If you are an industry expert with years of experience and would welcome the opportunity to strengthen your reputation as a thought leader, we would love to hear from you.
Our Speaker Faculty is constantly evolving, for consideration or to nominate an industry leader, please call us at 416-829-6500 or email us at info@executiveplatforms.com.
Please check back as our speaker faculty is frequently updated.
Dave Clark has more than 20 years of business leadership experience at Amazon. Throughout his career, Dave has built a reputation for logistical excellence, strategic and long-term thinking, a high degree of integrity, and a deep commitment to serving customers.
Dave began his career at Amazon in 1999 as an Operations Manager, working his way up to become the CEO of Amazon’s worldwide consumer business in 2021. While holding significant leadership roles, Dave was the driving force behind the development and expansion of Amazon’s fulfillment and logistics programs, which have become the backbone of the company’s retail business.
He also oversaw several key divisions, including online stores, physical stores, third-party seller marketplaces, and the Amazon Prime subscription business, generating more than 75% of Amazon’s revenue in the first quarter of 2022. Dave helped define the vision for Amazon’s commitment to carbon neutrality as well, presenting a TED Talk in 2020 entitled: Amazon’s climate pledge to be net-zero by 2040.
Currently, Dave is a member of the American Red Cross Board of Governors as a long-time advocate for the organization. His accolades include the 2016 University of Tennessee Accomplished Alumni Award and the 2018 Seattle Business Magazine Executive Excellence Award. He also returned to his alma mater as Auburn University’s 2022 Commencement Speaker. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from Auburn University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Tennessee.
Gabriel joined Kroger in 2020 with deep supply chain leadership experience. Most recently, he served as senior vice president of supply chain for Mondelez International, Inc. There, he led a team of more than 14,000 employees within a network of 41 internal and external factories, 49 fulfillment centers, direct-to-store branches, logistics and product development. He also served as global vice president of operations for Stanley Black and Decker and held numerous leadership roles at Unilever, including vice president of food and beverage operations.
Donna Warton is the Corporate VP, Supply Chain & Sustainability for Microsoft.
Prior to this role, Donna was the General Manager of Microsoft Devices Supply Chain responsible for managing the end to end supply chain for hardware including Surface, Surface Hub, HoloLens, Xbox, Games and Accessories. With double-digit business growth, Donna led a digital supply chain transformation to scale operations, drive customer satisfaction and be a showcase for Microsoft.
Prior to joining Microsoft, Donna was VP of Global Operations for Dell where she transformed Dell’s famous configure-to-order supply chain into a segmented supply chain model unleashing improved customer experience and business value.
Before joining Dell, Donna led the Global Supply Chain for Mettler-Toledo International, a precision balance and scale manufacturer for laboratory, retail & industrial markets. She was responsible for Global Procurement, Logistics, Supplier Quality, and Supply Chain Operations.
Prior to Mettler-Toledo, Donna was Corporate Vice President of Global Operations and Supply Chain for Motorola’s Mobile Device business. During her time at Motorola, she ran the supply chain that launched RAZR, which at the peak was shipping 100 million units a year.
Donna started her career in finance supporting various functions including sales & marketing, engineering, manufacturing, merges & acquisitions, and corporate finance.
Donna has a passion for business and building great teams. In 2019, Microsoft Devices Supply Chain won the talent diversity champion of the year award. In 2013, Donna won the Inspiring Leader award at Dell’s company-wide annual leadership meeting. Donna holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accountancy from Northern Illinois University and an MBA from Loyola University.
Ewan Andrew was appointed President, Global Supply Chain & Procurement and Chief Sustainability Officer in September 2019.
Prathibha Rajashekhar currently serves as Senior Vice President of Innovation & Automation at Walmart U.S., where she and her team are responsible for transforming the company’s end-to-end supply chain and store operations through the advancement of high-tech capabilities. This includes modernizing the company’s facilities with state-of-the-art automation designed to enhance the work environment for associates. It also includes digitizing the in-store experience with next generation solutions such as touchless checkout, digital shelf labels and more.
Prior to this role, Prathibha served as Senior Vice President, Private Brands and Sourcing at Sam’s Club where she led the development of Member’s Mark products that drove member advocacy and profitable growth for the business. During her time at Sam’s Club, she also served as Vice President/ DMM for Baby, HBA & OTC categories, responsible for identifying great items and bringing them to life at the best value for Sams’ members.
Before serving in Merchandising at Sam’s she served as VP for Data, Analytics, and Insights for Global People, responsible for providing insights around human capital to enable better talent outcomes for serving our customers better.
She started with Walmart in January 2011 serving as Manager of Operations for Walmart Tech. Since 2011, Prathibha has had the opportunity to serve in multiple positions and areas within the company in Global Leverage, Shared Services, and Next Generation Supply Chain. Prior to Walmart, she worked as a consultant helping design and build IT Architecture for Insurance and Financial Services companies and establish and manage IT operations for the Vehicle Planning division for General Motors.
Prathibha currently serves on STEMconnector, collaborating with other companies to create a focus on STEM talent pipeline, jobs, and recruitment with an emphasis on diversity and women. She has a passion for helping youth and is currently working with Boys and Girls club of Benton county.
Prathibha holds a Master of Computer Science degree from University of Mysore, India and an MBA from Duke University. Prathibha and her family reside in Northwest Arkansas.
Kathryn E. Wengel (Kathy) is Executive Vice President, Chief Technical Operations & Risk Officer for Johnson & Johnson, and a member of the Company’s Executive Committee. She has significant healthcare, operations and global business expertise – with more than three decades of experience in leadership positions at Johnson & Johnson.
In her current role, Kathy is responsible for the continued strengthening of the Company’s core technical operations and risk management capabilities. She leads key technical operations functions, including: Procurement, Engineering & Property Services, Sustainability and cross-sector Supply Chain teams focused on standards, services, strategic programs and data science, as well as critical risk functions, including: Quality & Compliance, Health Care Compliance, Environmental Health & Safety, Global Security and Global Brand Protection. A strong developer of globally diverse teams, Kathy also plays an important role with external stakeholders to advance critical risk management, resilience and technical operations priorities on behalf of Johnson & Johnson and the healthcare industry.
Most recently, Kathy served for nine years as Executive Vice President and Chief Global Supply Chain Officer, and prior to that, as the Company’s first Chief Quality Officer. Under her leadership, Johnson & Johnson has become the only healthcare company ever ranked among the top five on the Supply Chain Top 25 list by Gartner, Inc. – a ranking that recognizes the critical role its Supply Chain has played as an integrator across an ecosystem of internal and external partners.
Externally from Johnson & Johnson, Kathy serves as a member of the Board of Directors at the Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (Labcorp), a leading global life sciences company. She is the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors at the National Association of Manufacturers in the U.S. She also serves as Chair of the Board of GS1 Global, a nonprofit that develops and maintains global supply chain standards. Within Johnson & Johnson, Kathy is executive sponsor for the Women’s Leadership & Inclusion (WLI) initiative and the Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Manufacturing and Design (WiSTEM2D) program.
In 2019, Kathy was recognized by the Council of Supply Management Professionals (CSCMP) with its lifetime Distinguished Service Award, and she was elected to the Supply Chain Hall of Fame, the industry’s top individual supply chain honor. In 2015, Kathy received the National Association of Female Executives’ (NAFE) Women of Excellence Award.
Kathy holds a BSE degree in civil engineering and operations research from Princeton University.
Tanja Dysli is currently the Chief Supply Chain Officer at IKEA US. She has worked in various roles with IKEA since 2003, with placements in Sweden, China, Germany, and Poland. Tanja has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services from the University of Applied Sciences in Olten, Switzerland.
Mario is CVS Health’s SVP and Chief Supply Chain & Logistics Officer. He is responsible for developing and executing the company’s strategy to transform their supply chain network to become America’s premier health and wellness destination. He leads teams in transportation & logistics, distribution center operations, inventory management, omnichannel fulfillment, and network strategy & engineering.
Mario has more than two decades of experience in roles of increasing responsibility, primarily within the Healthcare industry – from MedTech to Life Sciences to Retail/Pharmacy. He has extensive leadership expertise driving business transformation globally including in the U.S., Latin America, Asia and Europe.
Prior to joining CVS Health, Mario led the Engineering and Activation organization for Global Supply Chain & Logistics at Target Corporation. In this role, Mario brought increased process rigor and operational excellence by implementing Lean/Continuous improvement best practices across their distribution network, and helping the company modernize their supply chain through the design, development, and activation of new technology, automation and asset management.
Mario has led many different functions throughout his career, including P&L responsibility, with companies such as Becton Dickinson, Danaher, and Integer Holdings, taking on roles in product development, product marketing, engineering, manufacturing, global sourcing, global planning, quality assurance, and project/program management. He has been instrumental in M&A due diligence and integration, bringing years of experience in technology transfers, new site start ups, site consolidations, and site expansions across the globe.
Mario holds a BSc in Industrial Engineering with a minor in Systems Engineering from the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Mexico, and a Master’s in Engineering from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
Mario has lived in Mexico, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and the United States. He loves to travel and has visited more than 65 countries around the world, exploring and learning from different cultures, backgrounds, and perspectives. Mario is a huge basketball fan, loves spending time with his wife and kids, and enjoys scuba diving while on vacation with his family.
Born and raised in Mexico, Mario is very proud of his Spanish and Latin American heritage and is committed to helping others advance their careers just like his mentors have inspired him
Daniel Myers is currently a Senior Fellow at Haslam School of Business teaching as a guest lecturer for both graduate and under-graduate studies. He currently serves as a Senior Operating Executive for the Carlyle Group, one of the largest Global Private Equity firms and is on three company boards. He is the retired Executive Vice President of the Global Integrated Supply Chain of Mondelez International where he led the Procurement, Manufacturing, Engineering, and Customer Service & Logistics groups, which represent more than 70,000 of the company’s employees. Daniel held the same position at Kraft Foods Inc., the predecessor to Mondelēz International, since he joined the company in September 2011. The spin-off of the company’s North American grocery operations occurred in October of 2012. Under his leadership, Mondelez funded a major reinvention of its worldwide supply chain delivering more than $3 billion in savings over 3 years. He has extensive experience in investor management including representing Mondelez in the investor presentations at CAGNY and Barclays.
Prior to Kraft Foods, Daniel worked for Procter & Gamble for 33 years, serving in roles across all areas of the Supply Chain. Most recently, he served as Sr. Vice President, Product Supply, where he led the supply chain function for P&G’s Global Hair Care business. He was also responsible for coordinating the company’s $28 Billion Beauty & Grooming business. He had responsibility for P&G’s Customer Service and Logistics operations globally for four years and while in this role he led the integration of the operations of the Gillette company, a $56 Billion acquisition.
Daniel has strong experience launching new brands and building operations in emerging markets. He has over 25 years’ experience delivering winning innovation leading major global expansions. He has worked in 54 countries and lived outside the U.S. for more than 10 years. Daniel has mastery in the successful implementation of best practices including building High Performance Organizations and Lean Six Sigma. During his successful career, he has had responsibility for over 250 manufacturing plants and 400 warehouse and distribution centers.
Daniel received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tennessee and served on the Board of the Global Supply Chain Institute at the University of Tennessee for over 10 years.
Daniel and Karen, his wife of 40 years, are Christians who have led music and youth groups for 5 churches in three different countries over a period of 25 years. They have been active in mission work helping support and build schools or orphanages in Venezuela, Romania, Nigeria, Kenya, India and Myanmar.
Peter Gibbons joined 3M in November 2021 as group president of Enterprise Supply Chain, which brings together manufacturing and supply chain, and is focused on optimizing the customer experience through end-to-end aligned and agile operations.
Prior to 3M, Peter served as chief executive officer of TireHub, a joint venture last mile distributor between Bridgestone and Goodyear. Possessing a wealth of experience in manufacturing and supply chain operations, Peter previously held senior-level executive positions at Mattel, Starbucks, and ICI Paints. His growth mindset, inclusive leadership, and orientation toward developing talent and culture has helped him lead highly successful complex changes and significant transformation.
“I believe that building confidence and removing the fear of failure are key components of leadership,” says Peter. “People achieve great things when they are embraced and valued; when they are connected, not isolated; and when their intelligence and imagination are unleashed.”
Outside of work, Peter enjoys hiking, reading, and supporting the Glasgow Celtic soccer club and serves on the boards of CP Kelco and the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from University of Edinburgh and a master’s degree in business administration from Strathclyde Business School in Glasgow, Scotland.
Greg is responsible for all physical goods movement, information flows, and logistics procurement activities that contribute to Mattel’s purpose of creating innovative products that inspire, entertain, and develop children through play.
He oversees the overall business management of Mattel’s logistics, distribution, transportation, and logistics procurement activities worldwide. This work includes the operation of Mattel’s global network of 38 Regional Distribution Centers, 6 DTC Distribution Centers, Asia Logistics operations, 2 Consolidated Cross Dock Centers, and a Global Transportation network executing over 12 million customer deliveries across all channels and brands.
Greg and his team work to ensure the global logistics network is dynamic and responsive to rapidly changing market conditions including bringing new products to market with competitive advantage.
Melani Wilson Smith is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of MDWSCo, an advisory and impact investment organization based in the United States. After nearly 30 years in industry, Melani founded MDWSCo to offer businesses Supply Chain, Procurement and Operations expertise and to help them scale for value delivery.
Prior to founding MDWSCo, Melani was the Chief Procurement Officer for PepsiCo. Melani led global procurement teams across PepsiCo to deliver supply assurance and productivity, grow supplier relationships and to build strategic capabilities, helping to drive PepsiCo’s growth.
Throughout her career, Melani has held roles of increasing responsibility including Procurement, Supply Chain and Operations teams across the consumer products and pharmaceuticals industries with Novo Nordisk, Mondelēz International, Merck & Co., Pfizer and Procter & Gamble. Melani has worked in the US and Europe and is recognized as a thought leader in organization and culture transformation.
Melani holds an MBA and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Florida University. She lives in the Dallas Forth Worth Metroplex with her husband Phil and twins, Peyton Ella and Wilson Coltrane.
Andrew Rendich brings 30 years of experience in supply chain, operations, customer service, and technology. He is currently the Chief Supply Chain Officer at Peloton Interactive. In this role, he takes on a senior leadership role with expanded responsibilities that include overseeing Peloton’s Supply Chain, Distribution, Member Support, and Information Technology teams.
He previously served as Chief Operating Officer at Grove Collaborative, a major player in the green personal and home care market, managing the company’s Operations, Customer Service and Operations Technology. While at Peloton, Rendich will also stay on at Grove in an advisory capacity. Prior to Grove, he has held several executive and officer roles with Eat Just, Good Eggs and Walmart, as well as board and advisory roles in many companies. He also spent more than 12 years at Netflix in a variety of executive positions, including Chief Service and Operations Officer.
Ed Oldham, Senior Vice President of Supply Chain and Chief Supply Chain Officer, joined PetSmart in May 2022. In this role Ed is responsible for several thousand associates across PetSmart’s US and Canada DCs. Prior to PetSmart, he served as Senior Vice President of Inventory and Planning at Petco.
Ed has more than 25 years of experience in retail, CPG and consulting. Serving in many different leadership roles at companies including Walmart, Ernst & Young and Walgreens, Ed’s experience spans store operations, transportation, merchandising, replenishment, planning, strategy and program management.
Ed graduated from The University of Memphis with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, later earning his MBA from University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is a native of the Nashville area. Ed and his wife April have three children and four British Shorthair cats.
Jessica Kipp is the Senior Vice President, Head of HP’s Supply Chain Markets and Logistics organization. She is responsible for driving the strategic direction and execution of HP’s complete order-to-cash customer and partner experience. She oversees a largely outsourced, integrated logistics operation for all personal systems and print products. A transformational business leader, Jessica’s mission is to unlock enterprise value by optimizing the end-to-end value chain through digital transformation and operational excellence. Jessica advocates HP’s Sustainability objectives in partnership with our Logistics Service Providers.
Prior to her current role, she was responsible for HP’s Global Logistics Operations which included overseeing international and domestic transportations, customs, and warehousing. This accountability spanned from global and regional factories all the way to final mile delivery placing HP’s technology in the hands of our customers. She led her team through transforming the supply chain, resulting in significant cost reductions, improved efficiencies, and risk mitigation in an uncertain and dynamic market.
Throughout her 18-year tenure at HP, Jessica has led regional Logistics Operations servicing the Asia and Americas markets. She has a Bachelor of Science in Business from Bowling Green State University with a specialization in Purchasing & Supply Chain Management and Production & Operations Management. Additionally, Jessica is a graduate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business HP Building Innovative Leaders program.
Jessica is currently based in the Houston, TX area.
David is a thought leader and industry expert in the field of Global Supply Chain. David spent 23 years with Microsoft Corporation as General Manager of Global Supply Chain and Supply Chain Technology officer, he was involved in every product launch from Windows 2000 through to the most recent Surface and Xbox products. He has built and managed numerous global teams, has led across multiple disciplines including Manufacturing, Strategic Sourcing, Fulfillment and Logistics, Forecasting, Planning and Channel Management. He has played a key role in major acquisitions including Nokia, built world class teams and continuously evolved Microsoft’s Supply Chain capabilities in a multi-channel environment.
As Supply Chain Technology Officer David was additionally responsible for determining the next generation of technologies that could augment and enable Supply Chain capabilities. In this capacity he worked with numerous Private Equity and Venture Capital partners to understand potential opportunities and the overall industry landscape for technology in Supply Chain.
Prior to Microsoft David was as a Management Consultant with Andersen Consulting focused on Supply Chain process and design and early in his career worked as a Project Engineer on the construction of the Hong Kong Airport.
In his current role with Overhaul David is responsible for the strategy and growth of the Enterprise business, as well as being a key member of the Executive Team.
As Chairman of the Advisory Board for Algo David is responsible for supporting and advising the CEO, C-Suite and Executives across all aspects of the business.
David is deeply embedded in the Supply Chain sector, working with numerous early-stage companies, Private Equity and Venture Capital, as well as with the Visibility Council, helping to shape the next generation of Supply Chain thinking.
David is a Manufacturing Engineer (B.Eng (Hons)), a Chartered Engineer with the Institute of Engineering and Technology (C.Eng MIET) and holds a Diploma in Industrial Studies (DIS). David speaks frequently in the industry and mentors many past and potential future employees.
Mario Guerendo is a global, multicultural Senior Technology and Business Executive who integrates innovative, disruptive technology and business strategy to drive organizational transformation, process optimization, and rapid growth.
He currently holds the role of Executive Director / CIO – Global Supply Chain for Cummins and is responsible for all aspects of the technology solutions for Supply Chain and Manufacturing globally. He ensures the business and technology strategies are tightly integrated since technology is required to implement many aspects of business strategy.
Juan Jose Pajon is the Business Technology Global Senior at Grupo Bimbo, where he has been recognized as Mexico CIO of the Year in 2021 and one to the Top Ten Influencers in Latin America for Digital Transformation. He is one of the leaders responsible for GB’s digital transformation globally, where he leads Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, Apps and Cloud.
Prior to this role, he was CIO Global Operations IT Latin America for GE, where he was responsible for the digital transformation of General Electric´s Shared Service Center for Latin America and Corporate IT lead for the region. Previously, he led the Apps Globalizations team at Oracle for Latin America working directly with the ERP development’s team to ensure market competitiveness.
He has also extensive experience in relevant topics such as ERP, Applications, Blockchain, and recently, in all Web3 technologies including Metaverse. He currently gives CIO Certification classes in one of the most prestigious universities in Mexico.
Juan Jose earned his bachelor’s degree in Accounting at the University of Buenos Aires, and a General Management certification degree at IPADE Business School (including a Stanford Graduate School of Business General Management certification).
He was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina and resides in Mexico City with his wife Laura and his children Juan Cruz and Lara. He is also an avid Boca Juniors’ fan.
Ryan Petersen is Founder and CEO of Flexport, a leader in global supply chain technology. In 2022, companies of all sizes – from emerging brands to Fortune 500s – used Flexport technology to move more than $26 billion of merchandise. Prior to starting Flexport, Ryan was the founder and CEO of ImportGenius, a premier provider of transaction data for the global trade industry. He earned a BA from UC Berkeley and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
As Corning’s Chief Procurement Officer, Nolan leads Corning’s Global Supply Management (GSM) operations team. He is focused on enhancing value creation and managing supply chain risk in each of Corning’s businesses by driving deep engagement with GSM global service offerings, category teams, and its logistics control tower. He is also operationalizing the function’s digital transformation. Nolan has rich experience in glass and ceramics serving optical communications, life sciences, automotive, and pharmaceutical packaging industries. He is a graduate of UNC Wilmington’s Cameron School of Business.
Fernando Hernandez is vice president of Supplier Performance for Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS) in the Global Supply Chain and Integration organization. Named to this position in April 2023, Fernando leads a multi-disciplined organization responsible for proactively managing the quality and health BDS’s global network of suppliers. He is responsible for ensuring supplier adherence to delivering the highest quality products and services to BDS customers in compliance with customer requirements and Boeing’s rigorous Quality Management System. As part of this role, Fernando oversees policymaking, advanced quality planning, supplier surveillance and performance, source inspection and ongoing continuous improvement efforts across the supply chain.
Fernando began his career at Boeing as a part of the Boeing Business Intern Program. He has worked for The Boeing Company for more than 20 years and his career has spanned numerous supply chain and operational responsibilities across Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Boeing Global Services and Enterprise Services.
His previous roles include vice president of Indirect Supply Chain, senior director of Factory & Production support, director of Enterprise Tooling and Capital Equipment, senior manager for Boeing Commercial Airplanes in Structures for contracts and operation suppliers in Europe and North America and new technology transfers across airplane programs.
Sidra is a mechanical engineer and a supply chain enthusiast with more than 16 years of experience in manufacturing and planning across multiple geographies including Asia, Europe, and North America.
After starting her career in manufacturing with Unilever, Sidra joined Philip Morris International in 2017. Since, she has held various positions in operations and supply planning, thereby proactively contributing to achieving the company’s vision of delivering a smoke-free future. In response to global supply chain disruptions, she has been involved in supply chain transformation projects, the deployment of digital solutions, and associated change management.
In her current role as Director Operations Customer Services Latin American and Canada (Supply Chain), Sidra’s main focus area is ensuring service superiority in markets with high innovation portfolios. Her key focus areas are: planning and response, loss elimination across the value chain (B2B & B2C) and in-market customer collaboration programs.
