Don’t miss this chance to meet with top uni­ver­si­ty pro­fes­sors at EDS!

Gregory Collins, MBA

Arizona State University — Supply Chain and Operations Strategy

Gre­go­ry Collins 雷轲林 is an Indus­tri­al Sinol­o­gist with exper­tise in glob­al sup­ply chain & oper­a­tions strat­e­gy and Nearshoring / Reshoring / Out­sourc­ing. Over 20 years of expe­ri­ence in Chi­na and Asia-Pacif­ic coun­tries with senior lead­er­ship roles at Microsoft, Flex, and Ger­ber Sci­en­tif­ic. Since 2006, Pro­fes­sor Collins is founder and Chief Sup­ply Chain Offi­cer of The Lake­line Group, the Shang­hai-based firm spe­cial­iz­ing in reshoring / nearshoring, pri­vate equi­ty invest­ment and con­sult­ing. He has worked with boards, man­age­ment teams, and sup­ply chains in over 30 coun­tries and is flu­ent in Man­darin Chinese. 

A pio­neer in China’s sup­ply chain devel­op­ment, Collins moved to Chang­sha, Hunan in 1992. He has led Chi­na and Asia-Pacif­ic out­sourc­ing at Microsoft Corp. As Vice Pres­i­dent of Chi­na Oper­a­tions at Flex­tron­ics he led the devel­op­ment of sup­ply chain and man­u­fac­tur­ing oper­a­tions in the region and was appoint­ed Senior Vice Pres­i­dent and Gen­er­al Man­ag­er for Asia- Pacif­ic Oper­a­tions in 2004. In 2010, he was appoint­ed Vice Pres­i­dent, Glob­al Sup­ply Chain & Oper­a­tions at Ger­ber Tech­nol­o­gy until 2016. 

He has been award­ed with the Key of Shang­hai and the 2008 Bei­jing Olympics Award, as well as being hon­ored in the Great Hall of the Peo­ple (人民大会堂) by Chi­nese Pres­i­dent Hu Jin Tao in 2004. 

Pro­fes­sor Collins cur­rent­ly teach­es Sup­ply Chain Strat­e­gy, Glob­al Sup­ply Chain Man­age­ment, and Oper­a­tions Man­age­ment in the under­grad­u­ate, MBA, and exec­u­tive pro­grams at WP Carey School of Busi­ness. As the fac­ul­ty direc­tor of the MBA pro­gram’s SCM cap­stone course, he directs the grad­u­ate stu­dent con­sult­ing projects for Applied Mate­ri­als, Sysco Foods, Mayo Clin­ic, Unit­ed Air­lines, WL Gore, SK Foods, Intel, ASML, and many oth­ers. He also serves as Fac­ul­ty Advi­sor for the largest stu­dent orga­ni­za­tion in WPC, the Sup­ply Chain Man­age­ment Asso­ci­a­tion at ASU (SCMA).

He holds an MBA in Sup­ply Chain Man­age­ment from the W.P. Carey School of Busi­ness at Ari­zona State Uni­ver­si­ty and Bach­e­lor’s from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Col­orado-Boul­der. He stud­ied Chi­nese at Thun­der­bird School of Glob­al Man­age­ment and Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence & Data Sci­ence at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Chicago. 

Dr. Malini Natarajarathinam

Texas A&M University — Industrial Distribution and Engineering Technology

Dr. Mali­ni Natara­jarathi­nam is a Pro­fes­sor in the Indus­tri­al Dis­tri­b­u­tion (ID) pro­gram with­in the Depart­ment of Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy and Indus­tri­al Dis­tri­b­u­tion (ETID) at Texas A&M University’s Col­lege of Engi­neer­ing. She holds the Leonard and Valerie Bruce Endowed Chair and serves as the Pro­gram Coor­di­na­tor for the Indus­tri­al Dis­tri­b­u­tion Pro­gram, one of the largest and most well-regard­ed pro­grams in the coun­try. The cur­ricu­lum inte­grates engi­neer­ing, busi­ness, and sup­ply chain man­age­ment to pre­pare stu­dents for careers in tech­ni­cal sales, logis­tics, and operations.

