With Michigan State University’s supply chain management programs, you’ll not only benefit from the knowledge of a leading research university, but also its expert on-campus masters-level faculty. Communicating with professors during virtual office hours and viewing courses via streaming video make learning faster than in the traditional classroom setting.
PROGRAM FACULTY
Dr. David J. Closs is the John H. McConnell Chaired Professor of Business Administration and Chairperson of the Department of Supply Chain Management at Michigan State University. Dr. Closs completed his MBA and PhD at Michigan State in 1978 focusing on the topics of marketing, logistics and management science. He is an active member in the Council of Logistics Management and was Editor of the Journal of Business Logistics. Dr. Closs also is Executive Editor of Logistics Quarterly.
Dr. Closs has been extensively involved in the development and application of computer models and information systems for logistics operations and planning. The computer models have included applications for location analysis, inventory management, forecasting and routing. The information systems development focuses on inventory management, forecasting and transportation applications. Dr. Closs’s primary research interests include supply chain strategy, information systems, security and planning techniques. He was one of the principle researchers in two studies completed by Michigan State University investigating world-class logistics and supply chain capabilities.
M. Bixby Cooper, PhD is an Associate Professor with the Department of Supply Chain Management. He received his BS from the University of North Carolina, his MBA from the University of Virginia and his PhD from the University of Alabama. Dr. Cooper has spent time in Japan, Korea, Australia and Brazil, gaining invaluable knowledge about their cultural and business practices. Through his travels and research abroad studying distribution practices, Dr. Cooper has gained a greater understanding of the ideology of logistics and distribution. Dr. Cooper pulls from these international experiences to enhance his lectures and encourage students to understand cultural differences existent in the business world. He believes a great challenge to conducting business abroad is dealing with a diversity of cultures and languages. Despite these inherent challenges, he stresses the value of doing business abroad and its ability to broaden students’ understanding of the global environment. Dr. Cooper hopes to see Michigan State University improve its joint programs with universities abroad, specifically with universities that have strong business programs.
Dr. David J. Frayer is the Assistant Dean for Executive Education & Professional Development in the Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. He received his Ph.D. in marketing, logistics and international business, B.A. and M.B.A. in marketing from Michigan State University. Prior to returning to Michigan State University for his PhD, Dr. Frayer was a part of a product development staff group at Ameritech Publishing, Inc. In addition to his responsibilities at MSU, he also co-directs the annual Purchasing and Supply Chain Management Executive Seminar in June each year. Dr. Frayer has co-authored many books and reports including: Best Practice Model for ECR Alliances: Guidelines for the Development, Implementation and Maintenance of Alliances, World Class Logistics: The Challenge of Managing Continuous Change, a research-based book prepared for the Council of Logistics Management, and New Product Development: Strategies for Supplier Integration, a research-based book prepared for the American Society for Quality. He has published several articles in various prestigious journals. Dr. Frayer is also a frequent speaker at professional meetings, academic conferences and executive development programs. He is a member of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and the Supply Chain Management Council of West Michigan.
Dr. Tomas Hult is the Byington Endowed Chair, Professor of International Business, and Director of the International Business Center in the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. Dr. Hult is also the Executive Director of the Academy of International Business, with members in some 90 countries; President of the AIB Foundation and board member of the Sheth Foundation. He serves on the U.S. District Export Council and has organized teams that have helped some 12,000 firms in the U.S. expand internationally since 2006.
Dr. Tomas Hult is one of the world’s leading authorities on global strategy. He particularly specializes in topics dealing with the intersection of international business and supply chain management. Some of his recent books include: Global Supply Chain Management (2014) with David Closs and David Frayer (published by McGraw Hill Professional) and Total Global Strategy (2012) with George Yip (published by Pearson Prentice Hall). In research, Hult consistently ranks at the very top in international business and supply chain management. For his research work, he has been recognized with election as a Fellow of the Academy of International Business (one of only 83 scholars in the world bestowed with this honor, and the only one focused on supply chain management.)
Joseph Sandor was appointed the Hoagland-Metzler Endowed Professor of Practice in Supply Management in The Eli Broad College of Business at MSU in 2006. He earned his BA from the University of Miami and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He has Certified Purchasing Manager (CPM) and Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) credentials, and was an adjunct professor at The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.
