Marshall Fisher is the UPS Professor of Operations and Information Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and co-director of the Fishman-Davidson Center for Service and Operations Management.

In 1965 he earned an SB in electrical engineering from MIT and joined the Boston Manufacturing and Distribution Sales office of IBM where he worked until returning to MIT for an MBA and a PhD in operations research.

After teaching assignments at the University of Chicago and Cornell University, Dr. Fisher joined the faculty of the Wharton School in 1975. His pioneering research in logistics and supply chain coordination in the 30-plus years he has been at the Wharton School has been implemented by many companies and recognized by numerous awards.

In the late 1970's, Dr. Fisher began to address the problems faced by private truck fleet operators as they endeavored to deliver their products with increased efficiency and a high level of service. This research led to both theoretical breakthroughs and successful implementations at several companies. In 1981, he co-founded Distribution Analysis, Research and Technology, Inc., a consulting company that provided optimization software and strategy consulting, based on this research, to major clients such as Frito Lay, Exxon and Anheuser Busch. He served as chairman of the board of directors of this company until 1990, at which point the company had grown to 35 people and was merged with Manugistics Inc.

In 1990, Dr. Fisher turned his attention to supply chain coordination, focusing particularly on environments with rapid introduction of new products and a high degree of demand uncertainty. With various co-workers he developed Accurate Response, an integrated framework linking operational changes and planning approaches to improve a firm's ability to match supply with the demand for new products. Accurate Response was initially implemented at Sport Obermeyer, a leading fashion skiwear firm which credits the approach with doubling profits and significantly improving customer service.

He is currently engaged in a multi-year study funded by the Sloan Foundation to investigate how retailers can exploit information technology and flexible manufacturing to improve the merchandising of fashion products.

In 1994, Dr. Fisher was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in recognition of his contributions to the use of mathematical analysis to improve supply chain performance in companies. He also served as president of the Institute of Management Science during 1988-89 and as departmental editor of Management Science from 1979 to 1983. He is a recipient of the 1977 Lanchester prize for the best paper in operations research in that year, the 1983 Edelman Prize from the Institute of Management Science for development of a large-scale logistics planning model for a major industrial gas firm, the E. Grosvenor Plowman Award from the Council of Logistics Management for contributions to logistics, and the 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999 Wharton School MBA Core Curriculum Cluster Award for teaching excellence. He has been a consultant to many Fortune 500 companies, including Ahold, Air Products and Chemicals, BMG, Campbell Soup, Dupont, Exxon, Frito Lay, IBM, Scott Paper and Spiegel, Inc.

Dr. Fisher is a Founder and Chairman of 4R Systems, Inc., a company that provides supply chain planning software to retailers of short lifecycle products.