The University of Chicago Booth School of Business named an engineer from Stanford University as its new dean.

The prominent business school said Wednesday that it hired Sunil Kumar, a Stanford University professor, to succeed outgoing Dean Edward Snyder.

Kumar, 42, is a professor of operations, information and technology and an associate dean for academic affairs at Stanford University Graduate School of Business in Palo Alto, Calif. He starts his five-year term Jan. 1.

Born in India, Kumar completed graduate and undergraduate degrees in engineering and computer science at the Indian Institute of Science and Mangalore University before receiving his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He joined Stanford faculty in 1996.

“I’m inheriting a school that is in terrific shape,” said Kumar. “And I want to strengthen it and take the school to the next level.”

Snyder, who announced in December that he was stepping down, left the school on June 30 after nine years.  During Snyder’s term, the school received a $300 million gift from alumnus David Booth, founder and chairman of Dimensional Fund Advisors Inc. — the largest gift in the university’s history and the largest on record to any business school. The university renamed its business school to include Booth’s name in recognition of the gift.

Kumar takes his new job as MBA programs are under pressure to prove their worth in a down economy.  A handful of top brand business schools have appointed new deans in recent months, including Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management and Harvard Business School. The University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business is looking for a new dean to fill a term that begins the summer of 2011.