The Tauber Institute for Global Operations will launch thirty-five team projects sponsored by top global firms for the summer of 2014 at a special dinner on March 11 at the Ross School of Business featuring an inspiring and motivational speaker, Dave Brandon - Donald R. Shepherd Director of Athletics at the University of Michigan.

Brandon’s operational and teamwork experience makes him a natural fit for the Tauber Institute. Brandon has served as chairman and chief executive officer of Ann Arbor-based Domino's Pizza, Inc. for 11 years, leading the company to the largest IPO of a restaurant company in history. He continues to serve as non-executive chairman at Domino's, and as a member of the Board of Directors of Herman Miller and DTE Energy.

Prior to his role with Domino's, Brandon served as chairman, president and CEO of Valassis Communications, Inc., a leading sales promotion company, where he worked in increasing levels of responsibility for over 20 years. Brandon began his career at Procter & Gamble following his graduation from the University of Michigan, where he was the member of three Big Ten Championship Football Teams coached by the legendary Bo Schembechler. Brandon served an eight-year term on the Board of Regents for the University of Michigan and is now Regent Emeritus.

A signature initiative of the Tauber Institute, team projects unite top students and companies from a variety of industries in a 14-week multidisciplinary, collaborative project. Each two-to-three person project team is made up of MBA, Master of Supply Chain Management and Engineering students. Along with receiving executive support from the company, each team is advised by a a Ross School of Business faculty and a College of Engineering faculty, and overseen by a Tauber Institute Co-Director. The projects provides significant return on a sponsoring company’s investment (for many projects, it is millions of dollars) as well as improvements in areas such as CO2 emissions, energy consumption, throughput time, and supply chain risk.

Students are notified of their team assignments at the kick-off dinner. Executive summaries of team projects will be available in September upon project completion.

This is a closed event. Those seeking more information about the team projects should visit the Tauber website.