Spotlights

The Supply Chain Management Center of Excellence brings together executives from leading corporations with Texas faculty and students to identify, document, research, develop and disseminate best practices in Supply Chain Management.

Professor Sridhar Seshadri Joins IROM Faculty and Becomes First SCMC Fellow

Professor Sridhar Seshadri joined the McCombs School faculty in fall 2008 as a full professor in the Department of IROM and the first Supply Chain Management Center of Excellence Fellow.

He comes to McCombs from the Stern School at New York University with 14 years of teaching experience and an impressive research record in supply chain management, risk management and manufacturing (semi-conductor and automotive). His research interests include stochastic modeling & optimization specifically problems related to planning, coordination and optimization in supply chains, performance evaluation of queuing systems, and the impact of risk in operational decisions.

Professor Seshadri won the 2008 INFORMS MSOM Best Paper Award for his paper titled “Hedging Inventory Risk Through Market Instruments” which was chosen over 11 other nominated papers.

He received his Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering with distinction from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, his Postgraduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and his Ph.D. in Management Science from the University of California at Berkeley.

Michael Hasler Excels as SCMC Associate Academic Director and IROM Lecturer

In June 2008, Michael Hasler began a dual role at the McCombs School of Business with over 25 years of industry and academic experience.

As SCMC’s Associate Academic Director, he represents the Center’s interests to graduate and undergraduate student organizations, serves as a liaison to the McCombs faculty, promotes the Supply Chain & Operations Management (SCOM) curriculum and practicum opportunities to students and Center sponsors, and organizes opportunities for faculty to engage sponsors in the classroom.

In addition to his SCMC responsibilities, Michael is also a lecturer in the Department of IROM where he teaches various MBA and BBA courses in SCOM. His teaching interests include leadership development, organizational culture, operations and supply chain management, managing the organization and strategic career management.

Much of his industry experience comes from Supply Chain and Operations in the automotive industry. In 1996, he transitioned to the semiconductor industry by joining Applied Materials in Austin, Texas. At Applied he helped launch their Supply Chain Management activity, led operations for a $1 billion division and served as the Head of Global Materials Operations. As an operations executive, Michael was chosen to help create and lead Applied Materials’ Leadership Development program. It was this experience that led him to begin pursuing his Ph.D.

His academic experience includes guest lectureships at The University of Virginia, The University of Michigan and Texas A&M University. Michael also served as an Adjunct Professor of Operations and Quality Management at Saint Edward’s University and an Assistant Director of MBA Career Services at the McCombs School.

He received his Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) in Flint, MI, his Master of Business Administration and Master of Systems Engineering from The University of Virginia, Charlottesville. In 2003, he began work on his Ph.D. in Human Resource Development at Texas A&M University. With his dissertation complete, Michael is awaiting his final defense which is expected to occur by December 2008.