Tenured Professor Moves Up Chain at Walton College

In 1993, Matt Waller earned his doctorate in supply chain management from Pennsylvania State University, then spent the next year teaching at Western Michigan University.

Waller’s next destination seemed almost predetermined. With his professional curiosity piqued by the presence of such logistical titans as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Tyson Foods Inc. and J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., he accepted a job in the summer of 1994 as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Arkansas.

“Northwest Arkansas is, really, the epitome of supply chain management,” he said during a recent interview. “If you think about it, in hindsight, I really didn’t know how good of a decision I was making [to move].”

Twenty-one years later, after working behind the scenes to foster the reputation of the Sam M. Walton College of Business, Waller is now out in front. On April 17, the Kansas City native was promoted to be interim dean of the Walton College, assuming the job previously held by Eli Jones, who is leaving to become dean of the business school at his alma mater, Texas A&M.

In his new role — which he’ll fill for a minimum of one year — Waller, currently the associate dean for executive education and chair of the college’s department of supply chain management, will have more of a strategic planning role for the Walton College, which includes seven departments, approximately 5,000 students, 300 employees and 100 faculty.

Waller, who became a tenure track professor in 1995, was 35 when he was recognized in the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 class in 2000. He had co-founded a supply chain management and e-fulfillment software company called Mercari Technologies in 1997.

“I was working with a supplier company and I came up with a way to use optimization and probability theory for solving a business problem they had,” Waller recalled. “I had told a colleague of mine [Randy Laney; retired treasurer and VP of finance for Walmart] about the software I was developing and he said, ‘Let’s try to make it into a company.’ So, we did. And it worked, and it was going really well.”

The growth was so explosive — going from three employees to 75 in 20 months — that Waller left his job at the UA to focus on the private business.

“That was a hard decision, but I wanted to give [business] a shot,” Waller said.

The professor’s college try seemed to be working. The company got $950,000 in venture capital from Diamond State Ventures of Little Rock, and in the Sept. 10, 2001, issue of Forbes magazine, Mercari Technologies was named one of the top five software providers for the retail industry.

The events of the following day, however, changed the company’s trajectory.

“All the big companies put their IT budgets on hold,” he said. “No one knew what was going to happen. We were ramping up so fast that we had to really step back when [the terrorist attacks] happened. And the market really never turned around.”

The company did endure, but eventually sold its intellectual property to a venture capital fund. That led Waller back to Walton College in August 2002, a return he calls a blessing.

“I really enjoy being here and working here,” he said. “Even while running the software company, I set aside time every day to do research. I felt like someday I wanted to come back to it. I just didn’t know when.”

Waller, among the most highly published authorities in supply chain management and logistics journals, said helping to establish the supply chain management department in 2011 is one of his proudest accomplishments at the UA. It was a goal he and John D. Ozment — who is retiring this semester as the Orren Harris Chair of Transportation — began discussing in the 1990s.

“Since starting the department, the number of students declaring that major has grown 375 percent; right now we are at about 400 declared majors,” he said.

Waller, who married his wife Susanne in 1986, enjoys “anything to do with water,” as well as spending time with his four children, who range in age from a senior at the UA to 12 years old.

As for the future, he envisions the Walton College playing a central role in making Northwest Arkansas a destination.

“I think we can be more involved in the community,” he said. “There is so much success going on here, and that breeds happiness and joy in people. We want to be an integral part of that.”