Soo-Haeng Cho

Soo-Haeng Cho has been a faculty member at the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University since 2008, and he is currently the IBM Professor of Operations Management and Strategy. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering from Seoul National University, a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Decisions, Operations, and Technology from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

His research is broadly in the area of retail & supply chain management, innovative operations (e.g., AI, digital platforms, and autonomous vehicles), ESG, and healthcare operations. He has published over 30 papers in top scholarly journals (such as Management Science, Operations Research, and Manufacturing & Service Operations Management) and book chapters. He has served as the associate editor for these journals as well. His research work has been recognized by numerous awards, including the INFORMS M&SOM Journal Best Paper Award (Manufacturing & Service Operations Management), INFORMS TIMES (Technology, Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship Section) Best Working Paper Award, the William Pierskalla Best Paper Award from the INFORMS Health Applications Society, the Wickham Skinner Early-Career Research Accomplishments Award (Runner-Up) from Production & Operations Management Society, the Lave-Weil Prize from Carnegie Mellon University, and the Xerox/DTM Best Paper Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

At the Tepper School, in 2024-25, he chaired the Strategic Recruiting Committee to recruit multiple experienced faculty across all areas to advance the school's research mission in alignment with strategic priorities in the areas of AI in Business, Economic Prosperity, and Entrepreneurial Pursuits. Since 2020, he has also been the faculty chair of the Tepper Health Care Initiative, orchestrating research, education, and outreach activities in health care. He created a new Health Care Analytics concentration in the MBA program, and launched the annual health care case competitions in 2021 -- 29 teams from 15 schools participated in the 2023 competition. He has also represented the operations management area in the Masters Educational Affairs Committee over 10 years, which oversees the master’s program curriculum and policy. In addition, he participated in the MBA Curriculum Review Task Force in 2021, which proposed two new master’s degree programs. He chaired the operations management faculty recruiting committees in 2022-23 and 2023-24. He mainly teaches three courses at the Tepper School: a core course in operations management for full-time MBAs, an elective course in operations strategy for both full-time and part-time online hybrid MBAs, and a doctoral course in innovative and sustainable operations.

Before pursuing an academic career, he worked full-time as a management consultant for Arthur D. Little between 2001 and 2003, for Ford Motor Company in the summer of 2000, and for the U.S. Army between 1996 and 1998. Between 2021 and 2025, he worked as a part-time senior advisor for a start-up company focused on AI & data analytics for digital marketing on major global e-commerce platforms. He has also consulted widely with global companies and organizations, including Amazon.com, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, the Ministry of Health and Welfare in South Korea, the Carlyle Group, SK Hynix, CJ Group, and Samsung, among others.