Carey Boone is the Vice President of Transformation at DP World Americas, tasked with supporting and developing the region’s engineering and quality, environmental, health and safety initiatives as well as overseeing the project management and business intelligence teams. With over 15 years of experience in logistics, Boone is a leader in developing and driving solutions. His background spans roles in many functions including Engineering, Operations, and Business Development for large multi-national companies including CEVA Logistics. Boone earned a BA in Marketing and Logistics from The Ohio State University.

Brian is the founder and CEO of Peerless Media. He has 30 years of experience in B2B publishing; 27 of which are in the logistics, supply chain and materials handling markets. Brian’s vision when launching Peerless was to create a unique media company for the new digital era in publishing, offering both the traditional print and online B2B products, while adopting new digital services such as market intelligence, SEO enhancement, behavioral targeting and content engagement. His goal is for Peerless to become a full-service media partner to their clients.

Kristen is the Senior Vice President of Analytics, Digital and Data supporting the Supply, R&D, and Commercial functions of Mars Snacking. She joined Mars in 2021 to lead the Global Supply Chain function, exploring how the intersection of her prior industry experience and tech start-up experiences could support the acceleration of value supporting Mars growth agenda. She leads an investment program to bring AI-enabled digital solutions to life to support growth while making work easier for Associates. What most excites Kristen is leading with problem solving and teaming cross-functionally to provoke and explore new possibilities in driving quality growth enablement. Prior to joining Mars, she was a Partner for Opex Analytics and supported a number of companies to reinvent their supply chains and operations with artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced analytics. She has held strategic planning, innovation, and engineering roles in Procter & Gamble and Unilever and was the Vice President of Global Supply Chain for SC Johnson. Kristen resides in Chicago with her husband and two Skittles loving sons.

Jay De Sieno, MBA, is a supply chain leader at Edible Brands, where he drives initiatives in cost optimization, strategic sourcing, and operational excellence. With experience spanning telecommunications, automotive, industrial distribution, and software, he brings a broad, cross-industry perspective to building agile and resilient supply chains. Jay has a proven track record of delivering sustainable cost savings, strengthening supplier ecosystems, and enhancing end-to-end supply chain performance.

Throughout his career, Jay has consistently delivered sustainable cost improvements, strengthened global supplier networks, and enhanced end-to-end supply chain performance in both complex and rapidly evolving environments. His ability to transfer best practices across industries enables him to unlock new efficiencies and drive innovation at scale.

Jay is recognized for shaping and executing supply chain strategies that align with broader business priorities, enabling organizations to drive measurable enterprise value, resilience, and long-term growth. He brings a disciplined, data-driven approach to navigating complexity and transforming supply chains into strategic advantages.

Dr. Mar Gimeno is an experienced supply chain executive with 20 years in the pharmaceutical sector. She started her career as a pharmacist, later working in the food industry before transitioning to manufacturing and supply chain roles within pharmaceuticals. She has held several leadership positions, including Vice President of International Markets Supply Chain and Vice President of Global Planning & Global Supply Chain at Teva Pharmaceuticals, where she led supply chain strategy and transformation across a complex network of 53 sites and 60 markets. Currently, as Associate Vice President of US Supply Chain and Global Launches at Eli Lilly, she manages the team responsible for demand planning, order fulfillment, and customer service for the US Affiliate. She also oversees the supply chain execution for all new product launches at Lilly. Mar is a registered pharmacist in Spain and holds a PhD in health sciences, an MBA, and a master’s degree in Public Health. She is a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Pharmacy “Reino de Aragon” in Spain, regularly lectures at Reichman University (Israel) and San Jorge University (Spain), and has authored some articles and books on medicine, supply chain resiliency in pharmaceutical industry, and supply chain management.

Norman Katz is President of supply chain consultancy Katzscan Inc. (www.katzscan.com) which celebrates its 30-year anniversary in 2026. Prior to starting Katzscan, Norman held various technical, analyst, and management roles at consumer product companies for over a decade.

Norman’s core specialty is helping consumer product brands comply with retail and grocery supply chain technical and operational vendor requirements. His efforts reduce financial penalty chargebacks, improve end-to-end performance, and enhance data analysis and reporting. He acts as a dedicated software and supply chain strategic partner with responsibility for retail and grocery B2B-B2C-D2C portfolios of upwards to $60M annual.

