, Kumar focused on student recruitment, increasing the enrollment of women in full-time programs from 35 percent to 42 percent. He also expanded courses for undergraduates and helped establish the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, which aimed to transform the university’s discoveries into products and start-up businesses.

Throughout his career, Kumar's research has focused on optimizing manufacturing systems, service operations, and communications networks; and on applying optimization methods and control theory to various managerial problems.

Kumar earned a PhD in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received a master’s degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and a bachelor’s degree from Mangalore University.

Established in 2007, the Carey Business School’s mission supports business knowledge development and education through its own initiatives, innovations, and collaborative programs across Johns Hopkins University. Carey creates and shares knowledge that shapes business practices while educating business leaders who will grow economies and societies, and are exemplary citizens.