Keynote Speakers
Tuesday, October 14, 2025
9:50, Tuesday, October 14, 2025 – Conference Chair Welcome Message:
Dr. Walid Abdul-Kader
Professor
Department of Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering
Faculty of Engineering
University of Windsor
Windsor, Canada
10:00, Tuesday, October 14, 2025 – Opening Keynote I:
From Host University – Dean
10:40, Tuesday, October 14, 2025 – Keynote II:
Vladimir Franjo, P.Eng.
Regional Director – Ontario Cross Regional Team
Advanced Manufacturing Sector Team Director
Bioproducts Sector Team Director
National Research Council Canada – Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP)
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
11:20 – 11:40 – Coffee Break
11:40, Tuesday, October 14, 2025 – Keynote III:
Mr. Ryan Donally
President and CEO
Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
12:20, Tuesday, October 14, 2025 – Keynote IV:
Dr Vedat Verter
Professor & Stephen J.R. Smith Chair of Management Analytics
Smith School of Business
Queen’s University
Kingston, Ontario
Canada K7L 3N6
Vedat Verter joined Smith School of Business in August 2022. Prior to joining Queen’s University, he was the McConnell Endowed Chair and Chairperson of the Supply Chain Management Department at Michigan State University. He also brings more than two decades of experience at Desautels Faculty of Management, where he was a James McGill Professor. Professor Verter specializes on the application of operations research and data analytics for assisting policy makers in the public sector. His primary areas of research are socially responsible supply chains and healthcare analytics. His earlier work focused on service chain design and hazardous materials logistics. Professor Verter’s work in these four areas culminated into eighty research articles in refereed journals and twenty book chapters. His research is well recognized through invited presentations around the globe. He is deeply invested in training scholars of the future, having supervised 18 PhD students and 25 post-doctoral fellows to date.
Professor Verter developed risk assessment models for dangerous goods shipments and policy making for rail and highway transportation of hazardous materials. His papers on designing transport networks for such shipments are considered seminal. In the area of sustainability, he focuses on evidence-based policy design for incentivizing firms’ product recovery initiatives; particularly for remanufacturing and recycling. He has published on the electronics industry extensively. In the area of healthcare, he focuses on preventive, primary, emergency, acute and chronic care processes, as well as their interaction.
In 2010, he founded and served as Director of the NSERC CREATE Program in Healthcare Operations and Information Management, a seven-University PhD/PDF training program across Canada. Professor Verter served as Editor-in-Chief of Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, an international journal focusing on public sector decision making for ten years starting 2011. Currently, he is a Senior Editor for the Sustainable Operations and Healthcare Management Departments in Production and Operations Management journal. Professor Verter was President of INFORMS Health Applications and Public Sector OR Societies in 2013 and 2018, respectively. In POMS, he served as Founding President of College of Healthcare Management, Vice President of College of Sustainable Operations, and an elected Board member in 2016-17.
October 15, 2025
10:00 Keynote V:
Dr. Anjali Awasthi
Professor, CIISE, Concordia University
President, Canadian Operations Research Society
Montreal, Canada
Dr. Anjali Awasthi is Full Professor at Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering (CIISE), in Concordia University, Montreal. She is currently serving as the President for CORS (Canadian Operations Research Society). In the past, she has served as Concordia University Research Chair (Tier-II) in Connected Sustainable Mobility Systems, CORS in the role of Vice-President, Education Chair, and jury member of student competitions. She is a senior member of ASQ (American Society for Quality), associate of LSRC (Loyola Sustainability Research Center), and regular member of CIRRELT (Centre Interuniversitaire de Recherche sur les Reseaux d’Entreprise, la Logistique et le Transport). She is also the recipient of Eldon Gunn service award (CORS 2018, Halifax) and IEOM Special Recognition Award (4th North American Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, Toronto, 2019). Her research paper entitled “A system dynamics simulation model to evaluate regulatory policies for sustainable transportation planning” received the best paper award from Taylor and Francis journal “International Journal of Modeling and Simulation”. She is also a member of CORS Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) committee and promotor of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). She received her PhD in industrial engineering and automation from INRIA Rocquencourt and University of Metz, France and a Masters in Industrial and Management Engineering from IIT Kanpur, India. Prior to Concordia, Dr. Awasthi worked at University of British Columbia and University of Laval where she was involved in several projects on industrial applications of operations research. In France, she worked on many European research projects aimed at improving urban mobility in cities, city logistics and on cybernetic transportation systems. She has appeared on Radio Canada, CTV, Montreal Gazette, Le Devoir, The suburban, Metro and The Globe and The Mail.
Professor Awasthi’s research interests lie in modeling and simulation, data mining, Information Technology and decision making, sustainable logistics planning, quality assurance in supply chain management and sustainable supply chain management. she is particularly interested in investigating how the new digital technologies are shaping our everyday decision making process. Other key problems include how our cities can be relieved of ongoing traffic congestion, how should the sustainability policies be devised for improved mobility of goods and people, how to perform stakeholder collaboration planning, how to benchmark sustainability performance of organizations, and how autonomous vehicles can be brough mainstream to complement our transportation ecosystem. She is also interested in industrial applications of OR (Operations Research), and has published extensively in the area.
10:40 Keynote VI:
Dr. Andrew Jardine
Emeritus Professor, Industrial Engineering
University of Toronto
Canada
11:20 – Break
11:40 Keynote VII:
Dr. Bruce Minaker
MAME Department Head
University of Windsor
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
12:20 Keynote VIII:
Lisa Lortie
Vice President, Electrified Propulsion Planning
Stellantis
Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA
October 16, 2025
9:30 Keynote
Lee R. Lambert
A Founder of the PMP, PMI
Powell, Ohio, United States
Lee R. Lambert is considered throughout the world as one of the project management profession’s thought leaders. He has been spreading the PM word for over 50 years and was one of the Founders of the PMP. Lee has been recognized by the Project Management Institute as one of only 85 PMI Fellows and in 2024 he received the Distinguished Leader in Project Management Award from the IEOM Society. He brings a “real world” message to those hoping to excel in their role of managing projects. His unique and humorous style creates an enjoyable and productive learning environment.
Lambert has implemented four enterprise-wide project management information systems and his work in developing High Performance Teams has been judged a miracle. He has prepared and delivered user training to thousands of employees at AT&T, IBM, General Electric, MicroSoft, Roche and countless others. His value-add consulting and training has been instrumental in creating successful PMOs to drive rapid implementation. He has provided “public” training programs for more than 50,000 professionals in 51 countries. Lee loves sharing his experience and knowledge on a variety of project management methodologies.
10: 00 Keynote IX:
Dr. Bruno Agard
Full Professor
Department of Mathematical and Industrial Engineering
Ecole Polytechnique
Montreal, Canada
10:40 Keynote X:
Dr. Pengyi Shi
Associate Professor
Mitch Daniels School of Business
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
11:20 – Break
11:40 Keynote XI:
Dr. Osman Alp
Professor
Haskayne School of Business
University of Calgary
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
12:20 Keynote XII:
Dr. Leandro C. Coelho
Full Professor
Chairholder, Canada Research Chair in Integrated Logistics
Department of Operations and Decision Systems
Faculty of Business
Université Laval
Quebec, Canada
