People at the HUMLOG Institute

Diego Vega

Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management and Social Responsibility, esp. Humanitarian Logistics at Hanken School of Economics and Director of the HUMLOG Institute 

Diego's an Associate Editor of the Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management, and participates at the Editorial Advisory board of the International Journal of Logistics Management, and the SCM programming board of the World Humanitarian Forum. Diego’s research interests include logistics services in humanitarian operations, emergency relief logistics, temporary organizations and competence-based strategic management for humanitarian organizations.

Sarah Schiffling

Assistant Professor in Supply Chain Management and Social Responsibility and Deputy Director of the HUMLOG Institute

Sarah is a trustee for the Humanitarian Logistics Association. Her research interests include complexity in supply chains, trust and distrust in supply chain relationships, cash based interventions, pharmaceutical supply chains and the effects of transport disruptions. She frequently discusses logistics and supply chain topics on TV, radio, print, and online media and is a prolific author for The Conversation.

Wojciech Piotrowicz

Associate Professor in Supply Chain Management and Social Responsibility

Wojciech joined Hanken in 2017, after over ten years at University of Oxford. His research is related to Supply Chain and logistics in various contexts, performance and evaluation, as well as impact of technologies on organisations and societies. Currently he leads Academy of Finland project focused on humanitarian assistance and local markets under armed conflict conditions.

Gyöngyi Kovács

Erkko Professor in Humanitarian Logistics

Gyöngyi's research has focused on the areas of challenges and trends in humanitarian logistics, humanitarian supply chain design, innovation in humanitarian supply chains, and humanitarian logistics skills and competencies. She has also conducted research in sustainable supply chain management and research approaches in logistics. She led the HUMLOG Institute since its establishment in 2008 until 2014. Gyöngyi is currently involved in many of the HUMLOG Institute's ongoing research projects.

Christian Fjäder

Professor of Practice in Societal Resilience

Christian Fjäder’s role in Hanken includes developing a research stream in resilience, security of supply and comprehensive security, strengthening the subject’s and HUMLOG’s visibility in Finland and internationally, as well as being a bridge between academia and industry to align research with practical needs. Christian is also co-examiner in the Supply Chain Risk and Resilience course and lectures in various courses. 

In addition to his role at Hanken, Christian is the CEO of Geostrategic Intelligence Group (Geostrat) Ltd, a boutique geostrategic risk and resilience advisory firm. He previously served as Senior Research Fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs and Director for Policy Planning at Finland's National Emergency Supply Agency. Christian held regional (Asia Pacific) and global leadership roles at Nokia, including Head of Risk and Resilience. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Sydney, an MBA from Bond University, and Masters and Bachelor's degrees from Flinders University. He has published scholarly work on resilience, international security, geoeconomics, and strategic risk.

Alexandra Filatova

Operations Manager

Cia Leinonen

Research Coordinator

Cia Leinonen is a Research Coordinator and does research support at the HUMLOG Institute. She holds a Master's in Supply Chain Management and Social Responsibility from Hanken School of Economics, focusing on the current challenges in local preparedness in humanitarian logistics. Her experience includes data analytics and supply chain processes.

Kazjal Rokhzad

Research Assistant 

M.Sc. student in Economics and Business Administration

Kazjal, is a master’s student at the Hanken School of Economics, majoring in Supply Chain Management and Social Responsibility with a minor in Management and Organization. She is currently involved in the Future of Critical Functioning (FUFU) project, contributing to research on future societal resilience, and will write her master’s thesis on the same topic. Before joining Hanken, Kazjal spent over 12 years as an entrepreneur, gaining extensive experience across diverse business operations and building a strong connection between real-world practice and theoretical insight.

