John Gray, the Dean’s Distinguished Professor of Operations at Fisher, has been named president of the Industry Studies Association (ISA), an organization dedicated to promoting industry studies research and hosting an annual interdisciplinary conference.

As president, Gray will lead the ISA’s efforts to bring together researchers from different disciplines who share a common interest in diving deep into the context of an industry and enhancing the impact that their work has on public policy.

“I look forward to continuing the ISA’s mission to advance industry studies scholarship,” said Gray, who also serves as co-director of Fisher’s Master of Supply Chain Management program and academic director of the college’s PhD programs. “At the conference, we strive to connect academics who deeply understand an industry with other academics who may have deep expertise in that same industry from a different discipline ― or who are studying similar issues in a different industry.” 

“I also want to see more journals explicitly promote industry studies scholarship by, for example, having industry studies departments as two top journals in operations management have done.”

The ISA is an offshoot of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Industry Studies program which, before being discontinued in 2010, included 26 influential research centers. Among them were Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Auto Industry Studies, the Wharton School’s Banking Industry Studies, and Cal-Berkeley’s Competitive Semiconductor Manufacturing Program. 

Gray’s leadership at the ISA is the latest example of his commitment to bridging his academic expertise and research insights with practitioners and policymakers. He recently concluded a prestigious appointment where he served as a consultant in the Executive Office of the President in Washington, D.C. As part of the Biden administration, Gray provided insights and expertise related to pharmaceutical supply chain policy. Attesting to ISA’s connections with policymakers, Gray’s appointment came after a key ISA member, Elisabeth Reynolds of MIT, was appointed as special assistant to President Biden for manufacturing and economic development. 

While the ISA is an offshoot of a highly influential group of research studies and maintains close ties with leading researchers and organizations, it is currently a small organization. Gray hopes to grow the organization in both numbers and reach. 

“Our next two U.S. conferences will be at MIT in Boston in 2025 and Washington, D.C., in 2026, both of which should naturally attract people,” he said. “We are also tentatively planning a mini-conference in Oxford, U.K., in late 2025, with a comparative industry studies theme.” 

Gray will be hosting the ISA board in Columbus in September for an in-person strategy session, during which they will consider other ways to improve the size and reach of the organization. 

During this time of renewed interest in public policy, Gray believes that industry studies research is needed more than ever. 

“I can say from first-hand experience that good public policy requires a deep understanding of how an industry operates, which is a hallmark of ISA research,” Gray said.