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Roundtable event puts supply chain in spotlight

Panel members in front of students

As the importance of supply chains to the global economy is demonstrated in the news and in shopping carts around the world, the Farmer School of Business Center for Supply Chain Excellence continues to give students opportunities to find their place in the working world.

The CSCE held its first Supply Chain Roundtable late last month, bringing three dozen managers from 20 companies to the Shriver Center to meet and talk with students. “We wanted something where our students could not only network with the employers before the fall Career Fair, but also something that could engage different audiences,” CSCE director Monique Murfield explained. “We had underclassmen there that maybe weren't looking for jobs yet, we had young alumni come back with the companies that they're now working for and it gave them an opportunity to be engaged.”

The event included two panel discussions featuring Farmer School alumni and a networking session for students and employers.  The panel sessions were to give students an idea of what are the big challenges facing that companies are facing right now in the industry. Supply chains are a mess right now, so there's lots to talk about,” Murfield said. “But we also had lots of the corporate partners say that the panels were really valuable for them to hear what other companies are doing.”

“This event was the perfect size and right amount of people on the panels.  I thought the questions asked of the panels were extremely relevant to where supply chain is today,” Enerfab supply chain director Kelly Huffsteder remarked. “The discussions really allowed the students to understand the challenges in supply chain but also get excited about the future opportunities in this career.”

The 2021 Miami Center for Supply Chain Excellence Roundtable was a positive experience for Dover and was a nice lead into the following day's recruiting fair,” Dover Corporation vice president of global supply chain Steve Katzfey noted. “Student engagement was strong and further motivated our intentions to hire high-quality Miami University talent into our rotational supply chain & operations development program.”

“As students are going through our program, we want them to be familiar with what's relevant in business right now, what businesses are dealing with in their supply chain and in their operations that they should know about,” Murfield said. “We can tell them these things, but when it comes down to it, if they hear it from a manager instead of a professor, it sometimes resonates a little bit more.”

Junior Emily Boutin said the event happened at the perfect time as she prepared for Career Fair. “This is my first time actually talking to recruiters and I would say that I'm very grateful for the Supply Chain Roundtable, which was a lot more laid back. I had no idea what I was doing, but today, I'm a lot more confident.”

“The opportunity to not only hear from but to then speak one-on-one with some of the most prominent supply chain leaders is additional affirmation of why I chose Miami and am majoring in supply chain in particular,” senior Jack Watson remarked. “It was inspiring to be in a room of successful leaders while also knowing that the next generation of supply chain and business leaders from Miami were getting to learn from some of the best.”

Students listen to supply chain speakers