Walton College Hosts Global Seminar on Supply Chain Management Education

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Matthew A. Waller, chair of the Department of Supply Chain Management, leads a session at the AACSB Curriculum Development for Supply Chain Management seminar.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – More than 40 college and university business educators from 22 states and four countries gathered March 13-14 for a Curriculum Development for Supply Chain Management seminar at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas.

The seminar was offered through the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International). Sessions focused on how to develop, implement and deliver a supply chain management program that meets the highest academic standards, the needs of the business community and the demands of prospective students. The seminar included presentations, discussions and group activities, meetings with supply chain executives and facility tours to distribution centers and other business sites in Northwest Arkansas.

“The program reflects AACSB’s commitment to strengthening the intersection of business practice and academic research in driving curricula development and innovation,” said Dan LeClair, the association’s chief operating officer. “The Walton College exemplifies this commitment in the area of supply chain management, helping us bring executives and scholars together on campus and in workplaces, such as distribution centers.”

Educators from Australia, Finland, Russia and the United Kingdom attended along with professors and department chairs from 35 colleges and universities in the United States.

“It was our honor and privilege to host a global conference in partnership with the global business accreditation organization and to see it attract so many educators interested in learning about supply chain management education from Walton and its faculty,” said Eli Jones, Walton dean. “It was gratifying to see our faculty – which made up nearly all of the facilitators for the seminar – recognized for their global expertise and innovation in supply chain management. It also highlighted Walton’s deep ties between academics and practice. Partnering with AACSB to co-host a seminar on our campus raises the visibility of the department and the college.”

Seminar participants visited the university’s Center for Retail Innovation on a tour led by Mike Graen, vice president of collaboration with Crossmark. On Friday afternoon, the group toured a Walmart distribution center in Bentonville.

“AACSB is the accreditation institution for colleges of business globally and is focused on advancing business education, so we were pleased when they chose us to lead their curriculum development seminar for business schools wanting to start or build academic programs in supply chain management,” said Matthew A. Waller, department chair, professor and Garrison Endowed Chair in Supply Chain Management. “Most business schools don’t even have a course in supply chain management so we are enthusiastic about collaborating with the AACSB on helping other schools form programs. This seminar was an unequivocal success.”

Friday’s session included a discussion with supply chain management executives. The panel for that discussion was made up of Neal Dellett, Walmart customer team retail supply leader at Proctor & Gamble; Spencer Frazier, senior vice president of sales at J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc.; Wes Kemp, retired president and chief executive officer for ABF Freight System, Inc., and executive in residence at Walton College; Gary Maxwell, chief executive officer of Maxwell Value Chain, Inc., and retired senior vice president of global business process engineering at Walmart; and Daniel Stanton, assurance of delivery leader, manufacturing logistics and transportation services, at Caterpillar, Inc. 

Most of the facilitators for the conference were Walton faculty members, including Waller; John Aloysius, associate professor; Don Bechtel, professor; Terry Esper, Oren Harris Endowed Chair of Logistics, associate professor and executive director of Walton’s Supply Chain Management Research Center; Christian Hofer, associate professor; David Hyatt, clinical assistant professor; John Ozment, Oren Harris Chair of Transportation; Annibal C. Sodero, assistant professor; Brent Williams, assistant professor. Scott Keller, professor of logistics and marketing at the University of West Florida and past editor of the International Journal of Logistics Management, also served as a facilitator for the seminar.

Walton’s Supply Chain Management Research Center hosted seminar attendees Friday night at a dinner for judges and faculty participating in the center’s ninth annual International Logistics Case Competition. Teams from the University of Arkansas and 11 other universities in the United States and Europe competed in that event.