Norman is an expert in ERP, X12-EDI, and barcode label/scanning applications including GS1US standards, and FDA FSMA 204 compliance pertaining to retail and grocery compliance. He helps to transform his clients’ relationships with their software partners, contract manufacturers, 3PLs, and customers through clear communications, master data management, and smooth flowing transactions.

Norman is a US and international speaker (60+ presentations) and writer (60+ articles including two peer-reviewed journal submissions), an editorial writer for Supply Chain Management Review since 2023 including the Perfect Order article series, and the author of innovative books “Detecting and Reducing Supply Chain Fraud” (Gower/Routledge, 2012), “Successful Supply Chain Vendor Compliance” (Gower/Routledge, 2016), and “Attack, Parry, Riposte: A Fencer’s Guide To Better Business Execution” (2020).

Norman is an ambidextrous foil and saber fencer, but will fence epee if one is handed to him.

Douglas J. Kent is founder of the Supply Chain Impact Alliance (scimpactalliance.org) focused on improving global communities through focused initiatives including global health, sustainability and humanitarian efforts.

Formerly, Kent was the executive vice president of sales and alliances at ASCM having overseen ASCM’s North American chapters, international training partners, corporate clients, eCommerce and was responsible for growing and strengthening the organization’s strategic collaborations.

Kent has nearly 40 years of transformational advisory and practitioner experience with large multi-national organizations. He specializes in SCOR®-based transformations, supply chain strategy & segmentation, supply chain planning, enterprise risk optimization, and supply chain visibility. As a certified SCOR® master instructor, he has traveled the globe leading workshops, education, and transformational programs.

Kent holds a master’s degree in international business from Pepperdine University and a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Indiana university. His 2024 book, Sustainable Supply Chain Orchestration: Unlearning for a Better Tomorrow has been released as the seminal work on the topic.

Dan Pellathy is Faculty of Practice and Director of Corporate Programming in Supply Chain Management at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville’s Haslam College of Business. Pellathy holds a Ph.D. in Supply Chain Management from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, an MBA/MPIA with a focus on international economics from the University of Pittsburgh, and a BA in philosophy and anthropology from Cornell University.

Pellathy's professional background includes enterprise risk management and he continues to actively consult with companies across a broad range of issues related to strategic supply chain planning, organizational alignment, supply chain risk management, and end-to-end operational excellence.

Pellathy's research has been published in academic journals including Journal of Business Logistics, Journal of Supply Chain Management, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, and International Journal of Logistics Management. He is also co-author of numerous papers on forward-thinking topics in supply chain management. This work has been featured in practitioner and popular outlets including Supply Chain Quarterly, Supply Chain Management Review, The Conversation, and the Wall Street Journal. He is also co-author of “Advanced Practice Playbook: Right-to-Left Planning” (Great River Learning Publishing, Copyright 2026).

Bijoy Sasidharan is a supply chain and analytics leader based in Atlanta, with a career spanning strategic roles across retail and ecommerce. His experience includes leadership positions at Walmart E-commerce in supply chain analytics, capacity planning, and forecasting, before serving as Director of Analytics at Fanatics Inc. At Fanatics, he leads capacity planning, demand forecasting, and agile inventory optimization for one of the largest licensed sports apparel platforms. His background combines deep expertise in financial and operational analytics from his Walmart tenure with hands-on inventory strategy across consumer goods and ecommerce. He holds a Master's degree from Georgia Tech.

Debanshu Sharma is a supply chain and transportation strategy expert with 15+ years of experience spanning freight network design, carrier performance optimization, predictive analytics, and large-scale logistics operations. He currently leads transportation strategy initiatives at Amazon Transportation Services, where his work spans carrier performance optimization, machine learning-based logistics analytics at scale, and network design optimization across one of the world's largest transportation networks.

Debanshu developed the Predictive Reliability Index (PRI), a machine learning framework validated on 150,000+ shipment records across 1,600+ carriers that generates pre-departure carrier risk scores — yielding a 35% reduction in pickup defects and 85% model accuracy. The framework is the subject of a peer-reviewed academic paper co-authored with Dr. Amulya Gurtu, Department Head at Texas A&M University, accepted for presentation at the 2026 INFORMS Annual Meeting in San Francisco under the Transportation Science and Logistics track.

