Henning de Haas - assistant professor

New assistant professor with extensive experience within supply chain management to teach future engineers in Herning.

Why did you choose to work at the Department of Business Development and Technology?
I have been a co-examiner for many years on different degree programmes in the fields of production and supply chain management. I was therefore familiar with the department when Torben and John asked if we should explore the possibility of collaborating. I have been working in academia before (the University of Southern Denmark) and know a bit about the framework and opportunities. In connection with other changes in my professional life, it was a very exciting opportunity to be able to work with the team here at BTECH. The composition of the department’s degree programmes and the underlying research areas as well as the international environment fit very well with my previous academic and practical work.

What is your area of expertise and what will you be doing here?
My field is operations and supply chain management. I have many years of practical experience from different companies and in different roles - specialist, project manager, manager... My focus is on how we can manage operations and supply chain management in a way that allows us to absorb and benefit from all the new and future technologies, and at the same time allows people in companies to learn and grow. A lot of productivity is lost because we don’t manage in the right way. In the autumn, I will be teaching Advanced Operations Management at BTECH together with Ismail Golgeci and I will be supervising student projects.

What is your educational background?
I have an MSc in Engineering and PhD specialising in operations and supply chain management from Aalborg University in 1997.

What have you done before?
After my PhD, I worked at Bang&Olufsen and LEGO in operations optimisation, the simulation of production/supply chain systems, the implementation of new ERP systems, supply chain strategy and concept development and the management of supply chain transformation projects. I then spent some time at University of Southern Denmark in Kolding teaching and conducting research into operations and supply chain management. Afterwards, I returned to the industry to work at KK Wind Solution in different roles and projects within operations and supply chain. Most recently, I worked at LEGO and Vestas with global supply chain development projects and departments.

Please tell us a bit about yourself, your family and your leisure activities.
I am 52 years old and live with my family in Juelsminde, where my wife works as a teacher at the local school. We have three children: the eldest lives in Aarhus and is studying to become a teacher, my middle child is entering their final year of upper secondary school next week, and our youngest is leaving for continuation school. Soon, we will only have one child (adolescent) living at home.

I enjoy servicing my family, and with three teenagers, there has been a great deal of logistics to take care of. When the logistics are out of the way and I have some time to myself, I enjoy going for a run, preferably in the woods, or rowing in my sea kayak.