2025 Research Forum – Supply Chain Challenges: Practical Insights from Emerging Academic Research

Bio:

Remi Charpin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Logistics and Operations Management at HEC Montréal. His research interests span the influence of political risk on global operations and more specifically how firms can mitigate the effects of nationalism and geopolitical tensions on their supply chains. He uses empirical methods such as case study and econometrics to examine these topics.

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Claudia Rebolledo is a Professor and holder of the Supply Chain Canada Professorship at the Department of Logistics and Operations Management at HEC Montréal, Canada. Her research focuses mainly on inter-firm relationships in supply chains, supplier development, purchasing strategy and sustainable procurement. She uses several empirical research methods, having a deep interest in collaborative research, especially for projects within the healthcare sector.

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Yossiri Adulyasak is the holder of the Canada Research Chair in Supply Chain Analytics and an Associate Professor at HEC Montréal. His research has been published in top-tier journals and conferences in Operations Research (OR), Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Yossiri currently serves as an associate editor of INFORMS Journal on Computing. He is a co-inventor of five US patent applications in the areas of prescriptive analytics and supply chain analytics. Yossiri is also a scientific advisor on multiple industrial projects in collaboration with large Canadian and international companies.

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Martin Cousineau is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Logistics and Operations Management at HEC Montréal and a professor at the Institute for Data Valorization (IVADO). He co-leads the Sustainable Health axis at Obvia and is a member of the Interuniversity Research Centre on Enterprise Networks, Logistics and Transportation (CIRRELT). His expertise lies in methods at the intersection of operations research and machine learning, with a focus on logistics, transportation, and healthcare applications.

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Adam Diamant is an Associate Professor at the Schulich School of Business, and York Research Chair in Managing AI-Driven Technologies in Health Care. His research uses mathematical techniques and data-driven methodologies to model and study complex, large-scale systems in health care to obtain insights for better administrative and operational decision making.

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Dr. Yichuan Ding is currently an associate professor in the Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University. He has been honored as the Desautels Faculty Scholar. Dr. Ding currently serves as the director of the Global Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management Program in the faculty. Dr. Ding obtained his PhD in management science and engineering from Stanford University. He has published on top-tier academic journals including operations research, mathematics of operations research, manufacturing and service operations management, and production and operations management. Dr. Ding was the winner of the 2023 POMS College of health care operations management best paper competition, the finalist of the 2019 Pierskalla Best Paper Competition, and the finalist of the 2017 INFORMS behavioural operations management best working paper competition. He currently serves as the associate editor for Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (M&SOM), Decision Sciences, and Operations Research Letter. He served as the President of the Canadian Operations Research Society (CORS) Queueing and Applied Probability SIG in 2022-2024 and he currently serves as the Vice-President/President-Elect of the CORS Health Care Operational Research SIG.

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David Johnston is the Director and Research Chair of the George Weston Ltd. Centre for Sustainable Supply Chains at the Schulich School of Business, and Program Director of the Master of Supply Chain Management (MSCM) program. Dr. Johnston’s published research is in collaborative supply chain management, operational sustainability, improving healthcare operations and the management of process innovation. His most recent work is focused on strategies for securing the long term resilience of critical supply chains.

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Robert Klassen is a Professor of Operations Management at Ivey Business School.

Robert's research interests focus on exploring the linkages between operations and sustainability with a particular focus on supply chain management. This research has emphasized, first, characterizing management practices and organizational capabilities, and second, understanding both the antecedents and performance outcomes of these practices and capabilities.

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Dr. Xiaodan Pan is an Associate Professor, Supply Chain and Business Technology Management, at the John Molson School of Business, Concordia University. Dr. Pan's research focuses on leveraging business analytics to improve societal well-being, with a particular emphasis on enhancing operations of businesses in the retail and service sectors. Her primary research areas include: consumer stockpiling behavior, disaster risk and resilience, retail operations strategies, last-mile delivery logistics, and innovations in retail technology. She investigates these domains within the context of broader societal challenges such as economic fluctuations, natural disasters, public health crises, and digital inequalities.

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Marie-Ève Rancourt is an Associate Professor of Logistics and Operations Management at HEC Montréal. She holds the Canada Research Chair in Humanitarian Supply Chain Analytics. Her research focuses on humanitarian logistics, sustainable supply chain design, and transportation management, employing operations research methodologies to inform data-driven decision-making and policy development.

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Gal Raz is an Associate Professor, Operations and Supply Chain Management at the Ivey Business School. He received his Ph.D. in business and a master's degree focusing on public policy from Stanford University. His research centres on supply-chain management and sustainable operations, with a special focus on pricing, remanufacturing, innovation and government environmental regulations.

