Julie Aho, MSCM '19

Major Julie Aho, MSCM '19, has found her niche in a role that combines her leadership experience with her supply chain expertise. Maj. Aho works at Headquarters Marine Corps in Washington, D.C. as the Director of Supply Chain Modeling & Optimization. She's building a supply chain design, modeling, optimization, and simulation capability for the U.S. Marine Corps from the ground up, and explores AI-enabled supply chain design and planning technology to address strategic global supply chain issues.

Of her role, Maj. Aho said, "I'm tearing down the status quo and trying to pave new ways for process improvement … I've identified a gap and developed a position that allows me to be better at what I do, which is looking at Marine Corps supply from a strategic lens and communicating new supply chain planning methodologies and providing thought leadership on value.”

Maj. Aho credits her master's degree in supply chain management for helping to advance her career path within the military.

Having an opportunity to go to a civilian university to get a master's degree has given me an advantage; I see problems differently than my peers because of that experience.

Maj. Aho decided to commission in the Marine Corps toward the end of her time as an undergraduate at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She was pursuing an engineering degree, but was looking for a challenge bigger than engineering. Maj. Aho explained, "I wanted a more action-based lifestyle and I wanted to serve my country. I wanted to do something for the greater good." 

Before her senior year of college, Maj. Aho enrolled in Officer Candidate School; upon graduating from Rensselaer, she was officially commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps. 

Making Her Mark in the Military 

Maj. Aho went on to serve two tours in Afghanistan, during which she had the opportunity to lead Marines in combat and serve as a truck convoy commander. "Having that responsibility was tremendous," Maj. Aho said. Maj. Aho also completed a deployment to Iraq, where she served with a special operations unit. 

Upon returning from her tours — about ten years into her twenty-year commitment to the Marine Corps — Maj. Aho began thinking about what was next in her military career.

"I'm the type of person who knows what they want when they see it, and I happened to see a message [from the Marine Corps] that said Marines can apply to get a master's degree in 12 months or fewer anywhere in the world if selected. I was blown away." Maj. Aho said that typically, the Marine Corps sends members to specific schools for additional education, most of which are military institutions. 

Maj. Aho was highly interested in the opportunity to earn a master's degree at a public university, and set her sights on the one-year Michigan Ross Master of Supply Chain Management Program. "Michigan Ross was always on my bucket list; I wanted to be able to say I was actually an alum instead of just a fan of the university," Maj. Aho said. Maj. Aho also saw similarities between the engineering she had studied as an undergrad and the world of supply chain management. "Supply chain is like applied engineering, in my opinion. It's very technical like engineering, and our world revolves around every make, model, type, and series of supply chains. I see a supply chain everywhere I go."

Maj. Aho was one of only five members approved by the Marine Corps in 2018 to pursue a master's degree at a non-military institution. She was accepted to the MSCM program at Michigan Ross and started in June.  

Transitioning to Life as a Graduate Student 

Taking on a civilian role as a full-time student wasn't easy at first. According to Maj. Aho,"It was hard for me because I was just off a deployment to Iraq, and had been in a special operations unit. I was in a very military mindset…business school requires you to use your brain in different ways. In the military, you view the world 96 hours out; in business, you're looking at longer, strategic horizons." Maj. Aho added, "Ross was good for me because it forced me to use my brain in ways the military never required me to do."

Maj. Aho said she also benefited from learning alongside classmates who hailed from a variety of industries and countries. "One student was a buyer for Tommy Hilfiger, another was an engineer, another guy was an operations manager on ocean transport — they each brought these unique experiences. The master's program attracts a diverse talent pool. It really helped me as an individual realize my strengths and deficiencies."

During the program's capstone Supply Chain Consulting Studio course, Maj. Aho had the opportunity to consult for a large corporation. As part of the course, students bid on projects with sponsor companies and work in teams to solve a current operational challenge. Maj Aho and her team worked with General Motors to address an issue that would become more relevant than they realized at the time: the semiconductor supply chain. "We were asked to help solve a problem for a major automotive company that is now one of the most strategic challenges in automotive supply chains," Maj. Aho said. "Trying to solve this was a huge learning experience for me." Maj. Aho and her team visited the General Motors global headquarters as part of their project work and presented their final recommendations to the Global Purchasing & Supply Chain unit.

Driving Change

Today, Maj. Aho brings a unique perspective to her work as one of a limited number of individuals in the Marine Corps with a focused degree in supply chain management. As Maj. Aho put it, "I'm a unicorn in the Marine Corps." She attributes the Michigan Ross focus on its action-based learning with her ability to show up to the Pentagon "with problems to solve." Maj. Aho noted, "Others don't always show up from their graduate education program with that same mentality." She added, "It's very hard to make change in the military, but at the same time you need people willing to try, take risks, and bring in outside experiences and bring new perspectives. And I think that's what I do."

Ross gave me the foundation needed to understand the complexities of supply chains, a bias for action and producing measurable results, and the attitude to be willing to take on global supply chain challenges.

Maj Aho’s advice to future Michigan Ross MSCM graduates? "Go out there and change the world. Raise the bar everywhere you go, don't just fill a seat. Ross is just the beginning of your journey — it opens the door, and you have to take it from there."