- Need Technical Assistance? nextgensupplychainconference@getvfairs.io
This year’s conference advisory board is comprised of 28 members from leading supply chain companies and institutions. Click on Advisory Board images to see full bio.
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Alison Seward, Executive Director – Manufacturing Quality at GE Appliances, has business-wide responsibility for all aspects of quality costs, both internally and externally for all GE Appliances manufacturing sites and Mabe affiliates. By owning the strategy and execution for quality, she leads the team to ensure that GE Appliances meets and exceeds owners’ expectations for quality, delivering a world class ownership experience.
Previous roles from her 20-year career with GE Appliances include leadership positions in Product Cost & Design Quality, Cost-Out Execution, New Products Execution and Design Manager as well as Program Senior Director for an $80M investment in Dishwasher that launched during the COVID-19 pandemic. Alison began her career in 2001 as a co-op in Supply Chain and is an Operations Management Leadership Program graduate with experience in Material Control, Plant Operations, Supplier Quality and Manufacturing Quality.
Alison lives in Louisville, KY with her husband and two young daughters, where they are active in their local church. She is focused on wellness with frequent yoga and ballet classes and has an affinity for plant-based meals. Alison holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Louisville.
Karoline Dygas is Nordstrom’s Vice President and CPO leading Strategic Sourcing and Procurement for all non-merchandise spend. She joined Nordstrom in April 2019 and is responsible for leading a holistic strategic sourcing transformation to provide a new procurement service delivery model that will positively impact the customer experience and company financial performance.
Prior to joining Nordstrom, she was Starbucks Corp Vice President leading Global Sourcing, Store Development and Siren Retail Supply Chains. She was part of Starbucks Global Supply Chain leadership team and was accountable for sourcing of all capital and commercial equipment, FFE, R&M and QA services, as well as leading the global end-to-end supply chains for Store Development and Siren Retail (Starbucks Roastery & Reserve and Princi brands).
Before joining Starbucks, Karoline was the Senior Director Strategic Sourcing at Walgreens based in Deerfield, Illinois where she was responsible for $1.5B annual spend across multiple categories supporting Store Development, Energy & Environmental Sustainability, and Marketing.
She earned her Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University and later completed her dual MBA from both Purdue University and ESCP-EAP European School of Management in Paris, France.
She lives in Issaquah, WA with her husband Josh, two children Morgan (14) and Max (12), and their Samoyed-Husky rescue dog named Yeti.
Shekar Natarajan is a highly regarded, transformative servant leader with a track-record of progressive, positive disruption and industry-standard-setting innovation. A Harvard Business School alum with an industrial engineering background, delivering operational impact through innovation and thoughtful change leadership at top Fortune 100 companies have proven to be the hallmark of Shekar’s ~20-year career.
With more than 100 patents and worldwide adoption of at least 10 industry-standard practices, Shekar’s pioneering vision has led to industry-agnostic recognition throughout his career – from winning the Institute of Industrial Engineering’s Medallion Award (2010) to Times Now’s Non-Resident Indian of the Year Award (2014) to Retail Innovation Group’s Innovator Award (2020).
Whether leading transformational efforts for the big-box retailers (Target, Walmart), setting industry standards for beverage giants (Pepsi, Coca-Cola) or designing new technology for a beloved theme-park experience (Disney), Shekar’s optimization-focused and customer-centric spirit remains evergreen. What’s diversified his portfolio even more than the broad spectrum of industries, is the variety of leadership roles he’s had along the way— from inventory & applications development to corporate development; from supply chain planning & procurement to emerging sciences, business technology & operations management including last-mile logistics.
Throughout his career, Shekar has created a now industry-standard last-mile beverage delivery system; he's re-engineered a grocery home delivery/ pick-up operating model, built and scaled grocery-shopping operations more than $9 billion in less than two years. Shekar's created and piloted a cutting-edge drone program within distribution centers to speed-up ecommerce fulfillment and has created an automated solution for an existing direct-store delivery system. He's developed methodologies followed by the White House & FEMA and has enhanced the visitor experience at the happiest place on earth through RFID technology. Beyond business operations alone, Shekar’s visionary thinking has extended into the philanthropic realm through the development of a medical-kit delivery system to service countries in need.
