Rate My Professor Maxi Castro

Maximiliano Udenio Castro, known as Maxi Udenio Castro, is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Economics and Business at KU Leuven, where he is affiliated with the Operations Management Research Group within the Department of Decision Sciences and Information Management. His research specializes in supply chain management, inventory dynamics, and sustainable supply chains. He earned his PhD in Operations Management from Eindhoven University of Technology in 2014. Prior to his current role, he served as Assistant Professor in the School of Industrial Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology. Castro's work examines supply chain disruptions, inventory agility during demand shocks, the bullwhip effect, demand forecasting, and sustainability in supply chain decision-making.

Key publications include 'Inventory Agility upon Demand Shocks: Empirical Evidence from the Financial Crisis' (Journal of Operations Management, 2018, with Kai Hoberg and Jan C. Fransoo), 'Exponential Smoothing Forecasts: Taming the Bullwhip Effect when Demand is Seasonal' (International Journal of Production Research, 2023, with Eleni Vatamidou and Jan C. Fransoo), 'Simplifying Tree-based Methods for Retail Sales Forecasting with Explanatory Variables' (European Journal of Operational Research, 2024, with Arnoud Wellens and Robert Boute), 'Global Sourcing under Tariffs: A Perspective of Time Series Analysis' (International Journal of Production Economics, 2024, with James Zhang and Shaunak Dabadghao), and 'Behavioral Causes of the Bullwhip Effect: An Analysis Using Linear Control Theory' (IISE Transactions, 2017, with Eleni Vatamidou, Jan C. Fransoo, and Nico Dellaert). He leads and promotes several research projects, such as 'Sustainability in the Supply Chain: From Anecdotal Evidence to an Objective Empirical Framework' (2024-2028), 'True Demand-Driven Semiconductor Supply Chains for Europe' (2024-2026), 'Structural and Operational Consequences of Supply Chain Shocks' (2025), 'Inventory Management in Times of Environmental Uncertainty' (2022-2025), and 'Sustainable Supply Chain Decision Making' (2020-2025). Castro teaches courses including Operations Strategy in Manufacturing and Services, Supply Chain Management, and Operations Strategy. His contributions advance empirical and theoretical modeling in operations management.