Patrick Noonan
Professor Emeritus in the Practice of Information Systems & Operations Management Emory University, Goizueta Business School
- Atlanta GA
Professor Noonan came to Goizueta in 1993 from the faculty of the Harvard Business School, where he earned his Ph.D. in Decision Sciences.
Emory University, Goizueta Business School
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Biography
He served as Goizueta's first Associate Dean for Management Practice Initiatives from 2012-2015, and as Assistant Dean and Director of MBA Programs from 1996-2000. He has been a visiting professor at the Yale School of Management and Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, and he has taught short courses at Aalto University (Helsinki), Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá), ESAN (Lima), and Universidad ORT (Montevideo).
Patrick's academic field is "decision analysis," which draws on both the wisdom and the analytical methodologies of economics, psychology, statistics, sociology and engineering to provide prescriptions for improving decision making in business, in the professions, in health sciences, in politics and in life.
His analytics coursework at Emory – which included decision modeling, game theory and data analysis – earned the Distinguished Educator award 13 times and “Last Lecture” speaker role six times. In 2001 he received the Adler Prize for Teaching Excellence. He has been honored by inclusion in Emory’s “Great Teacher Lecture Series” and earned the Keough Award for Excellence.
Patrick's research and teaching in the area of managerial decision making combined academic training with real-world experience as a management consultant. He learned the profession at McKinsey & Company in the 1980s, and later as a Director at Planning Technologies Group (which he co-founded in 1990 and sold to Knowledge Universe in 1998), and he still offers workshops in the "craft skills" of consulting and problem-solving. He also is an expert on teaching & learning, especially in the business school context, and is a frequent facilitator of workshops for B-school and engineering faculty in the techniques of case teaching and other active learning techniques. Noonan’s consulting and executive education clients have included such diverse organizations as Microsoft, Bertelsmann, NewsCorp, The New York Daily News, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merrill Lynch, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), Sea-Land, Accenture, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Economics Institute, Johns Hopkins University and Greenpeace USA.
Education
Harvard University
PhD
Decision Sciences
Harvard University
MS
Engineering Science
Yale School of Management
MBA
Public & Private Management
Yale University
BS
Engineering & Applied Science
Areas of Expertise
Publications
Don't Smash the Watermelon!
Ideapress2026-08-18
In a world where vague marching orders like “Figure it out!” are the norm, too many teams rush into action without truly understanding the problem. The result? They smash the watermelon with sloppy, haphazard problem-solving that leaves organizations wondering why their efforts fell flat.
In Don’t Smash the Watermelon!, seasoned educators and consultants Patrick S. Noonan, PhD, and Lynne G. Segall draw on decades of experience teaching structured problem-solving to MBA students, executives, and professionals around the globe. This groundbreaking guide transforms the chaos of “smash-and-grab” approaches into a deliberate, actionable process that empowers individuals and teams to tackle even the most complex challenges.
Who Owns and Cares about the Data? A Method for Identifying and Gathering Information for Research Investigations
Business Information Review2021-03-01
Information overload has always been a challenge for business-people as well as professionals from other types of organizations. And today with search algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) such an ever-present part of daily life and media consumption, the challenges in learning how to filter information for oneself for effective processing, interpretation and analysis have only increased. Several frameworks are presented that were created for instructing students to assist with addressing this. They were tested and refined over four years in a core MBA course focused on decision making and project-based work. They include ways to conceptualize the broad areas of information available for business decision making as well as how to identify information by thinking about who is producing it, why they are producing it and who their key customers are. Other frameworks presented deal with ways to identify pertinent information and how to process and work with it as part of a research investigation. These frameworks are presented as tools that can be used by business school instructors, but certainly have a broader application as useful guidelines for anyone hoping to be a better collector and processor of relevant information for decision making and project work.
Communicating Analytic Results: A Tutorial for Decision Consultants
Decision Analysis2012-08-03
Good analysis alone may not achieve the goals of decision analysis (DA) engagements. Good communication of the results of that analysis can help stakeholders understand, accept, and implement the recommended course of action. Practitioners can use decision-analytic principles when considering the decision of how to communicate results themselves. From this perspective, we consider a range of questions to ask in preparing for communication with the client and other stakeholders. We review standard communication practices in DA engagements. The standard practice can be improved by drawing on insights from other areas of management practice. Decision analysis has both technical and organizational features, and we discuss ways to deal with the conceptual and expressive challenges this presents. This pragmatic tutorial provides a starting point for decision analysts to develop both technical communication skills and organizational communication skills.
In the News
The B-Side of Business: Goizueta’s Hidden Music Scene
emorybusiness.com online
2025-04-04
Within the walls of the Goizueta Business School roam thousands of budding business professionals with big entrepreneurial and managerial dreams, as well as bright mentors with years of career experience behind them. However, that’s not all. The Goizueta community is also home to huge music enthusiasts living out their artistic passions.
Professor Emeritus Patrick S. Noonan says it best: “Hidden amid a group of pretty brilliant thinkers and doers in business, you find some creative people—people who can play and write.”
These creative spirits can be found all around—undergraduate and graduate students, professors, and faculty. Read on to learn how four of them bring color into the classroom, further enrich Emory’s campus, and inspire those around them.
Patrick Noonan carries memories, relationships into retirement
Emory Business online
2015-10-04
A smiling Patrick Noonan walks into Goizueta Business School Room 208, greeting his MBA class with an enthusiastic “good afternoon.” The students respond in kind.
Noonan laughs.
The professor and his students are in good spirits, although Noonan speaks with just a touch of melancholy. Not only is this his final class of the Fall semester, it’s the last of a rewarding career.
Coffee With… Patrick Noonan
emorybusiness.com online
2014-05-25
Russian-born Daria Makhoukova 06MBA had lived in the United States for just two years before enrolling in Goizueta. After tackling the tough world of investment banking in New York, she welcomed the school’s nourishing spirit and the chance to start shaping a career in consulting under the guidance of faculty like Patrick Noonan, professor in the practice of decision and information analysis and associate dean for management practice initiatives. Now a strategy expert and manager of global forces at McKinsey & Co, Makhoukova recently stopped by Goizueta to catch up with Noonan and to discuss the impact of digital technologies on consulting.
Nominees Named for Leadership Character Awards
Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership online
2014-08-18
Patrick Noonan nominated for the Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership and Atlanta-based Turknett Leadership Group for the 11th Annual Turknett Leadership Character Awards recognizing individuals who represent the best in leadership character in Georgia.
