Webinars

James J. Cochran
University of Alabama, Culverhouse College of Business

James J. Cochran is Associate Dean for Research, Professor of Statistics, and Rogers-Spivey Faculty Fellow with University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Business. He has been a Visiting Scholar with Stanford University, University of South Africa, Universidad de Talca, Pôle Universitaire Léonard De Vinci, University of Limpopo, and University of Namibia. He holds honorary appointments with University of KwaZulu Natal and University of Limpopo.

Cochran established an international teaching effectiveness colloquium series and organized nineteen of these events on six continents. He is founding Editor-in-Chief of the Wiley Encyclopedia of Operations Research and the Management Sciences, Wiley Series in Operations Research and Management Science, and INFORMS Analytics Body of Knowledge. He has authored/coauthored fourteen book chapters, over forty research articles, and seven textbooks. He has consulted with corporations, governments, and NPOs worldwide. He was founding co-chair of Statistics without Borders and a founding committee member for INFORMS Pro Bono Analytics initiative. He has delivered keynotes to conferences in twenty-five nations.

Cochran has received INFORMS Prize for Teaching of OR/MS Practice, Mu Sigma Rho Statistical Education Award, Waller Distinguished Teaching Career Award, Karl Peace Award, the ASA Founders Award, and INFORMS President’s Award. He is a Fellow of the ASA and INFORMS.

Fouad Ben Abdelaziz
NEOMA BS

Fouad Ben Abdelaziz is currently Professor at NEOMA BS, Rouen Campus, France. He received his PhD in Operations and Decision Systems from Laval University, Canada. He was a Senior Fulbright scholar at the Rutgers Center for Operations Research, Rutgers University, NJ, USA. He is a leading researcher in multi-objective stochastic optimisation. Aside from his publications in outstanding journals like EJOR, ANOR and FSS, he has served as Guest Editor of special issues of reputed international journals. Dr. Ben Abdelaziz has worked/visited many universities around the world such as the University of Tunis, the American University of Beirut, the University of Dubai, and Pace University NY. He has been consulting for the chemical industry and was appointed as an assessor for the Dubai Business Award. His recent research interests are in Supply Chain Optimisation and Applications. He was appointed as the director of the Doctoral School and the Director of the LARODEC LAb at the University of Tunis.

Davide La Torre
PRISM Research Center of SKEMA Business School

Davide La Torre is a Mathematician, Researcher, and University Professor. Currently he holds the position of  Full Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Quantitative Methods at the PRISM Research Center of SKEMA Business School (Sophia Antipolis Campus, France). He is also the Director of the SKEMA Institute for Artificial Intelligence, and the Head of the SKEMA PGE programs in Finance and Quants and Artificial Intelligence and Data Science for Managers. His research and teaching interests include Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Business, Business and Industrial Analytics, Economic Dynamics, Mathematical and Statistical Modeling, Operations Management, Operations Research, and Portfolio Management. He holds a Master in Applied and Industrial Mathematics (1997, magna cum laude) and a PhD in Computational Mathematics and Operations Research (2002) both from the University of Milan, Milan, Italy and professional certificates in Big Data and Analytics (2017) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA. In the past he held permanent and visiting university professor positions in Europe, Canada, Middle East, Central Asia, and Australia. He also served as Departmental Chair and Program Head at several universities. He has more than 150 publications in Scopus, most of them published in high IF journals ranging from Engineering to Business.

Jack Levis
Retired

Jack Levis, Retired UPS Senior Director of Industrial Engineering, was responsible for the development of operational technology solutions.  These solutions required advanced analytics to reengineer processes to streamline the business and maximize productivity.

Jack has been the business owner and process designer for UPS’ Package Flow Technology suite of systems which includes its award winning delivery optimization, ORION (On Road Integrated Optimization and Navigation).  These tools have been a breakthrough change for UPS, resulting in a reduction of 185 million miles driven each year. 

ORION is providing significant operational benefits to UPS and its customers.  UPS estimates that ORION is reducing costs by $350M to $400M per year. Having earned his Bachelor of Arts in psychology, from California State University Northridge, Jack also holds a Master’s Certificate in Project Management from George Washington University. He is a fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS), receiving their prestigious Kimball Medal and the President’s Award. Jack holds advisory council positions for multiple universities and associations, including the U.S. Census Bureau Scientific Advisory Committee.

Sue Merchant
Blue Link Consulting

Sue Merchant is currently VP (International Activities) of INFORMS. She was previously a VP of IFORS (the International Federation of OR Societies) and a former president of the UK OR Society. She has an analytical public sector background and started her career in the UK Ministry of Defence (Naval Operational Studies) before moving to the London Metropolitan Police where she held a variety of posts over 28 years, including that of Director of Consultancy and Information Services. During this time, she carried out or supervised many analytical projects and led a number of major studies eg the system re-design necessary for the conversion of 4.5 million criminal record files to microfiche and the development of a Force Information Strategy. She is now an independent consultant, occasional supervisor of MSc student projects at the London School of Economics, and an enthusiast for spreading the word about the value of OR and Analytics across the world.

Hatem Masri
University of Bahrain, College of Business Administation

Hatem Masri is professor of business analytics and dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bahrain. He received a PhD in management science in 2004 and Master in operations research in 1999 from the university of Tunis, Tunisia. His research interests include business analytics, supply chain management, financial engineering and Islamic finance. He published more than 30 articles and 6 books among them a textbook in Islamic business administration. Hatem is president of the African Federation of Operational Research Societies, founder of the INFORMS Bahrain International Group, general secretary of the Tunisian Decision Aid Society, member of INFORMS and IEEE and volunteer/mentor with the AACSB.