An “academic dynamo” at the Eli Broad College of Business will be taking the faculty director’s role at the college’s Axia Institute, a value chain research and education center in Midland, Mich.
Srinivas Talluri
The new responsibility for Srinivas (Sri) Talluri comes with his recent naming as the John Hoagland-Richard Metzler Professor in Purchasing and Supply Chain Management. At Talluri’s recent investiture ceremony, Senior Associate Dean and Eli Broad Legacy Fellow Robert Wiseman called him “an academic dynamo” for his nearly 90 journal publications and more than 8,000 citations of his work.
Talluri’s initial focus will be on building greater faculty participation to enhance the institute’s capabilities, said Broad College Dean Sanjay Gupta.
“Sri’s research expertise in the areas of supply chain risk, strategic sourcing and buyer-supplier relationships, technology management, and performance evaluation, is well suited to the vision and goals of The Axia Institute,” Gupta said. “I am delighted that Sri has agreed to take on this role so as to better connect the faculty to the work of the institute so that we can make it a successful enterprise and a leading source of research and education around value chain solutions for industry problems.”
Gupta said Talluri will be reaching out to Broad College faculty to discuss the work of the institute and faculty interests in participating in that work.
Katherine Franz
“The success of the institute will be a huge win for MSU and the Broad College and it will need faculty embracing this work to make it happen,” Gupta said.
The Axia Institute, formerly the Midland Research Institute for Value Chain Creation, is a research and education center dedicated to developing effective and sustainable solutions to improve public and private value chains. Katherine Franz is its executive director.
Established by MSU in 2013, institute partners with industry to solve grand challenges and conduct cross-disciplinary research in areas of value chain optimization, data analytics, engineering, smart packaging, anti-counterfeiting, and water and food safety.
The institute was founded by leaders in value chain creation and development at MSU, including the Broad College, the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, College of Engineering, College of Social Science, and School of Packaging.
Founding donors include The Dow Chemical Company, Dow Corning Corporation, Herbert H. & Grace A. Dow Foundation, Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation, The Dow Chemical Company Foundation, and the Charles J. Strosacker Foundation.
David Closs, The John H. McConnell Endowed Chair of Business Administration at the Broad College, is currently serving as the institute’s faculty director and will continue to do so as part of his consultancy year through May 2019. The overlapping term of Talluri with that of Closs is designed to provide for a smooth and successful transition of the faculty leadership of the institute, Gupta said.
