John Gray

Professor of Operations
Part-Time Consultant, Office of Science and Technology, Executive Office of President (White House)

Operations and Business Analytics

Background

John Gray is a professor of operations and business analytics. He joined Fisher after receiving his PhD from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Prior to pursuing his PhD, he worked for eight years in operations management at Procter & Gamble, receiving an MBA from Wake Forest University’s evening program during that time. He holds two undergraduate degrees from Dartmouth College and its Thayer School of Engineering.

 

Dr. Gray teaches/has taught an elective he created called Strategic Global Sourcing (at the Ph.D., Executive, MBA, and undergraduate levels) and Data Analysis (at the Ph.D., Executive, and MBA levels); he has won a college teaching award for each class. A student project from his elective led to a co-authored case (Scotts Miracle-Gro: The Spreader Sourcing Decision) that has been widely adopted, earning the title of an “Ivey Classic”.

 

Dr. Gray’s research has been published in top multi-disciplinary management journals, including Decision Sciences, Management Science and Organization Science; and top operations and supply chain journals, including the Journal of Operations Management, the Journal of Supply Chain Management, and Production and Operations Management. His research has received several awards, the Jack Meredith Best Paper award from the Journal of Operations Management and the Emerald Citations of Excellence award which recognizes the most impactful articles across a wide range of journals. Two of his papers were awarded the OM Division's Chan Hahn best paper award at the Academy of Management conference. Within Fisher, he was named to the inaugural class of Dean’s Faculty Fellows, a distinction he held from 2014-2017. He has also received substantial external funding, including being co-PI of a $1.7 million two-year contract with the FDA awarded from October 2019-September 2021. He has also served as a Department Editor at the Journal of Operations Management and a Senior Editor at the Production and Operations Management journal.

 

He is currently serving as the conference committee chair for the Industry Studies Association’s 2023 conference, which will be held at the Fisher College of Business May 31-June 2, 2023. He will become Vice President, and then President of the organization in the coming years.

 

In August 2022, he began a part-time role as a consultant for the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President (EOP) of the United States. He is a member of the Pandemic Preparedness Team, advising them and others in the EOP on issues related to pharmaceutical supply chains.


Awards

  • Distinguished Service Award, Journal of Operations Management, 2022
  • Jack Meredith Best Paper Award, Journal of Operations Management, 2018

  • Distinguished Service to the Operations and Supply Chain Management Division, Academy of Management, 2018

  • Outstanding Senior Editor, Production and Operations Management, 2017

  • Outstanding Full-time Core MBA Faculty, 2015
  • OM Division Chan Hahn Best Paper Award Winner, Academy of Management, 2014
  • OM Division Chan Hahn Best Paper Award Winner, Academy of Management, 2012
  • Emerald Management Reviews Citations of Excellence Award, 2012
  • Fisher College of Business Pace Setter Research Award, 2011
  • Outstanding Working Professional MBA Elective Professor, 2010
  • Elwood S. Buffa Doctoral Dissertation Award, Decision Sciences Institute, 2007

Areas of Expertise

  • Antecedents and consequences of outsourcing, offshoring, and reshoring
  • The relationship between boundaries (organizational and geographic) and quality risk
  • Managing quality across organizational and geographic boundaries
  • Sustaining quality and safety performance over time

Areas of Expertise

Logistics/Supply Chain Management
  • Supply Chain Risk and Resilience
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Supply Chain Integration
Production/Operations Management
  • Behavioral Operations
  • Operations Strategy

Education

  • PhD in Business Administration, Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • MBA, Babcock School of Graduate Management, Wake Forest University
  • BS in Engineering, Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College
  • BA in Engineering Sciences, Dartmouth College

Publications

PUBLISHED PAPERS

Working Papers

 

Courses

  • BUSOBA 4263 - Strategic Global Sourcing

    This course focuses on the strategic design and management of the global supply base. The course focuses on identifying and understanding risks and uncertainties related to make-buy, location, and on-going supplier management. Beyond that, it focuses on cross-functional decision-making under risk and uncertainty in this context. Prereq: 2320 (330), 2321 (331), 3230 (630), AcctMIS 2200 (211), and 2300 (212); and BusMHR 2291, 2292, or BusADM 499.01.

  • BUSOBA 7233 - Strategic Global Sourcing

    Focuses on major decisions related to global sourcing, starting with ownership (make-buy) and location (offshore-onshore). Among other topics, students explore fundamental trade-offs in sourcing organization, such as centralizing or decentralizing. Prereq: MBA 6231 and 6232, and enrollment in MBA, WPMBA, or MBLE program. Not open to students with credit for 837.

  • BUSOBA 8240 - Operations Method I

    Doctoral research seminar: critical analysis of philosophy of science, qualitative/case study research, survey-based research, research employing secondary data sources. Prereq: Enrollment in BusAdm PhD program.

  • BUSOBA 8242 - Operations Management Seminar Speaker Series

    Doctoral research seminar: Critical analysis of research in different areas of behavioral operations; practice in developing research questions and formulating hypotheses; presentation of original research of publishable quality. Prereq: Enrollment in BusAdm PhD program. Repeatable to a maximum of 3 cr hrs.

  • BUSOBA 8231 - Strategic Management of Operations II

    Doctoral research seminar: critical analysis of research in vertical integration decisions, and measuring operational effectiveness, interorganizational collaboration. Prereq: Enrollment in BusAdm PhD program.

  • MBA 6270.02 - Data Analysis for Managers

    Introduction to data analysis and statistics for business. Emphasis on achieving an application-oriented understanding of statistical inference and regression analysis and their use in decision making. Prereq: Enrollment in Fisher College of Business, or permission of instructor.

  • BUSML 7390 - MSCM Kickoff Experience

    This 2.5-day on-campus experience will include a mini-course (8 instructional hours) on Finance and Accounting, and two company visits (8 instructional hours) to include facility tours and executive presentations. It will also provide an orientation for the program and an opportunity for the students to meet each other, the faculty and the staff involved in the program.

  • BUSOBA 7392 - Contemporary Issues In Supply Chain Management

    This course will expose students to cutting-edge topics in supply chain, taught by research-active faculty. There will be six class sessions. Each session will include approximately 1.5-2 hours of asynchronous content and approximately 1.5-2 hours of synchronous content. Each session will cover a topic.