Saif Benjaafar is a leading scholar in the field of operations management and supply chains, working at the intersection of operations research, economics, and public policy. He has published ground breaking research that investigates how complex and global supply chains should be designed and managed. His work on sustainable operations introduced innovative ideas for reducing the environmental footprint of supply chains. His work on collaborative consumption and on-demand service platforms is among the first to lay out the foundation for the economic and environmental analysis of the sharing economy.

A focus of his recent work is on sustainable operations and innovative business models, including sharing economy, on-demand services, and online marketplaces.. 

He is currently the Goff Smith Co-Director of the Joel D. Tauber Institute for Global Operations, a joint institute of the Ross School of Business and the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan, where he is also the Seth Bonder Collegiate Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Prior to joining the University of Michigan, he was McKnight Presidential Endowed Professor (one of the highest recognitions for a faculty member at the University of Minnesota) and Distinguished McKnight University Professor, at the University of Minnesota, where  he also served as Professor and Head of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.  At the University of Minnesota, he led the Industrial and Systems Engineering program through a transformation from a small graduate program into a full-fledged and highly ranked department with a full slate of graduate and undergraduate degrees and an expansive research footprint.  He was the founding Head of Pillar (at the rank of Dean) for Engineering Systems and Design at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), a new university established in collaboration with MIT where he was involved in all aspects of the development of the University from its very inception. 

He was a Distinguished Senior Visiting Scientist at Honeywell Laboratories and a Visiting Professor at universities in Canada, France, Italy, Belgium, Hong Kong, China, and Singapore. He served as the Editor in Chief of the INFORMS journal Service Science where he initiated a major reorganization and repositioning of the journal. Under his leadership, all metrics of the journal significantly improved, including number of submissions, review cycle times, and impact factor.  He is a Fellow of INFORMS (the Institute of Operations Research and Management Science), a Distinguished Fellow of the Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Society (MSOM), and a Fellow of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE). 

His papers have been published in leading journals including Management Science, OR, and MSOM. His research has been funded by NSF, DOT, DHS, and DARPA in the US and by NRF and MOE in Singapore. His research work and teaching have been recognized by numerous awards, including the Harold Kuhn Award, the Management Science Best Paper Award in OM, the MSOM Best Paper Award, the MSOM Service SIG Best Paper Award, the George Taylor Distinguished Teaching Award, and the INFORMS Distinguished Service Award, among others.  He has consulted widely with leading companies and organizations such as Honeywell, General Mills, 3M, and the World Bank, among many others. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Hourcar, a community carshare organization. His work was featured by major news outlets in the US, Asia, and Europe.

He Holds PhD and MS degrees from Purdue University and a BS degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

Here are links to an abbreviated CV and a summary of contrbutions to academic leadership.