Dr Nagel has spent his whole working career of more than 30 years in Logistics. He has achieved a dynamic balance between corporate, consulting and academic positions and has always endeavoured to advance the logistics profession. After commencing his career in South Africa, where he was born, he developed an international reputation as a leader in Supply Chain Strategy.

In 1985, he was appointed as the first occupant of an industry sponsored Chair in Logistics at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. This chair evolved to become the Centre for Supply Chain Management and is still operational today. Subsequently Dr Nagel has been instrumental in establishing the Centre for Logistics Management at the Johannesburg University and was the inaugural Director of the Institute for Logistics and Supply Chain Management at VU.

Throughout his extensive career, he has amassed substantial global experience in the corporate, consulting and academic logistics environments. He identifies the global re-structure of the logistics of a petrochemical company as one of his most satisfying corporate achievements.

A hallmark of his career has been the capacity to conceptualise the integration of logistics theory and practice and support its recognition as one of the key and indeed dynamic components of the global economy and as an esteemed profession.

His areas of interest include:

• The future development of supply chains into dynamic value networks
• The strategic (global and corporate) logistics environment
• Developing and promoting the concept of logistics cities as key enablers of global supply chains
• Effective strategic procurement as a prime business tool