Robert Benson, PhD, Managing Principal

Mr. Benson has spent the past 18 years working on Supply Chain Management challenges with clients in the Semiconductor and high-tech industries. His career began at UC Berkeley where a team of researchers and consultants developed some of the earliest optimization based planning solutions for the Semiconductor industry. Key elements of these solutions are still found in supply chain planning applications from leading companies in the commercial marketplace. As commercial software for supply chain planning developed to become the Advanced Planning Systems (APS) market, Mr. Benson began helping clients use these applications more effectively though improved process design and measurement. His recent client work focuses on combining the Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process with APS tools to further enhance the ability to predict and manage complex, global supply chains.

Mr. Benson holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the University of California at Berkeley. He also received his B.S. in Operations Research from Cornell University. He is a recipient of the Franz Edelman Award for Management Science Achievement for his work on optimization based planning systems with the team from UC Berkeley.

Mr. Benson is a Managing Principal and co-founder at Spinnaker Support. His primary focus is on the strategic development of new business opportunities for the firm. In addition to strategic growth, Mr. Benson has oversight responsibility for the Consulting LOB and the back-office operations of the firm. He is also sharing management responsibility for the Applications Support LOB on an interim basis.