Pelin Pekgun Elected to Leadership Roles in Leading International Organizations

Professor of Analytics Pelin Pekgun has been elected as the Vice President of the INFORMS Practice Section, as well as a Board member for the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS), with both terms officially starting this January. Previously serving as the VP of Membership and Professional Recognition on the INFORMS Board of Directors, this new election also makes Pekgun the President-elect of the Section.

INFORMS, the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, is the leading international association for professionals in analytics, operations research, management sciences, and other relevant fields. With more than 12,500 members worldwide, INFORMS provides several special-interest sections to connect professionals with similar interests. The Practice Section serves the entire community of full-time and part-time practitioners of analytics.

“This nomination and election have been special for me as it is not very common for the practice community to elect an academic to lead the section,” Pekgun said. “But my efforts to connect the academics with practitioners, the initiatives I pursued as the VP of Membership and Recognition to strengthen the value proposition for practitioner members, and my several years of service on the INFORMS Practice Section Board seem to have received this recognition, which I am truly honored to see.”

Pekgun will also be serving on the INFORMS Strategic Planning Committee this year after being invited by the INFORMS President, Laura Albert.

POMS, an international professional organization representing the interests of production and operations management (POM) professionals, has nearly 2,200 members, including academics and practitioners from around the world. Pekgun was elected to a two-year term as a Board member in December.

“I am truly honored to have been elected to the POMS Board and look forward to serving the community of POM professionals along with my fellow Board members,” Pekgun said.

The flagship journal of the society, Production and Operations Management, is recognized as one of the top journals in its field, appearing in both the Financial Times and University of Texas at Dallas’ list of top journals.