References

REFERENCE BY A DIRECTOR OF MBA PROGRAM AND CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

From the Director of a prominent Center for International Business at a prestigious West Coast university. She also served as the Director of the MBA program at the time.

“I am delighted to recommend Dr. Starling for the position in Position Removed. Currently, Dr. Starling teaches periodically as an adjunct faculty member in my programs at the Name Removed Center for International Business. I continue to rely on his support and expertise for many of our programs involving both executives and graduate MBA students. I have known Dr. Starling since he joined the University of San Diego in 2001. I strongly supported his reappointment in every year he served at USD. The reasons for my support in the past and now are many, but they are primarily focused in his: instructional effectiveness, ability to connect with students and guide them, strength in developing and promoting academic programs, excellent internal and external service to the college and university, and finally his applied and relevant research and publishing.

With respect to instructional effectiveness, Dr. Starling’s record at USD is “very good” to “excellent.” (Please see his evaluation summaries to understand this conclusion.) Dr. Starling’s teaching evaluations during his full-time appointment as an Associate Professor at USD from 2001-2004 show that he scored higher than the College of Business 2-Year Average in key indicators for 63% of the courses taught. The most recent evaluation from the Name Removed Center in late 2007 is in line with earlier evaluations.

Quoting students from his last course at Name Removed, Dr. Starling is: “very knowledgeable” and “smart,” presents the material “clearly”, runs an “interactive” and “enjoyable” class, presents “applicable” information with materials that are “useful” and “directly contribute” to one’s job. In addition to high teaching evaluations, he was voted by students as the best professor in Supply Chain Management (SCM) every year while at USD. The awards are impressive when you consider that he won them over Dr. David Burt, one of the world’s leading authors and visionaries in SCM.

Dr. Starling has a marvelous ability to connect with students and guide them. Part of the reason students voted Dr. Starling as the best professor in SCM every year is his work as the advisor the Supply Chain Management Association (SCMA). SCMA was started by Dr. Starling when he joined USD in 2001. In a short amount of time, Dr. Starling guided the organization to hosting approximately 60 events per year. One semester the SCMA sponsored over 40 events or an average of about 3 per week. The events ranged from plant tours to speakers on campus. Among the key major events were tours to Los Angeles (City of Angels Tour), Silicon Valley (Northern California Tech Tour) and Mexico (Viva Mexico Tour). The tours typically included 4 – 6 visits to industry facilities during the daytime and guest speakers in the evenings. Other major events Dr. Starling started were the: Annual SCM Alumni Reunion, Annual SCMA Awards Roast and the Annual Career Insights Night.

An additional strength of Dr. Starling’s is in developing and promoting academic programs. While at USD, Dr. Starling co-founded the online MS-SCM and Certificate in SCM. The MS-SCM program quickly became one of the most successful programs in the School of Business with three cohorts of managers per year from Fortune 500 companies with an average of twelve years of experience. Dr. Starling is by nature very entrepreneurial and innovation. However, he is also able to take those ideas and put them into action.

Dr. Starling has also proven that he can excel in providing internal and external service to the college and university. He was a team player here at USD and willingly served not only to develop programs in the Supply Chain area but also participated in School and University-wide activities. Dr. Starling served as member of the following committees or groups: University Senate, USD’s Advisory Committee on Strategic Directions, Faculty Advisory Committee to the Long Range Planning Committee for the College of Business, Graduate Council Committee, Undergraduate Studies Committee, EMBA Exploration Committee, SCMI Search Committee, SCMI Advisory Committee, and International Programs Committee. In fact when I review the list, we may have abused his good nature!

Dr. Starling’s external service brought USD positive publicity and prestige. In a traditional academic role, Dr. Starling served USD as the Chair of the Supply Chain Management Track for the Western Decision Sciences Institute (WDSI). Less traditional is his service on a Washington, D.C. NACFAM Think-Tank for Advanced Manufacturing where he was able to collaborate with members of Congress and the White House. Dr. Starling also represented USD as a featured speaker at industry and academic conferences in Asia (LG), Europe (IPSERA), North America (ISM) and Australia (CIPSA). An interesting external representation capability Dr. Starling provided was his ability to get USD into the news media. This helped increase the School’s visibility and reputation locally and nationally.

