Jayashankar (Jay) Swaminathan is the associate dean of OneMBA, the global executive
MBA program offered in partnership with four other top schools, and the
UNC-Tsinghua EMBA Program, the dual-degree Global Supply Chain Leaders Program offered with Tsinghua University's Department of Industrial Engineering. He also is director of UNC's Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER).
The GlaxoSmithKline Distinguished Professor of operations, Dr. Swaminathan is an internationally recognized thought leader in innovations and
productivity improvements related to global operations and supply chain
management.has published dozens of articles in leading academic journals and won numerous awards, including NSF Career Award, George Nicholson Prize, Schwabacher Fellowship and Weatherspoon Distinguished research and teaching awards.
He teaches courses in global operations, global supply chain strategy and management, and doing business in India. His book Indian Economic Superpower: Fiction or Future? highlights the emergence of India and its implications for businesses.
He has consulted with a number of firms over the last two decades, including AGCO, Agilent, CEMEX, Cisco, IBM, Kaiser, McKinsey, Nokia, Public Health Institute, Railinc, Samsung, Sara Lee, Schaeffler Group, TVS Motors, UNICEF and the U.S. Navy.
His work with UNICEF has led to major changes in the global supply chain planning and execution for Plumpy’Nut (RUTF) into Africa. His work on configure-to-order assembly using vanilla boxes impacted the electronics industry in the 1990s.
A sought after expert speaker, his insights have appeared in media outlets including the Financial Times and Businessweek.
He has held several leadership positions at UNC Kenan-Flagler in the
past, including senior associate dean of academic affairs and chair of
the operations, technology and innovation management area. He is a
fellow of the Academic Leadership Program in the Institute of Arts and
Humanities at UNC, and serves as a member of the Academic Advisory
Council at Deloitte LLP. Previously, he was vice president of INFORMS
and president of POMS College of Supply Chain Management. Dr. Swaminathan joined UNC Kenan-Flagler in 2000 from the faculty of the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
He obtained his PhD and master's in industrial administration from GSIA (now Tepper) at Carnegie Mellon University, and his bachelor's degree in computer science and engineering is from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.