Cranfield School of Management

Dr Martin Christopher
Emeritus Professor of Marketing and Logistics
BA MSc PhD FCIM FILT FCIPS

Martin's work in the field of logistics and supply chain management has gained international recognition and has been published widely. Martin co-founded the International Journal of Logistics Management and was its joint editor for 18 years. At Cranfield, Martin chairs the Advisory Board of the Centre for Logistics and Supply Chain Management.

Martin is an Emeritus Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. He is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. In 1988 he was awarded the Sir Robert Lawrence Gold Medal for his contribution to logistics education, in 1997 he was given the USA Council of Logistics Management's Foundation Award and in 2005 he received the Distinguished Service Award from the USA Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals. In 2007 he was appointed a Foundation Professor of the UK Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and in 2008 was awarded the Institute's Swinbank Award for lifetime achievement.

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Melvyn Peters
Senior Lecturer and MSc Admissions Director,
Director of Graduate Programmes
MSc BTech MCSCMP FHEA

Melvyn's early career was in the distribution industry before gaining his MSc in Transport Studies at Cranfield in 1984. He has published widely and is a co-author of European Logistics: Markets, Management and Strategy. Recent consultancy has seen him working with Accenture, King Sturge and Baker Rose.

Melvyn is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Logistics and Supply Chain Management, where he lecturers on Road Freight Transport, International Sourcing and Logistics Outsourcing. He is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, a Member of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (US) and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He was the recipient of the Plowman award in 2000 and subsequently published in the Journal of Business Logistics.

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Malcolm Wood

Major General (Retired) Malcolm Wood was commissioned into the Royal Army Ordnance Corps in 1973 and became a member of the Royal Logistic Corps when it was formed in 1993. He is a graduate of Cambridge University and resides in Winchester.

During his 37 years in the Regular Army he commanded a Company, a Battalion and a Brigade. He served in Germany, the Gulf Region and Bosnia as well as the UK. As a Brigadier he was heavily involved in the national response to the Foot and Mouth Disease crisis of 2001. As a Major General, from 2003 to 2008, he was the Director General of the Joint Supply Chain, for the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Lawrence Christensen

Experienced Director of FTSE100 companies, at Board level for 20 years and chairman of the Royal British Legion, Safeway Branch for 3 years.

On retiring from full time business life in June 2005 the intention was to take up non-executive and consultancy roles as well as becoming a Non-Executive Director of Christian Salvesen. However, after 2-3 months, an approach was made by Justin King, CEO of J Sainsbury Plc who persuaded the return to full-time work. This post was taken in September 2004 and in a short space of time significant improvements in performance were achieved. Subsequent to this, several other roles within J Sainsbury have been carried out with similar success.

Lynette Ryals
Professor of Strategic Sales and Account Management,
Director of the Demand Chain Management Community
MA (Oxon) MBA PhD FSIP

Lynette joined Cranfield from a major management consultancy group. Lynette began her career in the City and then moved to a marketing company. Lynette is a Registered Representative of the London Stock Exchange and is the only woman in the UK to have passed the Fellowship examinations of the Society of Investment Professionals.

At Cranfield, she has held positions as MBA Director (2000-2002) and Director of the MSc in Strategic Marketing (2002-2004) and is also the Director of Cranfield's Key Account Management Best Practice Research Club. In 2006 she became the UK's first professor of sales and since 2007 she has been Director of the Demand Chain Management Community and a member of the School's governing Executive Board. She is the Pro Vice Chancellor of Cranfield University.

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Martin Green

Martin Green is a senior supply chain consultant with Unipart Expert Practices. He was formally Head of Supply Chain Development for Nestle UK and Head of Logistics Development for Asda.

Since joining Unipart in 2005 his clients have included Shell, (implementing lean processes in Tsing Yi, Hong Kong), 3 Telecom, Vodafone, Thales, Floors to Go and ICI Paints. Recently he has undertaken a number of Lean Implementations in HMRC (National Insurance Contributions Office, Child Benefit Office, Debt Management and Banking, Self Assessment). He has also recently completed a lean implementation of the supply operation of a major hospital.

Martin is heavily involved in the CILT (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport) and runs a number of courses on their behalf, including Planning and Forecasting and Last 50 metres. He is an External Examiner in Supply Chain at Cranfield University and acts as an advisor for their MSc in Supply Chain and Logistics Management.