A true artist at heart, Shekar is not shy of the unconventional— his imagination and unwillingness to conform guide him to disrupt the status quo and infuse change leadership into each business venture he pursues, with phenomenal results. As Chief Supply Chain Officer for AEO, Inc., Shekar has brought unparalleled transformational change to the specialty retailer, creating an environment rooted in strategy & data analytics and an ethos of partnership to drive positive impact across the entire enterprise.
Well-respected not only within the industry, Shekar has authored three books translated in 11 languages and has been published or quoted in more than 75 thought-pieces across the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNN, CNBC, Fox, Bloomberg and prominent logistics and supply chain management magazines; he continues to remain associated with the hottest Silicon Valley startups disrupting supply chain and logistics.
Andrew Byer has 37 years experience in Supply Network Operations at P&G. He has worked in multiple business units and regions, including 12 years based in Asia (Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore.)
He currently is P&G’s Global Supply Network Operations capability leader, with responsibility to develop mastery, drive adoption, ensure governance and lead innovation in work process and tools/systems across COE’s spanning planning, logistics, innovation and customer / supplier collaboration. He is also the P&G Know How leader for the Supply Network Ooperations in P&G’s Alliance with helping provide EY’s clients with access to P&G’s supply chain expertise, practices and experience..
Previous assignments included shelf-to-cash, transportation and warehousing for P&G’s northeast US businesses. He led major acquisition integrations into P&G’s Beauty and Health supply chains. He led large-scale business process transformation and IT projects, including launching Vendor Managed Inventory with major US retailers and implementing MRPII/SAP ERP across Asia. He led supply chain business and supply planning across P&G’s Global Beauty and Health businesses, including overseeing contract manufacturers and supply chain design studies. He was also supply chain leader for P&G’s North America Hair Care business.
Andrew is a graduate of Vanderbilt University. He lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, is married, and has four children.
Adjunct Professor Supply Chain Management, Elmhurst College
Author: H.O.P.E. Handbook – A Guide for Disability Hiring
Co-Founder: Teachability LLC
Tim Engstrom is Head of Supply Chain & Logistics for LA-CO Industries based in Elk Grove Village, Illinois.
Engstrom is responsible for all production planning, fulfillment, transportation, inventory planning, compliance, customer service, and LEAN operations.
Additionally, Engstrom has been an adjunct professor at Elmhurst College’s Supply Chain Management master’s program since 2005. Each year, in addition to teaching classes, Engstrom mentors a group of graduate students in implementing a capstone project that analyzes and implements solutions to supply chain challenges for local businesses. It is here that the idea of creating a handbook for disability hiring was born looking to solve staffing challenges as well as support a business’s social responsibility program.
Expanding on the work from the H.O.P.E. Handbook, Engstrom co-founded Teachability LLC creating a means of linking candidates with disabilities with companies looking to start a disability hiring program.
Prior to joining LA-CO in October 2016, Engstrom served as Group Vice President of US distribution for Walgreens from 2012 to 2016. Before then he was Senior Director of operations for Lawson Products in Chicago, Ill. from 2010 to 2012 and Director of operations for OfficeMax in Itasca, Ill., where he also held other positions.
Engstrom received his master’s in supply chain management from Elmhurst College in 2003 and his bachelor’s in transportation & physical distribution from Western Illinois University in 1993.
Prior to joining Loyola, Mr. Caltagirone was the Vice President of Global Supply Chain Strategy for The Revere Group. He was previously Senior Vice President, Chief Logistics and Operations Officer for Peapod, Inc., where he was responsible for distribution services, inventory management, purchasing, transportation management, logistics engineering and customer service. John has also held senior management positions with the following companies: Rand McNally, RR Donnelley & Sons and Ryder Integrated Logistics.
LUC.edu/LeadershipHub
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Alan Amling is a TED speaker and supply chain thought leader. Alan helped drive innovation over a 27-year career with UPS and is currently a Distinguished Fellow at The University of Tennessee, CEO of advisory firm Thrive and Advance LLC, and on the Executive Advisory Board for the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute. He researches, invests, advises, and speaks on innovation in logistics and how all firms can recognize and thrive in disruption. His first book, Organizational Velocity, was released in March, 2022.
Alan holds a Ph.D. in Management from Kennesaw State University, an MBA from Indiana University, and a BA in Business and Psychology from Lewis & Clark College.