Sidra is passionate about working in dynamic business environments and companies geared towards transformation that drive strong execution strategies. Her areas of expertise are strategic manufacturing, process design typically in connection with the deployment of digital solutions and ensuring automation. She is also a coach in Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) and World Class Manufacturing (WCM) with expertise in loss elimination and cost and cash deployment.
Martina has more than 25 years of progressive experience in Pfizer, and currently leads Strategy and Operational Excellence within Pfizer Global Supply. She is responsible for the Strategic design and optimization of the Manufacturing site network to deliver products that bring breakthrough to patients’ lives, including Business Development and Product Sourcing and Operational Excellence and the Pfizer Integrated Manufacturing Excellence ecosystem.
Dawn is the North America Procurement Vice President for Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management and digital automation. She leads a team of highly dynamic and experienced professionals, supporting revenue of $6.4B in the North America region year to date. Her focus includes raw materials, fabricated components, and electronics across 35 factories. With her ability to embrace change and resilience, she has led the Procurement transformation during a tough Supply Chain crisis, supporting Schneider Electric to not only stay ahead of competitors, but also achieve 15% organic growth in the first half of 2023. Prior to this, she was the Procurement and Supply Chain Vice President at ARRIS.
She is an accomplished global procurement and supply chain management business leader with a record for driving business growth and operational efficiency. Her engineering background brings a unique value to product manufacturing and supplier negotiations. She has a proven ability to link data analytics with strategic thinking to advise company leaders on the long-term impact of actions and her voice is one of trust.
An advocate for diversity, as well as a mentor and role model for women in technology, Dawn has served in several associations for Women Leadership and Education.
Dawn holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering with a Computer Engineering minor from Michigan State University; an MBA with an Engineering and Technology Management Emphasis and a Graduate Certificate in Project Management from the University of Dallas.
Shawn Reynolds is the CMO at Aera Technology, bringing a 20+ year track record successfully driving global integrated marketing strategies and thought leadership initiatives that introduce innovation, build effective alliances, and drive revenue for enterprise software leaders. A seasoned marketing technology executive and former SAP marketing leader, Shawn has held past senior roles that span digital supply chain, IoT, and other digital transformation programs that drove measurable outcomes for enterprise software leaders. Shawn is a results-driven leader of consequence, experienced at assembling and motivating high performing teams to exceed goals, and challenge status quo.
Mike is the Chief Revenue Officer of Activ Technologies, Inc., a first-of-its-kind provider of real-time multi-business network supply chain visibility. Mike has been in the supply chain technology industry for over 25 years holding leadership positions at Oracle, PTC, and Logility. He has worked with many Fortune 100 companies including Nike, Berkshire Hathaway, Target Corp., Delta Airlines, and The Home Depot, to innovate their supply chains and capture market share through the adoption of software technology and process improvement. Mike holds a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech and is a veteran of the US Marine Corps.
Paul is the EVP of Business Development at RizePoint, responsible for driving growth through vision, go-to-market strategies, and global partnerships. With expertise in sales, marketing, certification, and software applications, and an MBA from McGill University, Paul brings over 38 years of experience across multiple sectors. He maintains an Executive position with a consulting, advisory, audit, and training business headquartered out of Toronto, ON, and is an active member of industry associations, serving as an Advisor & Council Member with The GW University School of Business and the Crisis Ready Institute.
RizePoint’s main objective is to carve out a competitive edge through new market trends, long-term alliances, and data-driven intelligence from modern technologies. With Paul’s leadership, the company plans to push boundaries, propel expansion through global partnerships, and create new opportunities through market insights and technology advancements, positioning themselves as frontrunners within its sector.
Brian is the Chief Sales Officer for Blue Ridge responsible for driving sales growth and delighting customers. Brian has over 27 years of sales and leadership experience in the supply chain industry with specific expertise in scaling business development organizations.
Prior to joining Blue Ridge, Brian was VP of Sales for Stord and VP of Sales for Ryder Supply Chain Solutions. Additionally, Brian has held sales and leadership roles at XPO Logistics, Bunzel, and ADP.
Brian holds a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Winona State University.
Steven is a Value Engineering Vice President and supply chain expert at Celonis. Steven’s 25 years experience as a management consultant and leading technical and value oriented engineers affords him insights and lessons learned from helping hundreds of companies and operating units improve their business processes. Today, Steven heads up a team of value engineers focused on finding, framing and fixing valuable business problems in their enterprise processes through process mining. Steven and his team are proud to have helped nearly 100 diverse manufacturing, energy, automotive and distribution Celonis customers realize over $700M in cost reduction and working capital improvements.
Karen Bryant is currently the Vice President of Supply Chain at Chemtrade Logistics, responsible for Logistics Purchasing, Logistics Operations, Customer Service and Business Supply Chain activities.
Karen began her career with Dow Chemical in 1991 and served in a variety of manufacturing and technology roles during the first 16 years of her career. In 2007, her career pivoted after accepting a role in Supply Chain. For the next 13 years, Karen held various Supply Chain roles including Global Supply Chain Director, Enterprise Reliability Program Director and Global Director of Dow Logistics before leaving in 2020. Karen worked at PSC Group as Senior Vice President of Operations prior to working at Chemtrade Logistics.
Karen is known as a results-driven supply chain, operations, logistics and strategic planning leader. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Michigan Technological University. Karen and her husband Jerry, have two children and reside in the southeast Houston area.
Procurement Leader and Integrated Business Partner with 20 years’ experience building sustainable supply chains across consumer goods, food, and life science sectors. Currently leading Procurement and Supply Chain Planning for Dr Praeger’s Sensible Foods, a pioneer in the plant-based protein space. Prior to Dr Praeger’s, led procurement teams at Kraft Foods, Mondelēz, Conagra Foods, and Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Alex joined ifm Supply Chain in November of 2017 and is responsible for customer and prospect engagement including lead generation, solution exploration and post go live customer satisfaction. His prior experience includes SAP consulting in various modules and solution engineering. Alex is based in Western North Carolina and enjoys mountain biking, hiking and anything that gets him outside and away from the computer.
Supply Chain leader with over 30 years of experience in the CPG-FMCG industry at Kellogg’s, Nabisco, Kraft Foods and Planters. Recently joined Just Born Quality Confections, maker of iconic classics including Peeps, Mike and Ike, Hot Tamales and Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews as the VP Supply Chain and Operations. Global business to business experience with Puratos, an innovative ingredient supplier specializing in bakery, patisserie and chocolate. Skilled in Strategic Planning, Plant Management, New Product and Packaging Commercialization, Engineering, Operational Excellence (LEAN/Six Sigma/TPM) and P&L Management.
Jeffery has been at CRH Americas Materials for 9 years. He is responsible for Logistics Performance and specializes in Truck, Rail, and Barge distribution for building materials. Prior to CRH Americas Materials, Jeff owned several construction companies providing asphalt and concrete paving services, and environmental protection solutions for highway and large commercial projects. Jeff earned an undergraduate degree in civil engineering at Michigan Technological University and his MBA at the Devos School of Business at Northwood University.
Chris has 25+ years of experience in merchandise planning and allocation, spanning apparel, accessories, intimates and beauty. While executing inventory management (with both onsite and remote teams), Chris has also been thru 3 ERP transitions, in addition to launching omnichannel capability at Justice in 2016 and managing JDA implementations at multiple retailers. Other notable accomplishments include the launch of Vera Bradley retail and outlet stores, managing the DTC Champion activewear inventory during COVID and reducing out-of-stocks to near zero in his current role managing supply planning and deployment at Paula’s Choice.
Chris is based in Phoenix with his wife Lisa and their Great Danes Kira and Heinz; they also have an adult son who is based in Orlando.
Dalina Amador Bouvet with more than 13 years of experience in Supply Chain, is a Sourcing Director for PNM Resources. Through its regulated utilities, PNM and TNMP, PNM Resources serves electricity to approximately 800,000 homes and businesses in New Mexico and Texas.
Dalina oversees and provides direction for the sourcing and procurement processes for PNMR corporate and operational internal clients such as transmission, substation, distribution, power generation, environmental, corporate and general services, and technology solutions.
Dalina also oversees the Investment Recovery Program which governs the disposals and sales of the company’s assets and idle materials, following applicable environmental regulations and maximizing the returns for PNMR. Her teams are also an important element of the Supply Chain Risk Program which monitors potential market threats and risk factors that could disrupt the supply chain.
Finally, Dalina leads the Supplier Diversity program which encourages the use of diverse suppliers and small business vendors, affirming PNMR’s commitment to diversity and to being their customers and communities valued partner and corporate citizen.
Chris is SVP of Global Solutions Engineering at project44. He leads the team responsible for collaborating with prospective and current customers to understand existing business and technical challenges that can be solutioned through project44 to unlock enterprise value. Chris has extensive experience in both supply chain technology and strategy consulting, with prior roles at Elementum, ParkourSC, Fourkites, and Accenture.
Chris leads with passion and focus, not only on designing value for customers, but also supporting those customers to value realization. Chris is based in Annapolis, Maryland with his wife, two children, and Australian Cattle Dog.
Kelly Wolfinbarger has been at Regal Rexnord for 1 year. She is responsible for the role of Supply Chain COE Director and specializes in Category Management, Negotiation, Strategy, Change Management, Inventory Optimization, and Project Management. Prior to Regal Rexnord Kelly worked at Novolex. She earned her MBA at Xavier University.
Whitney Shlesinger is the McCormick Vice President of Global Supply Chain & Logistics based in Hunt Valley, Maryland and part of the Global Supply Chain leadership team. She oversees Supply Planning, Demand Planning, Customer Collaboration, Distribution, Logistics, IBP, Inventory, and Supply Chain Insights and Analytics. Her work is focused on creating global processes, value delivery, and competitive capabilities.
Whitney joined McCormick in 2017 and during her tenure has had regional and global leadership roles in cost savings, continuous improvement, and business transformation programs. Prior to McCormick, Whitney held positions across Manufacturing, Supply Planning, Customer Service, Ecommerce and Sales functions.
Whitney lives in Monkton, Maryland with her husband and her two young children. She is also a nutrition coach with Stay Fit Mom. Whitney holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Penn State University and an MBA from Indiana University.
Prior to ServiceNow, Dean was Director of Product Marketing for Aera Technology and Director of Product Marketing and Solutions Strategy Marketing for Elementum. Dean is an advocate for aligning customer objectives with solutions, implementation, and behavioral strategy across supply chain organizations. He’s worked with various F100 companies in Pharma, Electronics, Automotive, CPG, and Industrial markets to help institute a culture of empowerment alongside transformative supply chain technologies.
Bill Stewart joined Kohler in July 2019 as Vice President – Supply Chain, Kitchen & Bath.
In his role, Bill has responsibility for Sales and Operations Planning, Logistics, Customer Service, and Network Design. Bill has 30 years of experience in the Kitchen & Bath, Appliance and Automotive sectors. Prior to joining Kohler Co., Bill held executive positions in supply chain, operations, quality, and engineering at BSH Bosch Appliances, Lixil-American Standard, Bosch Automotive and Denso Automotive.
Bill graduated from Lehigh University with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering. He also holds an MBA from the University of South Carolina.
Bill and his wife, Christine, live in Wisconsin.
Melissa Fennell has over 20 years of Supply Chain experience across multiple industries. Currently, she leads Supply Chain for the L3Harris Tactical Missions Division under the Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) segment, located out of Melbourne, Florida. Prior to this role, Melissa led the Corporate Indirect Supply Chain organization managing over $2B in spend and driving merger integration activities for the now L3Harris. Melissa has held previous Category Manager and Strategic Sourcing roles in CPG at S.C. Johnson & Son and Kraft Heinz. She also spent several years in office furniture manufacturing at Herman Miller and began her career in automotive at Federal Mogul in the metro Detroit area where she was born and raised. Melissa earned a BSBA from Central Michigan University and an MBA from Lawrence Technological University.
Melissa Goodwin currently leads Ecolab’s Global Industrial Supply Chain. Responsibility includes end-to-end supply chain functions and operations supporting the vibrant $7B+ business. Melissa been with Ecolab for 13 years in various leadership positions throughout planning and logistics. Prior to Ecolab, she worked in both Research & Development and Supply Chain for The Dow Chemical Company. During Melissa’s tenure at Ecolab, she has been driving supply chain transformation by developing an enterprise-wide Export / Import Logistics organization, building an end-to-end integrated bulk supply chain, building new capabilities in the planning organization, expanding the private fleet and driving the innovation of a technical failsafe solution within the bulk delivery process. She has held several leadership positions through her time at Ecolab throughout the Logistics organization. Additionally, Melissa serves on the executive steering committee for the company’s Leadership Development Program as is the Executive Sponsor for the Chicago chapter of E3 Women’s Employee Resource Group. She is a member of Ecolab’s Global Supply Chain Leadership Team & Global Management Team. Melissa is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame gaining her Bachelor of Science. In 2021, Melissa was selected as a Women Make America (Formerly STEP Ahead) Top 100 Honoree by the Manufacturing Institute which highlights the achievements of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Production.
Danielle Hansen is a Vice President of Global Sourcing at JBT Corporation (a global food tech company) and an adjunct at the University of St. Thomas with extensive experience in international supplier relationship management, negotiation, and continuous improvement. She is also the President of Strategic Training Endeavors, and a published author of Upward: Leadership Lessons for Women on the Rise. A double Tommie, Danielle graduated Cum Laude with a triple major in Legal Studies in Business, Spanish, and Operations Management and completed her MBA with a focus on International Marketing from the University of St. Thomas. She is a certified Lean & Six Sigma Black Belt (LSSBB), Certified Professional in Supply Management (CPSM), and Certified in Online Teaching. Danielle has received numerous awards including: 2018 Mentor of the Year Award, 6 Star Financial Results Award, Employee of the Month, People’s Choice Award, and Collaborative Inquiry Research Grants. Danielle continues to train individuals and companies on negotiation, contract management, continuous improvement, emotional intelligence, and strategy while pursuing her passion for empowering and improving people’s lives.
Sasha R. Pailet Koff is the Senior Vice President of Digital Supply Chain at Dell Technologies. In this role, Sasha leads the Data, Analytics and Automation organization within Dell’s Global Operations and Supply Chain business. The teams under Sasha are focused on enabling Dell’s Supply Chain to make better decisions through predictive analytics, streamlining business processes to drive productivity through automation, and enabling full data transparency across the organization with the aim of establishing the industry-leading autonomous supply chain.
Sasha has over two decades of experience spanning a series of leadership positions helping organizations solve complex business challenges. Prior to joining Dell in 2022, Sasha spent 20 years with Johnson & Johnson, most recently serving as Vice President of Supply Chain Technology for Consumer Health. In this role, she led all supply chain technology activities for data science, planning, procurement, quality, manufacturing, delivery, and cybersecurity. Before Johnson & Johnson, she worked with Rohm & Haas (now Dow), Accenture, and at the White House.
Sasha is a purpose-driven leader who invests in the career development of her teams and is known for her strong cross-functional partnership in delivering business outcomes in service to external customers. She holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from The George Washington University, an MBA from Columbia University, and professional designations of CPA, CGMA, and PMP.
Katie Holman is Vice President of Supply Chain at General Mills. She leads and oversees the supply chain for the $4B+ Meals and Baking Operating Unit. She partners with business leaders and stakeholders to drive value across planning, manufacturing, sourcing, and logistics. Prior to this, she was the Chief of Staff to the CSCO and Director of Business Performance Management. She has held several end-end supply chain roles, including the Director of Supply Chain for the General Mills Global India Center in Mumbai, India where she established a Global Planning COE. She has held various leadership positions in Manufacturing, Engineering, and Continuous Improvement at General Mills. Katie began her career at Anheuser-Busch InBev, where she held roles of increasing responsibility in Operations, Maintenance, and Engineering. She received her MBA from Washington University in St. Louis and her BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia.
Paul Henry is the Vice President of Supply Chain, Kimberly-Clark North America and leads the Manufacturing, Supply Planning, Customer Logistics, Business Unit Integration, Supply Chain Strategy and Transformation, and Supply Chain Operating Office for the largest consumer business at Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB).
Prior to this role, Paul was Vice President of Global Supply Chain at Newell Brands’ Commercial Business, and he has operations and supply chain experience spanning nearly 35 years. Paul began his career as an engineering apprentice at Rolls-Royce plc, and later held various positions at the Timken Company with assignments in the UK, Romania, and China. Paul has been leading complex multi-location manufacturing and supply chain groups for more than 16 years with increasing accountability that has included assignments in Asia and North America.
Paul has a master’s degree in Engineering and Manufacturing Management from University of Coventry, and a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Northumbria University, UK. Paul is married with two adult children, and he is an avid cyclist.
Tracy Joshua is the VP External Supply Chain for the Kellogg Company. Prior to this she was VP, Procurement where she led strategic sourcing for $3-billion of indirect spending. She led a cross-functional forum, the Procurement Indirect Action Council, that drives strategic sourcing, collaboration, diversity, and stakeholder engagement across her organization. Before joining Kellogg’s, Tracy had
roles of increasing authority with Detroit Turn Around Team, BMS, and Ford Motor Company.
Elsy Ocejo is the VP of Supply Chain at Illes Foods, a 4th generation family company that specializes in custom and proprietary sauces, seasonings, marinades, and syrups. At Illes, Elsy develops and strengthens the company’s customer-oriented supply chain, while coordinating all supply chain initiatives with sales and marketing, FSQA, Operations, and Product Development. She also leads the planning, implementation, and integration of supply chain processes, fostering a continuous improvement culture.
Prior to this role, she was the Director of Supply Chain Strategy for Bimbo Bakeries USA (BBU), part of Grupo Bimbo largest bakery in the world, where she was responsible for successful execution of manufacturing and distribution transformation projects within, working closely with line management across the Business Units, BBU and Grupo Bimbo’s functional support, and other project teams to develop business cases, detailed project plans and risk mitigation strategies and to execute projects that achieve business objectives.
She also has extensive experience in global logistics strategy, managing logistics teams abroad and trade compliance in US, Mexico, Europe, China and India. She was selected to Diversity MBA’s eleventh annual list of Top 100 under 50 Diverse Emerging Leaders for 2017.
Elsy earned her bachelor’s degree in international business with a minor in International Logistics at the Tec de Monterrey, and a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) at Northwestern-Kellogg School of Management. Currently, she is the President of Kellogg Alumni Club of Houston, co-Founder of Kellogg for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion group and Kellogg Network of Texas and part of the Business Advisory Council for Northwestern University’s Transportation Group.
Andres Lopez Frisbie is the Global Logistics VP for Grupo Bimbo
Andres is a Supply Chain executive with more than 33 years of experience in Logistics, Supply chain, Operational excellence, Process improvements, People development
Prior to Grupo Bimbo, Andrés had Local, regional and global responsibilities at Procter & Gamble, The Clorox Company, Maderas & Sinteticos SA and DHL Supply Chain based in Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil and U.S.
Alejandra is the Global VP of Sustainability at Grupo Bimbo. She has over 22 years of experience in Grupo Bimbo, where she has held different positions and reached great achievements. She started her career in the Food Safety area and most of her professional experience was in the Sustainability area, achieving important improvements in sustainability management processes, water management, energy efficiency, waste management and regulations. Alejandra has the challenge of transforming the company to become sustainable by design.
Anders leads the North American Sales efforts at Blume Global. He brings over 25 years of experience in building and leading enterprise sales teams at several global technology companies. Prior to joining Blume, Anders spent 16 years at Oracle where he had responsibility nationally for Oracle’s Enterprise SaaS solutions for Supply Chain Execution and Planning, Enterprise Resource Planning as well as Enterprise Performance Management in several industry verticals.
Lee has 29 years’ experience in the parcel shipping industry at Pitney Bowes and UPS, with 12 of those dedicated to postal-induction products. Lee has broad experience designing and optimizing networks, including postal-induction, small package, air, and freight. He was responsible for the design, launch, and integration of new products. Lee is currently responsible for Network Strategy and Design, Service Performance, Postal Operations, and Transportation Analytics.
Lee holds an MBA and dual Bachelors’ from the University of Kentucky. He mentored in various programs, such as Engineering Development Program and was an active supporter of the Women’s Leadership Development program. Lee and his wife Rhea have 2 children, Ethan (21) and Lauren (19), and reside in Crestwood, KY.
Carlos Centurion is President of River Logic, Inc. River Logic is a private company, with a mission to improve corporate decision making through the application of Digital Planning Twins that identify the best actions across companies’ extended value chain. In his capacity as President, Mr. Centurion oversees R&D, Product Management, Sales, Marketing and Customer Success. In his work at River Logic, Mr. Centurion has pioneered solutions that combine supply chain, business continuity and sustainability planning, working closely with partners such as Accenture, Microsoft, and PwC as well as medium and large customer.
Prior to River Logic, Mr. Centurion was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he co-led the High-Tech Marketing practice and led multiple strategy and business transformation engagements. Mr. Centurion is also a Reserve 2nd Lt. in the Paraguayan Air Force.
Mr. Centurion graduated from Wake Forest University with a Bachelor’s degree in economics, and received his MBA from Instead in Fontainebleau, France.
Polly is the VP of Industry Outreach and Thought Leadership at Kinaxis, a supply chain planning and analytics software company. Previously, she was Director of Analytical Consulting Services at the University of North Carolina Health Care System and worked in various roles at SAS, in Advanced Analytics R&D, as Director of the SAS Global Academic Program, and in Alliances. She has an MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she also received her BA in Political Science as a Morehead Scholar. She has been very active in INFORMS (the leading professional society for operations research and analytics) and co-founded the third chapter of Women in Machine Learning and Data Science (now more than 60 chapters worldwide).
Fred Laluyaux is the CEO of Aera Technology, a company transforming the future of work through Decision Intelligence — the digitization, augmentation, and automation of decision making. An entrepreneur at heart and Silicon Valley veteran, Fred brings an impressive track record of building successful startups and driving technology innovation. Prior to launching Aera, Fred was the CEO of Anaplan, which he grew from 20 to 650 employees, and a $1B+ valuation. He also held several executive positions at SAP, Business Objects, and ALG Software.
Kimball leads the Decision Intelligence group in ExxonMobil’s Supply Chain, where he is pioneering decision intelligence to be scalable across the global enterprise.
As a digital leader, his strengths lie in bridging business and digital teams to drive real value. In his 18 years at ExxonMobil, Kimball has led efforts in Cost to Serve, Logistics optimization, Change Management, and Digital Transformation.
He is married with five children and currently lives in the Houston, TX area.
