Leadership Profile

Keith Willoughby Helps Build Business Professionals as Dean of the Edwards School of Business

By Véronique Loewen

Growing up in Melfort, Saskatchewan, about 180km northeast of Saskatoon, Keith Willoughby had no idea that some day he would be returning to his alma mater as a professor and Dean.

Starting his studies at the University of Saskatchewan and graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce in quantitative methods and finance, he earned his Master of Science in management science from the University of British Columbia and his Doctorate of Philosophy in operations management from the University of Calgary. With his doctorate in hand, he started his academic career as a professor at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, USA in the early 2000’s. Although he thoroughly enjoyed his time at Bucknell, he jumped at the opportunity to return to his home province to join the Health Quality Council as a Senior Operations Research Specialist. This hiatus from academia, working directly with industry, gave him the direct hands-on experience of business practices he had been teaching. He returned to academia as an Associate Professor at the University of Saskatchewan’s Edwards School of business in 2008 with a broader vision. Now, the Dean of Edwards since 2017, whether through his administrative duties or his teaching, he focuses on providing students with the tools to live out the school’s mission – to develop business professionals to build nations. “It is particularly important to me that our students be provided with a transformative experience while at our school through enriching education and value adding research,” says Keith Willoughby.

Willoughby’s teaching and research often focus on operations management and supply chain, two business areas on which the COVID-19 pandemic put a spotlight. Understanding and using analytical methods and technology to support the optimization of processes, materials management, logistics, and transportation are some of the key areas of his research and the courses he teaches. “I have been trying to demonstrate to students the value of the supply chain and how understanding it and improving it can have huge impacts on business. The pandemic quickly made that case,” states the Dean.

Willoughby explains that for a school of business such as Edwards, it is particularly important to have a strong relationship with the business community. This is why he has continued to nurture the relationship, established decades ago by his predecessors, with the Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce and its members. For example, since the inception of the co-operative education program in 2007, there have been about 100 annual placements of Edwards’ students interning within Saskatchewan companies. “There is a connectivity that is vital for the school to remain relevant and for students to witness entrepreneurship and business operations, and have community engagement opportunities,” he says.

“When I think of the school, I like to refer to the two “V’s” – visibility and value. “Visibility” when we bring leadership together to share knowledge, contribute best practices and understand the business community’s needs. That’s why I thought it was important for me to serve on the provincial budget taskforce, for example. And “Value” because I believe that we don’t have to export our talent. Edwards brings value

It is particularly important to me that our students be provided with a transformative experience while at our school through enriching education and value adding research.

Keith Willoughby by having 85% of our graduates employed right here in Saskatchewan, contributing to the local economy.”

When discussing with Willoughby, it is quickly evident that he’d rather highlight the school’s successes than his own, yet some of his research gives a glimpse of his personal interests. For example, he used his expertise in analytics and tools such as spreadsheets to focus some of his research on sports and pen articles such as “Who’s on First: Simulating the Canadian Football League Regular Season” and “Does the Number of Days Between Professional Sports Games Really Matter?”

As a professor, when asked about some of the lessons he has learned from the pandemic, Willoughby is quick to respond: “It has been a wild ride for sure, but it also gave me a clear picture of what is possible -that we (academia) can be nimble and enable business management innovation. And mostly, it has taught me to focus on what I can do rather than what I can’t.”

Learn more at www.edwards.usask.ca