Visionary. Focused. Collaborative. Action-Oriented. Adaptive. Impactful. Reflective. These are a few elements of my professional value proposition. My name is Daren Mallard, and my goal is to see not only what will make Cisco successful today...but also, to focus on achieving greater success in the future.
Currently, I develop Marketing Strategy for Cisco's Global Logistics organization, within Supply Chain Operations. In addition to managing and transporting tens of billions of dollars’ of Cisco product, we're growing our external forward logistics services by more than 10% annually...while leveraging reverse logistics to facilitate Cisco's Circular Economy efforts. And, we run two technology innovation centers which develop solutions that digitize and optimize supply chain operations. In my role, I collaborate with executives, account teams, customers, and partners, to develop initiatives & programs that better position and improve the overall supply chain experience.
I've been with Cisco for thirteen years, and my prior roles include managing Product Marketing, Technical Marketing, & Sales Operations, within the video business. Before my previous company, Scientific-Atlanta, was acquired by Cisco, I had roles managing Investor Relations & Financial Analysis...and began my career journey as a CPA with Ernst & Young (EY). I've proudly served my country as a member of the U.S. Army, and am a Morehouse College alumnus. I’m on the Georgia Chamber of Commerce Innovation & Technology Policy Committee, the Next-Gen Supply Chain Conference Advisory Board, and previously served on local chapters of CTAM, NAMIC, and NABA...for which I was twice elected Board President. Additionally, I had the distinction of being selected to, and attending the Harvard Business School Cable Executive Management Program, sponsored by the CTAM Educational Foundation.
Within the community, I've been a Youth Ministry Leader, and led mentoring programs for Junior Achievement Fellows & the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science & Technology...teaching business skills, financial principles and entrepreneurship. Promoting financial literacy is a passion, and I enjoy teaching my nephews (aged 12 and 5) and godson (age 15) how to invest their time and resources, so that they can achieve a measure of financial independence. In addition, I enjoy spending time & traveling the world with my wife, rooting for NY sports teams that consistently disappoint, and thinking of new ways in which I can make a positive impact on the community & the world.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Daren_M
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Daren_MD
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daren-mallard-8525ab24
Tom Ward is currently an A.I. Project Lead within the Chief Data Officer (CDO) organization. In this capacity, he leads the global development and deployment of cloud, AI and quantum projects across the enterprise. Tom has led supply chain cloud projects over the past twelve years. For the past eight years, Tom has led the implementation of several Watson applications including Operations Risk Insights. He has been a featured supply chain conference speaker and published author in several magazines. Tom is an IBM Academy of Technology Member and one of 25 certified Supply Chain Management Professional – Consultants, globally within IBM. He has over 30 years of technical leadership experience with IBM in many facets of the Supply Chain, Procurement, Enterprise and Operations Services. Tom has recently been certified as an IBM Quantum Ambassador. Tom has a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He lives in Highland, New York..
Arun Kochar is a partner at global management consulting firm Kearney. He is a seasoned management consultant with deep and diverse advisory experience across Operations, Supply Chain, CPG, Retail, Chemicals, Energy, Health & Pharmaceuticals, and Transportation.
Company Website Link: www.kearney.com
Patrick Sedlak has over 30 years of experience in executive-level consulting, with expertise in strategic supply chain planning, facility materials handling equipment (MHE)/robotics design, warehouse management systems (WMS, WES, WCS), economic justification, and overall concept development. As an expert in supply chain/logistics and one of Sedlak's top executives, Patrick actively manages multiple client projects in healthcare, retail, food and beverage, transportation, and more. Clients he has worked with include JCPenney, adidas Group, Kohl's, Gap Inc., Office Depot, DHL, Cabela's, Northern Tool & Equipment, Shamrock Foods, Victoria's Secret, and PetSmart. Patrick has planned over 15 million sq. ft. of facility space.
On Facebook: @SedlakSupplyChain
On Twitter: @sedlak-supply-chain-consultants
Peter Bolstorff oversees ASCM corporate impact programs that include transformation, talent development, sustainability, and community driven public health. Peter, the author of Supply Chain Excellence: A Handbook for Dramatic Improvement Using the SCOR Model, brings over 25 years of experience in supply chain and operations management to the position. He joined ASCM as the Executive Director to lead the APICS, Supply Chain Council merger. Prior to joining ASCM, Bolstorff was the founding principal of SCE Limited, a consulting firm focused on providing supply chain program management and SCOR-based education to supply chain executives and their global teams. Bolstorff also held supply chain and operations management leadership roles at 3M and Imation and has been a lifelong volunteer within the SCOR community. He received his master’s degree in industrial education from the University of Minnesota and Bachelor’s degree in mathematics, education, and psychology from St. Olaf College.
