Herbert Hoover Professor of Public and Private Management
Faculty Director of the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies (SEED)
Katherine and David deWilde Faculty Fellow for 2014-2015
James Patell is the Herbert Hoover Professor of Public and Private Management at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. Professor Patell earned Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a PhD in Industrial Administration from Carnegie Mellon University. He has taught at Stanford since 1975, and he was a Ford Foundation Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Chicago from 1981-1982.
Professor Patell’s research and teaching interests center on business process and product design, operations management, manufacturing, and cost accounting. A popular and demanding teacher, Patell has authored numerous articles in the field of accounting. During his tenure as associate dean for academic affairs in the GSB, he redesigned and revitalized the Public Management Program, which focuses on government, nonprofit organizations, and public service. Patell is a founding faculty member of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (the d.School), where he teaches courses on Design for Extreme Affordability and Design for Service Innovation. Patell also is a Faculty Director of the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies (SEED).
Within the d-School, Professor Patell co-teaches Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability with Professor David Beach. In this course, student teams collaboratively design product prototypes, distribution systems, and business plans for entrepreneurial ventures that address poverty in developing countries. In 2011, Professor Patell and his colleague Professor Stefanos Zenios launched a new project-based course on the Design of Medical Services.