In recent discussions with Dr. Starling, I have learned about his current research and publishing plan related to a recently patented methodology he developed called DR2IVE (Developing Robust Roadmaps Integrating Value Enterprises). DR2IVE is used in companies to help them measure and then close their gaps between current state and world-class in best management practices. DR2IVE calls for annual measurement of capabilities via the step charts by companies. After learning about DR2IVE, we decided to include the methodology in the Name Removed Center course titled Global Supply Chain Management. Best practices contained in DR2IVE are summarized in twenty World-Class Core Competency Management Step Charts. Dr. Starling plans to turn each chart into an edited book. For proof of his capability in writing such books, once can refer to his best-selling book he co-authored with David Burt titled World Class Supply Management. The book starts with a step chart and then the remainder of the book explains how to close the gaps as determined by the step chart assessment. The book in internationally known and it served as the cornerstone in building the MS-SCM at USD where chapters are used in every SCM related course. Books are one part of Dr. Starling’s current publishing plan. The charts and their assessments at companies will provide an annual stream of publications for the University of Pittsburgh.

In closing, I highly recommend Dr. Starling for the position at Hiring Organization Name Removed. His record shows that he is a very strong teacher. He connects with students and industry. He has a true passion for developing and promoting academic programs. He will provide excellent internal and external service to the university. He also an aggressive publishing plan based on his recently patented works that should lead to additional prominence for Name Removed. Finally, I will conclude by saying that it was always a pleasure to work with Dr. Starling and he was someone I could always count on for positive contributions to the School.

REFERENCE BY DEAN OF A SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

It is an honor to write this letter of reference for Dr. Dr. Starling. Dr. Starling asked me to write a letter for him since I served as the Dean of the College of Business and Economics during his employment at California State University – Hayward (CSUH). CSU - Hayward has since changed its name to CSU – East Bay.

While serving at CSUH, Dr. Starling held the rank of Assistant Professor. His primary role was as the Co-Director with Dr. Zinovy Radovilsky of the Supply Chain Management related programs. Due to the evolution in the SCM and Operations areas, Dr. Starling taught well over 15 different distinct courses in our undergraduate, graduate and continuing education programs. Six of the distinct courses were MBA courses. I believe the breadth of courses served him well in developing his current holistic business model called DR2IVE.

A review of Dr. Starling’s teaching evaluations during his time at CSUH shows his teaching capabilities are excellent. According to records, in twenty-four of thirty-seven courses taught on the main campus of CSUH, Dr. Starling was rated higher than the department mean in the most important measure of "overall rating of the instructor.” Such scores are superb.

One of Dr. Starling’s greatest strengths is in the development and execution of innovative academic programs. His first innovation at CSUH was with Dr. Zinovy Radovilsky where they championed development of a new Supply Chain Management option in the MBA program at CSUH. Another notable program achievement was his co-development of the Transnational Executive MBA Program with Dr. Shyam Kamath. The programs he developed were not limited to internal programs. With my blessing he developed a large certification program for SBC that spanned the entire United States. In winning that contract, he beat out a very capable University of California at Berkeley program. He also taught in and contributed to the development of new courses in our international graduate programs. Dr. Starling taught in and helped develop new courses for our graduate programs in San Francisco (MBA-SCM, TEMBA), Hong Kong (MBA), Beijing (EMBA) and Singapore (EMBA).

With respect to external service to CSUH, Dr. Starling certainly excels. While at CSUH he started the Supply Chain Management Track for the Western Decision Sciences Institute (WDSI). Prior to that, he chaired the Innovative Education Track for WDSI. As usual, Dr. Starling took something small and made it large – under his guidance the Innovation Education Track grew from 4 to 11 sessions with 36 referees. Dr. Starling served in a variety of external positions, such as board and officer positions in local professional organizations. For example, Dr. Starling founded and served as the President of the National Association of Purchasing Management’s Diablo Valley Chapter.