Mr. Sandor has more than 35 years of proactive supply chain management experience. This includes cutting-edge procurement expertise and progressively increasing responsibilities in cost prevention/reduction, team building, strategic supplier alliance formation, systems development, logistics optimization, shared services, inventory control and consolidated procurement. He is active in the Institute for Supply Management, participates in many areas of outreach and research, and has been published in several supply chain and operations management journals. He also co-directs several events at MSU, including the annual Purchasing and Supply Chain Management Executive Seminar and the ISM/MSU Leadership Awards.
Tobias Schoenherr, PhD, CSCP joined the Department of Supply Chain Management as an Assistant Professor in 2008. He holds a PhD in Operations Management and Decision Sciences from Indiana University, Bloomington, from where he also obtained his BS and MBA. He also holds a Diplom-Betriebswirt (FH) from the European School of Business, Reutlingen University, Germany, and is an APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP). Dr. Schoenherr has taught operations and supply chain courses, both graduate and undergraduate, at Indiana University, Eastern Michigan University, the International Graduate Business School in Zagreb (Croatia), and the Central European University, Budapest (Hungary).
Dr. Schoenherr’s research focuses on supply chain management, purchasing, ERP systems, and global manufacturing. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Management Science, the Journal of Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, Journal of Business Logistics, the International Journal of Production Research and the Journal of Supply Chain Management, among others. Dr. Schoenherr has also won several teaching and research awards and grants. For example, he received the 2003-2004 Panschar Undergraduate Teaching Award for Associate Instructors at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, and the Outstanding Research in Business Award at the College of Business, Eastern Michigan University. He received ISM’s Senior Research Fellowship for 2009 and MSU’s Lilly Teaching Fellowship for the 2010-2011 academic year. Most recently, he was awarded the Richard J. Lewis Quality of Excellence Award and the Michigan Campus Compact Faculty/Staff Community Service-Learning Award.
Sirnivas Talluri, PhD currently is a Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management in the Department of Supply Chain Management at Michigan State University. He earned his BS in mechanical engineering in India in 1989, his MS in Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering and his PhD in Production and Operations Management from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1992 and 1996, respectively. Dr. Talluri has more than 15 years of teaching experience and has taught a variety of graduate and undergraduate courses in the areas of supply chain management, operations management, operations research/management science, and statistics.
His research interests are in the areas of purchasing/supply chain management, technology evaluation and justification, performance evaluation and business process improvement. Research methodologies mainly include optimization methods with emphasis on linear, mixed-integer, multi-objective programming and data envelopment analysis. He has more than 50 publications in a variety of academic journals including the IIE Transactions, Decision Sciences, International Journal of Production Research, European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of Operations Management, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, and has presented papers at various national and international conferences. His research is funded by companies and organizations such as Lear Corporation, McNeil Healthcare, and Center for Advanced Purchasing Studies. His consulting experience includes a variety of companies in the area of supply chain optimization, which include SAP, Johnson & Johnson, Accenture, Dash Optimization, and Gateway.
Gary L. Ragatz, PhD is Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management, and teaches courses in procurement, operations and supply chain management. Dr. Ragatz joined the Broad College of Business faculty in 1984. He has a PhD from Indiana University and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
He is the co-director of the Broad College’s Purchasing and Supply Chain Management Executive Seminar and has delivered customized training programs for a variety of companies, including Ariba, Collins and Aikman, Con-Way, Corning, FedEx, IBM, Kellogg, Kerr-McGee, Masco, Textron, Vitro Group and Zebra Technologies. He is a member of several professional organizations, including the Decision Sciences Institute, the Institute for Supply Management, and IPSERA. He is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Supply Chain Management, and serves on the Editorial Review Board for the Journal of Operations Management and Decision Sciences.
Susan (Sue) Makarov has joined Michigan State University as a facilitator for the Executive Development and Professional Programs in The Eli Broad College of Business. Susan brings with her 35 years of supply chain experience with General Mills. Her background includes 10 years in field operations, such as customer logistics, distribution center management, and plant logistics management. At the corporate level, she held various manager and director roles in information systems, logistics planning, supply chain strategy, and retail display purchasing and assembly operations.
Sue received her BA in Supply Chain Management from Michigan State University. In addition to facilitation at MSU, she is an independent professional consultant. Her personal passions are travel, in-line skating, family, and friends. Sue and her husband, Pete, reside in Canton, MI.
