Prior to joining the Department of Economics in 1993, Dr. Kridel was the Director of Strategic Marketing at Southwestern Bell Corporation (now AT&T). Dr. Kridel, who is currently the Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Economics, received his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 1987. He is an applied econometrician with interests in the areas of telecommunications; demand analysis; forecasting; and the use of state preference data in econometric choice models and automated analytics. Kridel has over thirty years of research experience in applied econometrics. In addition to leading his own research groups at Southwestern Bell for over eight years, Kridel has explored virtually every important area of telecommunications demand analysis (e.g., telephone, publications, cellular, personal communications, cable TV, and international acquisitions). Kridel's work has appeared in various journals including: Journal of Regulatory Economics, Journal of Service Science and Management, Review of Economics and Statistics, Information Economics and Policy, International Journal of Forecasting, and Information Systems and e-Business Management.