Christine Rutherford

Chris Rutherford is Professor of Supply Chain Management at Edinburgh Business School, Heriot Watt University.  Chris entered academia after a career as a commissioned officer in the supply branch of the Royal Air Force where she developed operational expertise in supply chain and logistics.  She started her academic career at Cranfield School of Management in 2002 where she developed interests in supply chain strategy design and management science.  She worked closely with blue-chip organisations to develop executive education programmes and deliver business consultancy particularly in supply chain and logistics planning.  

Chris moved to Heriot-Watt University in 2010 and has held several leadership roles (Senior Programme Director, Head of Business Management, Director of Learning and Teaching) alongside her teaching and scholarship responsibilities. Chris has just celebrated 10 years as Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT).

Core areas of both teaching and research interests include supply chain strategy design, supply chain risk and, in the context of supply chain operations, the application of business analytics.

In the last 10 years Chris has developed as an educational leader with a focus on improving the quality of teaching and the employability skills of students through experiential learning methods.   She is active in leading the development of relevant and innovative programmes across our international campuses and online.   In collaboration with the Kuehne Foundation she works to develop logistics educational capacity in developing countries, co-developing training interventions and hybrid programmes.  

Chris is currently Associate Executive Dean (Education and Student Life) with responsibility for the student experience of over 12,000 on-campus and online students across our international locations (Edinburgh, Dubai and Malaysia) and a portfolio of over 60 on-campus and online programmes.