Paul Papayoanou, author of Game Theory for Business, A Primer in Strategic Gaming

Biography

Dr. Paul Papayoanou is Senior Advisor at Decision Frameworks and a leading expert in applied game theory, decision analysis, and decision quality. He developed the practical application of game theory known as Strategic Gaming, which he has used to help large and small companies in various industries across the globe to develop valuable business and negotiation strategies. In nearly 200 engagements, using Strategic Gaming and other analytical techniques, he has helped companies capture billions of dollars in value.

Dr. Papayoanou has been using game theory approaches in academia and the business world for more than 30 years. He earned a Ph.D. from UCLA and was a professor at the University of California, San Diego and at Harvard University. He has used his Strategic Gaming approach in his own consulting practices, in an internal consulting role at Shell, as leader of Strategic Decisions Group’s Strategic Gaming practice, and as Decision Frameworks' game theory specialist.

Dr. Papayoanou has lectured about Strategic Gaming at the Harvard Business School, Stanford, Rice, Texas A and M, The George Washington University, St. John's, and Virginia Tech. He has also delivered speeches, presentations, and training to more than a thousand energy, financial, manufacturing, and life science executives on how to apply Strategic Gaming to business strategy, negotiations, M and A work, auction bidding strategies, political strategy, and on how to create win-wins in the workplace.

In recognition of his expertise and contributions, Dr. Papayoanou was named a Fellow in the Society of Decision Professionals in 2011.

Other Publications

Dr. Papayoanou published the article "Decision Analysis and Game Theory: Competition or Complementarity?" in Decision Analysis Today 30, 2 (August/September 2011).

He co-authored "Shaping Winning Business Strategies with Game Theory" with Jay Goldman, which was published in Financial Executive (March/April 2003).

In addition, his article "The Merger Game: Designing Optimal Strategies for Electric Utilities" was pubished in Electricity Journal (March 2001).

Personal

When we read Paul's first draft manuscript of Game Theory for Business, we were impressed with his clear writing and concise presentation. This was an interesting and smooth project for us!

Paul and I later car-pooled to the INFORMS conference in San Antonio a few years ago (Paul and his family live in The Woodlands, TX, so the car-pooling worked out well) and I found him to be a fascinating and delightful individual - our conversation made the trips back and forth progress very rapidly.

I think every DA practitioner should read Paul's book, as we need to be aware of this set of tools. Game theory can add tremendous value in some situations, but we won't know when to pull out this tool box unless we have a foundational understanding of what it is and how it is used. I highly recommend Paul and he is available for consultation via Decision Frameworks here in Houston.




Paul Papayoanou