Amin Maghsoudi

Amin Maghsoudi is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Research Institue (HUMLOG Institute), Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland. Previous appointment inlcudes School of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Iran, where he held a post as a project researcher. 
Amin’s doctoral research at Universiti Sains Malaysia investigated inter-organizational coordination among the network of actors in humanitarian supply chains. His research interests include humanitarian logistics and disater relief supply chains, supply chain risk and resilience, digital supply chains, cash and voucher assistance in complex emergencies and refugee crisis. 
Amin is currently Principal Investigator (PI) of DigCBA project funded by Norwegian Research Council. The projects look into the distribution of cash and goods, and the digitalization of it along the supply chains. Previously, he has been engaged with projects such as Logistics Review of Swedish Red Cross, and Cash/Carry project funded by Academy of Finland. 
Amin's research outputs are published in high quality peer-reviewed journals such as International Journal of Operations & Production Management. 
Amin is also supervising Master students and PhD candidates. 

Ketki Kulkarni

Ketki Kulkarni's research interests include decision support for traffic networks, simulation, applied optimization and smart logistics. She specializes in the use of advanced simulation software for industrial applications. She has worked extensively in the Finnish marine transport domain for the last 5 years. She has obtained her PhD in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. She is not only interested in contributing to the methodology literature, but also in developing efficient tools that are used by organizations for their daily operations. She finds packaging the research work (math and sim models) into usable solutions exciting and challenging.

Virva Tuomala

Virva is a Project Researcher at Hanken School of Economics. She received her doctorate from Hanken and her research interests are urban food insecurity and the food supply chain.

Aino Ruggiero

Aino Ruggiero is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the HUMLOG Institute. She completed her PhD at the Department of Communication, University of Jyväskylä. Her research interests cover organisational crisis communication perspective in humanitarian logistics, crisis communication and management in the case of (CBRN) terrorism and other complex crises, governmental crisis communication, and community approach to crisis management. She has previously worked as a University teacher at the Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics (JSBE) Corporate Communication, and as a Researcher at the Department of Communication, University of Jyväskylä. She has recently collaborated with researchers from the University of Helsinki for a project on governmental crisis communication during the Covid-19 pandemic in Finland. As a researcher, she has worked with governmental organisations and research institutes in Finland and internationally.

Bruno Garcia de Olivera

Bruno is a project researcher at the HUMLOG Instutute. In addition he's also an Assistant Professor at the Federal University of Catalao. He has a PhD from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Inside the field of sustainable development, his main research interest is the systemic connections between sustainability and business strategy. He focuses on sustainability at a strategic level and publishes in peer-reviewed journals about the circular economy, industry 4.0, and supply chain management.

Elvira Kaneberg 

Elvira Kaneberg is an Assistant Professor in Business Administration at Jönköping University, Sweden. Elvira’s main research interests are focused on Sustainable Supply Chain Management and Humanitarian Logistics.

Félicia Saïah

Félicia's primary area of focus is Humanitarian Supply Chain Management in Long-term Humanitarian Operations, with a specific emphasis on process modularity.

Lijo John

Lijo John obtained his PhD from the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK). Prior to his doctoral studies, he did his Masters in Technology from National Institute of Technology Calicut in Industrial Engineering. He is currently associated with SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (Mumbai) as Assistant Professor in Operations and Supply Chain Management. John was previously an Assistant Professor in the area of Operations and Supply Chain Management at the IMT Business School, Dubai. He is also a Visiting Researcher at the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Canada. His research areas include humanitarian logistics, supply chain management and supply chain contracts. His research has appeared in international journals such as Annals of Operations Research (ANOR), Sustainability, International Journal of Services and Operations Management, to name a few.

Nezih Altay

Nezih Altay is a Professor of Supply Chain Management at the Driehaus College of Business at DePaul University in Chicago, USA. In his research he tries to bring a supply chain perspective to humanitarian problems. His work with the HUMLOG Institute at Hanken focuses on the challenges of delivering humanitarian aid in conflict zones. This work aims to identify the unique characteristics and requirements of logistics in conflict zones and lead scholars to novel and challenging problems in this domain.

Russell Harpring

Russell's primary research interests are related to cash-based interventions in humanitarian operations, especially with respect to how they affect the supply chain and what measures can be taken to improve their efficiency and effectiveness.  Other areas of interest include simulation modeling, systems and network analysis, and process improvement.