His published work spans Supply Chain Management Review, CSCMP Supply Chain Xchange, Inbound Logistics, SupplyChainBrain, and Supply & Demand Chain Executive. He serves as a peer reviewer for IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management and Taylor & Francis journals.

Debanshu holds an MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and an MS in Mechanical Engineering from SUNY Buffalo. He is based in Metro Detroit, Michigan.

Eric Watts is the Group Vice President of Field Operations for Target’s Food Supply Chain, where he leads the performance and development of a nationwide network of nine Food Distribution Centers, as well as middle-mile carrier management and daily transportation execution for the company’s temperature-controlled supply chain. In this role, he is focused on advancing Target’s enterprise and Food & Beverage priorities, delivering greater reliability, freshness, and efficiency for stores and guests while building a more resilient, responsive, and future-ready network. Known for his ability to develop high-performing teams and align organizations around clear priorities, Eric partners across functions to modernize capabilities, scale innovation, and unlock value through strategic investments, automation, and network optimization.

With more than 20 years of supply chain leadership at Target and eight years of service in the U.S. Army Reserves, Eric brings a disciplined, team-first approach to leadership grounded in operational excellence and continuous improvement. Over the course of his career, he has led large-scale distribution operations, start-ups, and multi-million-dollar transformation initiatives that have strengthened Target’s supply chain capabilities and performance. He holds a Master of Science degree in Operations Management from the University of Arkansas and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Angelo State University.

Colin Yankee has more than 25 years of leadership and operations experience across the consumer goods and retail industries. He currently serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Supply Chain Officer at Tractor Supply Company, a Fortune 300 retailer with more than $16 billion in annual revenue. In this role, Colin leads end-to-end supply chain operations including merchandise planning, inventory management, logistics, distribution centers, fulfillment, enterprise continuous improvement, and analytics. He is responsible for supporting more than 2,500 retail locations and digital fulfillment operations.

Colin is recognized as a change agent who drives operational excellence and enterprise transformation by integrating people, process, and technology. At Tractor Supply, he stabilized the supply chain during rapid store growth, scaled operations to support revenue growth from $6.2 billion to over $16 billion, and executed a digital fulfillment strategy that grew e-commerce sales from $100 million to >$1 billion. Colin has also partnered with the board of directors to reduce enterprise risk, increase controls, diversify global sourcing, and is a key architect of the company strategy.

Previously, Colin served as Vice President of Logistics at Neiman Marcus Group, where he led fulfillment transformation. He began his corporate career at Target Corporation, holding multiple leadership roles in distribution operations, domestic transportation, and supply chain systems and strategy. His work included leading optimization programs during the 2008 recession and overseeing network design for new markets. Colin started his career as an officer in the United States Army, serving in reconnaissance and leadership roles. He was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal and inducted into the Order of St. George for contributions to the Armored Cavalry during the Global War on Terror.

Colin holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point and a Master of Science in Supply Chain Management from Michigan State University. He also earned a Certificate in Business Excellence from Columbia University with concentrations in corporate governance, financial valuation, and strategy. He has served on the Federal Maritime Commission’s National Shipper Advisory Committee, the White House Supply Chain Disruption Task Force, and the supply chain leader councils of both the National Retail Federation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association.

Santosh Yerasuri is a supply chain and logistics leader with more than 12 years of experience specializing in risk management, transportation strategy, and operational finance across the specialty chemicals and aerospace industries. He currently serves in a critical supply chain leadership role at a global specialty chemicals company, where he leads cross functional initiatives and manages high impact logistics optimization and risk mitigation programs across complex global networks.

Santosh is a Senior Member of the IEEE and an active contributor to the engineering, power systems, vehicle technology, and logistics communities. He has served as a Grand Judge for Society for Science fairs and regularly reviews technical papers for leading IEEE conferences, including ITEC and CIACON, as well as other international engineering forums.

An accomplished author and inventor, Santosh has published multiple peer reviewed papers indexed in Scopus and Web of Science, authored several books on supply chain, logistics, and transportation systems, and holds patents for logistics devices. His work focuses on transportation systems, power systems engineering, and operational optimization.

Santosh holds a Master of Science in Manufacturing Engineering Management from California State University, Northridge, and is a frequent speaker at major industry supply chain conferences. Through thought leadership and technical contributions, he provides actionable insights on supply chain resilience, sustainability, and strategic growth in complex industrial environments.