On Facebook: @ascmorg
On Twitter: @ascm_org
On LinkedIn: ascmorg
Bruce Stubbs is the Customer Success Manager, Corporate Strategic Accounts for Honeywell Safety and Productivity Solutions. In his current position, Mr. Stubbs supports Honeywell’s Safety and Productivity Solutions in the Commercial Organization as a global contact responsible for driving adoption, engagement and customer advocacy in our largest and most strategic accounts. He is also responsible for ensuring their success by helping them achieve business value and ROI from their investment in Honeywell.
Before joining Honeywell, Mr. Stubbs spent eleven years with Infor Global Solutions as the Director of Business Consulting.
Over his tenure at Infor, he built a team of Supply Chain Management consultants responsible for driving customer retention, satisfaction and success from project initiation through post implementation activity. He played a key leadership role in expanding the team's capabilities across multiple software solutions including WMS, TMS, LMS, YMS, EAM, WFM, PLM, CRM, Voice and Network Design. He was the recipient of the Infor SCM Leadership Award in 2010.
Before joining Infor, Mr. Stubbs spent four years as a Sr. Consultant with Sedlak Management Consultants. During his tenure, he was on the team that successfully completed facility design projects for JoAnn Stores, American Greetings and Blair Corporation including building design, MHE design and SCM system selection and implementation.
Prior to his tenure at Sedlak Management Consultants, Mr. Stubbs spent almost fifteen years in distribution center management with both Peter J. Schmitt and Giant Eagle where he held various roles including Director of Distribution Systems and Director of Operations. Mr. Stubbs was the recipient of Giant Eagle's President's Award for Excellence in 1996.
Mr. Stubbs earned his Bachelor of Science in Economics degree from Allegheny College. He is also an active member of WERC, CSCMP and AIPIA and is one of the founding board members of the NextGen Supply Chain Advisory Council.
Steve Simmerman is the Head of Global Alliances at Locus Robotics. Simmerman has more than 30 years of experience in the supply chain industry including software, consulting and material handling. He has focused his efforts on working with clients to achieve high performance supply chain results through partnerships and creative solutions. He is a member of CSCMP, WERC, and MHI and is a regular contributor to several industry publications and events. Simmerman holds his undergraduate and MBA degrees from The University of Notre Dame.
John Santagate is the Vice President of Robotics at Körber Supply Chain. In this role, John is responsible for defining and executing the autonomous mobile robot strategy for Körber Supply Chain North America. Prior to joining Körber, John was a Research Director for Robotics at IDC where he provided market trends and forecasts for service robotics, business process evolution through the use of service robots, and the integration of robotics into business processes and business IT architecture. John has an MBA from Rutgers with a concentration in Supply Chain Management and a Bachelors degree from the University of Massachusetts with dual concentrations in Finance and Management. In addition to serving as the VP of Robotics at Körber, John is an adjunct instructor at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell teaching a course in supply chain and logistics.
Thomas Choi is Harold E. Fearon Chair of Purchasing Management at W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University. He leads the study of the upstream side of supply chains, where a buying company interfaces with many suppliers organized in various forms of networks. He is executive director of CAPS Research, a joint venture between Arizona State University and the Institute for Supply Management. He also co-directs the Complex Adaptive Supply Networks Research Accelerator (CASN-RA). He served as co-EIC for the Journal of Operations Management from 2011 to 2014.
Rich Sherman is an internationally recognized author and thought leader on trends and issues across supply chain management. His book Supply Chain Transformation: Practical Roadmap for Best Practice Results (Wiley, 2012) has received praise by practitioners, academics, and non-supply chain executives as a great read on business transformation. In addition to TCS, he also serves as EVP, APICS Austin Chapter. As a research director, he successfully launched the supply chain advisory services for AMR Research (now Gartner) and led in the development of the SCOR® model, founding the Supply Chain Council, and serving on its Board. Mr. Sherman has served on the working committees for several industry initiatives including DAMA/Quick Response, Efficient Consumer Response (ECR), and Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment (CPFR). Mr. Sherman’s client experience includes developing and Enterprise Information Architecture for Colgate-Palmolive, a Supply Chain Systems Architecture for Coors Brewing, and scores of supply chain operations and systems assessments.