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Steve Agg

As the Institute's Chief Executive since May 2006 Steve is a well-known figure in logistics, supply chain and public transport circles. He is based at the Institute's Corby headquarters.

Before taking on the role of Chief Executive he was most recently in the high-profile post of Managing Director Business Services for the Freight Transport Association – where he worked to develop a range of compliance based business services for both freight and passenger transport operators which included training, auditing, engineering and consultancy. Prior to this he was Logistics Director for Danone in the UK, which included the businesses of Jacob's Biscuits, HP Foods and the bottled water suppliers Evian and Volvic.

Steve is a long-time member of the Institute and is committed to raising the profile and status of all individuals working in the logistics and transport profession.

James Spittle
Professor of Strategic Marketing

James Spittle has over 30 years experience in Retailing, Manufacturing and Supply Chain management with a detailed understanding of the latest developments in International Retail and Manufacturing Supply Chains. He has a successful track record as a director in developing and implementing significant change and economic value in blue chip companies, DSGI, Whitbread, Kingfisher, Tesco stores, Grand Metropolitan and Imperial Tobacco.

James holds a number of non-executive positions and contributes to leading-edge business and supply chain thinking and innovation.

He has devised and implemented supply chain synergies within and across retail sectors in group roles and has directed international teams which assisted in the development of physical solutions for global sourcing especially in response to increased direct importation in order to deliver competitive advantage, increased customer focused and alignment which is sufficiently agile, flexible and adaptable to give the best balance of cost and service.

James contributes to international conferences, seminars and workshops as Chairman, speaker and participant.

Richard Wilding

As Chair in Supply Chain Strategy at the Centre for Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Richard works with European and International companies on logistics and supply chain projects in all sectors. He is a highly acclaimed presenter and regularly speaks at Industrial Conferences and has undertaken lecture tours. He has published widely and is Editorial Advisor to a number of top journals in the area. Richard was appointed in 2005 as the first ever Full Professor and Chair of "Supply Chain Risk Management" in the World.

Richard is both a European and Chartered Engineer, he is a chartered fellow of both the Institute of Engineering & Technology (Manufacturing Division) & the Institute of Logistics & Transport and is a steering committee member of the Institute of Logistics Research Network. Richard is also an Executive Committee Member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport "Leaders in Supply Chain" Forum and a member of The Higher Education Academy in recognition of his innovative approaches to teaching and course design.

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Paul Conway
Visiting Fellow

Paul founded a residential property development company more than 20 years ago, which he has managed and grown profitably, and which he continues to own. He has experience of non executive director roles, and coaching boards of directors to achieve sustained profit increases, in several SME companies. Paul was a director of River Island Clothing Company Ltd for many years, during which time the business achieved substantial sales and profits growth in its chain of retail shops.

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Martin Thaysen

Martin Thaysen has been Chief Commercial officer of Damco since 1 April 2009. Based in Copenhagen, he is head of the global commercial activities of Damco.

Martin Thaysen comes from a position as Head of Group Strategy with A.P. Moller – Maersk, where he started as a trainee in 1994. Aside from the most recent position, he has during his time with the Group, worked within Supply Chain Management and Freight Forwarding for 5 years in China, and worked with Human Resources, leading Talent Management for the A.P. Moller Group.

Chris Jephson

Chris is currently Director of Learning and is responsible for Training and Education across Maersk Line. Chris has been with Maersk Logistics from 1990-2004, lastly being Deputy Managing Director & Director, Client Development, where he was responsible for Global Client Development, Maersk Logistics Consulting and Training & Education Programs.

Alan Braithwaite
Visiting Fellow

Alan has been associated with Cranfield since 1987 and was appointed a visiting professor in 2006. He brings a wide range of experience to his work with the School, having collaborated with more than 400 companies in his consulting career. This has been achieved primarily through LCP Consulting, which he founded in 1985.

Alan's experience has included developing and applying innovative analysis and modelling methods to identify major performance improvement opportunities in companies' operations. His technical focus ranges from customer service though manufacturing and distribution operations and back into sourcing and procurement process and decisions.

His practical work with companies has provided a wealth of experience that he ploughs back through writing and teaching and he actively works on Cranfield research projects and on industry programmes.

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