Throughout her career, Amy has been at the forefront of supply chain data and technology, selling for Dun & Bradstreet when they launched their supplier scoring solutions and part of the team that launched Gartner for Supply Chain. Featured as a guest on various supply chain technology podcasts, Amy has supported multiple Fortune 500 companies in their quest to optimize operations and drive innovation. She is the Algo Global Account Director for Microsoft, leading the global CPFR program for XBox and Surface devices. In addition to her role in sales, Amy is deeply involved with Algo’s AI development roadmap and focused on co-creating cutting edge technology solutions that drive continuous improvement for her customers.
Sean Bennett is an accomplished operations leader with a proven track record of developing and implementing strategic initiatives and unifying cross functional teams to meet company goals in fast-paced, dynamic and unstructured environments. Sean has extensive experience in roles defining and executing the end-to-end supply chain while aligning Company, Customer and Sales objectives. Most recently, Sean has led the Global Channel Operations for Reality Labs at Meta. Sean has over twenty five years of experience working with companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 100s in several industries across Retail, B2B Commercial and Direct to Consumer (DTC) channels.
Sulaiman Panjwani is the Sr. Product Marketing Manager at Logility. With close to 10 years in Supply Chain across many roles including procurement, supply chain and product marketing, he possesses a deep understanding of the intricate nuances of supply chain management. Sulaiman enjoys translating complex technical solutions into compelling value proposition and leverages his expertise to bridge the gap between technology and customer needs.
Joe has been with Logility for 8 years and got his start as an implementor of their Inventory and Constrained Supply Planning capabilities working with a variety of clients across a broad range of industries like Food & Beverage, Life Sciences, Retail & Apparel, Consumer Durable Goods, and more. For the past several years he’s brought that deep domain expertise to the presales team working with prospective and existing clients to understand their business challenges and align them to capability in Logility’s end-to-end digital supply chain planning platform.
As president of managed services, Jordan Kass has global responsibility for C.H. Robinson’s transportation management technologies and supply chain consulting services through TMC, a division of C.H. Robinson and Freightview. Shortly after joining C.H. Robinson in 1999, he led a team to develop a new service, Managed TMS®, under a newly formed division, TMC. Today, Jordan leads a team of supply chain experts who have built TMC into an international business helping to connect, automate and optimize supply chains for some of the world’s largest companies.
Gene is a highly regarded logistics leader with a demonstrated record of driving functional improvements and service goals for large shippers including The Clorox Company, The Home Depot, and Georgia-Pacific. As director of logistics for Kloeckner Metals, Gene is responsible for building and executing logistics strategies that balance immediate needs with long-range planning and overall objectives.
Michael Conley is a seasoned Supply Chain professional with over three decades of experience in industry and management consulting. His career spans industries from Food & Beverage, Retail, and Consumer Goods to Electronics, Chemicals, and Industrial Manufacturing, plus extensive work in Corporate ESG within the technology sector. Michael has robust, end-to-end expertise across the Supply Chain, including Forecasting & Demand Planning, Sales & Operations Planning, Inventory Management, Manufacturing & Operations, Logistics, and Procurement. Recognized for leading enterprise-wide transformations that deliver maximum operational and financial performance, Michael consistently drives disparate functional groups into cohesive, connected planning teams.
Bernie has over 20 years of business experience in Manufacturing, Purchasing, Distribution Operations, ERP implementations (Oracle), and would be described as a team leader. I carry strong oral and written communication skills, along with strong system proficiency. He also has close to two decades of progressive and diverse experience in Procurement, Inventory, Supply Chain, Logistics, and Production Control Management. With a high energy level focused on continuous improvement, he is willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish a mission, and carry a strong commitment for success.
Eric Lange brings 31 years of experience in Supply Chain Management, primarily in Forecasting, Demand Management, Inventory & Production Planning, as well as IBP/S&OP leadership roles. After 22 years of being a supply chain practitioner, he wanted to help as many corporation discover and benefit from true planning solution that is for the modern world and to help transform supply chains to handle today’s speed of business and change. This led Eric to Anaplan.
Today, Eric has been with Anaplan for 7.5 years in a few Supply Chain roles, including Customer Success and Product Marketing. Most of the time at Anaplan, Eric has been a Principal Solutions Consultant. In this role, Eric has helped many customers understand the full potential of connected planning with Anaplan to drive accuracy and confidence in Supply Chain Planning, as well as achieve tremendous results and value.
Eric has experienced proven success in managing several demand planning process and full-scale system implementations across a wide variety of industries, including healthcare and medical devices, forest products, eyewear, consumer packaged goods, retail and electronic manufacturing services. For the past two decades, Eric has been a major part of the decision making process, design, project management and implementation of several leading supply chain software solutions, including Manugistics DPEE, SAP R/3, SAP APO, Demand Foresight and Kinaxis RapidResponse, Steelwedge and Anaplan.
Kristina Hull is a seasoned product manager with 6+ years of experience in both hardware and software development. Her expertise focuses on the intersection of consumer retail and supply chain industries. She is a strategic thinker who leads with empathy and encourages collaboration. Her ability to distill complex technical concepts into actionable insights has enabled accelerated product life cycles to deliver more efficient, user-centric solutions.
She serves as product lead for NCoder, a Nordstrom integrated business planning initiative. With her support, NCoder has reduced targeted planning cycle timelines by 75% and improved forecast accuracy to drive 3 million in operating cost reduction for 2023.
Trent is a business and technology leader with 12+ years of experience in product strategy, development, delivery and support. He is a passionate change advocate with a focus on enabling solutions centered on seamless functionality, simplistic design, and reliable performance with a low total cost of ownership. His strength as a liaison-leader between business and IT aims to ensure solutions delivered optimize and enhance your workforce while enabling growth for years to come.
David Petrucci is a managing director with global consulting firm Protiviti and leader of its Global Supply Chain and Operations practice. He has 30 years of experience in supply chain and operational improvement and innovation in technology, consulting and industry roles. David has assisted companies in a variety of industry sectors, including retail, manufacturing and distribution, energy and defense, to reimagine their supply chains and balance efficiency with flexibility and resiliency.
Prior to joining Protiviti, Petrucci held leadership roles at Microsoft, Oliver Wyman, IBM and Honda.
David holds an MBA in operations and supply chain management from The Ohio State University and bachelor degrees in mechanical engineering and manufacturing engineering from the University of Dayton in Ohio.
As a Partner and General Manager, Mike leads the product and engineering teams responsible for Microsoft’s Supply Chain Business Applications. He brings 18 years of leadership experience across Operations, Management and Technology. Mike has held roles in the US and Internationally with companies ranging from a few hundred employees to tens of thousands. Having led teams across in various organizations (Amazon [Last Mile Global Expansion, NA Retail], Convoy [Marketplace Growth], Nike [NA Demand Planning], Best Buy [multiple]) there’s always a theme of technology and the movement of goods. At Microsoft, his product and engineering teams are building technology to help customers and partners accelerate their supply chain using cloud, AI and edge technologies.
Originally from Canada, Mike holds multiple patents in supply chain and loves speaking/advising on the intersection of supply chain and technology. He holds an MBA (focused on Supply Chain Management) from Pennsylvania State University, a LSS Green Belt, and a BA from Simon Fraser University. He currently resides in Seattle with his wife and two children.
Joe McBrayer is the SVP of Technology at Quantix where he leads the Technology function for the organization. He joined the company in 2020 and has led five technology integrations from acquisitions along with a fleet-wide transition of ELD providers.
Joe comes from a background in software companies with an emphasis on data. He uses that background to help modernize the way Quantix operates, including leading strategy around upgrading systems and technology, driving development of operational data and dashboards, and providing solutions for technical automation and process improvements.
As Director of Marketing at apexanalytix, Matthew Morookian leads the development of product messaging and content for apex’s solutions. Favorite part of his job is working with clients to tell their stories for peers at trade shows and during virtual events. Prior to apex, Matthew was responsible for client engagements and marketing for the IoT consulting firm 151 Advisors. He received his MBA at Baruch College.
Gregg is a Certified Public Accountant and has a master’s degree in business; he has led the National Service Center in Phoenix Arizona for the past 20 years. With the merger of Safeway and Albertsons, the National Service Center is now responsible for all aspects of retail accounting processes and payroll for 2,300 stores, 300,000 employees, 27 distribution facilities and 20 manufacturing plants with 22 different banners throughout the United States.
Prior to joining Safeway/Albertsons, Gregg worked for the Dial Corporation for 18 years. He was Director of Finance for the International Division, including Asia/Australia and lived in Hong Kong for a time.
Heidi Benko is VP Product Marketing and Strategy for Infor Nexus. Heidi has over 20 years of experience in supply chain product management, solutions strategy, and marketing, delivering innovative supply chain solutions to companies across industries that help them transform their supply chain operations.
Will joined Axon in 2021 as Sr. Director, Global Strategic Sourcing after 25+ years in Aerospace and Defense. Will is a ‘recovering engineer’ lucky enough to have also had numerous broad leadership roles in functions including operations, customer business, sales, tactical procurement, consulting, and strategic sourcing. In his prior strategic sourcing roles, he has accumulated a wealth of experience ensuring continuity of supply and best-value supply chain solutions in large, complex, highly regulated environments that have included extensive supplier-owned IP and compliance with US Government acquisition requirements. Will holds a BSME from the University of Michigan and an MBA from ASU.
Nick Ciminillo is the Vice President of Solutions Engineering at Alloy.ai. With over two decades of experience in technology and solution engineering, Nick spends most of his day working with our prospective customers understanding their challenges and pain points while demonstrating how the Alloy solution can be used to maximize business value.
Nick holds an MBA from Franklin University and has Supply Chain experience working with companies such as Oracle, Kinaxis and Relex.
Philip Myers is a singer-songwriter and recording artist, who has performed custom corporate shows around the world for the past 18 years. After earning two music degrees at the University of Tennessee, he spent time in Nashville recording studios with many music legends, including Johnny Cash, Alabama, Vince Gill and Garth Brooks, and worked as a staff writer at RCA Records. A highlight of his early career was performing the role of Jesus in the National Broadway Tour of Jesus Christ Superstar. His resume includes opening shows or sharing the stage with many well-known Grammy and CMA Award winners, including Elton John, Celine Dion, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, and Ray Charles. His voice has been heard across the country in national jingles for such iconic brands as Clorox, Nabisco, Oreo Cookies, and Coors Beer. Philip has been featured as the guest artist in concert with the Nashville Symphony, The Carolina Symphony, and the Atlanta Symphony, and he has also had the honor of performing for four United States Presidents over the span of his career.
In 2002, Philip formed his own company to specialize in providing entertainment and production to corporate clients. He has become a highly regarded entertainer in the corporate incentive and travel industry, both as a solo artist and with his eight-piece band. His list of clients includes 23 of the Fortune 500 companies, including MetLife, Raytheon, Kroger, United Health Care, and others. Program performances have taken him to 5 continents and over 26 countries, and dozens of top resorts across the United States. In addition to his performing credits, Philip also has a passion for production work as a creative director and producer, working hand in hand with his clients to produce large scale concerts and events for companies and professional sports entities. Philip’s extensive entertainment experience has helped him hone a unique skillset and perspective to effectively team with his brother Daniel in bringing the message of Elevate Inspiration to the corporate world.
Natalie Murphy is a Minnesota native who moved to Nashville to pursue her musical dreams, where her singing and songwriting skills have led her to shows around the world. A classically trained violinist, Natalie is an accomplished country fiddler with a rock edge. She is a city girl with a love of horses on the farm: the perfect combination. Her fiery and powerful personality mix with a laid-back, catchy country style when she takes the stage, creating a unique sound unlike any other.
She has appeared on the Grand Ole Opry stage alongside legends like Whisperin’ Bill Anderson, and has performed with Jon Pardi, Terri Clark and Maggie Rose. Natalie appeared every week in the national syndicated television series Pure Country performing for millions of viewers. In 2019 she performed in over 30 concerts across the United States with Chris Kroeze, the finalist from NBC’s hit show The Voice. Natalie has made nearly 20 tours performing for troops overseas in the Middle East, and her songs have been recorded by Grammy-nominated artist Cam. Natalie has starred alongside some of Nashville’s greats. Her debut music video for her feel-good track “Something I Can Dance To” recently premiered on CMT.com and her very successful debut album “Water the Flowers” has led to a much anticipated follow up project due later this year. Natalie is an amazing performer who lights up the stage. She brings her abundant talent, charisma and energy to the dynamic trio that comprises Elevate Inspiration.
Nick Hoffman is a singer-songwriter, fiddle player, producer, and television personality. He is also the host of the Outdoor Channel television series “Nick’s Wild Ride”, which airs on Outdoor Channel. He is also co-founder of the Elektra Records/Warner Music Nashville Recording Artists The Farm.
Daniel Myers is currently a Senior Fellow at Haslam School of Business teaching as a guest lecturer for both graduate and under-graduate studies. He currently serves as a Senior Operating Executive for the Carlyle Group, one of the largest Global Private Equity firms and is on three company boards. He is the retired Executive Vice President of the Global Integrated Supply Chain of Mondelez International where he led the Procurement, Manufacturing, Engineering, and Customer Service & Logistics groups, which represent more than 70,000 of the company’s employees. Daniel held the same position at Kraft Foods Inc., the predecessor to Mondelēz International, since he joined the company in September 2011. The spin-off of the company’s North American grocery operations occurred in October of 2012. Under his leadership, Mondelez funded a major reinvention of its worldwide supply chain delivering more than $3 billion in savings over 3 years. He has extensive experience in investor management including representing Mondelez in the investor presentations at CAGNY and Barclays.
Prior to Kraft Foods, Daniel worked for Procter & Gamble for 33 years, serving in roles across all areas of the Supply Chain. Most recently, he served as Sr. Vice President, Product Supply, where he led the supply chain function for P&G’s Global Hair Care business. He was also responsible for coordinating the company’s $28 Billion Beauty & Grooming business. He had responsibility for P&G’s Customer Service and Logistics operations globally for four years and while in this role he led the integration of the operations of the Gillette company, a $56 Billion acquisition.
Daniel has strong experience launching new brands and building operations in emerging markets. He has over 25 years’ experience delivering winning innovation leading major global expansions. He has worked in 54 countries and lived outside the U.S. for more than 10 years. Daniel has mastery in the successful implementation of best practices including building High Performance Organizations and Lean Six Sigma. During his successful career, he has had responsibility for over 250 manufacturing plants and 400 warehouse and distribution centers.
Daniel received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tennessee and served on the Board of the Global Supply Chain Institute at the University of Tennessee for over 10 years.
Daniel and Karen, his wife of 40 years, are Christians who have led music and youth groups for 5 churches in three different countries over a period of 25 years. They have been active in mission work helping support and build schools or orphanages in Venezuela, Romania, Nigeria, Kenya, India and Myanmar.
Joe Metzger is executive vice president of supply chain operations for Walmart U.S. He has responsibility for leading our distribution centers, fulfillment centers and transportation fleet, among other areas.
Joe previously served as senior vice president, omnichannel transportation, where he and his team were responsible for all transportation strategic and operational activities across Walmart U.S. Their scope included global freight to the ports, inbound rail and truckload to distribution centers, outbound truckloads to stores and, lastly, home delivery of consumer packages.
Prior to joining Walmart in 2019, Joe worked for over three years at the Kellogg Company as senior vice president, North America supply chain, where he led the end-to-end supply chain including procurement, manufacturing, logistics, distribution/transportation and food safety/quality. Before joining Kellogg’s, Joe worked for Kraft Foods (now Kraft Heinz) for more than 28 years. He held a number of senior leadership roles across the integrated supply chain in manufacturing, distribution/transportation, procurement and customer logistics.
Joe is a graduate of South Dakota State University with a bachelor’s degree in dairy science manufacturing.
Venkatesh Alagirisamy is NIKE, Inc.’s Chief Supply Chain Officer (CSCO), responsible for leading an integrated supply chain for Nike, Jordan and Converse brands. With a vision of serving consumers more personally and sustainably at scale, Venkatesh and his teams are building a response, resilient and responsible global supply chain network through an accelerated digital transformation and innovation roadmap. This includes Nike’s Global Express Lane, the business segment that delivers hyperlocal consumer-right assortments in faster-to-market timelines. Venkatesh was appointed to CSCO in October 2021, following three years as Vice President, Global Operations & Express Lane. Prior to that, he served as Vice President, Chief Operating Officer for Converse and held progressively more senior leadership roles across North America and Greater China. Before joining Nike in 2006, Venkatesh helped lead consumer brands in transforming their supply chain operations as a consultant with i2.
Venkatesh serves as Co-Chair for the MIT Leaders for Global Operations governing board. He received his MBA from Duke University, a master’s degree in industrial engineering from Purdue University and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Birla Institute in India.
Paul Gallagher is the Chief Supply Chain Officer at General Mills. He is responsible for all facets of supply chain strategy & execution, including Sourcing, Planning, Manufacturing & Engineering, Logistics & Customer Operations, and Healthy, Safety & Environment.
Paul joined General Mills in 2019 as VP of North America Supply Chain, where he was accountable for operations in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. with 30+ sites and 10,000 employees. His responsibilities for North America – and his focus on transforming the network to drive competitive advantage for the business – continue in his role as Chief Supply Chain Officer. Paul is also the Executive Sponsor for General Mills’ Black Champions Network.
Prior to joining General Mills’ in 2019, Paul worked for Diageo for 26 years in a number of senior leadership roles, building an end-to-end global supply chain and procurement experience. Originally from Ireland, Paul started his profession brewing Guinness and grew his experience to taking on global supply chain roles across Europe, Africa, Latin America, North America, and Asia Pacific.
Paul is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin in Ireland where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Engineering. He has a passion for sports, especially soccer, and spends his spare time restoring classic cars. He lives in Minnesota with his wife and has four children.
Greg Jozwiak is Chief Supply Chain Officer for Dow. During his 35-year career with Dow, Greg has business experience in the packaging, automotive and building and construction industries with product and application knowledge across plastics, elastomers, adhesives and insulation materials. He also has functional experience in supply chain, purchasing, shared services, and customer service. Greg has a passion for creating an inclusive and diverse workplace across his global organization, finding more sustainable solutions based on optimizing supply chains and modernizing the customer and employee experience through digitalization.
He is chairman of the board for Keep America Beautiful in addition to involvement in several organizations that support STEM education and community welfare. Greg earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Packaging Engineering from Michigan State University and certification from the American Graduate School of International Management. Greg is married with two adult children and his spare time is spent enjoying family, fitness, sports, outdoors, and travel.
David is a thought leader and industry expert in the field of Global Supply Chain. David spent 23 years with Microsoft Corporation as General Manager of Global Supply Chain and Supply Chain Technology officer, he was involved in every product launch from Windows 2000 through to the most recent Surface and Xbox products. He has built and managed numerous global teams, has led across multiple disciplines including Manufacturing, Strategic Sourcing, Fulfillment and Logistics, Forecasting, Planning and Channel Management. He has played a key role in major acquisitions including Nokia, built world class teams and continuously evolved Microsoft’s Supply Chain capabilities in a multi-channel environment.
As Supply Chain Technology Officer David was additionally responsible for determining the next generation of technologies that could augment and enable Supply Chain capabilities. In this capacity he worked with numerous Private Equity and Venture Capital partners to understand potential opportunities and the overall industry landscape for technology in Supply Chain.
Prior to Microsoft David was as a Management Consultant with Andersen Consulting focused on Supply Chain process and design and early in his career worked as a Project Engineer on the construction of the Hong Kong Airport.
David remains deeply embedded in the Supply Chain sector, working with numerous early-stage companies, Private Equity and Venture Capital, as well as with the Visibility Council, helping to shape the next generation of Supply Chain thinking.
David is a Manufacturing Engineer (B.Eng (Hons)), a Chartered Engineer with the Institute of Engineering and Technology (C.Eng MIET) and holds a Diploma in Industrial Studies (DIS). David speaks frequently in the industry and mentors many past and potential future employees.
Dave Sander is the Vice President of Mobile Product Operations for Google’s Devices & Services division. In his role as VP, Dave leads the development process for various Google hardware products including Pixel, products in the Pixel portfolio and emerging products, and manages getting those products into the hands of customers. Dave also leads the end-to-end test engineering and factory data infrastructure across all of Google’s consumer hardware products.
Prior to Google, Dave worked at Apple leading Operations Program Management, where he was responsible for the development and sustaining operations of the first nine generations of iPhones.
Dave is known in the industry as a seasoned leader with a track record of new product development from early stages to large scale.
Dave is a native of Germany and earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Santa Clara University.
Dr. Roawen Chen is Senior Vice President and Chief Supply Chain & Operations Officer of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. In this role, Chen is responsible for Qualcomm’s worldwide semiconductor operations and supply chain as well as all manufacturing engineering functions.
Chen employs strategies to drive operational efficiency and resilience through Qualcomm’s global supply chains and oversees advanced silicon and package technology development to support Qualcomm’s product roadmap. Additionally, Chen has overseen Qualcomm’s product/test engineering, quality/reliability, global procurement. Previously Chen also served as COO at Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT, Qualcomm’s semiconductor division).
Prior to Qualcomm, Chen was vice president of manufacturing operations at Marvell Semiconductor. Previously, Chen held a variety of leadership roles, including vice president and general manager of the Mobile Communication and Connectivity business unit, during his tenure at Marvell. Before Marvell, Chen also held technical and business positions at Intel and TSMC.
Chen earned a bachelor’s degree in Physics from National Tsing-Hua University in Taiwan, a master’s degree in Materials Science from University of California, San Diego, and a doctorate in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley, with research concentrations in semiconductor manufacturing and machine learning. Chen was also a graduate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Emerging COO Program.
Meri Stevens is the Johnson & Johnson Worldwide Vice President, Consumer Health Supply Chain and Deliver. Meri assumed the Deliver leadership role in May 2019. In July 2020, she expanded her leadership responsibilities to include the Consumer Health Supply Chain. Prior to this, Meri led J&J Supply Chain Strategy and Deployment, championing the global supply chain transformation, a position she held since 2015.
In her role, Meri is responsible for the Consumer Health Supply Chain organization end to end and all global Deliver functions for Johnson & Johnson, including order fulfillment and customer service. Meri is transforming these organizations to achieve world class reliability and sustainability, unlocking value for profitable growth. By embracing the power of digital, her teams are achieving greater agility, innovation and resilience, assuring the continued supply of Johnson & Johnson’s iconic brands to customers, consumers and communities globally.
Meri has more than 30 years of operations experience through a series of senior leadership positions with global corporations. Prior to Johnson & Johnson, she was the Chief Supply Chain Officer at Newell Rubbermaid. She also held operations and procurement leadership roles at Tyco, Bertelsmann, Knoll and General Electric.
