Katri Kauppi (nee Karjalainen) got her PhD from Helsinki School of Economics in 2009, on the topic of "Challenges of purchasing centralization - Empirical evidence from Public Procurement". She was the youngest female doctor to graduate from the school. After her graduation, she has worked as an Assistant Professor of Operations Management at Manchester Business School, and as an Assistant Professor of Purchasing and Supply Chain Management at Nottingham University Business School. In August 2012 Katri started in the tenure track of Aalto University.

Katri's research is in the area of purchasing and supply chain management. Her main focus areas include organisational theory applications in purchasing and supply chain management, public procurement (including centralization, non-compliant purchases and services outsourcing), international comparative surveys, social sustainability in supply chains as well as principal-agent relationships in purchasing and supply chain management.

Katri is also part of the international purchasing survey -group (www.ipsurvey.org) and the international manufacturing strategy survey group (manufacturingstrategy.net).