Congratulations to three professors from NUBS China who have been selected to join the Ningbo Leading Talents Programme. They are Professor Antony Paulraj (Level 1), Dr Jing Dai (Level 2) and Dr Xiaogang Bi (Level 3).
Ningbo Leading Talents Programme aims to support and enhance the strategic developments of new and competitive industries in Ningbo. The programme will focus on the selection of high-level talent in strategic emerging industries, emerging industries, advantageous industries and key areas of economic and social development. The programme emphasises the cultivation of academic or technological leaders in key areas especially fundamental research, applied basic research as well as the selection and training of talent in key industrial common technologies, cutting-edge technologies, and disruptive technologies, etc. It also focuses on talent in the fields of the digital economy and rural revitalisation, as well as the selection and training of high-level overseas talent and high-end groups engaged in post-doctoral research.
Professor Antony Paulraj is the Li Dak Sum Chair Professor in Information Systems and Operations Management at NUBS China. His current research interests are in sustainable supply chains and supply chain innovation. A majority of his research publications are in peer-reviewed journals. More than 40 research articles have been published in operations and supply chain management journals including the Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Journal of Supply Chain Management, Journal of Business Logistics, International Journal of Production Research, and the Journal of Business Ethics, among others.
Professor Paulraj’s research objective is to organise his research as well as other activities so that they develop strong academic talent in the region. Additionally, he also focuses on developing executive training programmes, which are helpful in developing the future workforce of Zhejiang Province.
Dr Jing Dai is an Associate Professor in Operations Management and Director of Postgraduate programmes at NUBS China. Her research interest is in the fields of Sustainable Operations and Logistics Management, and Green Supply Chain Management.
She is the recipient of Excellence Research Award at Iowa State University, USA where she earned a PhD in Supply Chain Management. Dr Dai has published her research in leading operations and supply chain management journals such as Journal of Operations Management, Decision Sciences, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, Journal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Logistics, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, and Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review. She received Best Paper Award in the Journal of Operations Management.
Dr Dai is the Principle Investigator of 2017 National Natural Science Fund to explore green supply chain development in China. She was jointly funded by NSFC and the UK’s Newton Foundation in 2018, and held a Sino-British bilateral seminar to gather young Chinese and British scholars to discuss the topic of Environmental Technology Innovation for Greening Supply Chains. In 2019, Dr Dai was also appointed as a Supply Chain Innovation and Applications Expert by the Ningbo Municipal Commerce Bureau.
Dr Xiaogang Bi is the Associate Professor in Finance at NUBS China and Director of MSc in Finance and Investment. Dr Bi’s research focuses on the areas of mergers and acquisitions, institutional investors, managerial teams and corporate finance. He has published in leading national and international financial journals, and acts as a Principle Investigator for Provincial and Ningbo Natural Science Funding projects. His research has also been featured in the practitioner press, namely the Financial Times (Chinese) and China Business Journal.
Dr Bi also has rich industry experience, especially in Chinese SME’s private placement bond issuing, asset-backed security (ABS), IPO and mergers and acquisitions. Dr Bi and his team also focus on quantitative trading strategies, as well as big data, AI and their applications in corporate finance. The software system developed by the team has become the core application of the Ningbo Stock Exchange and other companies. Dr Bi also won two city-level teaching awards in 2019.