Throughout his career, Mr. Sherman has held senior management positions with visionary technology firms such as EXE, Syncra, and Numetrix, and marketing leading corporations such as Microsoft, Information Resources (IRI), Mercer Management Consulting, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), and Unisys. He has contributed scores of articles and speaks frequently on supply chain trends and models. Rich received his BA and MA from Notre Dame.
Jim has over 30 years of engineering experience within distribution operations and supply chain logistics. He spent the last 24 years with DSC Logistics where he led engineering teams that provided innovative solutions for Fortune 500 companies within food, tobacco, CPG, electronics, and medical device industries. Jim is now a Managing Director at Alpine Supply Chain Solutions where he focuses on lifecycle support to ensure customers receive exceptional value from RFP to start-up, through steady-state and growth. Key areas of focus are layout design, start-up support, innovation, value added services, engineered labor standards, labor management, Continual Improvement (Lean & Six-Sigma), material handling management, and operations excellence.
Industry Organizations and Associations:
Fergal Glynn is 6 River Systems' VP of Marketing. 6 River Systems is the new way companies fulfill. Prior to 6 River Systems Fergal held leadership positions at Docurated, Veracode and Fidelity Investments.
Amy Augustine is currently the Senior Director Network Supply Chain at U.S. Cellular. Her team is responsible for building the business cases for the corporate strategic projects for U.S. Cellular. She has interest in how 5G technology can transform the future of supply chain. From 2013 until mid-2018, she lead the Reverse Logistics team that is responsible for the strategy and execution of the reverse supply chain, including planning, repair of handsets and tablets, and re-commerce of handsets and accessories. Amy has held various roles within supply chain and has worked at U.S. Cellular more than nine years. Earlier in her career, she spent 10 years in the consulting industry working for KPMG, BearingPoint and the Revere Group. Amy earned her MBA in Operations Management and International Business from Loyola University in Chicago and holds a CSCP certification from APICS.
Elizabeth (Betsey) Nohe is Vice President of Supply Chain for the Americas Salt Operating Unit. She holds the dual role of Global Head of Supply Chain Excellence. Betsey is responsibile for Customer Supply Chain, Logistics Procurement & Execution, Warehousing, Planning and Inventory Management functions that support the Consumer, Industrial and Commercial salt businesses in the Americas. She has responsibility for the Empremar shipping company in Chile.
Betsey worked for 20 years at McCormick & Company in supply chain, IT, and commercial functions in the Industrial and Consumer business units including VP of Supply Chain Planning and Customer Fulfillment-Consumer in North America.
Betsey is a PhD candidate at Walden University and is writing her dissertation, “How Supply Chain Leaders Choose the Measures that Matter.” She holds an MBA from Loyola University - Baltimore, a BS in Chemical Engineering from Rutgers University and her CPIM certification.
Betsey is on the Executive Advisory Board for the Supply and Value Chain Center at Loyola-Chicago. She is a member of AWESOME, a ground-breaking initiative providing a forum to showcase the talents of women with outstanding supply chain leadership potential. Betsey has mentored in the Women’s Unlimited LEAD program, whose objective is to provide coaching for women in developing the skills necessary to be successful in senior leadership roles. Betsey trains in Pilates and plays ukulele. She loves to bike, ski, boat and hike with her husband, Doug and their labradoodle. Betsey and Doug are the proud parents to 3 grown daughters and a granddaughter.