With respect to internal service to CSUH, Dr. Starling contributed at the university, college, department and interest area levels. At the university level, Dr. Starling served on several key committees, the most important being the Committee on Instruction and Curriculum (CIC). At the college level, Dr. Starling served on multiple committees and in several key positions. For example, he served on the Committee for Undergraduate Instruction and as the Associate Director of the Transnational Executive MBA Program. At the department and interest group levels, Dr. Starling served in twelve positions as either a member, advisor or chair. His internal service legacy at CSUH is best remembered as the advisor to the Operations and Materials Society (OMS), where he increased the size of the organization from about 10 active students to approximately 240 when he left CSUH in 2001.

Dr. Starling left CSUH in 2001 to assume an Associate Professor position at the University of San Diego (USD). USD presented a variety of opportunities that drew him away that included: higher rank, higher tier, a book publishing opportunity, and the chance to work with one of the leading visionaries in the SCM field. I accepted his resignation with regret that we were losing him, but I understood why he wanted to take the position at USD.

In summary, I strongly recommend Dr. Starling for the position at Name of Hiring Organization Removed. If I can be of any further assistance, please contact me using the information given below my signature.

Name and Contact Information Removed

REFERENCE FROM A DIRECTOR OF UNIVERSITY SCM PROGRAM

Please accept my reference letter for Dr. Starling who has applied for Position Name Removed. This letter is structured with five sections: how I know Dr. Starling, program development capabilities, publishing, service, and teaching.

I have known Dr. Starling since 1995 when I interviewed him at a Decision Sciences conference in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Starling started teaching at California State University, Hayward (CSUH) in 1996. I served as his mentor at CSUH from 1996 – 1999. Although Dr. Starling left CSUH in 2001, we have remained colleagues and friends throughout the years. We even co-authored a paper this past year that he presented at a conference last February.

One of Dr. Starling’s strengths is his ability to develop and run programs for industry. Dr. Starling is professional in his approach with companies and clearly has a knack for understanding their needs and meeting them. As he points out in his CV, he has experience working with over 250 companies. I had the opportunity to collaborate with him in programs for a few of the companies, such as SBC and Bank of America. In the SBC program, Dr. Starling put together the largest Continuing Education program up to that date at CSUH with 70 seminars given in eight cities across the United States. Dr. Starling also worked with me in developing and teaching the Certificates in Purchasing Management (CPM) and Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) offered through Extended and Continuing Education at CSUH. The programs were expanded with the help of Dr. Starling and they continue to be successful to this day.

With respect to publishing, Dr. Starling is co-author of the most recent 7th edition of the dominant textbook over the last forty years in Purchasing and Supply Management. The book is titled World Class Supply Management: The Key to Supply Chain Management. The book has been used as the core text at CSU-Hayward in Purchasing and Supply Management courses over the last 30 years. I have also used it in my continuing and executive education programs over the last 20 years. In addition, Dr. Starling and I have had six co-authored proceedings papers with presentations. The latest was in February of 2008 where we presented “How CSU Faculty Can Lead California Organizations to World-Class.” The paper was published in the CSU POM 2008 Conference Proceedings and then presented at the conference in Hayward, California. Earlier co-authored papers from 2001 – 1997 included: “B2B: Best Business Practice Assessment” published in the 2001 Western Decision Sciences Conference Proceedings, “Success in Supply and Operations Management Extended Education” published in The 2000 Western Decision Sciences Conference Proceedings, "Pitfalls of Measuring the Costs of Quality" published in the 1999 Western Decision Sciences Conference Proceedings, "A Comparison of Work Standards Between the Former East Germany and Industrialized Western Europe" published in The 1997 CSU POM Conference Proceedings, and “A Comparison of Manufacturing in Europe, Japan and the United States" published in The 1997 Western Decision Sciences Conference Proceedings.

