Cranfield Professor receives OBE from the Queen

A Professor from Cranfield School of Management received his OBE from the Queen at Buckingham Palace this week.  Olympic champions Victoria Pendleton and Alistair Brownlee and the designer Stella McCartney were among those also receiving honours at this morning's ceremony.

Richard Wilding OBE, who is Professor of Supply Chain Strategy at Cranfield School of Management in Bedfordshire, was awarded the title in the Queen's New Year Honours List earlier this year for his services to business.

Professor Wilding has become a world-renowned expert on supply chain strategy and supply chain risk management and is regularly asked to speak at major industry conferences around the world. As part of his role at Cranfield, he has worked on complex supply chain projects with firms all over the world to pioneer new approaches to logistics and supply chain management.

Richard Wilding OBE said: "It is a very proud day for my family and I and definitely one I shall never forget.  It was an enormous honour to receive this award from the Queen and I feel very privileged to have been invited to Buckingham Palace and to stand alongside so many inspirational people. It is fantastic to see our practical work in higher education and logistics being recognised in this way as it truly validates what we do and what we have achieved at Cranfield School of Management.

He continued: "I wouldn't be here at Buckingham Palace today if it wasn't for the opportunities Cranfield has given me in my supply chain research so I would like to thank everybody at the University for their support."

Professor Wilding, who lives in Rugby, Warwickshire, has been a lecturer at Cranfield since 1998.  In 2005 he was appointed Professor of Supply Chain Strategy at Cranfield School of Management and in 2010 received the Individual Contribution Award at the European Supply Chain Excellence Awards in recognition of his outstanding contribution to supply chain excellence.  Richard is both a European and Chartered Engineer and a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Engineering & Technology (Manufacturing Division) and the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport. He is a Director and Trustee of Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport UK and a steering committee member of the Institute of Logistics Research Network, a global network of academics and practitioners involved in state-of-the-art logistics and supply chain research. He is also co-chairman of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport 'Leaders in Supply Chain' Forum, a group limited to the top 120 Logistics and Supply Chain Directors from Europe.