Council on Industrial and Systems Engineering (CISE)

CISE is a dynamic affinity group of thought leaders who value learning, serving, excellence, and integrity. CISE consists of highly respected organizations from around the world. Each organization is represented by senior leaders of the industrial and systems engineering (ISE) function (or related functions).


CISE has been in existence for over 40 years. Original founding members include Kodak, Polaroid, GM, Boeing, Campbell’s, and others. The organization has evolved and matured over time to become an important partner and affiliate with IISE.


The member companies and individual representatives (for a complete list, scroll down) are champions of the ISE profession. The main purposes of CISE are to:

  • Facilitate benchmarking in the field of integrated systems engineering.
  • Provide a professional networking opportunity for senior leaders in the ISE function in highly successful organizations.
  • Provide a mechanism for thought leaders to share and positively impact our profession and professional society. 

For optimal sharing that supports learning and growth, members cannot be from competing organizations. Moreover, the group is limited to 22-25 members to ensure high quality dialogues, using specific examples of industrial and systems engineering application.

Membership Benefits

  • Global exposure and recognition for you and your organization.
  • Professional development with fellow executive leaders.
  • Access to other companies’ locations, insights on their operations, and learning from their experiences and interactions with other ISE and related functional teams.
  • Access to university staff, students, and labs to observe, learn, and provide input to ISE and related topics and activities.
  • An opportunity to demonstrate the importance and value of industrial and systems engineering to those unfamiliar with ISE.
  • Exclusive networking at IISE conferences with a broad group of practicing professionals.
  • The chance to give back to your profession and to the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers.

Membership Qualifications

  • The ranking executives of industrial and systems engineering and/or operational excellence (or other related functions) in their organizations.
  • Extensive management and leadership experience.
  • Demonstrated ability to influence the image and practice of the ISE profession.
  • Active, current IISE members.
  • Able and willing to attend two in-person meetings per year.
  • No conflict of interest or in similar industry as current members unless approved by the members of the group.

Membership Expectations

  • Attend meetings twice per year (once during the IISE Annual Conference & Expo - Saturday, Sunday, and Monday) and one other meeting hosted by a member in the fall - Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. 
  • Actively participate in Monthly reconnect calls.
  • Develop and nurture relationships with other members.
  • Engage and proactively share detailed information over time regarding strategies, tactics and actions aimed at positioning and deploying ISE in their organizations.
  • Afford the cost of membership (ie., travel, hotel, meeting rooms, meals, etc.). The expense of meetings will be prorated to all members regardless of attendance. In addition to meeting costs, members are invoiced $300 per year ($150 per meeting) to support our CISE Serve ISE/IISE fund. 

For more information about CISE, contact IISE's executive office.

CISE is the major funder of IISE's Annual Outstanding Capstone Senior Design Award Competition. Initialized in 2019, this award recognizes the great practice work that our ISE seniors do in their capstone senior design projects. The link for this award explains in detail how the award process works. The CISE Serve ISE/IISE Fund aims to so support improving the positioning of IISE in our work and also improving the student to professional member conversion rates.

A CISE member serves as the chair of the Outstanding Capstone Senior Design Competition each year. All global ISE departments are eligible to submit nominated projects. The link to that award has all the details for application and the overall award process.

CISE is joined by many ISE departments to fund this award which are listed in the award link.

All award funds are distributed in the form of student professional membership conversions and conference attendance funding support.

At the IISE Annual Conference & Expo, CISE hosts a leadership mixer and a poster showcase for the top 20 Capstone Projects is the centerpiece to catalyze networking between industry attendees and our students.

Other SERVE activities that CISE leads:

CISE leads the IISE Global Performance Excellence Webinar Series. As thought leaders, CISE has organized a series of best-in-class, well planned, produced, and delivered webinars and other video and knowledge sharing collateral/offerings for our profession and professional society.

The Performance Excellence Track for our Annual IISE Conference - CISE has led the development of this track since 2016 and partners with the Industry Advisory Board and the IISE Young Professionals Group with this initiative. This is a well-developed and produced track of sessions aimed to meet the needs of industry practitioners, students, and young professionals.

Boeing - Gabe Burnett, Director and Chief Engineer of Industrial Engineering  

Intel - Tiffany Sargent, Chief Technologist & Sr. Principal Engineer

Meta - Joan Tafoya, Director, Global Data Center Operations  

The Poirier Group - David Poirier, CEO    

Sobeys - Yves Belanger, Sr. VP Supply Chain; Jodean Fitzpatrick

GM - Daniel Hardaway, Sr. Eng. Manager

Disney - Shannon Conroy, Manager, Industrial Engineering  

Chick-fil-A - David Reid, Director of Understand/Imagine, Production Design, Restaurant Experience

Flex - Eduardo Toledo, VP of Quality and Operational Excellence; Sze Yee Thong 

John Deere - Chris Kelling, Manager, Industrial Engineering and Manufacturing Design

Promito LLC. - Renee Thiesing, Owner  

Duke Healthcare - Thomas Davis, Director, Performance Services  

Emory Healthcare - Victoria Jordan, VP, Quality

Consumers Energy - Chris Wiesniewski, VP Operations Performance

KT Pacer - Carl Kirpes, Managing Partner and President at KT Pacer

Foxconn University - Jacob Chen, CEO

Spirit AeroSystems - Sivakumar Balasubramanian, VP Factor Support Eng.

Healthcare SME- Amanda Mewborn

RS Consulting - Mike Stewart, Solution Architect, Systems Engineer & Performance Improvement Consultant

MTDG - Dean Bartles, President and CEO 

IISE - Don Greene, CEO

IISE and The Poirier Group - Scott Sink, Member and Facilitator for CISE, Lead for IISE’s Op Analytics Professional Development Program, and Senior Advisor, the Poirier Group 


Nomination Form

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