Prof. dr Arne K. Strauss
Professor for Demand Management & Sustainable Transport
WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, Germany
"Interface of demand management and transport operations"
Dr. Arne K. Strauss is a Professor of Demand Management and Sustainable Transport at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management (Germany), where he also serves as Academic Director of the MSc Business Analytics programme. Previously, he held the position of Associate Professor of Operational Research at Warwick Business School and was a Turing Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute in London. He served as Academic Director of the MSc Business Analytics programme at Warwick Business School and as an external examiner for master’s programmes at Imperial College London, the University of Southampton, and Manchester Metropolitan University. Since 2026, he has been serving as a coordinator on the board of the “Pricing & Revenue Management” working group within the Association of European Operational Research Societies (EURO). He has also been a member of several international advisory bodies in the field of mathematical sciences.
Dr. Sofiane Oussedik
Technical Leader, Data Science and AI Tools & Assistants – EMEA
IBM, EMEA
"Generative AI and Operational Research"
Dr. Sofiane Oussedik is a Technical Leader for Data Science and AI Tools at IBM EMEA, helping clients and partners apply operations research, artificial intelligence, and advanced analytics to improve business processes, optimize resources, and support decision-making.
Sofiane began his career at ILOG, later acquired by IBM, where he held technical sales, leadership, and management roles. Since joining IBM in 2009, he has led Decision Optimization teams worldwide and in Europe while expanding his expertise across data science, machine learning, predictive analytics, generative AI, and AI assistants.
Alongside his industry role, Sofiane has taught optimization, machine learning, and AI at several universities, including Centrale Supélec from 2014 to 2020. He also chairs the EURO Practitioners Forum, promoting practical applications of operational research and decision support systems.