With regard to his service to the university, Dr. Starling was outstanding in his work with students and served diligently on a wide variety of committees. Dr. Starling dedicated about 25% of his time to the student organization called the Operations and Materials Society (OMS). Through the OMS, Dr. Starling sponsor about 40 industry tours and 25 speakers per year at CSUH. Tied in with OMS and creating opportunities for students and the university, he interacted with fifteen professional organization chapters or affiliates while at CSUH, such as ASQ, NAPM, APICS. Dr. Starling’s interaction with students, faculty and professional organizations resulted in the capability to put together large events on campus such as the NAPM/CSUH Supply Chain Summit, the San Francisco Bay Area ERP Symposium and various Career Fairs. Dr. Starling’s efforts with the student organization were greatly appreciated. When he left CSUH in 2001, the students put together a Roast for him where about 120 students, faculty and professionals from industry attended.

With respect to teaching, Dr. Starling’s is rigorous, fair and well-liked by his students. As his mentor, I sat down with him to review his teaching evaluations from time to time. His evaluations were excellent. In his reappointment letters, Dr. Starling always received the highest praise in this particular category. He was one of the select faculty members selected by Dean Tontz to teach in CSUH’s international graduate business programs in Singapore, Beijing and Hong Kong. When you review the records you will confirm my conclusions written here.

Name and Contact Information Removed

REFERENCE BY A PRESIDENT OF A TECH FIRM

I am delighted to write this letter of reference for Dr. Starling. My current associations with Dr. Starling are as a Director on the Board of Administrative Directors for the Roadmaps Institute and as the primary supplier of technology solutions for the Institute through my company, Name Removed. Dr. Starling has been my professor, advisor, business associate and friend since 2001. I will write about all four of these categories in this letter.

As my professor, Dr. Starling taught two courses that I took during my MBA Program. The first was Cost Management and the second was Supply Chain Management. He was a terrific instructor who tried his best to make the courses rigorous, meaningful and at the same time enjoyable. The difference between Dr. Starling and some other MBA instructors was apparent since his classes were essentially full yet they were not required unless you were pursuing the SCM option. I believe the reasons students flocked to his classes were as follows: he always imparted current cutting edge knowledge, he constantly pulled from real world examples since he has worked with many companies, he was co-author on one the top books in SCM, he was the advisor to the Supply Chain Management Association (SCMA, one of the hottest organizations on campus at the time), he had students complete a project with a real world company in each course, he offered internships to students and he had connections with industry for the highest paying positions out of the business school upon graduation.

In both courses that I took with Dr. Starling, he unveiled new World-Class Core Competency Management Step Charts he had developed that would eventually become part of the DR2IVE Model. (I am assuming Dr. Starling has provided literature on DR2IVE so I will not describe it here.) Dr. Starling started the courses with teams either assessing their current company or an assigned company’s capabilities using the charts. From the assessments Dr. Starling then modified the syllabus to reflect the needs of the students based on the gaps measured. The approach differed greatly from the traditional fixed syllabus with set readings and/or textbook with content that may or not actually apply to your chosen career track. The courses finished with the teams presenting the results of their real world assessments and suggestions for improvements. In the Cost course we actually modeled a project based roadmap to show how we could interlink the resulting improvement projects into a cohesive whole. Now that I am a member of the Board of Directors for the Roadmaps Institute, I have learned that the approach he used in the course is one he developed that is now called the Gap Method.

As my advisor, Dr. Starling worked outside of courses to develop my leadership and technological skills which would eventually help in developing my company, Name Removed. The primary way Dr. Starling worked with students was through the SCMA. I served as a VP of the SCMA and helped to execute ambitious schedules of events that took students inside companies on guided tours and industry interactions from Mexico to Silicon Valley. Through projects in classes and the SCMA, Dr. Starling is directly responsible for helping me gain valuable insight with companies such as Raytheon, Sony, and Unisys. No other graduate professor was able to come close in devoting his/her attention towards the students.