Meri is a purpose-driven leader with a strong commitment to DE&I. She’s a passionate champion of girls and women in STEM. At Johnson & Johnson, she is an executive sponsor of our Youth Pillar of the Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Manufacturing and Design (WiSTEM2D) program. Meri serves on the Advisory Board of the Smithsonian Science Education Center.
Meri holds a B.S. in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and an M.S. in Industrial Management, both from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Carrie Uhl joined GE Healthcare in 2019 as Chief Procurement Officer, where she is responsible for setting the vision and strategy for the global sourcing process, ensuring consistent and effective approaches to supplier selection and supplier quality, strategic category management, total cost of ownership improvement, and supply chain risk mitigation.
Prior to joining GE Healthcare, Carrie was the VP of Purchasing and Supply Chain, Americas at Magna International, a global leader in mobility technology. She also held purchasing positions at both Lear Corporation and Guardian Industries.
Carrie earned a B.S. in Human and Organizational Development from Vanderbilt University. She chairs the advisory board for Wayne State University’s global supply chain program and serves on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee for Junior Achievement of Southeast Michigan. Carrie is also a proud member of Women in Manufacturing and is Vice Chair of the Board of Directors.
In 2015, she was named by Automotive News as one of the 100 Leading Women in the North American auto industry and was included in its 2016 class of Rising Stars for automakers and suppliers.
A 30-year Supply Chain executive with a proven track record of game changing results anchored in customer-centric innovation. Since September 2022, Rahquel Purcell serves as Chief Transformation Officer for L’Oréal USA, which leads the number 1 beauty market in the world with a portfolio of over 30 beauty brands. Rahquel Purcell joined L’Oréal in 2016, and held the role of Head of Supply Chain, before being appointed Chief Operations Officer for North America in 2020. She spent 23 years at Procter & Gamble, with a career spanning the supply chain, manufacturing, purchasing and packaging functions. Rahquel is a people-first leader guided by head and heart, inspiring teams to deliver breakthrough results for the company, the community and the planet. Recognized as an inspirational leader motivating people to perform at high levels, she is a change agent with experience and impact across the US and Europe in the beauty, consumer products, automotive and beverage industries.
Rahquel Purcell is a graduate of the University of Michigan, and she holds honorary degrees from MIT, Harvard and the CEDEP Business School in Paris. She previously served on the Board of Directors for the Cincinnati Urban League, and United Way.
With over 16 years’ experience in Unilever’s Procurement and Supply Chain organisations, Sudeep is well versed in leading large, cross-cultural teams and strategic supplier partnerships to deliver both top-line growth and bottom-line savings.
Currently the VP Procurement for Unilever North and Latin America, as well as Unilever’s Global Beauty and Wellbeing Business Group, Sudeep is driving business transformation to support Unilever’s efforts to buy better than the competition, source sustainably and generate mutual growth with purpose-led partners. Sudeep recently established a Strategy & Insights team to leverage the latest digital tools, data, and analytics to support this ambition.
He has made considerable impact in sustainability, having led a transformative industry-wide programme for palm oil in 2019 which brought together key palm suppliers, NGOs and smallholder farmers to ensure a sustainable supply chain for Unilever and other companies. He also designed and led the implementation of a multi-million-dollar Unilever investment in an Indonesian palm oil processing facility, to ensure a sustainable supply of oleochemicals for Unilever’s brands.
Sudeep has lived and worked in Asia (India, Singapore) and the US and has travelled extensively across Asia, North America, Europe, and Africa. His personal interests include meeting new people, experiencing new cultures and photography.
Jeff Fleck has been Senior Vice President, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products Company since January 2016. Previously, Mr. Fleck served as Senior Vice President, Chief Supply Chain and R&D Officer for Zep Inc., a leading manufacturer of specialty chemical products from September 2010 to December 2015. Prior thereto, Mr. Fleck held various supply chain management leadership positions at The Clorox Company, American Home Products and Cargill Incorporated.
Mr. Fleck earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and holds a Master of Business Administration in Business Strategy/Development and Finance from Iowa State University.
Carlos Londono is currently Vice President and Head of Supply Chain for Chipotle Mexican Grill. In this role Carlos is responsible for all aspects of supply chain including direct and indirect procurement, logistics, planning and continuous improvement.
Before Chipotle, Carlos was the global Vice President of Supply Chain for Owens-Illinois Inc. (O-I) headquartered in Perrysburg, Ohio. O-I is a $6 Billion global manufacturing company that specializes in glass container products for industries such as food, beverages, and pharmaceuticals. It is the world’s largest manufacturer of glass containers. O-I, its affiliates, or licensees make approximately one out of every two glass containers in the world. In his role at O-I, Carlos was responsible for optimizing Procurement, Logistics and Supply Chain planning and execution for Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific. This includes managing a complex array of products and customers in a global value chain.
Before O-I, Carlos led the Coffee, Tea, Food and Merchandising supply chain area for Starbucks Coffee Company in Seattle. While at Starbucks, Carlos led numerous improvement initiatives in the integrated value network and developed world-class supply chain capabilities for these business units. Some examples include expanding the food business segment throughout North America while increasing coffee and tea distribution networks globally. Carlos was instrumental in the integration of acquisitions like Tazo, Teavana, La Boulange and Evolution Fresh. He developed the Starbucks consumer packaged goods supply chain in the U.S. and Canada and implemented the Integrated Business Planning Process.
Prior to his Starbucks role, Carlos led the integrated supply chain planning functions at Kraft Heinz Company and was responsible for developing their core supply chain capabilities and global strategy.
Carlos received his industrial engineering degree from Universidad Eafit in Medellín, Colombia, and his MBA from Wake Forest University in North Carolina. He is fluent in Spanish, English, German, and Mandarin.
Tiffany leads Commercial Operations for P&G’s business in North America. She is responsible for an organization of 400+ employees and oversees supply chains of 65 brands across 10 categories for our vast retailer base. Tiffany works closely with retailers and product supply in each of P&G’s business units to develop winning plans and superior and sustainable consumer and retailer value. She is also responsible for transforming customer supply chain capabilities to deliver a future ready organization.
Cory leads customer supply chain operations, serving P&G’s largest global customer, Walmart. In this role, Cory is responsible for delivering exceptional customer service and product availability by driving innovative supply solutions, rigorous daily management systems, and strong collaboration end-to-end. Cory has more than 22 years of experience across all parts of the supply chain, including manufacturing operations, engineering, and transportation and logistics.
Will is the Vice President and Global Chief Information Officer for Mars Wrigley and member of the Mars Wrigley Leadership Team. He is accountable for driving the digital transformation agenda in support of the Mars Wrigley enterprise strategy, while continuing to deliver effectiveness and efficiency to existing business and technology platforms. Will is recognized as an innovative, strategic leader with over 25 years’ experience, holding positions in all key disciplines of IT, including business relationship roles, program management, application development as well as technology support. He has built broad perspective through global roles as well as program management for both technology and business change initiatives. He has received awards and been recognized within Mars as a leader for excellence in management of cross-functional teams, empowering and inspiring associates to exceed expected results. He is a trusted partner of senior executive business teams, driving business strategies with the alignment of information technology. Will has been instrumental in defining and executing digital transformations at Mars.
Education
Boston University, Computer Science
Janene Collins is vice president, Contracts & Sourcing, for Boeing Commercial Airplanes Supply Chain, responsible for overseeing supply chain future planning as well as making sourcing decisions and negotiating and administering contracts to support all Boeing Commercial Airplanes programs.
Previously, Collins was director of Sourcing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes Supply Chain, responsible for the competitive bid and contract award process for sustaining, new and derivative programs. In this role she led a team of contract negotiators responsible for providing best value from the supply chain across production and the aftermarket.
Prior to that, Collins was director of 737 Supplier Management for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, responsible for quality, cost, delivery, and affordability performance of the 737 supply chain. She supported a wide range of 737 business objectives including operations, engineering and finance. In this position, Collins also supported Supplier interfaces with 737 airline operators and in-service matters.
Collins also served as director of Contracts for Boeing Commercial Airplanes Supplier Management, responsible for leading strategy development, planning, execution and functional excellence for external supplier contracts for sustaining, new and derivative programs. Additionally, she oversaw contract administration, including implementing contract mandates from Boeing or government and ensuring adherence to policy.
An attorney, Collins served as Senior Counsel, Office of the General Counsel, for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, where she provided legal support to Supplier Management for common commodities and structures. She was previously Counsel, Office of the General Counsel, for the real-estate division of Boeing Shared Services Group, providing legal support for Boeing’s residential leases worldwide and commercial leases in the eastern and southeastern U.S.
Collins earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in government with a minor in economics from Georgetown University, a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School and a Masters in Business Administration from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.
As a member of the RCP Lead team, Rita is responsible for all aspects of the company’s Supply Chain and Information Technology, including strategies, policies, programs and business transformations leading to improved financial results and new customer experiences.
Rita joined RCP in 2017 from Kraft Heinz, most recently as Vice President and Head of Global Business Services. During her 22 years in Kraft Heinz, she held many global and regional roles in Information Technology and Supply Chain, including Head of Global IT and Sr Director Supply Chain Transformation.
Rita earned her BS in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago and an MBA from DePaul University.
George is the former Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Alexion Pharmaceuticals. He was responsible for building the company’s Global Information Technology function that enables Alexion to serve patients and their families with rare diseases through the innovation, development, and commercialization of life-changing therapies.
A bio-pharma industry veteran with over 34 years of business, information technology and cyber-security experience, George and his team develop and implement innovative technology and enable data-driven insights across Alexion’s R&D, Commercial, Manufacturing Operations and Supply Chain functions.
Prior to joining Alexion, George served as Vice President and business line CIO for Merck and Co., where he led the large-scale merger integration of Merck/Schering-Plough across the IT and Shared Business Services organizations. George previously worked at Citibank, N.A.
George serves on the Board of Directors of Charles River Laboratories and the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT). He also serves on the Advisory Board of Sierra Ventures and Temple University’s Fox Business School. George holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from New York Institute of Technology and completed the Executive Development Program at both Harvard and the Wharton School of Business.
George was named to Forbes CIO Next 2021 list that highlights top tech executives who are redefining the CIO role and driving game-changing innovation. In 2020, he was named a Global CIO of the Year finalist by the Boston CIO Leadership Association for demonstrating excellence in technology leadership.
Pamela joined Direct Supply in 1995, bringing considerable experience in customer service, risk management and supplier relations from the Electronic Payment Processing industry. She modeled Supply Chain as a profit center, growing supplier rebates to 100% of company NOI.
Pamela started a family and small business in 2004. She was proprietor of a successful retail gift shop in Kohler, Wisconsin for 12 years, cultivating a client base of local shoppers, day-visitors and resort guests. Pamela’s community outreach included the development of more than a dozen courses delivered at University of Wisconsin extensions around the State.
As her children and business matured, Pamela rejoined Direct Supply in 2011 to lead the Customer Service and Sales Support functions; reducing cost annually, while improving service across all metrics. Pamela returned to Supply Chain in 2017, to develop the next generation of suppliers and Supply Chain professionals.
Pamela is Executive Sponsor of Direct Supply’s Veterans in Partnership affinity group. She also serves on the board of directors for Safe and Sound – a Milwaukee organization that works to unite residents, youth, law enforcement and community resources to build safe and empowered neighborhoods.
Pamela holds a BA in Business Administration from Lakeland College and an Executive MBA from Marquette University. She is an Instructor of Practice at Marquette University, teaching in the undergraduate Supply Chain program from 2016-2020 and in the elite Executive MBA program beginning in 2021.
Pamela enjoys travel with her family and is an avid fan of basketball and mixed martial arts.
Christy Hynes joined Ball Corporation in 2021 as the Vice President, Global Metal Supply Chain and Supplier Sustainability, responsible for setting and maintaining the global strategy for metal within Ball. In addition to providing strategic leadership, Christy supports procurement’s commitments to sustainability and innovation.
With more than 20 years of career experience, Christy has held various leadership roles in procurement, integrated supply chain, and previously worked in marketing and commercial. Christy has a deep knowledge of procurement strategy, supply base optimization, and promoting innovation as a growth engine. Her diverse background brings a wide array of functional expertise.
Prior to joining Ball, Christy led the Global Procurement/Supply Chain team at a large medical device manufacturing company, governing the procurement organization, processes, alignment and execution.
Christy worked at MolsonCoors for 12 years in a variety of Supply Chain/Procurement roles. In her last role at MolsonCoors, Christy led end-to-end category management, including strategic plan development and execution, as well as, supplier relationship management for all of MolsonCoors’ Contract Manufacturers.
Christy holds a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Notre Dame and completed her MBA with an emphasis in Finance at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She lives in Denver with her husband.
Pardeep Gill is the VP of Supply Chain and Chief Procurement Officer for Ameren Corporation, a Fortune 500 leading U.S. utility serving 2.4 million electric and nearly 1 million natural gas customers across Missouri and Illinois. Gill leads the Supply Chain function which includes the Company’s Procurement, Supply Chain Operations, Contracting, Center of Excellence, Supplier Diversity and Supply Chain Sustainability departments. His organization is responsible for managing over $3 billion of spend for Ameren while focusing on customer affordability and mitigating risks. Additionally, he is responsible for warehousing and logistics at more than 100 locations throughout MO and IL & promoting access and development opportunities for diverse suppliers. Gill has previously served on or currently serves on Ameren’s B&CS Lead Team, the Ameren Missouri Lead Team and the Ameren Corporate Social Responsibility Steering Committee.
Gill has over 12 years of utility experience and, prior to joining Ameren in 2019, has had various leadership roles at Exelon/Constellation Energy within Supply Chain, Operations and Sourcing for Nuclear. His previous work experience also includes Procurement & Strategic Sourcing roles at Alcoa and Ford / Visteon. He has over 16 years of experience in Supply Chain complemented by over 4 years of experience in Operations and has worked in industries such as Mining & Metals, Automotive, Utilities, Nuclear, Retail Energy and Telecommunications. He has a strong commitment to developing supply chain maturity in renewables and supporting the growth of transmission and the application of digital technologies to benefit the organization. He places an emphasis on valuing multiple points of view and is devoted to furthering Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in all interactions.
Gill earned an MBA from The Ohio State University in Operations & Logistics with a minor in Real Estate Finance. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a focus in Economics and Operations & Logistics from John Carroll University.
He is committed to community service and is an advocate for the United Way. He is on the board of directors for Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri. He has also represented Ameren on Civic Progress for St. Louis and is on the United Way Campaign Cabinet as the Chair for the Merit Division Campaign which raised nearly $2M in 2020 and 2021.
Gill currently serves as Co-Chair of the EEI (Edison Electric Institute) CPO subcommittee to address supply chain related concerns across all utilities. He is also Vice Chair of the EUISSCA (Electric Utility Industry Sustainable Supply Chain Alliance) which is focused on advancing sustainability across Ameren and all utilities. Gill is also the Chair of the CPOs in the STARS nuclear alliance.
He resides in St. Louis with his wife and two children.
34 years with Toyota NA with current responsibility for service parts and accessories forecasting, inventory planning, ordering and delivery, transportation, and supplier development. Previous experience in vehicle project management, production planning, and manufacturing.
Mark joined Cargill in 2017 as Vice President, Global Supply Chain Planning at Cargill. He is responsible for the design and implementation of the approach, organizational structure, and process capabilities that lead Cargill to a common set of core best practices around demand/supply planning, IBP/S&OP, supply chain network design, and production/procurement/ logistics scheduling. Mark has functional responsibility for the Global Supply Chain leaders across the organization, helping to set priorities and lead improvement across Cargill’s supply chain. Additionally, in his first two years at Cargill, Mark successfully built a new Supply Chain Planning Center of Excellence (COE) team to develop standard processes, metrics, terminology, and best practices across Cargill. Much of this work is centered around building an end-to-end supply chain that takes advantage of Cargill’s unique size and footprint.
Kulwant Sandhu joined Outset as Vice President, Integrated Supply Chain in April 2018, she has 30 years of end to end domestic and international supply chain architecture and optimization experience in high growth environments. Prior to joining Outset, Kulwant was Director if Supply Chain at Abbott’s Heart Failure division where she led global teams in sourcing strategy, procurement, S&OP and logistics. Kulwant has led positions of increasing responsibility at companies including Thoratec, Luxim, Miasole, and Maxtor(Seagate), where she was responsible for strategic sourcing, COGS reduction and logistics and distribution simplification initiatives.
Ramnik is the Global Head of Supply Chain, Robotics & Digital at Johnson & Johnson Medtech. At Outset Medical, he led the global supply chain team and was instrumental in bringing the product to market and setting up a manufacturing facility in Mexico. Before Outset, Ramnik led Manufacturing and Supply Operations at Google X, where he helped projects graduate from concept phase to independent companies. Ramnik also managed supply chains spread over multiple continents for Apple and was part of the core team that introduced the “Assembled in the USA” supply chain. Ramnik started his career in the automotive industry and had the opportunity to work on products like GM’s Corvette, Ford’s F350, and the US Military’s Mine Resistant Armor Protected Vehicles. Ramnik has an MBA from The University of Chicago and a Master’s in mechanical engineering.
Mark assumed responsibility for Global Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) in April 2021. Prior to being named head of S&OP, Mark served as Global Supply Chain Director, Laboratory Products Division, at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Mark’s current role includes responsibility for the Sales & Operations Planning process of the North American Flat Rolled segment (NAFR), mill planning and scheduling, and steel working capital, as well as partnering with executive management to implement the corporate strategy.
Mark joined U. S. Steel in 2015 as Director Sales & Operations Planning – NAFR. In that role, Mark was responsible for coordinating global inventory working capital strategy, owned the S&OP process for NAFR, and oversaw integrated planning tool support for NAFR. Mark temporarily left U.S. Steel in 2019 to pursue an opportunity at Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Prior to joining U. S. Steel, Mark spent 15 years progressing through various supply chain roles with increasing responsibility at companies such as Kraft Heinz Company, Westinghouse Electric Company, and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Mark started his professional career as an information technology analyst at Deloitte Consulting.
Mark earned his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, where he majored in economics and mathematics. He also earned a Master of Engineering in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University and a Master of Business Administration from Columbia Business School.
Mark is a member of APICS (Association for Supply Chain Management)
Skotti Fietsam has served as Vice President of Supply Chain for Accuride Corporation since October 2021. She is responsible for Accuride’s global activities in the areas of procurement and strategic sourcing, logistics and distribution, supplier quality and development. She is a member of the Company’s Executive Committee and reports to the Board and President/CEO.
Since joining Accuride, Fietsam has navigated a global supply chain freight shortage, unprecedented fluctuations in raw material and significant cost increase diversions.
Fietsam began her Supply Chain career at Chrysler where she worked in Finance, Purchasing, Supplier Quality and IT. During that time, she achieved $6M in cost savings on the purchase of minivan seats; led supplier quality manager for seven transmission and steel processing plants and launched a Chrysler outsourcing initiative, sending over $40M in transactional processes offshore.
After leaving Chrysler, Fietsam was hired by BorgWarner as a strategy manager for the Global Supply Management team. She was responsible for setting the sourcing strategy for 61 plants across the globe, with the task of reducing suppliers and building a more centralized purchasing organization. In this role, she was negotiating contracts for steel, aluminum, plastics, and iron commodities amounting to a $1.1 billion spend.
Fietsam’s goal at BorgWarner was to become Vice President of Supply Chain. To prepare for the role, she was encouraged to run operations. With that career advice, she accepted a Plant Manager position at a new site near Sao Paulo, Brazil. The first engine timing chain ever produced in Brazil was made there. The plant quickly became a $60 million business with Fiat, VW, and Ford as customers.
Following success in Brazil, Fietsam was asked to lead a larger plant ($110M) in Guadalajara, Mexico with the challenge to grow sales with OEs that had moved to Mexico. Profitably grew by 40% through new product introduction (transmission chains) and strong supplier collaboration. Customer base included Ford, Nissan, VW, FCA, GM, and Magna.
Prior to joining Accuride, Fietsam served as Senior Operations and then Product Manager in IT Supply Chain at Amazon. She was responsible for developing mechanisms that decreased customer delivery time by automating supply chain process for procuring and delivering IT equipment over $1.2 billion spent annually across >3200 sites globally.
In 2018, Fietsam served as President of State of Jalisco, Mexico, Automotive Supplier Group. She is the recipient of the STEP Award – Top 100 Women in Manufacturing. She is a Certified Professional Supply Management (CPSM), Member of the Institute of Supply Management (ISM), and Lean Six Sigma, Black Belt.
Fietsam earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the Wayne State University in Computer Science/Mathematics and a Master of Business Administration, Finance degree from the University of Detroit.
Elsy Ocejo is the Director of Supply Chain Strategy for Bimbo Bakeries USA (BBU), where she is responsible for successful execution of manufacturing and distribution transformation projects within, working closely with line management across the Business Unit, BBU and GB functional support, and other project teams to develop business cases, detailed project plans and risk mitigation strategies and to execute projects that achieve business objectives. She was selected to Diversity MBA’s eleventh annual list of Top 100 under 50 Diverse Emerging Leaders for 2017.
Elsy earned her bachelor’s degree in International Business with a minor in International Logistics at the Tec de Monterrey, and a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) at Northwestern-Kellogg School of Management. Currently, she is President of Kellogg Alumni Club of Houston, Founder of Kellogg for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion group and part of the Business Advisory Council for Northwestern’s University Transportation Group.
She was born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico and resides in Houston with her husband Peter and her four-year-old son Charlie.
Seref has been at Closure Systems International (CSI) for almost 4 years, heading up the Supply Chain and Procurement function. CSI is a global leader in designing and manufacturing innovative closures for a wide range of applications in consumer and industrial markets. Prior to CSI, Seref worked at Unilever for 26 years in a variety of SC and Procurement roles across many different geographies. Seref started his career at the then Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co. in Burbank, CA, after graduating with a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California. Seref also has an MBA from Loyola Marymount University. Both schools located in Los Angeles. Seref currently resides with his family in Indianapolis, IN.
Mike has been with Turner Construction for thirty-five years in various roles including operations, estimating, cost, engineering and procurement. In his current role as Chief Procurement Officer, Mike takes an internal and external customer focused approach and works closely with Turner’s leadership team on the implementation of the overall procurement policy for Turner; leads Turner’s supply chain strategy providing insight, guidance, risk management and mitigation in an uncertain supply chain environment; leads the relationship management for national trade partners; provides guidance to Senior Management on evolving trends; is responsible for the review, interpretation, and guidance to ensure that all Business Units and Procurement departments are adhering to proper procurement guidelines, standards and best practices; and oversees the development of documents and procedures in response to specific and evolving business needs.