A specialist in Operation Management, Organization Excellence through Application of Lean Six Sigma and a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in Global Supply Chain Management, Nick Vyas has led cultural and business transformation for large fortune 100 M&A. Mr. Vyas implemented breakthrough process improvements for over 450 projects globally that have transformed businesses for clients in the field of health care, service, military, government, retail, and end-to-end supply chain focusing on procurement, sourcing, IT, distribution, logistics, and transportation. As the Executive Director and Co-founder of USC Marshall’s Center for Global Supply Chain Management (GSCM), Academic Director of MS in GSCM and as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Data Sciences & Operations, Vyas is educating the next generation of business leaders. As a thought leader, he speaks at global conferences sharing his views on global trade, disruptive technology and its impact on global supply chain management. Working closely with students, he teaches Global Supply Chain Management in International settings and application to students and executives. He also taught executive leaders from various industries at Cal Polytechnic University, Pomona. Vyas holds an annual Global Supply Chain Excellence Summit which presents emerging global and domestic topics and trends affecting the competitiveness of U.S. supply chains, and increases industry awareness of new technologies, techniques, and best practices that address these challenges. In partnership with the U.S. Department of Commerce, Vyas is also spearheading the annual Supply Chain Digital Transformation Hackathon that brings together practitioners, experts, and USC supply chain and technology students to compete in creating a prototype data-sharing and IT solutions to topics affecting supply chains’ efficiency and global competitiveness. Vyas is currently writing a book on the blockchain and supply chain. Previously Vyas managed and consulted for over 25 MNC clients and global operations such as Duty Free International, Sears, Federated Stores, and Toys R Us; where he integrated technology, teams, and oversaw strategic transformation initiatives that optimized speed-to-market, foster profitable growth, reduced cost and quality in global setup.
Patti brings over 30 years of marketing and business development experience in the supply chain services industry. She is adept at developing and executing a comprehensive and clearly defined global marketing and business development strategy that supports consistent business growth and enhances brand awareness to a worldwide target audience. Her expertise ranges from business development strategy and execution to event management, client and alliance relations and overall distribution services go-to-market strategy and execution.
She is currently the Senior Director of Business Development at KPI Solutions, a distribution systems integrator specializing in the successful deployment of robotic automation technologies for order fulfillment. Focusing on food, grocery, retail, consumer goods, industrial and 3PL companies across North America, KPI was formed in 2021 from the merger of Kuecker Logistics, Pulse Integration and QC Software. At KPI, Patti leads the company’s business development team and assists with marketing and branding strategy and execution.
Prior to KPI, she held positions in global marketing and business development at Fortna Inc., Q4 Logistics, Sedlak Management Consultants and Vocollect after starting her career in the warehousing services industry at Telxon Corp. She holds a Bachelor of Science, Business Administration degree from The University of Akron and is a 20+ year member of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP). She was named a 2016 Pro to Know by Supply and Demand Chain magazine.
Eric Peters is President and CEO of SensorThink, the first Digital Platform built for the warehousing and commercial building industry. SensorThink is an IoT enabled platform that manages all automation, devices and sensors in a building. He is the former President and CEO of Foodlink, a leading network for perishables foods and a leader in the perishables supply chain. Prior to joining Foodlink, Mr. Peters served as President of TrueDemand Acosta, a role he was appointed to after the successful acquisition of TrueDemand by Acosta Sales & Marketing, a leading full-service sales and marketing agency to the consumer packaged goods industry. Prior to Acosta, Peters was Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of TrueDemand. TrueDemand was a technology company that used advanced analytics to help Walmart and Target suppliers predict out of stocks and create actions to reduce lost sales in the retail store.
Prior to founding TrueDemand, Peters was Executive Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at Manhattan Associates, a Senior Executive in Accenture’s Global Supply Chain Strategy Practice and he began his career at Tompkins International, a supply chain consulting firm, serving as a Vice President and General Manager.
Rob Handfield is the Bank of America University Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management at North Carolina State University, and Executive Director of the Supply Chain Resource Cooperative (https://scm.ncsu.edu). He also serves as Faculty Lead for the Manufacturing Analytics group within the International Institute of Analytics, and is on the Faculty for Operations Research Curriculum at NC State University. Prior to this role, Handfield served as Associate Professor and Research Associate with the Global Procurement and Supply Chain Benchmarking Initiative at Michigan State University from 1992-1999. He received his PhD in Management from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Handfield is the author of several books on supply chain management, the most recent being Biopharmaceutical Supply Chains, Supply Market Intelligence, Supply Chain Re-Design and Introduction to Supply Chain Management (Prentice Hall, 1999, 25,000 copies sold, and translated into Chinese, Japanese, and Korean). He has co-authored textbooks for MBA and undergraduate classes including Purchasing and Supply Chain Management 6th revision (with Robert Monczka) and Operations and Supply Chain Management 3rd revision (with Cecil Bozarth). He recently led a global study on the Emerging Procurement Technology: Data Analytics and Cognitive Analytics for CAPS Research, Procurement Analytics for IBM, Global Logistics Trends and Strategies for BVL International in 2013, and a report entitled Future Buy: The Future of Procurement published by KPMG.