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M. Rungtusanatham is a Professor at the University of Cincinnati; a 2017 Fellow inductee of the Decision Sciences Institute; a 2015 Dennis E. Grawoig Distinguished Service Award also from the Decision Sciences Institute. He is considered as one of the top-50 authors of research in supply chain management, according to Supply Chain Management: An International Journal (in 2019), and a top “individual researchers with greatest overall contribution to the field of Operations Management,” according to International Journal of Production Research (in 2015).

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Lingling Shi is an Assistant Professor of Operations Management at the DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University. Her recent research work focuses on sustainable operations, green technology development, and innovative business models. Lingling completed her PhD in Operations Management at the UT Dallas Jindal School of Management and was a Post-doctoral Fellow in the Operations Research and Engineering Management Department at Southern Methodist University. Prior to academic work, she cofounded a startup electric vehicle technology company, where she fostered research interests in Operations Management to address climate change and sustainable development problems.

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Mohamad Soltani is an Assistant Professor of Operations Management in the Department of Accounting and Business Analytics at the Alberta School of Business. He also holds an Honorary Fellow appointment with the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.

His research interests lie in the empirical analysis of service operations, with a primary focus on healthcare operations. In particular, he employs data-driven approaches to uncover latent interactions between healthcare policymakers, service providers, and patients to provide a systematic perspective on healthcare delivery that ultimately impacts service efficiency and care quality.

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Kelsey Taylor is an Assistant Professor at the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics, University of Guelph. She completed her Ph.D. in Operations Management at the Ivey Business School at Western University and holds a Master’s of Environment and Sustainability from Western University with an earlier background in Sociology. Her research examines multiple dimensions of environmental and social responsibility in supply chains using quantitative and qualitative research methods, such as case studies, behavioral experiments, and econometric analysis.

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Ikeoluwa Aregbe is a Ph.D. student at the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics, University of Guelph. She holds a Master of Science in Food and Resource Economics from the University of Florida. Her research focuses on sustainable food systems and supply chains, with a particular interest in logistics, sustainability practices, and the circular economy. She is passionate about bridging the gap between academic research and practical solutions for farming businesses and global supply chains, ultimately driving sustainability and resilience in food systems and beyond.

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Nymisha Bandi is a PhD candidate at the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University. Her research lies at the intersection of retail operations, field experiments, and machine learning, with a strong focus on promoting socially responsible decision-making. Through the design and execution of field experiments in retail environments, Nymisha aims to understand and influence consumer behavior, uncovering insights that lead to meaningful and impactful outcomes.

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Liting Chen is a PhD student at McGill University's Desautels Faculty of Management, specializing in Operations and Retail Management. Her research focuses on applying causal inference methodologies to identify and understand the cause-and-effect relationships that drive consumer behavior and business outcomes in retail settings. By leveraging these techniques, she aims to provide retailers with actionable insights to optimize strategies such as marketing campaigns and pricing, ultimately enhancing decision-making processes and improving performance.

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Joëlle is a Ph.D. candidate in Administration at HEC Montréal, specializing in Operations Management and Logistics. Her research focuses on emergency transportation and improving community safety through evacuation simulation models. She has contributed to projects such as designing a simulation model for Quebec’s Aeromedical Evacuation Program (EVAQ) and is currently collaborating with municipalities affected by the 2023 wildfires to enhance evacuation preparedness and decision-making.

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Alireza Ghahtarani is a Postdoctoral Fellow at HEC Montreal, where he employs deep reinforcement learning to address online stochastic optimization challenges. His current work involves applying gamification principles to electric vehicle (EV) charging scheduling, using advanced reinforcement learning models to design more efficient and user-centric solutions for large-scale charging networks. Prior to this, he held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Toronto, contributing to workforce planning research aimed at strengthening health system resilience in critical care settings. Alireza earned his PhD in Industrial Engineering from Dalhousie University, where his research focused on robust asset-liability management under uncertainty. His interests lie at the intersection of operations research, data-driven decision-making, and optimization under uncertainty, with a particular emphasis on risk management, resource allocation, and long-term strategic planning.

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James A. Peters is 3rd year PhD Candidate in Supply Chain Management at Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business. His current research explores the intersection between supply chain network design and emerging energy technologies, with a particular focus on smart grids. To tackle operational concerns in these two areas, James’ research leverages graph theory, network analysis, and mathematical optimization methods.

