Cathy Iacobo, a lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, has been named the new industry co-director for the MIT Leaders for Global Operations program (LGO).
LGO’s 27 industry partners host graduate students for six-month operations management internship projects that form the basis for their master’s theses. Besides recruiting new partners and managing relations with current partners, the industry co-director also mentors students and helps enhance overall ties between the partners and the LGO community at MIT.
Iacobo is well-known in the LGO program as a “mentor of mentors” in the LGO Operations Lab. She also serves as a faculty mentor for MIT Sloan’s Global Entrepreneurship Lab (G-Lab), Healthcare Lab (H-Lab) and China/India Lab, as well as the Venture Mentoring Service, which supports entrepreneurs across the MIT community.
“With her industry background, energy, and excellent communication and mentoring skills, I expect that Cathy’s close work with industry partners and students will greatly contribute to strengthening the sense of community and partnership at LGO,” says LGO Program Director Thomas Roemer.
Before joining MIT Sloan, Iacobo had a distinguished career as an executive for over 30 years at IBM and Lexmark International. She joined Lexmark at its inception in 1991 and rose to the position of vice president for global services operations and had leadership roles in many functions, including manufacturing, supply chain, and engineering, that are at the core of LGO. She has extensive international experience, including a four-year placement managing operations in Europe.
Iacobo holds a BSE degree in mechanical engineering from Duke University and a master’s degree in management of technology from MIT Sloan.
She succeeds Vahram Erdekian, a vice president of manufacturing and operations at Cisco Systems, who retired after 10 years as LGO industry co-director.
An active affiliation among the MIT School of Engineering, the MIT Sloan School of Management, and 27 industry partners, MIT Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) is the premier program for developing leaders of operations- and manufacturing-oriented companies with both management know-how and deep technical understanding. Its mission is to generate knowledge at the intersection of engineering and management, and to educate leaders to address the world’s most challenging operations problems.
Its dual-degree graduate program awards an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a master of science from the School of Engineering. The two-year LGO experience features a cross-disciplinary curriculum, a global orientation, a six-month internship with a partner company, and an emphasis on leadership and teamwork. In addition to providing students with transformative learning experiences and privileged access to career opportunities, partner companies provide input on LGO’s curriculum and activities, ensuring that the program stays relevant and responsive to their most pressing operations challenges.
