Fran Inman, national and state transportation leader, receives Drucker Award for Excellence in Supply Chain & Logistics

Fran Inman, an active leader in the push to improve the nation’s transportation infrastructure, received the 2016 Peter Drucker Award for Excellence in Supply Chain & Logistics Management. The annual award honors a business leader who exhibits high levels of integrity, builds strengths, and serves the common good in the field of supply chain and logistics.

“Fran Inman has demonstrated the high caliber of authentic and effective leadership the award is meant to honor,” said Tom Horan, the Henry Y. Hwang Dean of the Drucker School of Management, who presented Inman with the award during the Southern California Logistics & Supply Chain Summit held April 28 in Pomona.

The Drucker School’s Center for Supply Chain & Logistics, the Inland Empire Economic Partnership, and the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce co-hosted the summit.

Inman is senior vice president for Majestic Realty Co., one of the largest privately held real estate development firms in the nation. In this role, she directs government relations and community affairs for that company.

She has served on the California Transportation Commission since 2010. Inman is also a member of the National Freight Advisory Committee—which reports directly to the US Secretary of Transportation—and the California Freight Efficiency Task Force. The Southern California Council of Governments honored Inman as the 2013 Business Leader of the Year for her leadership in transportation issues.

Inman’s award is noteworthy given the underrepresentation of women in the field of supply chain and logistics, said Gary Gaukler, the center’s faculty director and an associate professor of operations and supply chain management at the Drucker School.

In 2014, Industry Week reported that there were only 22 women supply chain executives out of 320 Fortune 500 companies with a dedicated supply chain function.

“It is especially heartening to see Fran receive this prestigious recognition,” Gaukler said. “I hope that this is a signal toward bridging the gender gap in supply chain and logistics. I am particularly excited about this because the Drucker School has been working actively toward gender equality in the education of future supply chain leaders.”

In partnership with Toyota, the Drucker School’s center promotes the contributions of women in the field through the Toyota Women of Achievement Scholars Program. This fellowship prepares women to be the next generation of leaders and managers by providing them with an education in the latest trends, practices, and innovations as well as mentorship and career guidance.

The center was launched at the 2015 summit to develop and enhance effective leadership in the supply chain sector. Its approach draws heavily on the principles and values of Peter Drucker, which stress customer and employee focus, social responsibility, innovation, and financial results.

The summit is the center’s marquee event. It is designed to address the issues and trends affecting Southern California’s network of ports, railways, trucking, air cargo, and warehousing.

The 2016 summit’s keynote speakers included Mark Wallace, senior vice president for global engineering and sustainability for UPS, and Juan Garcia III, global leader for career advancement at Amazon.

“Supply chains are what make the world go round,” Gaukler said. “Without supply chain and logistics there would simply be no modern commerce. Supply chains enable the existence of traditional brick-and-mortar stores, and they are also crucial to every online purchase.”

Boasting the busiest container ports in the country in Long Beach and Los Angeles and the largest hub of warehouse facilities in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, Southern California plays a major role in the nation’s logistics and supply chain field, Gaukler said. The Inland Empire is particularly significant due to its proximity to the region’s ports as well as the availability of relatively inexpensive real estate for building distribution and fulfillment centers, making it the gateway to the rest of the nation.