Dr. David J. Sumanth is Professor and Founding Director (since 1979) of the Productivity Research Group at the University of Miami. In 1979, he introduced "Productivity Engineering" as a Master's concentration in Industrial Engineering at the University of Miami, making it the first U.S. university to offer such a program.

He founded the International Conference series on Productivity & Quality Research, and chaired the first five conferences from 1987 to 1995. He also founded the International Society for Productivity and Quality Research in 1993, and serves as Chairman of its board Also, he is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Productivity & Quality Research, which he also founded in 1995.