Dr Sahar Validi

Biography

Sahar joined the University of Essex Business School, Strategy, Operations and Entrepreneurship (SOE) group as a Senior Lecturer in Business Analytics in October 2022. She is currently Deputy Head of SOE Group at Essex Business School. She holds a PhD in Management Science, a Master's degree in Industrial Management-Operational Research, a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education, and a Bachelor's degree in Business Management. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Prior to joining EBS, she held different academic and non-academic positions in the UK, Germany, Ireland, and Iran. She worked with the University of Huddersfield (West Yorkshire, UK) from 2014 to 2022 as a Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer of Logistics and Supply Chain Management. She completed her Postdoctoral Research Project at Kühne Logistics University (Hamburg, Germany), working on ‘Unilever’s 2020 Carbon Reduction Target for Logistics: An Analysis of the Company’s Options’. Sahar completed her PhD at Dublin City University (Dublin, Ireland) working on ‘Low-Carbon Multi-Objective Location-Routing in Supply Chain Network Design’. She started her career working as a researcher back in Iran and then took up an academic position with Azad University of Sanandaj, Iran. Her research interests, teaching and research experience, and publications lie in an interdisciplinary and overlapped area between Operational Research (OR) and Supply Chain and Logistics Management and are heavily influenced by Digital Transformation. She has constantly attempted to conduct applied research with impact, informed by the end user’s needs to drive the impact agenda. She has followed the same path in Iran (working on nationally funded projects to improve the productivity of local businesses in the West of Iran), then in Ireland (working on a multinational dairy company supply chain network for her PhD project to minimise carbon emission from their logistics network), and in Germany (working for Unilever to decarbonise their global logistics network in Asia, Africa, Americas, Europe). She is a member of the Operational Research Society and a reviewer of prestigious journals in the field. She consistently contributes to international conferences in the same area. Since working in the UK, she has developed effective working relationships with Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP), Local Authorities and Council, and the Federation of Small Businesses and SMEs which resulted in a number of funded research projects and knowledge transfer partnerships. Sahar had led and contributed to several research projects, exceeding £2m. More details on Sahar's research interests are available on her profile here. PhD or Postdoctorate candidates, willing to pursue their research in any of these fields, can contact her directly. ------------------------------------------------ ''Recent Grants and Applications'' 2023: - AI for Net Zero - application (PI) UK Research and Innovation (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) - Turning the World Risk Poll into Action - application (CI) Lloyds Register Foundation 2022: - Management Knowledge Transfer Programme (mKTP)- Enterprise Resource Planning (PI) Innovate UK, Knowledge Transfer Partnership - Net Zero Innovation Programme (PI) University College London – Local Government Association - Research solutions for UK treescape expansion and resilience - application (PI) UK Research and Innovation (Natural Environment Research Council) 2021: - Manufacturing Made Smarter Digital Innovation Hub - application (CI) UK Research and Innovation - Cloud Based Supply Chain Control Tower (PI) University Research Fund, Huddersfield - Centre for Biomimetic Societal Futures (CI) University Research Fund, Huddersfield - Collaborative Venture fund with W. T. Johnsons & Sons. (PI) University Research Fund, Huddersfield - Leeds City Region Supply Chain Programme-LEP (Academic Lead) European Structural and Investment Funds

Appointments

University of Essex

• Deputy Head of Group, (Strategy, Operations, and Entrepreneurship- SOE), University of Essex Business School (1/6/2024 - present)

• Associate Director of Education, Essex Business School (2/10/2023 - 30/6/2024)