Leon S. Lasdon holds the David Bruton Jr. Chair in Business Decision support Systems in the Department of Management Science and Information Systems, College of Business Administration, at The University of Texas at Austin. Professor Lasdon teaches two MBA level courses: Decision Support Modeling and Financial Modeling and Optimization. He also teaches Ph.D. level courses in nonlinear programming and large-scale systems optimization. He was one of three faculty named outstanding graduate teacher in 1984. Prof. Lasdon is co-author (with Daniel Fylstra and Allan Waren) of the Microsoft Excel Solver. His GRG2 nonlinear optimizer is used in that solver. The above team recently completed an article titled Design and Use of the Microsoft Excel Solver, which appeared in INTERFACES, Sept.-Oct., 1998. His research and consulting activities include optimization software, supply chain modeling and optimization, customer relationship management and other marketing issues, process control, water resources, and engineering design optimization. He is the author of over 100 technical journal articles and three books.