The term of INFORMS’ 19th president, Anne Robinson, cast a shining light on a youthful vault from a mathematics student in Newfoundland, to a PhD at Stanford to the leading voice in analytics at Cisco, Verizon Wireless, and INFORMS, all at an age when many in her field are still ingénues.
Dr. Robinson was INFORM'S youngest president when she took office in 2013.
As INFORMS' Vice President for Marketing, Communications, and Outreach, Dr. Robinson was a powerful force in shaping the strategic plan for INFORMS' pioneering decision to grow from operations research and management science to the related field of analytics. When she became president, she combined careful preparation on the INFORMS Board with public advocacy, becoming the top INFORMS spokeswoman on analytics. She traveled not only to INFORMS meetings but to far-flung business, analytics, and data science conferences, granting numerous interviews in different media to explain INFORMS’ unique contribution to the exciting new field of analytics.
During Dr. Robinson’s term, INFORMS unfolded the INFORMS certification, continuing education, information technology, and outreach programs that were adopted during her predecessors’ terms. She was a major force in defining three crucial types of analytics – descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive – that help organizations understand their past performance and make important decisions about their future.
Dr. Robinson is the Executive Director of Supply Chain Strategy and Forward Operations for Verizon Wireless. Her team is responsible for demand planning and logistics for the forward supply chain, supporting Verizon’s multiple retail locations as well as direct to customer. The team also leads all strategic efforts across the supply chain organization, leveraging advanced analytics to implement processes that lead to improved product life cycle management, working capital optimization, and cost reduction. Prior to joining Verizon Wireless, Robinson spent several years with Cisco Systems where her responsibilities included managing advanced analytics, business intelligence, and performance management teams across the supply chain. She and her team evaluated and improved the distribution inventory network and established a statistical forecasting capability for predicting demand. As the driving force for many foundational and cross-functional process innovations, she helped establish Cisco's presence and recognition as a leader in business intelligence and analytics. Her efforts led to induction in the Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame. Dr. Robinson has served on several advisory boards including the SAS Analytical Customer Advisory Board. She was a topical editor for the Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science.
Her service at INFORMS includes a role as judge in the Franz Edelman Competition, chairmanship of the Membership Committee, and a seat on the INFORMS Roundtable. Following her service on the INFORMS Board she became series editor of Editor’s Cut, a comprehensive online multimedia collection examining important research areas in operations research and analytics.