Donald G. Malcolm


Donald G. Malcolm was an American organizational theorist, Professor and Dean at Cal State L.A.'s College of Business and Economics and management consultant, known as co-developer of the Performance, Evaluation, and Review Technique.

Biography

Malcolm was born and raised in Indianapolis. In 1940 he obtained his BSc in Public Service Engineering from Purdue University, and after the war his MSc in industrial engineering.
In World War II Malcolm served on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific as radioman. After his graduation Malcolm started his academic career as research team leader of the Operations Research Team at the Johns Hopkins University.
In 1950 he was lecturer in Mechanical Engineering, and by 1952 assistant professor of industrial engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.
In the 1950s he was also management consultant for Booz, Allen and Hamilton in Chicago, Illinois, and in those days participated with the US Navy Special Projects Office, especially with Willard Fazar, in the development of PERT. In 1954-1955 he was president of the American Institute of Industrial Engineers, now Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers.
In 1962 he settled as management consultant with his own consultancy firm Management Technology Inc. From 1962 to 1967 he also directed the National Safety Standards division of the US Department of Transportation. From 1970 he was one of the Senior Vice Presidents of Computer Applications, Inc., and from 1972 to 1981 he served as dean of the College of Business and Economics at the California State University, Los Angeles.
In 1963 he published a review of Cybernetics—in the Service of Communism.This raised concerns that the Soviet Union might use cybernetics to outstrip the USA in terms of economic development.
In 1965 Malcolm was awarded a Distinguished Alumnus Award from Purdue University. After his retired in 1981 and Malcolm moved to the Hawaiian island of Maui, where he remained active for many more years. In the new millennium he had moved back to the mainland, and died in 2007 at his home in Santa Monica.

Work

Team leader on operations research projects

Malcolm made his most notable contributions as team leader on specific operations research projects. The Los Angeles Times summarized:

Selected publications

;Articles, a selection