Best 40-Under-40 Professor Omar Besbes

Prof. Omar Besbes of Columbia Business School is among the 40 best business school profs under 40

Prof. Omar Besbes of Columbia Business School is among the 40 best business school profs under 40

Omar Besbes

Philip H. Geier Jr. Associate Professor of Business

Age: 36

Institution: Columbia University, Columbia Business School

Since: 2009

Before current institution: The Wharton School 

Hometown: Tunis, Tunisia

Marital status: married

Children: two children, ages 5.5 and 3

Education:

Columbia University, PhD, Decisions, Risk, and Operations.

Stanford University, M.Sc. in Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Ecole Polytechnique (France), Ingenieur, Applied Mathematics.

Courses currently teaching: 

Business Analytics, MBA core class since Fall 2013

Operations Management, MBA core class

Advanced Business Analytics, MBA Elective

Fun fact: I’ve lived, studied, or worked in Tunisia, Denmark, France, Puerto Rico, Germany, California, and New York. My accent leads all students to wonder where I’m from.

Professor you most admire: Difficult to pick only one

Most memorable moment as a professor: Having a student bring his dad to attend a class

“If I weren’t a B-school professor…” I might have been an entrepreneur

Omar Besbes is both an exceptional scholar and instructor. The associate professor consistently earns nearly perfect student ratings for his MBA core curriculum course, Operations Management. He was also recognized with the Dean’s Prize for Teaching Excellence in 2012 for the course. Besbes designed a cutting-edge elective on Business Analytics, which he worked to transform into a new core course this year.

A prolific academic, Besbes was recognized with the 2012 Best Paper Award from INFORMS’ Revenue Management Society for his contributions in data-driven revenue management and with the Manufacturing and Service Operations Management 2013 Best Paper Award. He has also been awarded two Meritorious Service Awards from Management Science and Operations Research and has served as both an associate and special issues editor as well an editorial board member for these publications.

Omar Besbes is among “The World’s 40 Best B-School Profs Under the Age of 40