Michael J. Stahl, Ph.D., is Director of the Physician Executive MBA Program and Distinguished Professor of Management in the College of Business at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo and his Ph.D. in Management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In the early 1970s, he was a program manager on the design of a communications satellite at the Space and Missile Systems Organization in Los Angeles. From 1982 to 1989, he was Head of the Management Department at Clemson University. He was Associate Dean in the College of Business at the University of Tennessee from 1989 to 1997, and a member of the Leadership Steering Committee for the Total Quality Forums from 1992 to 1998. He was Principal Investigator with a team of nine researchers on a three-year, $400,000 research grant concerning Customer Value from the National Science Foundation, involving Eastman Chemical Company.

Dr. Stahl has published more than 50 journal articles in a variety of areas including Strategic Management, TQ, and health care, as well as twelve books including Strategic Management, Perspectives in TQ, and The Physician's Essential MBA. He teaches strategy and business planning in the Physician EMBA, Taiwan EMBA, and MBA programs. From 1997 to 2000 he served on the Board of Directors and chaired the Board's Development Committee for the Florence Crittenton Agency. He currently serves on the Board of Catholic Charities—Knoxville, and on the Board's Development Committee.