While still at USD Dr. Starling provided projects and a small trickle of business for a startup business with my brother called Company Name Removed. The trickle grew into a stream of business after Dr. Starling left the University of San Diego to start the Roadmaps Institute. Soon, Name Removed became the sole source for technology solutions for RI, which is a business relationship that continues to this day. The relationship is an alliance where my brother and I are both Directors on the Board of Administrative Directors. Today Name Removed has reached just under 100 corporate accounts and is a very successful company with offices in San Diego and Los Angeles.

The friendship between Dr. Starling and his ex-students like me goes beyond “student/professor” and in my case even beyond “supplier/customer.” Dr. Starling has demonstrated to me and many of my peers from the SCM programs at the University of San Diego and California State University that he is a lifetime friend that will support our careers in any way he can. I know about the CSU students because we actually held a joint event in Oakland on a USD Tech Tour to the Bay Area. In addition, a few CSU graduates would come down to San Diego for events at USD and the Roadmaps Institute.

Cumulatively, the qualities of Dr. Starling in terms of being a professor, advisor, business associate and friend indicate to me that he would be a wonderful addition to Name of Prospective Employer Removed. I am more than happy to discuss Dr. Starling's achievements and qualifications in greater depth. Please do not hesitate in contacting me.

Name and Contact Information Removed

REFERENCE BY A IBM MANAGER

I have known Dr. Starling since 2002 when I met him at the University of San Diego at the beginning of my MBA. He was my instructor, advisor and mentor. I am delighted to have the opportunity to help Dr. Starling since he has helped me during my career in many ways.

I took two classes with Dr. Starling. I learned so much in both classes about Supply Chain Management, but most importantly I learned from him what companies are looking for in a Supply Chain professional and how to become more competitive in this difficult economy. His guidance paid off for me since I landed a position in the Leadership Development Program at IBM upon graduation. Many of his other students landed good positions in SCM at other great companies, such as: Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Intuit, Caterpillar and Sony. The most exciting part of his teaching methods when I took his courses was that he encouraged his students to do projects with companies to apply what we learned in class in the real world. For example, I did a Reverse Auction Project for Intuit that led to a position at Intuit while I finished my MBA. He has a huge network of Supply Chain managers that he refers his students to for those projects.

Dr. Starling was also my advisor while I served as the President of the Supply Chain Management Association (SCMA). I worked with Dr. Starling for over one year to plan events and manage twenty-two SCMA officers. The experience with SCMA under Dr. Starling influenced my life and helped to increase my self-confidence. He believed in my abilities and the abilities of the SCMA officers. He helped us learn how to work as a team. He gave us guidance, but respected our decisions. He encouraged us to develop our leadership skills through developing programs, executing strategic plans and public speaking. Because of Dr. Starling’s vision for SCMA, we were able to help many students find real-world projects, get internships and secure the best job offers. In my opinion, this was all because of Dr Starling's teaching methods, his knowledge that he shared with us, his industry contacts and most importantly, the way that he helped us discover our abilities and interests.

As a mentor, Dr. Starling helped me change my life for the better. His passion for Supply Chain Management influenced me to choose SCM as a career path. As a result I achieved great things during my MBA, such as earning a position at Intuit that then led to the opportunity at IBM. Today I am living my dream career at IBM. I have had the chance to live and learn in a variety of locations across the United States, and presently I am on an assignment with IBM in Japan. The journey has been quite rewarding, and it would not have started without Dr. Starling convincing me to go into SCM and run for President of the SCMA. I am just one example of the many students he has helped over the years. I was always amazed at the dedication that he has for his students, and his ability to help us believe in ourselves. I've met many of Dr. Starling's students from his previous University. He refers to them as his friends. I am amazed with the amount of respect that they have for him, and I am more amazed to discover that - like me - they still call him when they have a challenging question about their work. Dr. Starling is a mentor that I will value and admire for the rest of my life.

I truly believe that my USD experience would have not been the same without Dr. Starling. I believe he will provide even greater positive impacts at Potential Employer Name Withheld. He needed the time away from a university to connect even more strongly with industry and to develop the Roadmaps Institute, DR2IVE Methodology and Business Capability Index (BCI). It is time for him to return to academia and share his latest experiences. Please accept this letter as my highest recommendation for appointment to Potential Employer Name Withheld.

