Mentor profiles and sign-up

To see a mentor, sign-up through the doodle link below, or go to the Making an Impact information desk (location to be notified). Sign-ups close 2 hours before the start of each session, but sign up early to get the slot you want.

If for any reason you cannot make the time you booked, please cancel the booking as soon as possible to help both the mentor, and other potentially interested mentees.

Olli Bräysy

Mentoring Languages

English, Finnish

Summary of background and experience

I am a part-time professor of logistics optimization and partner in a consulting company, specialized in discrete industrial optimization problems. I have carried out over 100 real-life projects on numerous variants of vehicle routing, workforce management and logistics network design. I have also extensive experience on health care optimization applications and various resource management problems. I have implelemted or helped to implement 8 commercial optimization software and I hold a significant amount of world records to various academic problems.

Mentoring Topics
  • Vehicle routing
  • Workforce management
  • Network design
Slot: MD

Book your slot here.

Richard Wood

Mentoring Languages

English

Summary of background and experience

I am an operational researcher currently working in financial capital modelling. My OR PhD thesis, concerning the modelling of health services in neuro-rehabilitation, won the OR Society's 2011 PhD prize. I started my post-PhD career within the Health Protection Agency's Bioterrorism modelling group, moved to work in operational risk capital modelling at Lloyds Banking Group, and now lead the Decision Analytics team at Principality Building Society. My interests are on the interface between academic theory and practical application, especially applying novel OR techniques to real-life problems. As an Associate Fellow of the OR Society, I keep active in the community speaking at conferences, publishing work, and developing links with universities.

Mentoring Topics
  • Movement from academia to private sector
  • Continuing as an academic within the private sector
  • Championing OR / modelling to non-technical peers in the private sector
Slot: MD

Book your slot here.

Howard Turner

Mentoring Languages

English, Russian

Summary of background and experience

Since joining the UK Government Operational Research Service in 1990 I have worked in a variety of settings at team leader level as well as being in charge of recruitment to Government OR for two separate periods. I presently manage diverse OR projects and a work programme on Performance Measurement, as well as having responsibility for 3/4 analysts in a matrix management structure. I am expert in policy analysis, drafting complex reports, and problem structuring. I have long experience of customer management and of managing staff and consultants from various backgrounds.

Mentoring Topics
  • General: listen to what you have to say, help you structure your thoughts, provide advice.
  • Recruitment/personnel issues
  • Influencing non-technical people
Slot: TC

Book your slot here.

Ana Isabel Barros

Mentoring Languages

English, Dutch, Portuguese

Summary of background and experience

Ana Isabel Barros is principal scientist at TNO, Senior Research Fellow at the Netherlands Defence Academy (NLDA) and examiner for the Dutch Police Academy. After completing her Master degree on Operational Research and Statistics, she obtained a PhD degree at the Erasmus University Rotterdam in 1995. In the last eighteen years she has been involved in a wide scope of military and security projects in national and international fora. Her different roles and her strong OR international network facilitate the link between theory and practice and enable better informed decisions and solutions that work in practice!

Mentoring Topics
  • Making more impact
  • Managing a team
Slot: TC

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Ariela Sofer

Mentoring Languages

English

Summary of background and experience

I am Professor and Chair of the Systems Engineering and Operations Research Department at George Mason University, Fairfax Virginia USA (about 20 miles from Washington DC). My areas of interest are Nonlinear Optimization. and Medical Applications. I have been Department Chair for 15 years and am familiar with the many challenges facing junior faculty throughout their academic career.

Mentoring Topics
  • Navigating through the tenure process
  • Work-life balance and time management
  • Relationships with colleagues, supervisors
Slot: TC

Book your slot here.

Matteo Pozzi

Mentoring Languages

English, Italian

Summary of background and experience

Following a MSci in Physics and a Post-Graduate Diploma in International Relations, Matteo worked as management consultant in Energy & Utilities, Telecom & E-business, Retail & Services in the UK and Italy.
Since 2009 he became partner and general manager of Optit, spin-off of the Università di Bologna that develops DSS based on state-of-the -art Operations Research, driving its growth from start-up to a well established company employing over 20 resources, integrating OR specialists, a large SW development team and business consultants.

Mentoring Topics
  • From models to DSS
  • Getting projects implemented
  • Influencing non-technical people
Slot: TC

Book your slot here.

Ruth Kaufman

Mentoring Languages

English

Summary of background and experience

I have 30 years experience of doing OR and managing OR staff, teams and departments, as well as general management, strategic planning and change management at levels up to and including Board level. Over the years my practice has become less and less mathematical, more pragmatic/strategic/consultative. My senior experience is mainly in public sector in-house work, small-medium-sized organisations (from 10-300 staff), with some independent consultancy and third sector work. I am currently a Visiting Senior Fellow at LSE and President of the UK’s OR Society.

Mentoring Topics
  • Having an impact through communication, consultancy skills, choice of work
  • Leading and managing OR, strategy and change
  • Career and professional development
Slot: WB

Book your slot here.

Guido Perboli

Mentoring Languages

Italian, French, English

Summary of background and experience

Since 1998 Guido has been a consultant, with clients including Accenture, DHL, Emerson Network Power, Porche and many more. In 2009 he became R&D Director of consultancy company BDS s.r.l., with customers from markets including automotive, transportation and retail (see http://www.bds-group.eu/portfolio/ for a more detailed list). He is also Associate Professor in the Automation and Computer Department (DAUIN) of Politecnico di Torino and Associate Member of the CIRRELT, Québec, Canada.
His main areas of expertise includes Business development and Lean Business, City Logistics and Smart City, Green logistics and Supply Chains, Urban Freight delivery, Container and Vehicle Packing, Fleet Routing and Management.

Mentoring Topics
  • Freight transportation
  • Business development
  • Urban and green logistics
Slot: WB

Book your slot here.

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