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 online platforms and marketplaces, sharing economy and on-demand services, and smart city operations.

He is currently the Seth Bonder Collegiate Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering and Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan. 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 and Director of the Initiative on the Sharing Economy, a university-wide initiative with participation from faculty in management, engineering, public policy, industrial ecology, and law.  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. He was also Founding Director of the Program In Industrial and Systems Engineering which he led through a transformation from a small graduate program into a full-fledged department.  

He was a Distinguished Senior Visiting Scientist at Honeywell Laboratories and a Visiting Professor at universities in France, Belgium, Hong Kong, China and Singapore. He is the Editor in Chief of the INFORMS journal Service Science. He is a fellow of INFORMS (the Institute of Operations Research and Management Science) and of IISE (Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers). 

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 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 social car sharing organization and served on Technology Advisory Board of the Keppel Corporation. 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 is a link to an interview by INFORMS, a feature story by the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering, a feature story by the University of Minnesota Office of the Vice President for Research, and a story in the ISyE magazine.

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