University of Arkansas Walton College of Business Supply Chain Management Research Center

The Supply Chain Management Research Center is pleased to share with you the accomplishments of a very successful year, a direct result of the support of our board members and their companies.

In November, our International Graduate Logistics Case Competition again was held at the Sam’s Club corporate offices, with Unilever and several other corporate sponsors making the event possible. The competition brought top logistics students from around the United States and from Europe to northwest Arkansas.

The SCMRC welcomed 2011 with two new staff. Loray D. Mosher, Ph.D., was hired as assistant director/research associate after completing her Doctorate in Leadership for Educational Justice at the University of Redlands in California. Arlene Press joined the center as our program coordinator after living and studying abroad for three years.

Arlene has more than five years of experience coordinating educational programs at Massachusetts General Hospital in conjunction with Harvard Medical School.

In March, the Center held its 10th annual spring conference in conjunction with the Ozark Roundtable of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and sponsored by ABF Freight Systems Inc., BNSF Logistics, and Tyson Foods Inc. This year’s conference, Global Supply Chains in an Ayn Rand World, focused on issues of government involvement and free trade that impact global supply chains. Dr. Yaron Brook, president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute in California, gave an engaging and, at times, controversial opening lecture.

Perhaps one of the most exciting announcements on campus this year, and even in the larger academic world of supply chain management, occurred at the opening of our annual spring conference when University of Arkansas Chancellor G. David Gearhart and Walton College Dean Dan Worrell announced the formation of a new stand-alone Department of Supply Chain Management, effective July 1, 2011.

Previously the transportation and logistics major was housed in the Department of Marketing and Logistics.

With our board members and partners we continue to offer on-site student tours of companies, national case competitions, career fairs, executives-in-the-classroom, internships and research projects to connect our students to industry outside of the university.

These opportunities would not be possible without the dedicated support from faculty, staff and the center board member companies, and for this, we thank you.