Graham Heaslip

Graham is Professor of Logistics and Head of the School of Engineering at Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT). His research interests are in the intersections between global logistics / supply chain management, humanitarian logistics and organisational management development. His research and consultancy interests span mainstream commercial, defence and other public service contexts examining supply chain management, and operations management issues which impact on organisational effectiveness or innovative practices.

Tzitzi Caldera

Doctoral Researcher

Master's Degree in Public Procurement Management for Sustainable Development

Tzitzi has 14 years of experience mainly in the field of procurement from different UN Agencies (UN WOMEN, UNDP, UNU-WIDER, FAO and UNHCR). Recently, she supported UNHCR's sustainability initiatives to reduce the carbon footprint of their supply activities. Her research areas of interest are sustainable procurement, ethical sourcing practices for emergency response and decarbonization strategies for humanitarian supply chain.

Jamile Hamideh

Doctoral Researcher

M.Sc. in Economics and Business Administration (Humanitarian logistics)

Jamile's research is found at the critical intersection between humanitarian logistics, technology and law. Her work investigates how the use of emerging digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and 3d printing can promote or hinder the participation of beneficiaries in humanitarian supply chains.

Farrukh Iqbal

Doctoral Researcher

Farrukh's research is centered on promoting circularity in humanitarian supply chain, aiming to enhance efficiency and sustainability within these critical systems. His work addresses the pertinent need for innovative solutions to improve resources and support sustainable development, particularly in response to humanitarian crises. His work is determined by a commitment to advancing practices that improve both environmental and operational outcomes. He has a widespread experience of 12 years of teaching in University of Central Punjab (UCP), Pakistan as well as holds a training portfolio of disseminating trainings to the employees of United Nations in Kenya and Somalia. He also served as a Director of Quality Assurance and Head for the Centre for Professional Excellence in Pakistan.

Tamara Kirkwood-Wright

Doctoral Researcher

M.Sc. in Humanitarianism, Conflict & Development
M.Sc. in Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Tamara's research focuses on  humanitarian logistics in settings of conflict. Previously, Tamara managed the supply chain response for the Health Pooled Fund in South Sudan. She also has experience in supply chain and logistics consulting, working on end-to-end supply chain projects across retail, pharma, industrial, aerospace and food manufacturing industries.

John Munyoro

Doctoral Researcher

M.Sc. in Economics and Business Administration

John is a doctoral candidate whose research centers on local food systems, small-scale farming, agro-climatic resilience, circular economy, and the accessibility of local livelihoods following humanitarian and development aid disruptions. His scholarly endeavours both quantitative and qualitative research, which reflect an unwavering dedication to advancing local knowledge, unlocking local potential, and addressing pressing global challenges that impact socio-economic well-being of the underprivileged communities.

Margot Rocheteau

Doctoral Researcher

M.Sc. in Economics and Business Administration

Margot is a dedicated PhD student specializing in humanitarian supply chain and sustainability. Through her research, she endeavors to shed light on sustainability opportunities in challenging contexts. Margot's focus is on circularity within humanitarian supply chains, with a particular emphasis on effective waste management. With a passion for creating a positive impact, she strives to contribute valuable insights to the field of sustainable humanitarian logistics.

Sonja Saari

Doctoral Researcher

Sonja’s research focuses on the nexus between supply chain sustainability and supply chain resilience in the context of the humanitarian medical cold chain. Specifically, her work explores the humanitarian energy transition to foster sustainable energy access for the humanitarian medical cold chain. Through her research, she seeks to shed light on the factors that legitimise and define energy solutions in the energy-intensive and energy-dependent humanitarian medical cold chain. 

Claire Travers

Doctoral Researcher

Claire's research focus is the localisation of humanitarian aid provision, specifically the use of local procurement and local manufacturing in emergency response programming.

Ngoc Vu

Doctoral Researcher

M.Sc. in Economics and Business Administration, Humanitarian Logistics

Ngoc's research focuses on governance and localisation of cross-sector partnerships in humanitarian logistics context. Her work explores the dynamics of collaboration between humanitarian actors and the effects of governance mechanisms on HL operations, with a focus on optimising coordination and leveraging the critical role of local stakeholders.