Michael Goul

1955 - 2020

Michael Goul

1955-2020

Professor Kenneth Michael Goul, a passionate educator to thousands, a visionary researcher, mentor to many and friend to all died unexpectedly on March 19, 2020 at the age of 64.

Mike was serving as the Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research and a Professor at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. He was an affiliated faculty member for ASU's Institute for Social Science Research and the Global Security Initiative. He also served on the Biodesign Institute's Internal Advisory Board.

Mike is remembered by colleagues as a visionary for how he saw the explosion of big data, the shift to cloud computing and the emergence of the mobile/social web platforms and the impacts they would have on the global economy. He was recognized in 2016 with the Outstanding Leadership Award by the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Services Computing.

Mike began his 35 year career at ASU in 1985. He served as Chairman of the Department of Information Systems from 2009 - 2015. It was during his time as Chairman that he spearheaded the development of the Master of Science in Business Analytics program and administered the launch of the undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Business Data Analytics degree. ASU was one of the first schools in the country to offer a Bachelor Degree in Business Analytics and recently received the honor of a #10 ranking in the nation by US News.

Professor Goul also administered the launch of the online version of the Masters of Science in Information Management Program. He was extremely proud of the impact these programs had on students' careers. These programs have grown in popularity every year and enroll more than a thousand students each year. Most recently, Mike created an open access version of CIS 105 course that enables anyone in the world access to a quality education.

In January, 2020, Mike was the recipient of the Hugh J. Watson Award for his achievements and service to the Teradata Corporation and to the data and analytics academic community. This award was presented to him at the HICSS conference held in Hawaii, a place that was near and dear to his heart.

He published more than 100 articles, authored cases and conducted analytics research at companies including American Express, ebay, Intel and Teradata.

Mike was involved in over 44 Ph.D. Dissertations as a Chair/Co-Chair or Committee member. Professor Goul was recently nominated for the prestigious University President's Professor award at ASU.

Born in Ontario, Oregon, Mike received a Bachelor of Science in Business 1978, MBA 1979, and Ph.D. in Computer Science 1985 from Oregon State University.

He married Sandra Horn in Mesa, AZ in 1999 and together they had one daughter Alexandrea "Drea". As a family, they enjoyed traveling, Broadway plays and especially their two King Charles Cavalier dogs, Blossom and Raina Ruby.

Mike is survived by his wife Sandy; daughter Alexandrea; mother Marilyn; brother Brad (Jackie); father-in-law Duane Horn; sisters-in-law Susan Faltys (Lyn) and Shari Horn (Jason Pfenning) and brother-in-law Steve Horn.

The K. Michael Goul Memorial Scholarship has been established at ASU in his memory. Donations can be made through the ASU Foundation at https://wpcarey.asu.edu/department-information-systems/about-department/remembering-michael-goul

Cards can be sent to Mariposa Gardens Memorial Park and Funeral Care, 400 S Power Rd, Mesa, AZ 85206. Electronic messages for the family can be left through Dignity Memorial.

A Celebration of Life will be held at a later date.