Samir Dani

Biography

Prior to joining academia, my mechanical engineering background led me to work in the Indian automotive industry for five years. I completed my PhD at the Wolfson School of Mechanical and Manufacturing, Loughborough University, exploring buyer-supplier relationships within a psychological perspective. In 2005, I joined the Wolfson School of Mechanical and Manufacturing as Lecturer in Manufacturing Organisation, as Senior Lecturer in Operations Management at the School of Business and Economics, Loughborough University in 2008, and as Professor of Logistics and Supply Chain Management at the University of Huddersfield in 2014. I was the Head of Department (Logistics, Marketing, Hospitality, and Analytics), a large department from 2014-2019. I was working as Professor of Logistics and Supply Chain Management at Huddersfield Business School, University of Huddersfield and the Director of the Northern Productivity Hub (Research Centre).

Research and scholarship

My research interests include;

• Supply chain and logistics management (risk, resilience and sustainability)
• Food supply chains and logistics,
• Technology and business models (AI, IoT, Industry 4.0, Blockchain),
• Systems engineering
• Operations management.

I supervise PhD students in these areas.

My work is published in world leading journals, book chapters, and reports and I regularly presents at international conferences. I have written two books in the field of supply chain management, one specifically on food supply chains, and the other on supply chain strategy. I have published in refereed academic journals, including Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, International Journal of Production Research, Industrial Marketing Management, and International Journal of Logistics Management. My book, ‘Food Supply Chain Management and Logistics: from farm to fork’ received the ‘Prix des Associations’ award at the 12th Annual Procurement ‘Plumes des Achats’ awards in Paris (2015).

I have experience of leading and working on funded projects in a diverse range of supply chain and operations management areas. I have received research funding in excess of £800k from EPSRC (First Grant, INTERACT call 5), IMCRC, KTP, LEPs, and for funding EngDoc and PhD students. Samir is member of the Editorial Advisory board of Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, and member of the Academic Review Board of the International Journal of Operations and Production Management. Samir is a member of RCUK Peer Review College and reviews funding proposals in the area of supply chain and operations management for EPSRC, ESRC, BBSRC, and NERC.

I work very closely with industry and was currently involved with the £5 million Leeds City Region LEP- Supply Chain program.

Teaching

I am a committed teacher with experience in teaching a wide variety of supply chain, logistics, and operations management topics to UG, PG and MBA and Executive education. I have supervised UG and PG dissertations, have supervised six PhD students to completion and currently supervising a number of PhD students. I have been an external examiner at a number of universities for courses in operations management, supply chain, and logistics: Hull, Liverpool, Xian-Jiatong Liverpool (Suzhou), UEA, Heriot-Watt, and Cardiff. I also have experience of examining PhDs.

Further information

I am an experienced manager and have received Chartered Manager status. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, and Certified Management and Business Educator (Chartered Association of Business Schools).

I am regularly invited to present to industry practitioners and was voted in the UK’s top 100 Logistics professionals- 2017/18, 2016/17 by SHD logistics. I have participated in a number of industry and trade organisations: Chair (West and North Yorkshire regional committee, Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport), Advisory Board member of the Leicestershire Asian Business Association (2013-2016), Advisory Board member of the Indo British Trade Council (2013-2016). I've been involved with the India-UK Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) group in the field of logistics and supply chains with the UKTI and the Confederation of Indian Industry.