Michael H. Burnette is a Global Supply Chain Institute (GSCI) Fellow at the University of Tennessee. Burnette comes to the University of Tennessee after a 33 year career as a Supply Chain executive at Procter and Gamble. Most recently, Mike was the P&G Global Supply Chain leader for Skin Care (2+ billion dollar Olay brand) and P&G Global Supply Chain Leader for Hair Care (4 billion dollar Pantene and Herbal Essence brands). Mike’s supply chain leadership and expertise include: supply strategy/design, manufacturing, logistics, innovation, PLCM, acquisitions, and human resources.
Currently, Burnette teaches supply chain courses at the University of Tennessee and leads the GSCI Applied Research program (white papers) as well managing other GSCI projects. Additionally, Mike is a supply chain consultant and speaker. He has co-written multiple GSCI supply chain white papers including the “Talent – Our Most Important Resource,” “Platform Life Cycle Management Best Practices”, “Supply Chain Integration Strategy”, and “End-to-end Supply Chain Synchronization Strategy Best Practices”. Mike is the co-author of the “Supply Chain Game Changers” book published in 2015.
Mike has been married for 30+ years to his wife, Sherri. They have 3 sons: Matt (P&G logistics), Tom (P&G engineering), and Scott (P&G manufacturing).
Professor Thomas J. (Tom) Goldsby joins the Haslam College of Business as the Haslam Chair in Logistics, Department of Supply Chain Management. He previously served as the Harry T. Mangurian, Jr. Foundation Professor in Business, Professor of Logistics, and Chair of the Department of Marketing and Logistics at The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business. Prior to that he served on the faculties at the University of Kentucky (2005 – 2011), The Ohio State University (2000 – 2005), and Iowa State University (1998 – 2000). He holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Evansville, M.B.A. from the University of Kentucky, and Ph.D. in Marketing and Logistics from Michigan State University.
Tom is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Business Logistics and former Co-Editor-in-Chief of Transportation Journal. His research interests include logistics strategy, supply chain integration, and the theory and practice of lean and agile supply chain strategies. He has published more than 50 articles in academic journals and co-/authored five books in the areas of Transportation, Logistics, Supply Chain Management, Lean, and Sustainability. He is the recipient of multiple best paper awards, received several recognitions for excellence in teaching, and was recently recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award from Supply Chain Leaders in Action. He delivered a course in Business Operations for The Great Courses’ Critical Business Skills series in 2015, which continues to rate as a bestselling Nonfiction/Business title at audible.com.
Tom is married to his life partner of 27 years (and counting!), Kathleen, and they are the proud parents of Emma (college sophomore) and Aiden (high school senior). In his spare time, Tom competes as one of the top masters (over-40) runners in America for distances between the mile and the marathon. He has run 16 Boston Marathons and finished 2nd in his age group there in 2016.
Sidra is a mechanical engineer and a supply chain enthusiast with more than 16 years of experience in manufacturing and planning across multiple geographies including Asia, Europe, and North America.
After starting her career in manufacturing with Unilever, Sidra joined Philip Morris International in 2017. Since, she has held various positions in operations and supply planning, thereby proactively contributing to achieving the company’s vision of delivering a smoke-free future. In response to global supply chain disruptions, she has been involved in supply chain transformation projects, the deployment of digital solutions, and associated change management.
In her current role as Director Operations Customer Services Latin American and Canada (Supply Chain), Sidra’s main focus area is ensuring service superiority in markets with high innovation portfolios. Her key focus areas are: planning and response, loss elimination across the value chain (B2B & B2C) and in-market customer collaboration programs.
Sidra is passionate about working in dynamic business environments and companies geared towards transformation that drive strong execution strategies. Her areas of expertise are strategic manufacturing, process design typically in connection with the deployment of digital solutions and ensuring automation. She is also a coach in Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) and World Class Manufacturing (WCM) with expertise in loss elimination and cost and cash deployment.
Dave is Daugherty’s Chief Strategy Officer, leading Business Advisory and Technology Strategy teams.
Wendy Workman is the Sr. Director of Supply Chain at SK Food Group. SK Food Group is a customer food manufacturing company serving customers across North America. Wendy oversees the warehouse and logistics operations as well as scheduling and planning for SK Foods. Prior to joining SK, Wendy led the supply chain at Kahiki Foods where she oversaw purchasing, scheduling, and warehouse operations. Over her career, she has held several roles at Coca Cola and Pepsi Co and is a part time faculty instructor in Columbus, Ohio. Wendy enjoys building cross functional teams to improve operational efficiencies and employee development. Wendy holds a bachelor’s degree from Wright State University in Environmental Sciences and a Master’s degree from University of Dayton.
Scott Jackson is currently the Director of Purchasing and Customer Service for the Americas at Omya Inc. His main areas of responsibility include managing the activities of the procurement and customer service teams in their entirety across 8 countries. In addition, Scott leads the OTC and P2P process streams for North America and a member of the North America Business Management Team. Scott has been with Omya Inc. since 2010. Scott has a passion for process development, streamlining work flows and relationship development. 25+ years global supply chain experience in manufacturing, procurement and customer service. Previous experience in multiple functions and roles with The Procter & Gamble Co.
Melissa Goodwin currently leads the Supply Chain Planning & Equipment team for Ecolab as Vice President Supply Chain, Planning & Equipment supporting the Industrial Sector. She is responsible for supply planning, demand planning and inventory management across both the chemical and equipment supply chains as well as leading the Industrial Equipment plants. Melissa been with Ecolab for 11 years in various leadership positions throughout the supply chain. Prior to Ecolab, she worked in both Research & Development and Supply Chain for The Dow Chemical Company.
During Melissa’s tenure at Ecolab, she has been driving supply chain transformation by developing an enterprise-wide Export / Import Logistics organization, building an end-to-end integrated bulk supply chain, expanding the private fleet and driving the innovation of a technical failsafe solution within the bulk delivery process. She has held several leadership positions through her time at Ecolab throughout the Logistics organization. Additionally, Melissa serves on the executive steering committee for the company’s Leadership Development Program.
Melissa is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame gaining her Bachelor of Science. In 2021, Melissa was selected as a STEP Head Top 100 Honoree by the Manufacturing Institute which highlights the achievements of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Production.
Senior Executive with 20+ years experience post-MBA in management and technology consulting as well as General Management. Deep experience in advanced analytics (descriptive, predictive, prescriptive) & cognitive (artificial intelligence) initiatives to resolve operational business challenges. Deep experience in supply chain visibility and optimization through hands-on strategy development, solution design and implementation management. Entrepreneurial experience in creating value at rapidly growing businesses, acting as CEO, COO and founding VP at three different firms. Successfully turned around an ailing manufacturing business and subsequently sold the enterprise.
Patricia Covington currently serves as the Executive Director of Global Integrated Aftermarket Supply Chain for Cummins, Inc. Over her 25-year career at Cummins, Patricia has effectively led and supported various parts of the business across multiple functions including Planning, Marketing and Operations. Before her current role, she managed the North American Logistics organization. Grounded in Planning and Logistics, Patricia is a key global leader for Cummins.
Patricia obtained a bachelor’s degree in accounting from The University of Memphis and a master’s degree in human resources management from Webster University. Throughout her career, Patricia has focused on attracting and cultivating the best and most diverse talent. Patricia is passionate about giving back to the community through volunteering and supporting the less fortunate and youth.
Teresa oversees the fundamental functions of the organization’s e-commerce operations, including their fulfillment centers, customer experience departments, and supply chain logistics.
Teresa joined McGee & Co. in 2017 and has developed three key departments at McGee & Co., including Customer Experience, Dropship Fulfillment, and the Designer Trade and Customer Loyalty programs. Teresa is a master planner, effectively executing strategic vision and expertise in tactical, cross-functional communication to meet the ever-growing needs of McGee & Co.
Teresa carries a bachelor’s degree in Strategic Communication from the University of Utah, a master’s degree in Professional Communication from Westminster College.
Michelle is the Director of Customer Experience and oversees the daily operations of the Customer Experience, Dropship Fulfillment, Claims, and Home Delivery Teams at McGee & Co. With a bachelor’s degree in Strategic Communication from the University of Utah, she has been able to implement her experience to improve the processes at McGee & Co. to be customer focused and customer obsessed.
Michelle has extensively aided in transitioning the Customer Experience Department to a new ERP, CRM, and EDI system since her initiation into the company in 2017. She has standardized workflows across Claims and Home Delivery Teams to mitigate key issues, retain customers, and overall improve the brand representation for the continuous growth of the company.
Rich’s career at Darly started in January of 2008 as the Inventory Control Supervisor. In 2014, Darley offered him an opportunity as a Materials Management Coordinator. His primary function was to coordinate component delivery in a timely manner. Change in leadership and new visions led him to his current position as Purchasing Manger for the Pump Division. Rich’s primary responsibilities are to oversee the purchasing and procurement functions in its entirety. Rich earned his Bachelors degree in Business Administration in 2008, and he achieved my Certified Purchasing Professional certification as well as his Certified Purchasing Professional Manger certification. Rich is a member of the American Management Association, the American Purchasing Society, Middle Management Team here at Darley, member of the employee survey committee, and a member of the Darley charitable fund committee.
Rich has a passion for working collectively to solve challenges and improve process flow. He believes in developing relationships based on respect, empower employees through teamwork, inclusion, and development. Integrity, do what you say and say what you are going to do.
Rich’s personal interests are focused around self-improvement as a husband, father, and employee. He enjoys camping, ice fishing, restoring classic cars, and time with his family.
Dave Andres is the Supply Chain Strategy Manager for Caterpillar’s Remanufacturing business, one of the world’s largest remanufacturers. He is responsible for all aspects of supply chain strategy and execution and is currently driving foundational business change to improve agility.
Dave has over 28 years of experience driving transformational change with consistent enterprise impact and legacy. His career spans almost all engineering and order-to-delivery roles. In engineering, he has dedicated experience in research, testing, new product development and introduction, project and program management, and holds two patents for engine controls both still used in almost all Caterpillar products. In order-to-delivery, he has dedicated experience in engines, prime product, components, aftermarket, and remanufacturing and has led a Center of Excellence with a scope of 52 facilities leading 6 Sigma, Lean, safety, quality, system transformation, and supply chain. Dave led the development and deployment of the Caterpillar Production System and, subsequently, the Caterpillar Quality Management System embedded for more than a decade at over 100 manufacturing facilities and the broader organization, credited with transformational impact to safety, quality, velocity, and cost.
Dave holds a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering both from the University of Illinois. Dave is passionate about leadership, specifically vision, engagement for results, and developing others for personal and professional impact.
As a seasoned supply chain and logistics operations and technology executive, Jaymie Forrest leads Activ Technologies in its mission to help companies and their trading partners digitally transform their supply chains. With over 25 years building technology companies and guiding operations, Jaymie specializes in supply chain design and optimization, supply chain operations and management, inventory planning and management, transportation strategy and planning, routing and scheduling, supply chain management technologies, and logistics information systems. While serving as CSCO, she designed and implemented the first automated cross-border treatment facility. Previously serving as Managing Director of the Supply Chain & Logistics Institute (SCL) at Georgia Tech, Jaymie worked with governments and industries to improve logistics performance by applying best practices and scientific principles to improve supply chain strategies, optimize the design and integration of supply chain processes, design and leverage infrastructure, and design and implement innovative solutions. Her experience crosses a variety of industries, applications, and technology platforms including the development of the Coca-Cola bottlers logistics infrastructure and distribution in 35 countries. In addition, she is Co-Founder of The Logistics Council for the Republic of Panama, and Logistics Innovation Centers in Singapore, China, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama and Brazil.
An entrepreneur at heart, Fred founded his first company at the age of 23. Prior to launching Aera, Fred was the CEO of Anaplan, which he grew from 20 to 650 employees, and a $1B+ valuation. Before that, he held several executive positions at SAP, Business Objects and ALG software.
Mauricio Pincheira, currently Vice-President of Operations for Clarios, LLC, is a highly accomplished senior executive with a track record of success leading multimillion-dollar operations across various sectors in the automotive and energy industries. For more than 20 years, Mauricio has positioned top organizations for next-level success by holding full operational and P&L accountability, articulating objectives, and leading teams in executing game-changing business strategies that drive revenue growth, maximize performance, improve EBITDA, increase ROI and shareholder value, and expand global presence. His P&L experience includes leading large manufacturing facilities across multiple sectors, and a global assignment leading a greenfield in Mexico.
Mauricio is fluent in English and Spanish and holds an M.S. in Manufacturing Management from Kettering University, a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University. He has also graduated from Harvard’s Business Leadership program and the University of Michigan Ross Design Thinking Executive program.
As president of managed services, Jordan Kass has global responsibility for C.H. Robinson’s transportation management technologies and supply chain consulting services through TMC, a division of C.H. Robinson and Freightview. Shortly after joining C.H. Robinson in 1999, he led a team to develop a new service, Managed TMS®, under a newly formed division, TMC. Today, Jordan leads a team of supply chain experts who have built TMC into an international business helping to connect, automate and optimize supply chains for some of the world’s largest companies.
Michael Conley is a seasoned Supply Chain professional with over three decades of experience in industry and management consulting. His career spans industries from Food & Beverage, Retail, and Consumer Goods to Electronics, Chemicals, and Industrial Manufacturing, plus extensive work in Corporate ESG within the technology sector. Michael has robust, end-to-end expertise across the Supply Chain, including Forecasting & Demand Planning, Sales & Operations Planning, Inventory Management, Manufacturing & Operations, Logistics, and Procurement. Recognized for leading enterprise-wide transformations that deliver maximum operational and financial performance, Michael consistently drives disparate functional groups into cohesive, connected planning teams.
Brandyn Moss has over 10 years of experience in Supply Chain, spanning across Sourcing, Procurement, Warehouse Management, and Planning. He enjoys connecting people, technology, and processes through seamless process improvement and implementation engagements. Brandyn is committed to serving as a trusted advisor to help companies transform supply chains and execute strategic roadmaps. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Industrial & Systems Engineering from North Carolina State University. Brandyn enjoys traveling with his family and is an avid sports fan.
Dr. Madhav Durbha is the Vice President of Supply Chain Strategy Coupa Software, where his team helps customers and prospects solve various supply chain challenges. Prior to Coupa, Dr. Durbha held positions at LLamasoft, Kinaxis, JDA Software and i2 Technologies, Inc. With more than 20 years in the supply chain industry, Dr. Durbha has broad experience in strategy & process consulting, supply chain software, program management, software application development & deployment, machine learning and data science. He received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Florida and his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology at Madras.
Shabbir Dahod is President and Chief Executive Officer of TraceLink and a member of the company’s board of directors. He co-founded the company in 2009 with a vision of building a business that will transform how life science companies manage the manufacturing, packaging, distribution, and dispensing of pharmaceutical products across a network of trading partners in the global life sciences supply chain.
For well over a decade, Dahod has dedicated himself to pharmaceutical supply chain integrity, making it his mission to protect patients around the world. As a true visionary, Dahod recognized early on where and how traceability technology could be used to strengthen the life sciences supply chain and make a significant impact on saving lives. In the early 2000s, while working with MIT Auto-ID Labs (which germinated the concept of Internet of Things (IoT) in 1999), he was alerted to a series of incidents where counterfeit drugs made their way to unsuspecting patients across the US Moved by the gravity of human lives at stake, and immersed in IoT research, Dahod had the idea to lift the journey of a pharmaceutical product up into the digital cloud; its footprint would be managed digitally, thereby securing the passage of safe medicines from manufacturer to patient and all steps in between.
Dahod says, “At TraceLink, we are blending decades of knowledge in technology, life sciences, and supply chain business process with a revolutionary approach to digitally transform the life sciences supply chain. My contribution is to leverage 32 years of experience in engineering, product innovation, and business strategy, in order to provide our customers with a proven software solution that enables our customers to exchange critical data with their network of trade partners while easing the burden of complying with global track and trace regulations.”
Early in his career, Dahod worked with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen at his Seattle-based startup, Asymetrix, where he established the company as a leader in Multimedia Authoring technology in the computer based learning market. With Allen, Dahod researched and incubated a number of emerging web-based products and technologies, including early initiatives in e-commerce, natural language query, online sports, digital media, and Java development tools. He eventually served as a Senior Executive of the Paul Allen group of companies, and later joined Microsoft as a Senior Leader to spearhead collaboration and knowledge management efforts using emerging XML standards and new Internet communication tools.
An acknowledged industry leader, Jake now serves as CEO for BlueWorld Supply Chain Consulting, providing support to a cross section of Fortune 500 companies such as Cargill, Caterpillar, Colgate, Dow/Dupont, 3M, Merck, Bayer/Monsanto, Newell Brands, Kimberly Clark, Nestle, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Sanofi, Estee Lauder and Coty among others. He’s also devoted time to engagements in public health sector work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
At P&G, he managed the breakthrough delivery of an E2E (End to End) Planning Transformation effort, creating control towers which now manage the daily business globally. He is recognized as the architect for P&G’s demand driven supply chain strategy – referenced as a “Consumer Driven Supply Chain” transformation. Jake began his career with P&G in Finance in Risk Analysis and then moved into Operations. He has experience in building supply network capability globally through leadership assignments in Asia, Latin America, North America and the Middle East.
He currently serves as a Research Associate for MIT; a member of Supply Chain Industry Advisory Council; Member of Gartner’s Supply Chain Think Tank; Consumer Goods “League of Leaders“; and a recipient of the 2015 – 2021 Supply Chain “Pro’s to Know” Award. He has been recognized as a University of Kentucky Fellow.
Pranav is a Vice President in the Consulting Practice, and brings with him 17 years of extensive experience covering a broad spectrum of procurement and supply chain capabilities. He leads large consulting engagements focused on cost reduction, using digital transformation, strategic sourcing and supply chain optimization to deliver transformative results.
He is a leader in GEP’s supply chain center of excellence. He has led engagements for GEP’s key clients across a wide spectrum of industries (Pharma, Automotive, CPG, Technology, Heavy Manufacturing, Apparel and Retail, etc.) across all major geographies. He also provides thought leadership on supply chain, smart factory/IoT, COVID Response, etc.
He holds an MBA with top honors from the Indian School of Business. Prior to GEP Pranav was a project manager with GE Energy.
Martin Rowan is the Managing Partner with Reveal, and his passion is to help companies leverage their current technology investment to optimize their integrated, extended supply chains to achieve a world class status. His 20+ years’ experience covers a wide variety of industries across multiple countries with specific focus on driving transformational change within the organization and their core value chain.
He has helped transform some phenomenal organizations across the globe, such as; US Navy, Campbells Soup, GE, Carlisle, HD Supply, Ryerson Steel, BMW, Toyota, General Motors, Mittal Steel, Sanyo, Insight and Asics, to name a few.
He is also passionate about how supply chains can play a key role in helping the underprivileged communities and is therefore very active in local and international “give-back” programs that have helped hundreds of abused, abandoned, and dangerously neglected children in need. Martin speaks frequently at conferences typically on topics around the importance of an optimized supply chain. In the last few years, he has spoken in Spain, France, Germany, South Africa, Sweden, UK and the United States.
Patrick Lohmann currently leads the Solution Engineering team for the ServiceNow partnership at Celonis, where he helps customers and partners develop solutions that transform enterprise processes leveraging Celonis and ServiceNow. Patrick has a background in business process management, helping organizations run their operations more efficiently, improve quality, and manage risk and compliance. He holds a Bachelors’s and Masters in Information Systems and a Ph.D. in Technology Management.
John Summitt is an experienced leader in Sales and Solutions Consulting in Enterprise Software. John currently leads the Global Celonis Sales Engagement team at ServiceNow, helping clients innovate around Digital Transformation integrating technologies and new business models. John is skilled in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Service Management, IT Strategy, Employee Experience, and Business strategy. He is a solid consulting professional and coach with a Bachelor of Science focused in Management Information Systems from the University of Phoenix.
Before joining ServiceNow, he worked at Ignite Technologies, CA, BMC Software, Maryville, and founded ESI, a BMC partner.
Sebastian Valencia is a partner with Clarkston Consulting. He is responsible for advising senior executives from global organizations through strategic business transformations. During his tenure at Clarkston Consulting, Sebastian has led global initiatives for life sciences, consumer products and retail companies. His focus areas include strategic planning, product and process innovation, organizational performance, supply chain strategy, digital transformations, enterprise technology implementations, and mergers and acquisitions including commercial due diligence. Sebastian has worked with clients in the United States, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.
Sebastian holds leadership responsibilities in several of the firm’s key internal programs. Sebastian is active in several industry and charitable organizations in Florida and Latin America. He is a frequent speaker at industry events and universities and is fluent in Spanish, English, and Portuguese.
Sebastian is currently serving as a board member on the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) for the South Florida chapter and as a board member of Women Executive Leadership (WEL) Florida. Sebastian earned his MBA in global logistics and supply chain management from the University of Dallas and his B.S. in production engineering from EAFIT University in Medellin, Colombia. He earned a post-graduate
certificate in leadership and strategy from the Sloan School of Business at MIT.
Tim White has worked for over 20 years in operational and consulting roles for global companies such as Raytheon, Bechtel, Honeywell, and Deloitte & Touche. His primary focus has been on working with suppliers and supplier management organizations to deliver technical solutions in high consequence environments.
At Interos, Tim works with customers to deploy leading supply chain risk management approaches into daily use. He primarily engages with large, multinational customers with complex operations who are seeking to transition their operating processes to more data-centric approaches.
Tim holds a B.S., an M.S. and a Ph.D. in engineering and an MBA. He is certified in Six Sigma, Root Cause analysis, and Change Leadership.
Jeff Miller spent more than 20 years in Finance and Operations before becoming a solutions architect to enable success for his customers. He has worked in large companies as a finance manager and in smaller companies wearing many hats (including finance manager, sales controller and sales operations roles).
Bart De Muynck is the Chief Industry Officer at project44, where he drives supply chain industry thought leadership and supports current and future customers with their strategies. Bart has extensive supply chain and logistics industry experience, including 8 years as a VP of Research focused on logistics strategy, delivery processes, and innovative technologies that impact transportation at Gartner. He is based in Texas and joined project44 in 2022.
David Blonski is the Co-Founder & COO of Elementum, the world’s leading supply chain service management company. Prior to starting Elementum, David worked in private equity at the Carlyle Group where he supported sponsor-backed investments in the automotive, industrial, and aerospace industries. Before joining Carlyle, David was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. David holds an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He also holds BS and MEng degrees in Industrial Engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Ryan Hopp is based in Chicago and is the Director of North American Solutions, leading Solution development and support for Sales/Operations at Purolator International. Ryan has spent 18 years with Purolator in multiple roles throughout the Sales Organization, focusing on custom solution development for Purolator International’s strategic relationships. Ryan prides himself on being a customer advocate first and foremost and thrives on building up strong and effective teams that drive change within the organization.
