Aragón 10 years of excellence in logistics education

This morning, Zaragoza Logistics Center (ZLC), the representative of the MIT Global SCALE Network in Europe, graduated more than 50 students from both master and doctorate programs, coming from 18 different nationalities. This ceremony is rather special as ZLC is celebrating 10 years as a research institute, in collaboration with the University of Zaragoza and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The commencement speech was given by David LaPré, Head of Global Pharma Technical Operations,F. Hoffmann-La Roche, leading company in research-focused healthcare.

Another year on, ZLC brings a group of logistics and supply chain management specialists to the market, who occupy strategic positions in leading local and international companies. These programs provide an important flow of talent and knowledge through the market world.

LaPré highlighted that “in the last 5 years we have employed 12 ZLC graduates,  including 4 current students on the point of graduating and shortly will be incorporated into our ROCHE team.”

ZLC graduates have developed around 400 final Master Theses in collaboration with both aragonese and multinational companies. A selection of these are: Alcatel-Lucent, BASF, Carreras, Cat Logistics, Clariant, CLH, Cummins, DHL, EPSON, GM, Halliburton, Imaginarium, J&J, Novartis, Pfizer, P&G, Ralph Lauren, Repsol, Roche, Saica Nature, Schlumberger and Telefónica.

During the ceremony, the President of the Zaragoza Logistics Center Foundation and Advisor for Industry and Innovation of the Government of Aragon, Arturo Aliaga, presented the Best Master Thesis Award to the students Arunangshu Ghatak and Chenyao Liu, ZLOG (MIT Zaragoza Master of Engineering in Logistics and Supply Chain Management), for their project “Reduction of Total Cycle Time and Impact Service Level on Working Capital for a Chemical Industry”. Also, the Deputy Director of the University of Zaragoza, Fernando Beltrán and Professor Yossi Sheffi of MIT, presented the awards for Best Academic Achievements to José Ramón Quintana Meliá, ZLOG and Víctor Martínez Conte, MdL (Máster de Logística).

In his closing remarks, Arturo Aliaga said “the essential ingredient for a center of excellence such as ZLC, logistics specialist for the region of Aragon, is one of the fundamental pillars in education”. In the words of the ZLC President “we offer international students knowledge at the highest level, not only in theory, which many businesses have come to appreciate because this center, its programs and its students, all contribute to make them more competitive and generate wealth.”