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Sunny (Huiqing) Tian is a Ph.D. student in Operations Management and Information Systems at the Schulich School of Business, York University. Her research interest focuses on sustainable supplier selection and understanding the ways in which organizations develop capabilities to purchase sustainably, employing methods such as interviews and behavioral experiments. Sunny previously completed her Master of Environment and Sustainability at Western University.

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Gregory Bender is a procurement team lead at Hydro Québec, Canada's largest electricity producer, with 20 years of experience in strategic procurement and continuous improvement. His focus is on optimizing sourcing and acquisitions for quality, efficiency, and sustainability. He leads and coaches a team of procurement strategists in areas like category transformation, spend analysis, and contract management. Grégory also lectures in procurement management at HEC Montreal. Previously, he worked at Bombardier, Atkins Réalis, and STM. He holds a chemical engineering degree from École Polytechnique and a postgraduate degree in educational sciences from Université de Montréal.

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As Senior Vice President, Pharmaceutical Distribution and Operations since October 2019, Jean-Philippe oversees all distribution operations for McKesson’s businesses in Canada, including procurement operations activities, as well as quality and compliance, with a focus on evolving its wholesale business. Before his appointment, he was Vice President of Technology and Central-Fill Solutions at McKesson Canada, leading six revenue generating technology divisions operating in both the retail and hospital space. Since joining the organization in 2003 as a business analyst, he has successfully taken on increasingly complex mandates, from sales management to general management of a business unit in technology and pharmaceutical distribution. Jean-Philippe holds a BA and a Master's in Administrative Sciences (M.Sc.) – Production and Operations Management from the École des hautes études commerciales de Montréal (HEC Montréal).

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With over 15 years of experience in the healthcare sector, Sarah currently serves as the Assistant Director of Logistics at CISSS Montérégie-Est, where she oversees various teams including procurement, production (laundry & linen), warehousing/distribution and patient transportation. Sarah holds a Ph.D. in Operations and Logistics Management from HEC Montréal and is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Prior to her career in the healthcare sector, she contributed to various consulting projects including procure-to-pay process improvement and regional distribution center design and implementation. Sarah is also a founding member of Puamun Meshkenu, a non-profit organization supporting Indigenous communities.

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Julianna Egressy is the Vice President of Supply Chain at Medicom. She has over 30 years of experience in end-to-end supply chain operations working for organizations such as Medicom, Bosch GMBH, Procter and Gamble, and Nestlé Skin Health, among others. Julianna has a strong passion for sustainable development approaches and leads Medicom North America’s sustainability journey. Julianna holds a B. Eng. in chemical engineering and an IMBA from Schulich’s School of Business, York University.

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Phil Habra is an engineer-turned-AI entrepreneur with dual master’s degrees—an MBA and an M.Sc. in Investment Management. After seven years in consulting and investment banking, he pivoted from finance to data science, acquiring more than 50 certificates and online degrees in AI and data science.
Phil founded a semi-medical data-analytics venture in partnership with McGill University, building a nine-person research team and earning multiple entrepreneurship awards. He later joined a startup as the founding data scientist, taking the company from idea to commercial launch. When the pandemic upended plans, he spent three years at Ubisoft leading large-scale data-analytics projects, sharpening his ability to turn raw data into business strategy. The birth of his daughter reignited his entrepreneurial spark, inspiring him to create an AI agency that designs custom AI assistants.

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Frédérick is Vice President of Operations at Montreal Gateway Partnership, the largest container handler operating at the Port of Montreal with a transshipment capacity of 900,000 TEUs. MGT is a major player in the Eastern Canadian supply chain with rail and road connections to the American Midwest and Western Canada. MGT serves the world's leading shipping lines. Having worked at MGT for four years, his main challenges lie in optimizing productivity and connecting the various stakeholders in the supply chain. He previously served as Director of Asset Management at Montreal Airport and in various Operations Manager duty for over 20 years for Cascades Inc. He holds an MBA from the University of Sherbrooke.

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Dr. Fatih Nayebi is a recognized leader in Machine Learning and AI, serving as Vice President of Data & AI at the ALDO Group and a Faculty Lecturer at McGill University's Desautels Faculty of Management. At ALDO, he leads the Data & AI Office, driving strategic initiatives in Data, AI, Machine Learning, and Operations Research to optimize operations and enhance customer engagement. At McGill, he delivers courses in Enterprise Data Science, Machine Learning in Production, and Deep Learning, equipping future leaders with practical skills to address complex AI challenges. With over two decades of experience in industry and academia, Dr. Nayebi bridges the gap between theoretical AI and real-world applications. He has successfully led AI-driven initiatives to optimize global supply chains, improve forecasting accuracy, and implement agentic AI solutions, driving data-driven decision-making across multiple industries.