With an academic research and teaching background in Communication Theory and Semiotics, which are foundational to Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning, Reggie Twigg has spent the past 25 years in enterprise software applications, including ERP, AI/ML for Content Management and Supply Chain planning and operations. With industry experience in CPG/Retail, Automotive, Electronics, Manufacturing, Financial Services & Insurance, Healthcare, Pharma, Oil and Gas, he understands the planning and operations challenges these industries face. Having worked in both small to midsize tech companies, as well as IBM and Optum, Reggie now is at Anaplan, where he focuses on bringing Supply Chain Planning solutions to market.
Roger Singh is Global VP, Supply Chain Solutions at Vuealta, where he has oversight of supply chain planning solutions, innovation, and go-to-market strategy. He has held leadership roles in software and consulting within other leading vendors such as E2open, Steelwedge, i2 Technologies, and Baan.
As a Supply Chain professional with more than 20 years of experience, Roger advises customers on Supply Chain Planning and Integrated Business Planning best practices, as they strive for optimal operational excellence.
Roger has designed and implemented S&OP/IBP, SCP, ERP, and other enterprise applications for companies in verticals such as hi-tech, consumer electronics, industrial manufacturing, food & beverage, oil & gas, automotive, and aerospace.
Hitesh Ruparel joined 8th Avenue Food & Provisions as Senior VP, Supply Chain in April of 2021. Mr. Ruparel brings a wealth of experience across all facets of Supply Chain with some of the top food manufacturing brands globally. Mr. Ruparel comes to 8th Avenue Food & Provisions from Kerry where he worked as Vice President, Supply Chain and Customer Care, and Vice President of Procurement for the NA region. Prior to Kerry, Mr. Ruparel held various Supply Chain leadership roles including Planning, Operations, Procurement, Business Development and External Manufacturing with Mondelez, Kraft and Cadbury. He spent his early career working for Reckitt Benckiser in India before relocating to the US with Cadbury.
Shelley Kiley is Vice President of Operations at Rinnai Americas Corp headquartered in Peachtree City, GA. In this role she is responsible for the strategic development and operational performance of Rinnai America’s Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Distribution network, including strategic sourcing, transportation and logistics, supply planning, distribution centers and manufacturing facilities. Shelley joined Rinnai in July of 2021. As a global company servicing the tankless hot water heating industry, Shelley is leading the operations team as they expand manufacturing and distribution rapidly in North America to support this growing market.
Prior to Rinnai Americas Corp, Shelley spent 3 years at Larson Juhl leading their NA Operations in Atlanta, GA. In this role, Shelley and her team focused on improving their network design and customer delivery network that supported the framing and art supply industry. Additionally, Shelley spent 10 years at Moen, Inc in North Carolina and Cleveland OH in various manufacturing and supply chain executive leadership roles leading more than 2000 associates. Shelley served as plant manager for Moen’s component manufacturing facility in Sanford, NC for 3.5 years before becoming their VP of Manufacturing responsible NA for Moen’s faucet and sink manufacturing. She also led Moen’s distribution facilities in Kinston, NC and Las Vegas, NV.
Shelley began her career with General Motors / Delphi as a product test engineer in Kettering, OH. Throughout her 21 year career with Delphi, she held positions in ride development, product engineering, manufacturing engineering, scheduling / logistics and plant management. Shelley’s career also took her and her family to Ohio, Michigan, Paris, and Oklahoma.
Shelley earned her Mechanical Engineering degree from The Ohio State University.
Shelley and her husband, Harvey, have 4 grown children and enjoy golfing and traveling to visit their children and grandchildren.
20+ year track record of successfully leading businesses to new markets, partnerships, and strategic acquisitions. Passionate about leading global go-to-market strategy that introduces innovation, and drives revenue. A results driven leader of consequence, experienced at assembling and motivating high performing teams to exceed goals, and challenge status quo.
Matt Montour brings more than 20 years of experience working in global logistics and supply chain to his current role as senior director of logistics for Independent Purchasing Cooperative (IPC). Matt and his team are responsible for making sure that quality fresh ingredients are efficiently and consistently delivered to nearly 40,000 Subway restaurant locations.
Joe Dunlap is a logistics and management consulting professional with over 30 years of experience as well as mentor for several start-up supply chain technology firms. His functional areas of expertise include transportation, warehousing, inventory, third-party logistics, and supply chain management project life cycles including strategy, assessment, design and implementation, as well as consulting sales and practice management. Joe’s experience includes leading consulting services organizations, directing consulting engagements, developing innovative solutions and services, and building and managing consulting businesses. He is accomplished at coaching executive decision-makers, conceptualizing solutions, expectations alignment, and delivering results. Joe is an occasional presenter at industry events, author of several white papers, and holds two patents for distribution automation technology solutions.
EXPERIENCE:
Matt Liotine is a Professor of Information & Decision Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he is the Director of Graduate Studies in Supply Chain and Operations Management, and the SAP Next-Gen Chapter in Digital Supply Chain. He teaches and conducts research in supply chain resiliency, blockchain, and forward-looking technology in supply chain and logistics. As an industry consultant, he has advised, coached and trained thousands of professionals from across the globe. He has received numerous industry and academic awards, and holds a Ph.D. in Engineering & Operations Research from Princeton University. He is the co-author of a new book entitled Technology in Supply Chain Management and Logistics: Current Practice and Future Applications published by Elsevier.
Daniel Myers is currently a Senior Fellow at Haslam School of Business teaching as a guest lecturer for both graduate and under-graduate studies. He currently serves as a Senior Operating Executive for the Carlyle Group, one of the largest Global Private Equity firms and is on three company boards. He is the retired Executive Vice President of the Global Integrated Supply Chain of Mondelez International where he led the Procurement, Manufacturing, Engineering, and Customer Service & Logistics groups, which represent more than 70,000 of the company’s employees. Daniel held the same position at Kraft Foods Inc., the predecessor to Mondelēz International, since he joined the company in September 2011. The spin-off of the company’s North American grocery operations occurred in October of 2012. Under his leadership, Mondelez funded a major reinvention of its worldwide supply chain delivering more than $3 billion in savings over 3 years. He has extensive experience in investor management including representing Mondelez in the investor presentations at CAGNY and Barclays.
Prior to Kraft Foods, Daniel worked for Procter & Gamble for 33 years, serving in roles across all areas of the Supply Chain. Most recently, he served as Sr. Vice President, Product Supply, where he led the supply chain function for P&G’s Global Hair Care business. He was also responsible for coordinating the company’s $28 Billion Beauty & Grooming business. He had responsibility for P&G’s Customer Service and Logistics operations globally for four years and while in this role he led the integration of the operations of the Gillette company, a $56 Billion acquisition.
Daniel has strong experience launching new brands and building operations in emerging markets. He has over 25 years’ experience delivering winning innovation leading major global expansions. He has worked in 54 countries and lived outside the U.S. for more than 10 years. Daniel has mastery in the successful implementation of best practices including building High Performance Organizations and Lean Six Sigma. During his successful career, he has had responsibility for over 250 manufacturing plants and 400 warehouse and distribution centers.
Daniel received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tennessee and served on the Board of the Global Supply Chain Institute at the University of Tennessee for over 10 years.
Daniel and Karen, his wife of 40 years, are Christians who have led music and youth groups for 5 churches in three different countries over a period of 25 years. They have been active in mission work helping support and build schools or orphanages in Venezuela, Romania, Nigeria, Kenya, India and Myanmar.
Alicia Boler Davis is the Senior Vice President of Global Customer Fulfillment at Amazon. In this role, she has responsibility for the network of hundreds of sites around the world. In addition, she leads the worldwide network of Customer Service operations and technology, as well as the Sustainability, Product Safety and Security, Product Compliance, Robotics and Amazon Fulfillment Technologies, the technical team that builds the tools used across Worldwide Operations. Alicia started her career at General Motors where she spent nearly 25 years, most recently as Executive Vice President of Global Manufacturing and Labor Relations. She has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Northwestern University, a Master’s in Engineering Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an MBA from Indiana University and an honorary doctorate of engineering from Rensselaer. Alicia is also a Design Black Belt for Six Sigma. Among other awards and accolades, in 2018 Alicia was named one of The Most Powerful Female Engineers by Business Insider, Black Engineer of the Year by Career Communications Group, and in 2020 Alicia was named one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women.
Gerald Johnson was named executive vice president, Global Manufacturing effective April 1, 2019. In this role, he leads GM’s global manufacturing operations, and the manufacturing engineering and sustainability. He is responsible for approximately 103,000 employees, representing more than 129 sites on five continents and in 16 countries.
Previously Johnson served as GM vice president of North America Manufacturing and Labor Relations, a position he held since August 2017.
Before that, he served as vice president of Operational Excellence, where he worked to develop and execute an enterprise-wide cultural transformation with a focus on process discipline, continuous improvement and waste elimination.
Johnson started at General Motors in 1980, at the Fisher Body Plant in Euclid, Ohio. He earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial administration from Kettering University and a master’s degree in manufacturing operations from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is on the Kettering University Board of Trustees.
Throughout his career, Johnson has served as a mentor to many young professionals, as well as played an active role in community organizations. He is also a founding member of GM’s Inclusion Advisory Board, and serves on the GM PAC Board and Steering Committee.
In 2021 BEYA named Johnson Black Engineer of the Year, the organization’s top honor. It followed a Black Engineer of the Year Career Achievement Award in 2014, at the organization’s annual STEM Conference, and a BEYA Legacy Award named for him, also in 2014.
Additionally, Johnson was elected to Caterpillar Inc.’s board of directors and serves on the company’s Public Policy and Governance Committee, from March 2021.
Greg Smith is Executive Vice President, Global Operations and Supply Chain at Medtronic. He is responsible for the performance and integration of all aspects of the company’s operations including Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Supply Management, Operational Excellence and Transformation, Enterprise Risk and Facilities, and Operations Quality.
Before joining Medtronic in April 2021, Greg was the Executive Vice President of U.S. Supply Chain at Walmart, one of the world’s largest and most complex supply chains. Greg transformed Walmart’s supply chain to be best-in-class, developing and implementing a comprehensive strategy that drove sales, achieved operational excellence, reduced costs and created an engaging, enabling and empowering work environment.
Greg is deeply committed to diversity, equality, and the belief that a diverse workplace where everyone feels included results in stronger teams and the highest level of service to our patients, customers and employees. He was recognized as a 2020 Diversity Leader by Diversity Journal (opens new window).
Before joining Walmart, Greg was Senior Vice President, Global Operations at The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, responsible for 52 manufacturing facilities across four business units around the world. He successfully led the company’s global optimization program and implemented an enterprise manufacturing operating system, a global procurement program and an enterprise planning and logistics approach.
With more than 30 years of supply chain and operations experience, Greg has transformed manufacturing, procurement and logistics programs at companies like Goodyear, ConAgra Foods, United Signature Foods, VDK Frozen Foods and Quaker Oats.
Greg earned his bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Tennessee – Knoxville. He currently serves on the Global Supply Chain and College of Business advisory boards at the University of Tennessee.
Perry Jones, President, North America Supply at Diageo and President, Diageo US Virgin Islands Board of Directors, is a global leader in beverage alcohol. Diageo has an outstanding collection of more than 200 brands, including Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, Bulleit, Smirnoff, Cîroc, Ketel One, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Don Julio, Tanqueray and Guinness, enjoyed in more than 180 countries based in New York.
Perry previously served as SVP Manufacturing based at Diageo’s Plainfield, Illinois site, Diageo’s only location in the world that houses both a technical center and a full, state-of-the-art production facility.
Mr. Jones has extensive food and beverage industry experience in applying innovative approaches to end to end operations, supply chain management, change management, procurement, supply planning, commercialization, and contract manufacturing. Mr. Jones is responsible for implementing world-class supply chain strategies and best practices in areas including purchasing, inventory management, SAP, Lean, Six Sigma and Total Productive Manufacturing to deliver bottom line financial results.
Prior to joining Diageo in 2017, Mr. Jones was with the Coca-Cola Company, where he served as Vice President/Thermal and Water, Vice President/Thermal and Contract Manufacturing, and Regional Vice President for the company’s Eastern Region Coca-Cola Refreshments business.
At Mark Anthony Brewing, a division of The Mark Anthony Group of Companies, Mr. Jones was Senior Vice President of Operations.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Jones was with PepsiCo, where he served as Vice President Operations and Integration, Vice President Operations, Vice President Manufacturing, and Director of Manufacturing for the Gatorade brand.
Perry previously served as a Trustee on the Board of Trustees for Alabama A&M University and currently serves on the Black and Gold Facilities Board at Grambling State University, two Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Mr. Jones earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Technology from Grambling State University.
Diageo North America is the company’s largest market and contributes approximately 50% of the company’s operating profit. Diageo North America’s Supply organization represents the leading producer of alcoholic beverages distilled, blended, matured, barreled, brewed, bottled and warehoused in the market. North America operates 10 domestic facilities across the United States, Canada and U.S.V.I. In 2017, Diageo was named to the Gartner Supply Chain Top 25.
Kathy Wengel is Executive Vice President & Chief Global Supply Chain Officer for Johnson & Johnson, and a member of the Company’s Executive Committee. She has significant healthcare, operations and global business expertise – with more than three decades of experience in leadership positions with Johnson & Johnson.
In her current role, Kathy is responsible for all aspects of the development and implementation of the global Supply Chain for Johnson & Johnson, as well as its Quality & Compliance, Procurement, Environmental Health & Safety, Sustainability and Engineering & Property Services functions. A strong developer of globally diverse teams, Kathy leads an organization across three business segments: Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices and Consumer Health.
Under Kathy’s leadership, Johnson & Johnson has been recognized by world-leading groups. The Company has been named #3 in both 2020 and 2021 on the Supply Chain Top 25 list by Gartner, Inc., the world’s leading research and advisory company. It has also been recognized by the World Economic Forum (WEF) – an international organization that engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas – with five Lighthouse designations, more than any other organization, for its use of innovative technologies at production sites and other facilities. Kathy is also one of the pioneers of WEF’s Advanced Manufacturing Platform.
Since joining Johnson & Johnson in 1988, Kathy’s responsibilities have grown through a variety of strategic leadership and executive positions across the enterprise in multiple countries and in various roles within operations, quality, engineering, new product development, IT and other business functions. Kathy also served as the first Chief Quality Officer for Johnson & Johnson. During this time, she also co-led the design of the Company’s enterprise Supply Chain and Quality operating model. The effort brought together more than 20 disparate groups, all using core standards and operating principles, while delivering substantial value for the Company over the past decade.
Externally from Johnson & Johnson, Kathy serves as a member of the Board of Directors at LabCorp, a leading global life sciences company dedicated to using science to improve health and improve lives. She also serves as Chair of the Board of GS1 Global, a nonprofit that develops and maintains global supply chain standards. She is a member of both the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors of the National Association of Manufacturers in the U.S., and a member of the Board of Directors for the Manufacturing Institute. Kathy serves in several advisory capacities, including as member of the Executive Advisory Board for the Gartner Supply Chain practice, member of the Reagan Institute Task Force for National Security and U.S. Manufacturing Base Competitiveness and member of the Board of Advisors at AWESOME, a nonprofit working on the advancement of women in senior supply chain roles. Within Johnson & Johnson, Kathy is executive sponsor for the Women’s Leadership & Inclusion (WLI) initiative and the Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Manufacturing and Design (WiSTEM2D) program.
In 2019, Kathy was recognized by the Council of Supply Management Professionals (CSCMP) with its lifetime Distinguished Service Award, and she was elected to the Supply Chain Hall of Fame, the industry’s top individual supply chain honor. In 2015, Kathy received the National Association of Female Executives’ (NAFE) Women of Excellence Award and AWESOME’s Legendary Leadership Award in 2014.
Kathy holds a BSE degree in civil engineering and operations research from Princeton University.
Mark Rahiya is Chief of Supply Chain, Technical and Innovation for Coca-Cola North America. Rahiya, who first joined the company in 1997, has held several leadership roles in the U.S. and international markets.
Before becoming Chief of Supply Chain, Technical, and Innovation, Rahiya served as Chief Commercial and Supply Chain Officer for Coca-Cola North America from 2019 to 2020. From 2018 to 2019, he was Chief Retail Sales, Franchise and Commercial Officer for Coca-Cola North America. Rahiya also served as President, U.S. Region and Chief Commercial Officer of Coca-Cola Refreshments from 2013 to 2018.
Rahiya joined the company in Atlanta in 1997 as a supply chain director for the Atlanta Beverage Base Plant. He went on to serve in a series of operational and commercial roles in the U.S. and international markets.
Before joining Coca-Cola, Rahiya served as a Commissioned Officer
in the U.S. Navy’s Submarine Force. He received his bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Notre Dame and is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School.
Mark is a National Trustee of the First Tee. He also serves as the Executive Sponsor of the Coca-Cola Military Veteran’s Business Resource Group (MVBRG) and on the boards of the USO and the East Lake Foundation.
Biswaranjan Sen is a Chemical Engineer by training. He joined Unilever in 1991 and has worked in R&D and across various parts of the Supply Chain including manufacturing, planning, logistics, customer service and procurement. He was a member of the Board of Directors of Unilever Indonesia with responsibility for the Supply Chain between 2009 and 2012.
Following his subsequent roles as Vice President Procurement Chemicals and Executive Vice President Beauty and Personal Care, in August 2021, he was appointed Head of North America Supply Chain.
Bish has worked across the world and will shortly be relocating to the US from the UK.
Annette Clayton serves as the CEO & President for Schneider Electric North America and is responsible for an $8.8 billion business comprised of 30,000 employees. Through December 2019, she also held the title of Chief Supply Chain Officer and led the $13.4 billion supply chain organization that Gartner ranks as the fourth best supply chain in the world.
Prior to joining Schneider, Clayton served as an executive at Dell where she led the transformation of its supply chain and manufacturing operation, and at General Motors where she held senior management roles, including as the president of Saturn Corporation.
Clayton chairs the National Electrical Manufacturers Association and serves on the National Association of Manufacturers board. She represents Schneider Electric’s innovation investments by serving on the boards of AlphaStruxure, Uplight, and Qmerit. She is also on the boards of publicly held companies Duke Energy and NXP Semiconductors.
With more than 15 years of supply chain and operation experience, Charles Liu served as the Chief Operating Officer for Casper Sleep Inc, leading all aspects of the end-to-end operation and supply chain functions, including global sourcing, product engineering, compliance, quality, supply planning, production, logistics, transportation, inventory management and customer experience support.
Prior to joining Casper, Charles served as the Vice President of Supply Chain for Walmart eCommerce to deliver a consistent, pleasant shopping experience for millions of consumers with millions of products. Before Walmart, he had senior leadership positions including Chief Supply Chain Officer at Shopko, Division Supply Chain Chief at Walgreens, and Senior Director of S&OP, Forecasting, Planning and Replenishment at Ahold Delhaize.
Beyond Charles’s current role at Casper, he serves as Sr. Advisor to the Board of Directors for PetLove, a Brazilian online retailer of pet food and other pet-related products, and Advisory Board Member for Nulogy Inc, a Canadian supply chain software company that helps CPG brands and their external suppliers deliver customized, traceable, and safer products to consumers with greater speed, value, and less waste.
Charles received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science from Wuhan University in China, a MBA and Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Susan Johnson is the Executive Vice President of Global Connections & Supply Chain for AT&T. In this capacity, she is responsible for AT&T’s international & domestic strategy and partnership development for network connections. She oversees global and national access management, international voice termination, and international roaming support. She also leads Supply Chain functions within AT&T Communications supporting Consumer, Business and Technology & Operations. Her team manages strategic sourcing, purchasing, supplier diversity, sustainability, and supply chain logistics. Jointly, her organization is responsible for a spend portfolio of over $70B that covers all of AT&T’s technology, network and goods & services globally.
Ms. Johnson began working for AT&T in Corporate Development and over her 20-year career has served in a variety of positions within the AT&T portfolio of companies. She served as the head of AT&T’s Corporate Strategy group and Senior Vice President of Business Development, responsible for developing new revenue opportunities through the application of emerging technologies, and served as the Senior Vice President of Customer Information Services. Most recently Susan served as the Senior Vice President of Investor Relations where she was the primary contact with the investment community on behalf of AT&T including Wall Street research analysts and institutional investors.
Before joining the AT&T family, Ms. Johnson was an investment banker at Smith Barney, Inc. in the San Francisco Technology Group, where she provided a range of financial advisory services to communications and technology clients. Ms. Johnson directed several growth companies through an initial public offering of stock and served as an advisor on merger and acquisition transactions. Prior to business school, she also worked in Smith Barney’s New York office as an analyst in the LBO/High Yield Debt area.
Susan was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and raised on the East Coast. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Northwestern University and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Susan received the 2017 Dallas Business Journal top Women in Business Award.
Susan lives in Dallas with her husband, Sean, and two children. She also serves on the board of GSMA, an international association that represents the interests of mobile network operators and carriers globally. She is an active runner and cyclist.
Alexis DePree was named executive vice president of Supply Chain for Nordstrom in January of 2020 and elevated to the company’s Executive Team in January of 2021. She supports the company’s supply chain operations, transportation & logistics, network planning & flow, supply chain planning & performance and supply chain engineering organizations. Alexis and her team are focused on ensuring that Nordstrom’s supply chain is capable of delivering differentiated experiences to our customers through service and convenience – both today and into the future.
Throughout her career, Alexis has led critical, enterprise-wide businesses through strong collaboration, qualitative and quantitative decision-making and engaging talent management. She is passionate about solving the complex problems that face supply chains focused on evolving to meet the future of customer-focused fulfillment.
Prior to Nordstrom, Alexis spent almost four years with Amazon as a Vice President in two different roles. In her first role with Amazon she had responsibility for Global Supply Chain Planning, Global Supplier Operations and Amazon Business Supply Chain. In 2017, Alexis transitioned to lead the Americas Sort Center network which included over 45 sites across North America responsible for injecting billions of packages into the last mile carrier network. She also led a planning organization to optimize for end-to-end package flow to achieve strong delivery and financial performance.
Alexis was previously with Target Corporation from 2007 to 2016 where she held a variety of positions with increasing leadership across supply chain. In her last role she led an organization comprised of Fulfillment Strategy & Operations, Supply Chain Analytics, Network Strategy, and Engineering & Facilities to optimize Target’s supply chain to support in-store and direct-to-customer fulfillment. Prior to Target, Alexis was with Dell Computer in Austin, TX for four years. She held roles in supplier management, new services development and customer service management.
