He received his Ph.D. in Operations Management from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He also holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Tennessee Technology University and M.S. degrees in both Electrical Engineering and Systems Analysis from Georgia Tech. Prior to obtaining his Ph.D., his industrial experience included being Senior Manager of the Technology Assessment Group for BellSouth Enterprises, where he was responsible for artificial Intelligence and technology forecasting. He has also been Vice President of Applied Technologies software and operated an import/export firm with offices in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia.