Ross Collins, PhD
Director of Corporate Engagement MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics
- Boston MA
Dr. Collins has 10+ years of experience as a senior operations and transformation leader across global supply chains and logistics networks.
MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics
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Biography
Ross brings more than a decade of experience as a senior operations and transformation leader across global supply chains and logistics networks. Prior to MIT CTL, he served as Global Head of Supply Chain at Lexington Medical, where he owned end-to-end supply chain operations for a fast-growing medical device manufacturer. Before that, Ross held multiple leadership roles at Wayfair, including GM of North America Logistics for its freight forwarding business and Head of Supply Chain Network Strategy for the 3PL business. Earlier in his career, he was a Principal at PA Consulting Group, advising Fortune 500 companies and government clients on strategic planning and large-scale operational improvement.
Ross received his PhD in Engineering Systems and MS in Technology and Policy from MIT, and a BS in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia. His academic work has been published in leading journals, and he has contributed to international initiatives through the United Nations.
Research Focus
Critical Systems & Supply Network Resilience
Ensuring continuity, preparedness, and mission assurance under disruption and geopolitical volatility.
Supply Chain Strategy & Network Architecture
Designing the structural configuration and competitive positioning of supply networks.
Areas of Expertise
Education
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
PhD
Engineering Systems
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MS
Technology and Policy
University of Virginia
MS
Systems Engineering
University of Virginia
BS
Systems Engineering, Economics
Languages
- English
Media Appearances
Ross Collins Appointed Director of Corporate Engagement at MIT CTL
MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics online
2026-01-12
“I had always wanted to come back,” Collins said, reflecting on his return to MIT. “I started my career in academia, and when I left, I thought, I’m not sure when or how, but I’m going to come back someday.”
Research Papers
Using inclusive wealth for policy evaluation: Application to electricity infrastructure planning in oil-exporting countries
Ecological EconomicsRoss D Collins, Noelle E Selin, Olivier L De Weck, William C Clark
2017-03-01
Decision-makers often seek to design policies that support sustainable development. Prospective evaluations of how effectively such policies are likely to meet sustainability goals have nonetheless remained challenging. Evaluating policies against sustainability goals can be facilitated through the inclusive wealth framework, which characterizes development in terms of the value to society of its underlying capital assets, and defines development to be potentially sustainable if that value does not decline over time. The inclusive wealth approach has been developed at a theoretical level and applied to retrospective evaluations.
How to measure sustainable progress
SciencePartha Dasgupta, A Duraiappah, Shunsuke Managi, Edward Barbier, Ross Collins, Barbara Fraumeni, Haripriya Gundimeda, Gang Liu, KJ Mumford
2015-11-23
IN SEPTEMBER, THE United Nations General Assembly adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to be met by the year 2030. These important goals range from poverty eradication and improvements in education and health to the protection of global assets, including the oceans and a stable climate. Unfortunately, neither the SDGs nor their background documents explain how governments should judge whether the development programs they undertake to meet the goals are sustainable.
Using inclusive wealth as a measure of sustainability for infrastructure planning and evaluation
Inclusive Wealth Report 2014: Measuring Progress toward SustainabilityRoss D Collins
2014-12-01
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Description
Inclusive wealth (IW) measures the productive base of an economy, which is a linear index of its capital asset stocks. Changes to IW per capita over time track changes to intergenerational human well-being, thus non-declining IW per capita indicates sustainable development. National IW has only been measured retrospectively; this dissertation models and projects IW prospectively, measuring the impact of alternative infrastructure plans on IW.
Event Appearances
Building supply chain resilience and driving it into practice
May 2026 | GE Aerospace LEAD Symposium