Alexis holds an Industrial Engineering degree from Northwestern University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She has been an active participant in the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) and is an enthusiastic speaker on supply chain and women’s leadership. Outside of work, Alexis is married with three young children.
Melissa Goodwin currently leads the Supply Chain Planning & Equipment team for Ecolab as Vice President Supply Chain, Planning & Equipment supporting the Industrial Sector. She is responsible for supply planning, demand planning and inventory management across both the chemical and equipment supply chains as well as leading the Industrial Equipment plants. Melissa been with Ecolab for 11 years in various leadership positions throughout the supply chain. Prior to Ecolab, she worked in both Research & Development and Supply Chain for The Dow Chemical Company.
During Melissa’s tenure at Ecolab, she has been driving supply chain transformation by developing an enterprise-wide Export / Import Logistics organization, building an end-to-end integrated bulk supply chain, expanding the private fleet and driving the innovation of a technical failsafe solution within the bulk delivery process. She has held several leadership positions through her time at Ecolab throughout the Logistics organization. Additionally, Melissa serves on the executive steering committee for the company’s Leadership Development Program.
Melissa is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame gaining her Bachelor of Science. In 2021, Melissa was selected as a STEP Head Top 100 Honoree by the Manufacturing Institute which highlights the achievements of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Production.
Philip Myers is a singer-songwriter and recording artist, who has performed custom corporate shows around the world for the past 18 years. After earning two music degrees at the University of Tennessee, he spent time in Nashville recording studios with many music legends, including Johnny Cash, Alabama, Vince Gill and Garth Brooks, and worked as a staff writer at RCA Records. A highlight of his early career was performing the role of Jesus in the National Broadway Tour of Jesus Christ Superstar. His resume includes opening shows or sharing the stage with many well-known Grammy and CMA Award winners, including Elton John, Celine Dion, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, and Ray Charles. His voice has been heard across the country in national jingles for such iconic brands as Clorox, Nabisco, Oreo Cookies, and Coors Beer. Philip has been featured as the guest artist in concert with the Nashville Symphony, The Carolina Symphony, and the Atlanta Symphony, and he has also had the honor of performing for four United States Presidents over the span of his career.
In 2002, Philip formed his own company to specialize in providing entertainment and production to corporate clients. He has become a highly regarded entertainer in the corporate incentive and travel industry, both as a solo artist and with his eight-piece band. His list of clients includes 23 of the Fortune 500 companies, including MetLife, Raytheon, Kroger, United Health Care, and others. Program performances have taken him to 5 continents and over 26 countries, and dozens of top resorts across the United States. In addition to his performing credits, Philip also has a passion for production work as a creative director and producer, working hand in hand with his clients to produce large scale concerts and events for companies and professional sports entities. Philip’s extensive entertainment experience has helped him hone a unique skillset and perspective to effectively team with his brother Daniel in bringing the message of Elevate Inspiration to the corporate world.
Natalie Murphy is a Minnesota native who moved to Nashville to pursue her musical dreams, where her singing and songwriting skills have led her to shows around the world. A classically trained violinist, Natalie is an accomplished country fiddler with a rock edge. She is a city girl with a love of horses on the farm: the perfect combination. Her fiery and powerful personality mix with a laid-back, catchy country style when she takes the stage, creating a unique sound unlike any other.
She has appeared on the Grand Ole Opry stage alongside legends like Whisperin’ Bill Anderson, and has performed with Jon Pardi, Terri Clark and Maggie Rose. Natalie appeared every week in the national syndicated television series Pure Country performing for millions of viewers. In 2019 she performed in over 30 concerts across the United States with Chris Kroeze, the finalist from NBC’s hit show The Voice. Natalie has made nearly 20 tours performing for troops overseas in the Middle East, and her songs have been recorded by Grammy-nominated artist Cam. Natalie has starred alongside some of Nashville’s greats. Her debut music video for her feel-good track “Something I Can Dance To” recently premiered on CMT.com and her very successful debut album “Water the Flowers” has led to a much anticipated follow up project due later this year. Natalie is an amazing performer who lights up the stage. She brings her abundant talent, charisma and energy to the dynamic trio that comprises Elevate Inspiration.
Jackie Sturm is Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s multi-billion dollar Global Supply Management Group. She is responsible for all of Intel’s strategic sourcing and procurement worldwide, delivering on solutions that meet stringent objectives across a complex and diverse set of businesses, technologies, and supply ecosystems. Her organization is frequently recognized for high performance as a 7-time winner of Intel’s prestigious Intel Quality and Achievement Awards and was most recently cited by Gartner as #4 in its Top 25 Global Supply Chains. Jackie is a member of Intel’s Ethics and Compliance Oversight Committee, and directs the Supply Chain Environmental and Social Governance program, which includes Intel’s first-mover Conflict Minerals initiative.
Jackie is passionate about life in general, but particularly economic regeneration, sustainability and people. As a committed advocate of the criticality of value-added manufacturing, engineering and effective trade policies as the economic foundations of thriving societies, Jackie joined technology companies Hewlett Packard, start-up Ridge Computer, Apple, and Intel, where she has held various positions, including CFO for Technology & Manufacturing, and VP GM Global Supply and she has been called upon to testify to the US Senate Finance Committee and to support those principles. She was also a founding member of Intel’s investment arm, Intel Capital. As a leader, Jackie’s primary focus is on talent and professional growth of her entire team and she sponsors targeted advancement programs such as Women in Supply Chain Excellence to address the particular challenges faced by women in technology. She is an active member of the Intel Network of Executive Women which is more broadly engaged in developing high potential women across the company.
Outside of work, Jackie is an avid hockey fan, and enjoys beekeeping, organic farming, baking and as much Zumba as possible to offset the effects of the baking.
Ralf Finzel is the Vice President of Integrated Supply Chain (ISC) for Performance Materials & Technologies (PMT).
In this role, he provides strategic leadership for all PMT plants globally. The PMT ISC team consists of approximately 8,000 employees, across three business units: Honeywell Process Solutions, Honeywell UOP, and Advanced Materials.
Prior to his current role, Ralf was the Vice President of ISC for Honeywell Building Technologies (HBT), which has more than 4,500 employees globally. Before that, he held roles of increasing responsibility within PMT, including VP ISC Honeywell Process Solutions; Global Director of the Integrated Supply Chain for Fluorine Products, Electronic Materials, Resins & Chemicals, and Specialty Chemicals divisions; and Vice President of ISC Wheels and Brakes in the Aerospace business.
Ralf relocated to the U.S. in 2007 from Seelze, Germany, where he was Plant Manager/Managing Director of the Honeywell Seelze Plant. Prior to joining Honeywell in 1999, Ralf worked in R&D and Operations leadership roles for Hoechst AG.
During his time at Honeywell, Ralf has been an advocate of the Honeywell Operating System (HOS) and has been integral in several sites improving their operations and achieving Bronze and Silver maturity.
Ralf was born and raised in Memmelsdorf, Bavaria, Germany. He earned a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Würzburg, completing his studies in 1991.
Fourteen publications based on his work have been published in various journals, such as the Journal of Organic Chemistry and the Journal of the American Chemical Society. He also received a pre-diploma in Business Administration from the University of Hagen in 1997.
Bernie Comerford is the Vice President Supply Chain Strategy, Program Management and Business Intelligence at Staples Inc – a B2B/B2C industry leader across Office Supplies, Facilities & Breakroom, Furniture & Technology products. She is responsible for Supply Chain Network Strategy, Process Excellence Engineering, PMO, Quality Assurance, Health & Safety, BI and S&OP.
Bernie has spent her 16 year career at Staples in roles of increasing responsibility in both the Supply Chain and Finance organizations. She started as a Sr Manager FP&A supporting Supply Chain & Customer Service Operations, and was subsequently promoted to Director FP&A, Sr Director FP&A before a lateral role of Sr Director Supply Chain Operations Support. In 2018 she was promoted to VP SC Engineering & Operations Support before taking on her latest portfolio in 2020. She is a graduate of University College Dublin with a Bachelor of Commerce degree and is a Certified Lean Sig Sigma Black Belt.
As GM of Global Supply Chain for Microsoft, Dave manages the order to cash cycle, Channel Operations Planning and Distribution & Logistics for all Microsoft physical products worldwide including Xbox, Surface, Accessories and Surface Hub. He also manages all aspects of Channel Management, Software Manufacturing, and numerous other functions as the customer facing part of the Manufacturing and Supply Chain organization. Dave and his team are responsible for all products in all channels including Retail, Commercial, Operator, and Direct to Consumer through Microsoft Online and Brick and Mortar stores.
Dave joined Microsoft in 1999 working through various roles in Supply Chain and product release. Prior to Microsoft, Dave held roles with Andersen Consulting and Coca-Cola and worked as a Project Engineer on the new Hong Kong Airport. Dave holds a B.Eng (Hons) in Manufacturing Engineering and is a C.Eng (Chartered Engineer) with the IET (Institute of Engineering and Technology – Manufacturing Division).
In his spare time, Dave enjoys spending time with his family, and never-ending physical therapy.
Matthew McKenzie was named Vice President, Lean Value Stream effective April 1, 2021. In this role, he leads global operations for 3M Abrasives and ACSC (Adhesives, Compounds, Sealants, Coatings) platforms in the Safety and Industrial Business Group. He works across 50 3M factories and 30 outsource partners to drive improvements in critical growth, capacity/technology, COGS, service, and inventory.
Previously, Matt was Director of Manufacturing and Supply Chain for 3M Abrasive Systems Division, a position he held for 4 years. In this role, he was responsible for approximately 3,000 employees in 48 sites around the world. Before that, Matt was Director of Engineering for three of 3M’s five business groups, where he was responsible for directing approximately 30% of 3M’s $1.5B capex budget. Prior to Engineering, Matt was Director of Manufacturing for 3M’s Personal Care Division.
Matt started at 3M in 1991, at the Columbia, MO plant. Matt spent 15 years working in several 3M plant locations holding positions in Quality, Supply Chain, Sourcing, Production, and ultimately Plant Manager. Following a 2-year assignment in Lean Six Sigma, Matt spent 5 years as Global Manufacturing Operations Manager in 3M’s Industrial Tapes and Adhesives Division.
Matt earned a BA degree in Mathematics from St. Olaf College, a MS in Statistics from Virginia Polytechnic and State University, and an MBA in Strategic Management from the Carlson School of Business, University of Minnesota.
Antoine Simonnet is the Chief Supply Chain Officer for HP Inc. HP’s global supply chain delivers more than 100 million products to customers each year through a sophisticated network of HP and ODM factories, logistics providers, and a wide variety of other valued partners. He also oversees social and environmental sustainability to realize HP’s vision of becoming the world’s most sustainable and just technology company.
With more than 40 years of experience in the IT industry, Antoine brings global expertise to the entire value chain. His experience includes work in a variety of positions including procurement, operations and customer satisfaction management. Most recently, Antoine served as Interim Head of Global Supply Chain Operations. Prior to that, he spent nine years as the Vice President and Global Head of Supply Chain Operations for HP’s Personal Systems group where he was responsible for managing global operations across all PS product lines, as well as positioning the business for profitable growth.
Antoine holds an Electrical Engineering degree from Supelec Graduate School of Engineering in France, and an executive certification in Business Administration from the Insead Advanced Management Program.
He is based in Houston, Texas.
Gregg Roden is senior vice president of Frito-Lay North America’s supply chain, leading the 24,000-person-strong field team responsible for making and moving Frito-Lay snacks across the U.S.
and Canada.
In addition to overseeing the field organization, Gregg is responsible for the engineering, asset strategy, contract manufacturing, quality, food safety, product supply, integrated supply chain planning, and environmental health and safety teams based at Frito-Lay North America headquarters in Plano, Texas.
Gregg assumed his current role in January 2017, after serving in various capacities with Frito-Lay North America, including as senior vice president of Frito-Lay’s field supply chain and productivity team, senior vice president of supply chain for the West division, region vice president of supply chain for the Southeast region, and senior director of a functional center of excellence at Frito-Lay North America headquarters.
Gregg joined PepsiCo in 1990 after graduating from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial distribution.
Bassem leads the Global Oral Care Product Supply Organization and the global Health Care Purchases Organization; his responsibilities cover all the manufacturing facilities, planning centers, engineering, QA and purchases globally. This organization constitutes around 6,000 employees serving Procter & Gamble around the globe.
Bassem joined P&G in 1994 as a team manager in L&CP Packing Department for the Cairo Plant in Egypt. He gathered experiences cross product supply disciplines where he gained experiences in Manufacturing, Planning, QA, SNO, Markets and Purchases serving the company in Egypt, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Switzerland. He is based in the United States. Bassem worked in developing and developed markets gaining experience in four out of the six company sector business units.
Bassem is a big believer in the power of competency and that the men and women of the company can break any barriers and deliver beyond the obvious.
Matt Liotine is a Professor of Information & Decision Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he is the Director of Graduate Studies in Supply Chain and Operations Management, and the SAP Next-Gen Chapter in Digital Supply Chain. He teaches and conducts research in supply chain resiliency, blockchain, and forward-looking technology in supply chain and logistics. As an industry consultant, he has advised, coached and trained thousands of professionals from across the globe. He has received numerous industry and academic awards, and holds a Ph.D. in Engineering & Operations Research from Princeton University. He is the co-author of a new book entitled Technology in Supply Chain Management and Logistics: Current Practice and Future Applications published by Elsevier.
Lauren Richardson is Chief Procurement Officer for the Colgate-Palmolive Company where she leads the global teams responsible for sourcing strategies to advance the company’s commercial and financial goals. Focused on a broad transformation agenda that includes digital agility and sustainable sourcing, Lauren develops procurement leaders accountable for all goods and services globally in the more than 200 countries and territories where the company’s brands are sold. Her enterprise responsibilities have increased to include the global project management team responsible for driving projects that deliver global growth and innovation.
Before joining Colgate in 2016, Lauren held chief procurement roles at Starbucks Coffee Company and L Brands. In both roles, Lauren led global procurement teams to deliver supply continuity during significant expansion and sustainability initiatives. Previously, Lauren held senior leadership roles in Finance, Marketing and General Management while working in many parts of the world for Diageo, Sara Lee and Huhtamaki. She has deep experience in orchestrating turnaround performance, mergers and acquisitions, and in creating strong financial teams that serve as key business partners.
Lauren has served in Finance and fundraising roles on nonprofit boards for the development of small businesses, girls education, and removing barriers for people with disabilities. Lauren holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a minor in accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Sophie is an experienced Supply Chain senior leader with a demonstrated history of great results through highly engaged teams. Also known to be an inspiring motivator who develops talents, she comes with an international background and is an operational professional skilled in Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG). Her past experience includes working with Wrigley, L’Oreal and P&G.
Quentin Roach is Chief Procurement Officer and Senior Vice President at Mondelēz International, a leading global snacking business with world renowned brands, Quentin leads oversight of $18+ billion in company expenses and overall Supplier Management activities. He has led the transformation of organizational capabilities in environmental, social & corporate governance; sustainability; and economic empowerment around the world. He is focused on innovation planning, enterprise risk management, operational excellence and next generation talent management to improve organizational resiliency, agility and growth prospects. Previously, as Chief Procurement Officer and Senior Vice President at Merck & Co., Inc., a leading global Bio- Pharmaceutical Company, Quentin led a $1.5 billion plus organization with oversight of $20 billion in company expenditures and a $150 billion plus real estate/facilities portfolio. He led the execution of business development transactions generating multi-billion dollar revenue growth, while also negotiating supply partnerships that have contributed multi-billion dollar productivity improvements and significant EPS and cash conversion improvement realization. Similarly, as Senior Vice President & CPO with Bristol Myers Squibb, Quentin was responsible for the supplier management functions enabling divestiture and integration activities supporting a $10 billion transformation to reposition the company as the leading Bio-Pharmaceutical company. Earlier he sharpened perspective across Automotive, Healthcare, Academia, Medical Device, Consumer Goods and Pharmaceutical industries by rising through executive ranks in Bausch & Lomb, Strong Health, Delphi and General Motors transitioning through roles in Sales & Marketing, Strategy, International Operations, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain Management and other functional areas. Quentin holds a Master of Science from Arizona State University, a BS from Purdue University, and has completed executive development at Thunderbird University, Columbia University and Trinity College – Dublin. He serves on several boards of director, including Compensation & Talent Committee Chair for Armada Supply Solutions – a leader in the Food Service Industry, the Executive Committee of the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Education Committee of the Franklin Institute.
Tom Rauch is Executive, Global Sourcing for GE Healthcare where he has spent the past 20 years of his career. Tom has held multiple roles within the Sourcing organization, leading diverse global teams managing electronic commodities, service and repair operations, and specialty subsystems unique to the healthcare imaging market. Tom has been actively involved with GE’s government affairs team and has testified in front of US House and Senate committees on behalf of healthcare interests.
In his current role, Tom leads the Sourcing team aligned to the Molecular Imaging and Computed Tomography, Imaging Subsystems, and Xray business units. In this role, Tom is responsible for the strategy deployment, day to day sourcing operational support, supply chain fulfillment, and supplier relationship management throughout the product’s lifecycle from introduction to installed base support in the field.
Prior to his career at GE Healthcare, Tom held sourcing roles and supply chain/operations planning roles at Motorola, and P&H Mining Equipment.
Tom holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Production/Operations Management from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
John Bell is a Professor of Supply Chain Management at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Prior to joining the UT faculty in August 2010, Bell was a career maintenance and logistics officer in the United States Air Force. He earned his Ph.D. in management from Auburn University and taught on the faculties at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) and Georgia College & State University prior to coming to UT. He also holds an MS in Logistics Management from AFIT and a BS in history from the United States Air Force Academy. His teaching and research interests are in logistics and supply chain management, vehicle routing, facility location selection, hazardous material transportation and supply chain strategy and risk. His publications have appeared in the Journal of Business Logistics, Transportation Journal, OMEGA, Computer & Operations Research, and Advanced Engineering Informatics. He is a frequent presenter at national and international meetings of the DSI, POMS, INFORMS and other professional societies.
Beth Nichols currently leads the Customer Supply Chain team for the Kellogg Company as Vice President, Customer Supply Chain spanning customers to include Walmart, Target, Sams Club, BJs, and Costco. She is responsible for replenishment, inventory management, logistics, and ensuring our internal and external supply chains are setup appropriately to support our largest and leading customers.
Beth has spent her 16 year career at Kellogg in various supporting and leadership positions throughout that time. Prior to coming into the Walmart office, she led the Supply Chain Transformation team where she was responsible for long range capacity planning and identifying, leading and executing investment opportunities for the Supply Chain to further meet changes in consumer demand.
Beth has vast experience within the Kellogg Supply Chain. Most notably, many of her years were spent within the Kellogg Operations team, leading efforts in Innovation Supply Chain management, leading/directing Plant productivity projects, being ultimately responsible for improving the operational landscape for the Kellogg plants. Her efforts helped expand the company’s operational objectives and capabilities throughout that time.
Beth has held many leadership positions throughout her time at the Kellogg Company including areas such as Supply Planning, Operations, Long range planning, and now Customer Supply Chain. This has helped shaped her to now thrive in providing insight to building replenishment strategies in her current role.
Beth is a graduate of Saginaw Valley State University gaining her Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) then followed quickly thereafter with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) focusing on International Business early in her career.
Wendy Workman is the Sr. Director of Supply Chain at SK Food Group. SK Food Group is a customer food manufacturing company serving customers across North America. Wendy oversees the warehouse and logistics operations as well as scheduling and planning for SK Foods. Prior to joining SK, Wendy led the supply chain at Kahiki Foods where she oversaw purchasing, scheduling, and warehouse operations. Over her career, she has held several roles at Coca Cola and Pepsi Co and is a part time faculty instructor in Columbus, Ohio. Wendy enjoys building cross functional teams to improve operational efficiencies and employee development. Wendy holds a bachelor’s degree from Wright State University in Environmental Sciences and a Master’s degree from University of Dayton.
Brian Patterson has been working in food, beverage, and packaging procurement for over 16 years in the Cruise Line, QSR, and Food Manufacturing industries. He is currently the Director of Procurement at Good Foods Group, a manufacturer of healthy, better for you avocado products, dips, dressings, and protein salads. He stands behind the Good Foods belief of building strong relationships through trust, honesty, and transparency with their partners to cultivate goodness in everything they do.
Senior Executive with 20+ years experience post-MBA in management and technology consulting as well as General Management. Deep experience in advanced analytics (descriptive, predictive, prescriptive) & cognitive (artificial intelligence) initiatives to resolve operational business challenges. Deep experience in supply chain visibility and optimization through hands-on strategy development, solution design and implementation management. Entrepreneurial experience in creating value at rapidly growing businesses, acting as CEO, COO and founding VP at three different firms. Successfully turned around an ailing manufacturing business and subsequently sold the enterprise.
Kulwant Sandhu joined Outset as Vice President, Integrated Supply Chain in April 2018, she has 30 years of end to end domestic and international supply chain architecture and optimization experience in high growth environments. Prior to joining Outset, Kulwant was Director if Supply Chain at Abbott’s Heart Failure division where she led global teams in sourcing strategy, procurement, S&OP and logistics. Kulwant has led positions of increasing responsibility at companies including Thoratec, Luxim, Miasole, and Maxtor(Seagate), where she was responsible for strategic sourcing, COGS reduction and logistics and distribution simplification initiatives.
Dwayne Carpenter is the Vice President of Supply Chain at Dorel Home. Dwayne oversees the Distribution Operations, Customer Service, and Business Intelligence Divisions. Dorel Home is a leading furniture supplier for major retail outlets and a subsidiary of Dorel Industries, which has annual sales of $2.6 Billion and employs approximately 8,900 people in facilities located in twenty-five countries worldwide. In his 20+ year career, he has previously held roles as Buyer, Planning Manager, Finance Director, and Head of Fulfillment. Dwayne is a proud graduate of Florida A&M University with a B.S. in Economics and maintains a connection to this day through mentor relationships with current and past students.
Blake Robertson spent 25 years in the Oil & Gas service industry all in Manufacturing and Supply Chain roles mainly focused on Inventory, Distribution and Planning. Blake joined McIlhenny Company in July 2020 as the Director of Supply Chain, which is a new role at McIlhenny. Since he’s joined, he has implemented a Sales and Operations Planning process, upgraded our Demand Planning software, in the process of implementing Advanced Supply Chain Planning (ASCP) module of Oracle R12, implemented Supplier Scorecards, onboarded new suppliers where they were sole sourced, implemented lean principles, implemented a cycle count program, and revamped our distribution network.