Handfield has consulted with over 25 Fortune 500 companies, and his work has been cited in over 24,000 publications according to Google Scholar.
Bryan Jensen is a Chairman and Executive Vice President and Chairman of the Board with the St. Onge Company located in York, PA. He has over 34 years of logistics and material handling distribution experience across several areas in physical distribution in the retail, wholesale and manufacturing sectors, including distribution center ground up design, procurement and implementation, including all MHE, WMS and operational systems and methods, network logistics, capital investment and operational budget planning.
Prior to joining St. Onge Company 20 years ago, Mr. Jensen spent 14 years at Toys “R” Us, including half his tenure there as Director of Distribution Automation. He also has eight years of instructional experience at the collegiate and post-graduate level, including teaching seminars on design and utilization of high volume automated distribution centers.
He has published over two dozen articles on logistics trends, distribution center design and operations.
Michael is a Trusted Advisor with a proven track record of helping companies improve their overall operations. His expertise includes facility analysis and Supply Chain Systems. An energetic and conscientious leader with a reputation for nurturing strong business relationships built on trust and mutual understanding.
Michael leverages his 30 years of Supply Chain Expertise whereas a Supply Chain Consultant he helped dozens of Fortune 500 Companies with their supply chain strategies. This combined with his top leadership positions with Global Software Companies and Private Equity firms allowed Michael to assist with due diligence, acquisitions, roll-ups, and divestitures for both on-premise, hybrid, and Cloud solutions.
Wohlwend has authored numerous articles for trade publications and has presented more than 70 seminars and speeches at key industry events. These events include Warehouse Education Research Council (WERC), Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), ProMat, and Modex.
Michael invests his time by serving in non-profit organizations. Michael served as an Executive Board Member of WERC from 2008 – 2014. In addition, he serves on the Executive Board of Gigi’s Playhouse Downs Syndrome Achievement Centers. His passion is to help Gigi’s young adults get jobs!
Michael Wohlwend
Alpine Supply Chain Solutions
38W380 Cloverfield Rd
St. Charles, IL 60175
Michael.wohlwend@alpinesupplychain.com
630.886.4762 Experience:
- Alpine Supply Chain Solutions – Boutique Supply Chain Consulting company focused on Warehousing, HR Solutions, Strategic Planning, and Supply Chain Systems.
- Coupa – RVP Sales
- Iptor – COO & GM
- Infor – SVP Global Cloud Services
- SAP – VP of Midwest Services, Global Head of Cloud Services
- MANH – Alliances, Dir of RFID, Dir of Mid-Market, Sr. Dir of National Accounts
- eSync – Practice Manager
- Catalyst - Alliances
- Tompkins – PM, PD, and then Sales Engineer
- TZA - Engineer
Area of Expertise:
- Storage Type Analysis – Identify the ideal size & quantity of the forward pick and reserve storage locations
- Facility Design & Layout – Leveraging the STA and best practices to design the optimal warehouse layout.
- Slotting Optimization – To minize pickers travel and replenishments, locate items in the proper pick location.
- Move Plan & Relocation Services – To ensure the retrofit or relocation has a detailed plan to allow the operation to function, while installing equipment or moving.
- Strategic Master Plan – Evaluate the cost of doing nothing compared to alternatives for Space, Equipment, Labor, & Control
- Supply Chain Systems Justification, Requirements Definition, Selection, and Implementation Support.
- Implementation Support
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Jeff Hedges has over 34 years of experience in the material handling automation industry. He has spent his career specializing in bringing new ideas and technology to market for start-ups and existing companies. He has filled management and executive positions at RetroTech, HK Systems, Dematic and most recently as President of OPEX Corporation. Today, as President of JHedges Consulting, Jeff Advises & Coaches VC & PE firms, automation startups, established vendors and customers on accelerating their entry into the warehouse automation market.
Krutin is an eCommerce, Supply Chain professional with 15 Years of experience solving complex business problems across commerce and supply chain. At Cameraah, he is solving visualization and sizing challenges for eCommerce brands. Outside of Cameraah, he works with many leading eCommerce companies in design and improvement of their commerce and supply chain challenges.
