Jonathan H. Owen

Title

  • Founder and Principal, Jonathan H. Owen, LLC; former Chief Scientist for Operations Research and AI/Analytics, and Head of Advanced Analytics Center of Expertise, General Motors

Education

  • General Management Program, Harvard Business School
  • M.S., Ph.D., Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences, Northwestern University
  • B.S., Mathematical Sciences (Operations Research), University of North Carolina
  • CAP-Expert (CAP-X), Certified Analytics Professional, INFORMS (2014-2029)

Professional Experience

  • Founder and Principal, Jonathan H. Owen, LLC, 2024-present
  • General Motors (1999-2024): Head of Advanced Analytics Center of Expertise (2019-2024); Global R&D Director of Operations Research (2013-2019); Chief Scientist for OR and AI/Analytics (concurrent)
  • Northwestern University, Assistant Research Professor and Post-Doctoral Fellow (1998-2000)
  • MATHCOUNTS Foundation, National Board of Directors (2020-2026)
  • Advisory board service: Northwestern, Michigan, MIT, Cornell

Selected INFORMS and Related Activities - Member since 1992

  • INFORMS Roundtable Board, 2018-2020, 2010-2013; President (2012, 2019)
  • INFORMS Board of Directors, Vice President of Practice, 2014-2017
  • INFORMS Impact Prize Committee, 2020-2024; Chair, 2023-2024
  • Co-Chair, Ad-Hoc Committee on Practice Fellow Selection, 2022-2023
  • Analytics Certification Board, Practice Section Council, and Executive Forum Organizing Committee, 2014-2017
  • O.R. & Analytics Student Team Competition Committee, 2018-2019
  • DEI Ambassadors Program review panelist, 2020
  • Judge, Franz Edelman Competition, 2015-2016
  • Associate Editor, Operations Research, 2006-2012
  • Computing Society Board, 2008-2010
  • Co-author, INFORMS Analytics Body of Knowledge, 2018

Selected Professional Honors and Awards

  • George E. Kimball Medal, INFORMS
  • INFORMS Fellow
  • INFORMS Prize
  • Franz Edelman Award, winner (2005), finalist (2022)
  • Daniel H. Wagner Prize, finalist
  • SME Donald C. Burnham Manufacturing Management Award
  • IISE Fellow
  • IISE Outstanding Middle Career IE Leadership Award, Business/Industry
  • GM’s highest honors for technical innovation and leadership

Selected Publications

  • Published refereed chapters and articles in Operations Research, Mathematical Programming, INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics, International Journal of Production Research, Discrete Applied Mathematics, and the Analytics Body of Knowledge, and authored dozens of GM Research Reports and Records of Invention, resulting in numerous GM Trade Secrets and patents.

Candidate Statement

For decades, INFORMS and its members have transformed industries, government, healthcare, transportation, supply chains, and public policy. The strength of our profession has always come from combining rigorous methodology, systems thinking, and a focus on improving consequential decisions in complex environments.

Today our field is experiencing a period of profound change. Advances in AI, data, and connected systems are reshaping how organizations make decisions and how society interacts with increasingly complex environments. Decision-makers now demand approaches that are not only technically sophisticated, but also robust, explainable, scalable, and capable of sustained real-world impact. I believe this moment is a defining opportunity for INFORMS and the OR/MS profession.

One conviction has anchored my entire career: practice does not merely apply research – it sharpens it. Some of the most important advances in OR/MS emerge when rigorous methods engage directly with hard, real-world problems, and the questions that arise in practice often reshape the research agenda itself. This is not a one-way pipeline from theory to application; it is a continuous exchange. The strongest organizations, universities, and professional societies create environments where researchers, practitioners, and students learn from one another, strengthening both research and practice in the process. That conviction shapes how I believe INFORMS can lead in this moment.

I have spent my career at the intersection where that exchange happens – across advanced analytics, AI, operations research, and enterprise decision-making. At General Motors, I led teams applying OR/MS and AI across manufacturing, supply chain, mobility, product development, and enterprise operations, while building the organizational capability and governance to support analytics and AI at scale. That breadth taught me that enduring impact requires more than technical excellence. It depends on developing talented people, building trusted relationships across disciplines and organizations, and understanding how complex systems actually behave – the constraints, incentives, implementation realities, and human responses that reshape outcomes over time. Repeatedly, the hardest problems sent us back to sharpen our methods, while better methods opened possibilities no one had previously seen on the factory floor or in the field.

OR/MS is uniquely positioned to lead because our field has always been about more than algorithms alone. At its best, it integrates mathematics, modeling, uncertainty, optimization, data, human behavior, and systems-level thinking to support better decisions. The most consequential dynamics in complex systems are rarely visible from any single vantage point. Revealing those interactions, and helping organizations act on them, is a defining strength of our profession, and an essential one as AI reshapes the decision-making landscape.

As President-Elect, I would focus on four priorities: advancing methodological excellence while strengthening the connections among academia, industry, government, and practice; supporting the integration of OR/MS with emerging AI and data-driven technologies; expanding opportunities for students, researchers, and practitioners to learn from one another; and increasing the visibility and influence of OR/MS in addressing consequential societal and organizational challenges. INFORMS should be the professional home where our community defines what trustworthy, accountable, high-impact decision-making looks like in the AI era.

INFORMS benefits enormously from the diversity of perspectives, backgrounds, and expertise across its membership. I have been fortunate to serve in many roles over the years – including the Board of Directors, the INFORMS Roundtable, and numerous committees supporting both practice and the profession – experiences that deepened my appreciation for the talent, commitment, and collaborative spirit of this community.

The systems shaping our world are becoming more interconnected, dynamic, and consequential. OR/MS has an essential role in helping organizations and society navigate that complexity. I would be honored to serve as your President-Elect and to help advance the long-term relevance, influence, and impact of both INFORMS and the profession.

For more information, please visit: linkedin.com/in/jhowen/