REFERENCE BY PRESIDENT OF A SUPPLY CHAIN COMPANY

Please accept this letter of reference for Dr. Dr. Starling. I am the President of Name of Company Removed, the company in which Dr. Starling currently consults with on a part time basis as the Vice-President of Integrated Supply Chain. First, I would like to tell you a little about Name of Company Removed, how I know Dr. Starling and why I hired his services as the VP of ISC. I will close with articulating my belief that Dr. Starling is a visionary in the field of Supply Chain Management and as such, he belongs at a prominent university such as the Name of University Removed.

Name of Company Removed is a privately held company that specializes in Integrated Supply chain (ISC) solutions for a variety of industries. Historically, Name of Company Removed has been a diversity supplier of maintenance, repair and operating suppliers (MRO). With Dr. Starling we have expanded our capabilities to provide a variety of value added services to reduce costs and improve the effectiveness of our customers, such as Honda, Cummins, JC Penney, Shell, PG&E, AT&T, Toyota and IBM. We are based in Burlingame, California and have our own and affiliate offices and warehouses across the United States.

Dr. Starling and I first met at the University of San Diego in November of 2001 at the annual Supply Chain Management Institute Board of Directors Meeting. I served as a Director and Dr. Starling was introduced as a new Associate Professor of SCM and the incumbent to take over the Supply Chain Management Institute from David Burt. Our next get together was in the May of 2002 at the First Annual SCMA Awards Roast that Dr. Starling put together to honor David Burt in what was supposed to be his last year at USD. I was impressed at both of these initial meetings with Dr. Starling’s leadership and speaking capabilities. Dr. Starling brought a new level of excitement to the SCM programs at USD. Our relationship continued from 2002 – 2005 through the Supply Chain Management Institute until Dr. Starling left USD. During that time period I hired several of his students and sat through several of his superb presentations.

In September of 2006, Dr. Starling contacted me with an invitation to participate in the inaugural online course at the Roadmaps Institute. The course was titled Fundamentals of Roadmaps Development. The course covered the basics of Dr. Starling’s new methodology called DR2IVE. DR2IVE is a holistic approach to enabling organizations to close their management capability and performance gaps between current state and world-class. As far as I know, there is no other model like DR2IVE currently in existence. Participants in the course had an amazing level of education and experience: over 85% already held a graduate degree, 15% held PhDs, and 25% were either a Vice-President or higher level in their companies. It was clear to everyone in the course that Dr. Starling had developed methodologies and programs that would result in incredible competitive advantage for companies in the long-run. I want to highlight the term “long run” at this point since it is critical for one to understand the timeline needed for Dr. Starling’s methodologies. DR2IVE is not instantaneous, although measurement of one’s gaps can be done in as little as a day.

After the course, I went back to the business of finding clients for my company. However, the advanced ideas presented by Dr. Starling continued to percolate in my thoughts and then started to permeate my strategic thinking at Intraline. In August of 2007, Dr. Starling and I met for eight hours in San Diego to develop an Integrated Supply Chain (ISC) strategy. I was so impressed by his knowledge and ability to transfer it to Intraline that I offered to bring Dr. Starling in as the VP of Integrated Supply Chain at Name of Company Removed. We agreed on a part time basis so Dr. Starling could continue development of the Roadmaps Institute.

Over the last eight months, Dr. Starling and I have developed a comprehensive Integrated Supply Chain for Intraline in the solution categories of: leadership, supplier, logistics, transportation, materials management, quality, cost, design, technology, diversity, support, sustainability, and education.

My interactions since 2001 with Dr. Starling have led me to the conclusion that he is a visionary in the field of Supply Chain Management. I have sat on many boards, participated in numerous university events, and heard hundreds of speakers over the past thirty years. No one has presented as complete of a methodology to measure and close a company’s gaps between current state and world-class best practices. Not even Deming or the current Six Sigma and Lean programs in existence compare. Dr. Starling’s models are simple, logical and effective. Once proof starts to emerge through stories of successes, then I believe Dr. Starling will be recognized for his work as the visionary I already see him to be.