Dr. Natara­jarathi­nam also directs the Thomas and Joan Read Cen­ter for Dis­tri­b­u­tion Research and Edu­ca­tion, the only uni­ver­si­ty-based cen­ter in the U.S. focused exclu­sive­ly on whole­sale dis­tri­b­u­tion. Since its estab­lish­ment in 1988, the Read Cen­ter has served as a hub for applied research, indus­try part­ner­ships, and pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment. It sup­ports ini­tia­tives such as the Glob­al Sup­ply Chain Lab­o­ra­to­ry and the Tal­ent Incu­ba­tor Pro­gram, address­ing real-world dis­tri­b­u­tion chal­lenges and enhanc­ing work­force readiness.

She teach­es under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate cours­es in pur­chas­ing, logis­tics, strate­gic sup­pli­er rela­tion­ships, and cus­tomer expe­ri­ence, empha­siz­ing real-world appli­ca­tions through case stud­ies and indus­try collaboration.

Dr. Natarajarathinam’s research and con­sult­ing efforts focus on inven­to­ry man­age­ment, sup­pli­er col­lab­o­ra­tion, demand plan­ning, and prof­itabil­i­ty strate­gies for dis­trib­u­tors. She has led numer­ous indus­try-spon­sored projects aimed at improv­ing oper­a­tional per­for­mance across the sup­ply chain.

Pri­or to acad­e­mia, she worked with lead­ing auto­mo­tive firms, man­ag­ing projects in trans­porta­tion opti­miza­tion, mate­r­i­al han­dling, and deci­sion analy­sis. This indus­try expe­ri­ence informs her teach­ing and research, effec­tive­ly con­nect­ing aca­d­e­m­ic the­o­ry with busi­ness practice.

Wide­ly rec­og­nized for her lead­er­ship in indus­tri­al dis­tri­b­u­tion, Dr. Natara­jarathi­nam remains com­mit­ted to advanc­ing edu­ca­tion and inno­va­tion in indus­tri­al distribution.

Dr. Kathryne Newton

Purdue University — Supply Chain and Sales Engineering Technology

Dr. Kathy New­ton is a Pro­fes­sor, Sup­ply Chain and Sales Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy and Asso­ciate Dean for Research and Grad­u­ate Edu­ca­tion for the Pur­due Poly­tech­nic Insti­tute at Pur­due Uni­ver­si­ty. She is also an accom­plished speak­er, con­sul­tant, and author of a vari­ety of top­ics includ­ing human resource devel­op­ment, dis­trib­u­tor prof­itabil­i­ty, chan­nel man­age­ment, strate­gic plan­ning, inno­va­tion, sales and sales man­age­ment, and qual­i­ty con­trol. She fre­quent­ly works with dis­trib­u­tors, man­u­fac­tur­ers, and trade asso­ci­a­tions inter­na­tion­al­ly and is wide­ly pub­lished in aca­d­e­m­ic and dis­tri­b­u­tion trade jour­nals. She also has served as Advi­sor for the Uni­ver­si­ty of Inno­v­a­tive Dis­tri­b­u­tion Exec­u­tive Man­age­ment Con­fer­ence since 1995 and has been a pop­u­lar speak­er for the pro­gram for over 20 years. UID is the pre­mier inter­na­tion­al exec­u­tive edu­ca­tion pro­gram for the dis­tri­b­u­tion indus­try.

Dr. New­ton has a Ph.D. in Edu­ca­tion­al Human Resource Devel­op­ment, an MBA, and a B.S. in Indus­tri­al Dis­tri­b­u­tion, each from Texas A&M Uni­ver­si­ty. Kathy start­ed her teach­ing career in the ID Pro­gram at Texas A&M in 1984 and from there moved to Pur­due to build a new ID Pro­gram. She also served as the Excel­lence 21 Coor­di­na­tor in the Provost’s Office for 6 years and as Head of the Indus­tri­al Tech­nol­o­gy Depart­ment from 2007 – 2010. She has been an Asso­ciate Dean for the Poly­tech­nic since 2015.