Professor Richard Lamming
Director of the School of Management, University of Southampton, UK

Richard joined Southampton in January 2004 to become Director of the School of Management .  His key role is now to lead the School through a period of major development and transition.

Formerly, between 1991 and 2003, he held the first CIPS Chair of Purchasing and Supply Management at the School of Management , University of Bath , where he founded the Centre for Research in Strategic Purchasing and Supply (CR i SPS).  He was Director of CR i SPS until 2001, Head of Corporate Development for the School between 1996 and 2000 and Head of Research from 2001 to 2003.

In addition to this executive role, he continues to conduct research, teaching, and facilitation work, specialising in the conceptual and practical development of supplier relationship management (SRM) and radical strategic and innovative supply concepts, including lean supply, which he views as radical, disruptive innovation.  He sits on the steering group of Partnership Sourcing Ltd.  and holds non-executive directorships at Hammond Bridge Ltd. (the Consortium for Purchasing and Distribution) and Vendigital Ltd. (internet auctions).

He began his career as an engineering apprentice with Jaguar Cars.  He held positions in purchasing in UK industry in the 1970s followed by five years in full-time management consultancy. His Bachelors degree is in Production Engineering and his Doctoral thesis (at SPRU: the Science Policy Research Unit, [SPRU]   University of Sussex ) was on the strategic management of technological innovation in supply chain relationships. His academic career began in 1982 at Brighton Business School . From 1986-90 he was a senior member of the International Motor Vehicle Programme, based at Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( USA ) and SPRU.  He was part of a small team which wrote the best-selling book, The Machine That Changed the World (1990).  It was this book which launched the concept of lean production. Professor Lamming developed the concept of lean supply in 1993: Beyond Partnership: Strategies for Innovation and Lean Supply.

In 1995 he was awarded CIPS' highest honour, the Swinbank Medal, for outstanding services to the Purchasing profession.  He was the founding Editor of the European Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, (1994-2000: Elsevier Scientific , UK ) and first Chairman of the International Purchasing and Supply Education and Research Association, (IPSERA: 1993-1995). In October 2002 he was awarded the Hans Ovelgonne Award by the International Federation of Purchasing and Materials Management for his outstanding contribution to Research and Development in the field of Purchasing and Materials Management.