Name and Contact Information Removed

REFERENCE BY CHAIR OF DISSERTATION COMMITTEE

Dr. Starling earned his PhD under my guidance as the Chair of his dissertation committee. Dr. Starling’s high teaching marks, collaborative skills, applied publications and robust history in developing academic and industry programs make him an ideal candidate.

A review of Dr. Starling’s teaching evaluations during his time at the University of Pittsburgh shows that he is an excellent instructor. I concur with the evaluations based on my observations in the classroom. Based on the evaluation question, "Overall teaching effectiveness compared with other instructors," Dr. Starling rated higher than the average faculty member in 80% or 4/5 of the courses he taught by himself. What you do not know from the evaluations is that Dr. Starling also taught in several MBA and EMBA courses, substituting for faculty on trips and teaching entire sections of material when a specific technology was employed. Faculty frequently invited Dr. Starling into their classrooms to teach Simulation and Project Management since Dr. Starling was up to date and had a passion for best practices and software. In one of my MBA courses, Dr. Starling taught Quality Management using a case study he developed from a research project I had conducted. Dr. Starling is well received in the classroom. He has a strong voice and a commanding presence when needed, but also knows how to foster self-learning through break-out groups and discussions in class.

During his time in the PhD Program at Katz, Dr. Starling passed through his PhD course work stages, written examination, oral examination, and dissertation stages of overview and defense with no issues or retakes. His dissertation was titled “"Estimation of Product Life Cycle Costs Based on Product Design Features Using Simultaneous Equations." One interesting observation of the dissertation committee was the sense that Dr. Starling would probably be involved with building business programs in the future. In jest, the committee voted him “Most Likely to Become a Dean” at his defense. The title appears it has been a fairly accurate description since he has gone on to develop 11 academic programs in Asia and the United States since leaving Pitt. He has also directed the two largest SCM programs on the West Coast of the United States.

Dr. Starling also conducted several research projects and co-authored four publications while at Pitt. His research projects included: DSC Communications (Dallas, now part of Alcatel), Three Rivers Aluminum Company (TRACO), MetalTech, Montefiore University Hospital, Caterpillar (Decatur, Illinois – a joint CMU/Pitt project), Kaucuk (Czech Republic), Spolana Neratovis (Czech Republic), Czechoslovak Air (CSA), Czechoslovak Post and Thermal Industries (where Dr. Starling led a team of 10 Pitt MBA students). His publications included a chapter of a book co-authored with me and titled "Cost Issues in Design and Manufacturing," published in The Handbook of Design, Manufacturing and Automation published by John Wiley and Sons. Dr. Starling also wrote a chapter with Dagmar Gluckaufova and Pandu Tadikamalla titled "Total Quality Management in Czechoslovakia," published in Managing in Emerging Market Economies: Cases from the Czech and Slovak Republics, which was edited by Dan Fogel and published by the Westview Press in Boulder, Colorado. He published a simulation paper in the American Journal of Anesthesiology with an MBA student co-author, Dr. Brian Williams, titled "Supernumerary Anesthesia Care Providers and Operating Room Turnover Time." He also wrote a chapter on simulation for a book by Tom Saaty.

Since leaving Pitt, Dr. Starling has established himself as an internationally recognized supply chain leader and innovative developer of supply chain curricula and teaching approaches. He has been a speaker at conferences in Europe, Asia, North America and Australia. He has developed graduate programs in far reaching locations such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Beijing. He is the co-author on one of the top selling books in SCM. He has developed ground breaking methodologies adopted by Fortune 500 companies. His methodology called DR²IVE has been used in one or another by about 200 companies. He has developed SCM related programs for companies such as Raytheon, AT&T, Bank of America and LG.

Dr. Starling’s knowledge combined with his ability to collaborate, teach, write for executive audiences and develop programs both within universities and industry bode well for him to be successful in most jobs. I highly recommend him.

Name and Contact Information Removed