Rebecca Fischer is the Director of Planning at Charter Steel. She oversees demand and supply planning, inventory and capacity planning, production scheduling and advanced analytics integration within CS. Prior to joining CS and over her career, Rebecca has held various roles within supply chain and has been instrumental in driving supply chain transformation projects including system implementations, building new teams and talent, defining process paths and KPI’s, and integrating advanced analytics to improve supply chain functions. Rebecca enjoys building cross functional, fully collaborative teams and working to drive transparency and visibility to optimize fact based decision making.
David Simchi-Levi is a Professor of Engineering Systems at MIT and serves as the head of the MIT Data Science Lab. He is considered one of the premier thought leaders in supply chain management and business analytics.
His Ph.D. students have accepted faculty positions in leading academic institutes including U. of California Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon U., Columbia U., Duke U., Georgia Tech, Harvard U., U. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, U. of Michigan, Purdue U. and Virginia Tech.
Professor Simchi-Levi is the current Editor-in-Chief of Management Science, one of the two flagship journals of INFORMS. He served as the Editor-in-Chief for Operations Research (2006-2012), the other flagship journal of INFORMS and for Naval Research Logistics (2003-2005).
In 2020, he was awarded the prestigious INFORMS Impact Prize for playing a leading role in developing and disseminating a new highly impactful paradigm for the identification and mitigation of risks in global supply chains.
He was the founder of LogicTools, which provided software solutions and professional services for supply chain optimization and became part of IBM in 2009. He co-founded OPS Rules (2012), an operations analytics consulting company, and Opalytics (2014), a cloud analytics platform company focusing on operations and supply chain intelligence. Both companies became part of Accenture.
Kelly Bengston is Senior Vice President, Chief Procurement Officer at Starbucks. Kelly is responsible for enhancing Starbucks enterprise-wide functional strategic planning and sourcing, creating consistent global sourcing processes, developing a planning and sourcing talent management program and building a values-based approach to working with suppliers. Prior to joining Starbucks, Kelly gained broad experience in packaging, product development, manufacturing, and project management at Macy’s, Bensussen Deutsch, Cranium and Hasbro.
Jacquelyn is vice president of Direct Sourcing at Starbucks. In her role, she is responsible for the architecture of a sustainable, end-to-end supply chain for the beverage, food packaging, print categories. Prior to Starbucks, she held various supply chain oriented roles with McDonald’s and DuPont. Jacquelyn has an MBA from University of Delaware and a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University.
Katherine serves as a Senior Director of Supply Chain for Berlin Packaging, a global hybrid packaging supplier. She leads Berlin’s North American Supply Chain organization, including the Sourcing, Demand Planning, and Supply Planning disciplines which manage nearly 1 Billion USD across 26 locations and nearly 100 warehouses.
Katherine spearheaded Berlin Packaging’s efforts to “Up their Planning Game,” a strategy which was recognized by Supply & Demand Chain Executive as a 2021 Top Supply Chain Project. Katherine was also recently selected as a one of Supply & Demand Chain Executive’s 2021 Women in Supply Chain.
Prior to joining Berlin Packaging in mid-2019, Katherine spent more than a decade at the Procter & Gamble Company and served as an Adjunct Professor of Business & Economics at the University of Cincinnati. In her various P&G roles, she led globally-distributed teams, drove P&G Purchases’ Digital Transformation, and co-created the Relationship Management trainings which P&G Purchases still uses.
Katherine earned her Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and her bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Anderson University.
In her free time, Katherine volunteers as a speaker for Global Leadership Partners. Last Fall and Spring, Katherine led 11 Emotional Intelligence webinars and conducted 15 mentor sessions in 6 countries, focused on equipping and developing future leaders.
Jen Moore is a Finance professional with over 12 years of experience working with senior management, providing expense versus budget analysis to assist in strategic business planning and forecasting. She currently oversees sales planning, pricing, and new business teams at Concord Foods, leading annual and monthly sales forecasting and budgeting processes.
A seasoned supply chain and logistics technology executive, Jaymie Forrest leads Activ Technologies’ mission to help companies and their trading partners accomplish digital transformation for their supply chains. Companies connect, visualize, and automate to synchronize forecasts, production, order and inventory management as well as distribution capabilities in real-time.
With over 25 years building supply chain technology companies and guiding supply chain operations, Jaymie specializes in supply chain design and optimization, supply chain operations and management, inventory planning and management, transportation strategy and planning, routing and scheduling, supply chain management technologies, and logistics information systems. Her experience crosses a variety of industries, applications, and technology platforms. Exclusive experiences include: development of the Coca-Cola bottlers logistics infrastructure in 35 countries; design and implementation of the first automated cross-border treatment facility for imported produce; largest field service automation system, multimodal global strategic freight optimization system; co-founder of The Logistics Council for The Republic of Panama; and founder of Logistics Innovation Research Centers in Singapore, China, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Panama to name a few while serving as Managing Director of Georgia Tech Supply Chain and Logistics Institute.
Greg Smith is executive vice president, supply chain for Walmart U.S. He has responsibility for all product flow, distribution and fulfillment center operations, e-commerce replenishment as well as responsibility for all domestic and global transportation functions.
Prior to his current role, Greg served as a senior vice president of global operations at The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. With more than 30 years of supply chain and operations experience, Greg has transformed manufacturing, procurement and logistics programs at companies like Goodyear, ConAgra Foods, United Signature Foods, VDK Frozen Foods and Quaker Oats.
Greg earned his bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Tennessee – Knoxville. He currently serves on the Global Supply Chain and College of Business advisory boards at the University of Tennessee.
Carletta Ooton is Amazon’s Vice President for Product Assurance, Risk & Security. She oversees the company’s Product Assurance, Food Safety, Trade Services, Product Safety & Recalls, Transportation Risk & Compliance, Dangerous Goods, Global Security Operations and Environmental Assurance & Protection teams worldwide.
Her responsibilities include establishing global standards and policies, managing emerging issues, developing and deploying global programs and ensuring effective risk identification and mitigation worldwide. Carletta has been actively involved with industry and government collaboration across many of her areas of responsibility.
Before joining Amazon, Carletta worked at The Coca-Cola Company where she served as the company’s Chief Quality, Safety & Sustainable Operations Officer and the VP of Technical Operations & Capability Development. Prior to that she worked for Cott Beverages, Bath & Body Works, Unilever, and Tate & Lyle.
Carletta received dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Biological Sciences and Chemistry, and a Master of Science degree in Microbiology from Southern Illinois University.
Torsten Pilz is Senior Vice President and Chief Supply Chain Officer.
Torsten has broad responsibilities for the integrated supply chain, including procurement and driving improvements in plant efficiency and working capital while continuing to enhance quality and delivery.
Prior to Honeywell, Torsten served as Vice President, Supply Chain, for SpaceX, where he was responsible for planning, purchasing, material management and logistics. He built and developed a team that supported dozens of launches a year as well as the development and production of the Falcon and Falcon Heavy Rockets, the Dragon Spacecraft and the SpaceX’ satellite program. Prior to that, he served four years as Vice President, Worldwide Operations, at Amazon.
Before that, Torsten spent eight years at Henkel AG & Co. in a series of roles, culminating in his assignment as Senior Vice President, Global Operations, and Chief Executive Officer, Schwarzkopf & Henkel Production Europe GmbH. He also worked at Strategy& at PWC and Clariant AG.
Torsten earned B.S. and M.S. degrees, followed by a doctorate in chemical engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany.
Lance Kearbey is the Chief Operations Officer for Electrolux Major Appliances. In this role, he is responsible for Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, Purchasing, Digital Solutions and Project Management
Lance began his business career with Electrolux in 1993 as an Industrial Engineer and held various management roles thru 2000. He rejoined Electrolux nine years later after holding a lead project manager and general manager roles with Valeo Electrical Systems, Victory Packaging and ReadyOne Industries. Returning as Director of Quality and Manufacturing, Lance’s Electrolux career has included numerous roles as plant manager as well as campus general manager to increasing responsibility as Director of Operations for Refrigeration and Fabric Care in North America, and Senior Vice President of Operations, Manufacturing Engineering and Supply Chain.
Lance earned an Associate’s Degree in Computer Aided Design and Drafting from the John A. Logan Community College in Cartersville, Illinois. He went on to earn a B.S. in Industrial Technology at Southern Illinois University, as well as an MBA from the University of Phoenix.
Daniel Myers is currently a Senior Fellow at Haslam School of Business teaching both graduate and under-graduate studies. He is the retired Executive Vice President of the Global Integrated Supply Chain of Mondelez International where he led the Procurement, Manufacturing, Engineering, and Customer Service and Logistics groups, which represent more than 70,000 of the company’s employees. Daniel held the same position at Kraft Foods Inc., the predecessor to Mondelēz International. The spin-off of Kraft Foods North American grocery operations occurred in October of 2012. Under Daniel’s leadership, Mondelez funded a major reinvention of its worldwide supply chain delivering more than $3 billion in savings over 3 years.
Prior to Kraft Foods, Daniel worked for Procter & Gamble for 33 years, serving in roles across all areas of the Supply Chain. Most recently, he served as Vice President, Product Supply, where he led the supply chain function for P&G’s Global Hair Care business. He was also responsible for coordinating the company’s $28 Billion Beauty & Grooming business. He had responsibility for P&G’s Customer Service and Logistics operations globally for four years and while in this role he led the integration of the operations of the Gillette company into P&G. Gillette was a $56 Billion acquisition by P&G and the largest in the consumer products industry.
Daniel has strong experience building supply chains in emerging markets. He has over 25 years’ experience in global category and platform management, worked in 54 countries, and lived outside the U.S. for more than 10 years. He has led the successful implementation of best practices in supply chain including High Performance Organizations, Total Quality and Lean Six Sigma. He has led multiple plants to win the Japanese Institute TPM Excellence Award. During his career, Daniel has had responsibility for over 250 manufacturing plants and over 400 warehouse and distribution centers operating in over 160 countries.
Daniel received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tennessee and served on the Global Supply Chain Institute Advisory Board at the University of Tennessee for 8 years. He served on the Global Board of GS1 for 6 years which manages the electronic standards used in commercial trade globally. He currently serves on 2 company boards and works as a Senior Advisor to a major Private Equity Firms
Daniel and Karen, his wife of 40 years, are Christians who have led music and youth groups in three different countries over a period of 25 years. They have been active in mission work helping support and build schools or orphanages in Venezuela, Romania, Nigeria, Kenya, India and Myanmar.
Michael Lindsey is currently the Chief Transformation & Strategy Officer for Frito-Lay North America and Quaker North America. In his role, Michael leads a cross-functional organization tasked with developing the ‘next generation’ of PepsiCo’s Foods operations in NA. He is also responsible for strategic plans and M&A for Frito-Lay.
Michael began his career with PepsiCo in 2009, holding a series of leadership roles in corporate strategy and as vice president (VP) of Strategy for the AMEA sector. In 2014, he moved to the Greater China Region as the SVP and GM of Nutrition Category and Commercialization, where he led the nutrition category, including profit and loss (P&L) ownership, brand communication, innovation and importantly, building a strong nutrition team. He was also responsible for cross-category commercialization.
Prior to joining PepsiCo in 2009, Michael was an associate principal at McKinsey & Co. He holds a BA in Computer Science and Economics from Rice University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Michael enjoys traveling and spending time with his family. He resides in the Dallas area with his wife Christine and three children Vivian, Charlotte and John.
Sanjay has worked with fortune 500 companies as well as startups during his extensive career over 25 years. He has substantive executive experience with exposure to various business cultures and widely divergent professionals with rapid growth organizations in the US and Internationally.
Sanjay recently joined Beyond Meat as COO to lead its worldwide growth. Beyond Meat is a leader in plant-based foods, and Sanjay will be playing a critical role in expanding its operations across all geographies. At Tesla, he led their Energy business directly working for Elon Musk. He spent 7-1/2 years at Amazon and led operations for 130 Amazon Fulfillment Centers across the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Sanjay has led a variety of business operations, including Amazon Fresh, Reverse Logistics, Make on Demand, and Fulfillment Center Quality. Sanjay has been a contributor to some of the largest tech innovations in Operations and an instrumental leader in the launch of multiple Fulfillment Centers across North America.
Prior to Amazon.com, Sanjay spent 10 years with Dell, including his last role as a COO Dell India and Managing Director of MFG.com. His varied career includes domestic as well as international experiences in sales, manufacturing, supply chain, logistics, customer service, and new product introduction.
Sanjay has a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tennessee. He is Six Sigma Master Black Belt certified and has trained and mentored many leaders globally on its methodology. Sanjay has served as an Advisory Board member at the School of Management at the University of Tennessee.
Sanjay and his family are actively engaged in community empowerment organizations such as Water 1st International, Eklavya, and Habitat for Humanity and working towards improving the overall quality of education and lives in several parts of the world.
Ale Eboli, Head of Supply Chain North America for Unilever, oversees a supply chain network consisting of 14 manufacturing sites and 11 distribution centers across the US & Canada. Recognized by Gartner as one of the top supply chains in the world, Unilever’s network produces and ships over one million tons of product annually for brands such as Hellmann’s, Breyer’s and Dove, amongst many others.
Ale has been instrumental in leading a major supply chain transformation, managing seamless post-merger integrations, maintaining a sharp focus on customer service and driving the Diversity & Inclusion agenda for the business.
Ale hails from Sao Paulo, Brazil. He studied Naval Engineering at the University of Sao Paulo and holds an MBA degree from the University of Michigan.
Stuart Pann is the CEO of Bossa Nova, the leading data service provider for global retailers. Pann is an experienced leader in the supply chain industry and has held operational positions at Fortune100 technology companies. He was most recently Chief Supply Chain Officer at HP Inc. where he managed its strategic alliances with key partners including Intel and Microsoft. He was also responsible for HP’s Sustainable Impact Program, an award winning effort that spans all of HP’s activities in Corporate Social Responsibility. This program helped HP to win the number one ranking in Newsweek’s Most Responsible Companies in America.
Prior to HP, Pann served as Intel’s Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the Business Management Group where he was responsible for pricing, revenue, planning, and forecasting functions for Intel’s microprocessor and chipset operations. He led several strategic corporate negotiations including the program that converted Apple over to Intel microprocessors in 2006.
His expertise includes short-term and long-term forecasting, pricing and supply strategies and corporate strategic planning processes, as well as performance benchmarking and competitive analysis.
Pann holds an MBA from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in electrical engineering from Michigan Technological University.
Jodi Thompson is VP of Supply Chain / Operations, Customer Care, & Solutions at Amerock. Amerock is a 92-year-old manufacturer of decorative and functional cabinet hardware, headquartered in Huntersville, NC. Jodi joined Amerock in 2017 and her team is responsible for the S&OP process, Supply Chain Planning and Purchasing, Distribution, Logistics, Customer Care, and Business Systems. Prior to Amerock, Jodi held a variety of Supply Chain and Finance leadership roles with Hunter Douglas and Electrolux.
Coralie Voss is Vice President of Supply Chain at Kent Corporation, a diversified family business with operating subsidiaries involved in corn wet milling, the production of animal nutrition and the manufacture of food, beverage and pet products.
At Kent, Voss is responsible for managing a team focused on enterprise-wide integrated business planning, procurement, logistics and commodities risk management. She has a proven record in operations management, process engineering and business process redesign.
Voss earned her bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University and her MBA from the University of Iowa. Her career interests include optimized business processes, data driven decisions, collaborative strategies and supply chain initiatives.
Kent Corporation is a 2020 US Best Managed Company and operates worldwide.
Chad Toney is the Executive Director, Advanced Engineering at GE Appliances, a Haier company. He started working for Maytag, who was then purchased by Whirlpool, where Chad held roles of increasing responsibility such as Lean Manager, Materials Manager, Assembly Manager, Business Unit Manager, 3rd shift Manager, and Senior Operations Manager within three different plants.
Chad then joined GE Appliances, where he was the Assembly Operations Leader for laundry operations, and then Plant Leader for the Decatur, AL top freezer refrigeration facility and then Dishwasher Plant Leader in Louisville, KY.
In Chad’s latest role he is responsible for the Advanced Manufacturing Engineering organization, Central Materials, and the infrastructure for Appliance Park in Louisville, KY. Chad’s career interests include team building, lean, supply chain initiatives, and people/automation integration.
Senior Executive with 20+ years experience post-MBA in management and technology consulting as well as General Management. Deep experience in advanced analytics (descriptive, predictive, prescriptive) & cognitive (artificial intelligence) initiatives to resolve operational business challenges. Deep experience in supply chain visibility and optimization through hands-on strategy development, solution design and implementation management. Entrepreneurial experience in creating value at rapidly growing businesses, acting as CEO, COO and founding VP at three different firms. Successfully turned around an ailing manufacturing business and subsequently sold the enterprise.
Matt Liotine is a professor of Information & Decision Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is an associate faculty member of the University’s Center for Supply Chain Management & Logistics where he specializes in research in supply chain analytics, modeling and technology. His unique method of rapidly developing digital transformation strategy has helped firms jumpstart next generation projects to achieve ROI. Matt also served in several prior professional positions, including research and management roles at AT&T and Union Carbide, and consulting roles with the Carlson Group and Edwards & Kelcey. He is the recipient of numerous industry and academic awards, and has authored over 40 publications. He holds a Ph.D. in engineering and operations research from Princeton University.
Elsy Ocejo is the Director of Supply Chain Strategy for Bimbo Bakeries USA (BBU), where she is responsible for successful execution of manufacturing and distribution transformation projects within, working closely with line management across the Business Unit, BBU and GB functional support, and other project teams to develop business cases, detailed project plans and risk mitigation strategies and to execute projects that achieve business objectives. She was selected to Diversity MBA’s eleventh annual list of Top 100 under 50 Diverse Emerging Leaders for 2017.
Elsy earned her bachelor’s degree in International Business with a minor in International Logistics at the Tec de Monterrey, and a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) at Northwestern-Kellogg School of Management. Currently, she is President of Kellogg Alumni Club of Houston, Founder of Kellogg for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion group and part of the Business Advisory Council for Northwestern’s University Transportation Group.
She was born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico and resides in Houston with her husband Peter and her four-year-old son Charlie.
Mehran Ravanpay is the chief supply chain officer with RAB Lighting and brings over 28 years of experience in delivering customer requirements, managing cost, and creating winning organizations. Prior to RAB Lighting, Mehran was the VP of global supply chain logistics at Schneider Electric, with responsibility for North and Central American distribution and transportation.
Mehran has also led the consumer hardware supply chain at Google, was responsible for Dell’s global logistics procurement and inbound operations in Singapore, and worked at Silicon Graphics Inc (SGI) leading operations, engineering, and quality organizations after starting his career at Maxtor Corporation.
Fred has spent the majority of his career advising CPG and Retail leaders on how to transform their businesses through the power of data and advanced analytics. Prior to joining Aera, Fred was an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he led clients through advanced analytics transformations across commercial and operational topics. He also led a number of McKinsey’s partnerships, bringing cutting edge data and analytics solutions to the firm’s clients. A thought leader on advanced analytics topics, Fred has been published in the McKinsey Quarterly, Enterprise Times, and Retail Touchpoints.
Matt leads the business development and marketing efforts at Breakthrough, bringing transparency to the industry through the introduction of our transportation energy and supply chain solutions. His background in brokerage, logistics, and distribution gives him a unique industry perspective that brings value to each interaction with prospective Breakthrough clients.
As Executive Vice President of Global Sales, Mr. McGary provides leadership and direction for Logility’s competitive positioning and vision for the supply chain of the future. Mr. McGary is responsible for the global sales organization and building strong customer relationships. Before joining Logility, Mr. McGary served as president of Sweetbridge Alliance, a non-profit open source foundation developing a blockchain-based protocol stack for global commerce and supply chains. He brings more 25 years of experience in sales leadership positions in the enterprise software and supply chain industries. He began his career as a computer programmer and holds a B.A. degree in Economics from Claremont McKenna College.
Daniel Bachar is a Product Marketing Director for Advanced Analytics for Logility. Daniel brings more than 10 years of experience in sales, marketing, supply chain planning, and advanced analytics. He provides a unique blend of business and industry knowledge, leading successful efforts to integrate new technologies into effective supply chain solutions. His experience includes development, design and go-to-market strategy of supply chain and advanced analytics products, helping clients with complex business problems to achieve complete visibility into their supply chain operations.
Jordan Workman, Global Director of Client Development for Performance Solutions by Milliken, leads a team focused on partnerships and strategy within the manufacturing and supply chain functions of multi-national clients. Clients served span a variety of industries, including agri-business, pulp & paper, packaging, medical, pharma, chemical, food and beverage, mining and specialty plastics.
Prior to joining Performance Solutions, Jordan was employed by Owens Corning where he last served as Marketing Director for a global business unit responsible for creating and executing the go-to-market strategy that aligned commercial, supply chain, and operational capabilities. He also served as Business Development Leader for greater China based in Shanghai. He brings a wealth of knowledge on how to bridge cross-cultural differences and drive performance in the journey to business excellence.
David Barton is general manager for ToolsGroup North America. David is responsible for all operations, including sales, professional services, customer success and administration. David has facilitated a number of complex, large-scale technology solutions at the executive level. He brings over 20 years of executive leadership experience including 10 years leading high-growth SaaS solution teams in the supply chain and procurement industries.
Prior to ToolsGroup David was VP of process industry sales at E2open. David also served as chief revenue officer at RapidRatings, where he drove the entire start-up go-to-market plan; and spent six years with Ariba driving North American revenue. David holds a BS degree from Middlebury College in Vermont.
Ed Barriball is a Partner at McKinsey & Company focused on manufacturing, supply chains, and logistics. In this capacity, he advises industrial and logistics companies along with government agencies as they improve their operations. Ed is also a leader in McKinsey’s research on supply chain risk and resilience. He is based in Washington, D.C.
Antony has 20 years-experience in end-to-end supply chain planning, strategy and digitalization. He is a recognized thought leader in achieving supply chain agility and resilience across the food and beverage, pharmaceutical, consumer electronics, and B2B industries.
Antony currently leads Vuealta’s Applications division, with a focus on delivering pre-configured supply chain planning solutions that combine industry best practices for S&OP and IBP with rapid implementation for unprecedented time to value.
Alex has been at Glanbia Nutritionals for 1 year specializing in Logistics. Prior to Glanbia Nutritionals, Alex worked at Foremost Farms. Over 20 years working in the dairy industry; IT, Project Management and the last 12 years in Transportation and Logistics.