METRANS Blog - Perspective Series

The question of broader supply chain disruptions as a result of the Hanjin bankruptcy, and our ability to predict them, was the subject of a recent Perspectives column in the Long Beach Business Journal by METRANS Associate Director Tom O’Brien. In the column, O’Brien argues that the supply chain needs to be ready to absorb shocks from continued consolidation in ocean carriage as well as from other key economic changes like those facing manufacturing.

Thomas O'Brien

Thomas O'Brien is the Executive Director of the Center for International Trade and Transportation (CITT) at California State University, Long Beach and the Associate Director of Long Beach Programs for the METRANS Transportation Center, a partnership between CSULB and the University of Southern California. He also serves as the director of the FHWA Southwest Regional Surface Transportation Workforce Center (SWTWC). His teaching and research focus on logistics, supply chain management, and goods movement policy. Dr. O’Brien has a Master’s degree in Urban Planning and Development and a Ph.D. in Policy, Planning, and Development from the University of Southern California. He is both an Eno and Eisenhower Transportation Fellow and a member of the Transportation Research Board's Intermodal Freight Transport Committee and Intermodal Freight Terminal Design and Operations Committee. He currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Southern California Regional Transit Training Consortium and on the boards of the Council of University Transportation Centers, Los Angeles Transportation Club, Southern CA Roundtable of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and the Foreign Trade Association.