Dennis Finnigan was one of the key persons in building SRI’s reputation as an early leader in applications of operations research (OR) to industrial and business problems. One of several Stanford Business School graduates who formed its core, he was one of the more versatile leaders in SRI’s Economics and Management Group over four decades.
In the late 1950s, Dennis led OR projects on logistics problems for defense agencies. In the 1960s, he was Director of the Management Sciences Division during its rapid growth period, including information management, industrial operations research, systems analysis, new education technology, and the Naval Warfare Research Center.
Taking his expertise overseas, Dennis pioneered industrial OR work in Europe and became a favorite consultant to the Wallenberg industrial empire of Sweden. In the 1970s, under Dennis’ leadership, the SRI Scandinavia office in Stockholm became a center for modernization of European industry. Major restructuring projects were carried out for SAS airlines, Saab-Scania, and the Johnson group. For these contributions, Dennis was awarded the highest honor the King of Sweden gives to a non-Swedish citizen.
Dennis finished his career at SRI as Vice President in charge of international operations and marketing. He left behind a legacy of top-quality, innovative applications of operations research to solving both government and business problems.