Mike Haining
Senior Vice President of Supply Chain
PETCO Animal Supplies

Mike Haining is a well-regarded Supply Chain and Operations executive.  In his current position as SVP of Supply Chain for PETCO, he is responsible for all warehousing, transportation and international sourcing for one of the world’s largest specialty pet retailers.

His past roles have included SVP of Logistics and Manufacturing for True Value Company, where among other accomplishments, he achieved significant productivity gains through the use of Simplified Gain Sharing. Mike was previously VP of Supply Chain for Kraft Foods for all North American Operations where he was a key player in the restructuring of Kraft's entire Distribution and Transportation Network. His other roles in his career at Kraft included leading Global Operations Strategy, acting as Operations Business Director for Post Cereals, and a variety of Director positions for Divisional Supply Chains. Mike was also a Senior Consultant for Coopers and Lybrand for Global Supply Chain Optimization, winning their prestigious Excalibur Award for North America Consulting Excellence.

Mike began his career with a nine-year tenure at Colgate Palmolive where he held management positions in Operations, Distribution and Engineering.

Doug Marchand
Executive Director
Georgia Ports Authority

As Executive Director of the Georgia Ports Authority, Doug Marchand enjoys an outstanding record of leadership and accomplishment in the maritime industry.  Mr. Marchand began his distinguished career in seaport management in 1970 at the Port of Galveston, Texas after graduating from Lamar University with a Bachelor of Administration degree in Marketing.

In 1986, Mr. Marchand was named General Manager and Port Director of the Port of Galveston; a position he held until joining the Georgia Ports Authority as Director of Ports in April of 1994. On January 1, 1995, Mr. Marchand was appointed Executive Director of the Georgia Ports Authority with complete managerial accountability for all seaport and inland barge terminal activities. Mr. Marchand administers a 220 million dollar annual budget and manages a 1,000-person organization from his office in Savannah.

Since becoming Executive Director, Mr. Marchand has worked with state leaders and GPA’s Board of Directors to turn Georgia’s ports into one of the state’s strongest economic engines. During his fifteen-year tenure, the number of containers, or Twenty-foot Equivalent Units, handled by the GPA has more than quadrupled. The number of auto and machinery units imported and exported by the GPA has nearly quadrupled during that same period. As a result, according to a recent study conducted by the University of Georgia’s Terry School of Business, today Georgia’s deepwater ports support more than 286,786 jobs throughout the state and contribute $14.9 billion in income, $55.8 billion in revenue and some $2.8 billion in state and local taxes to Georgia's bustling economy every year.

Mr. Marchand has held leadership positions in the American Association of Port Authorities and currently serves on the Board of Directors of that 125-member organization.  Mr. Marchand is also a Board Director for the Georgia Freight Bureau, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, the South Atlantic Marine Terminal Conference, the South Atlantic Caribbean Ports Association and the International Association of Ports & Harbors. Mr. Marchand has received numerous awards and distinctions over the course of his Maritime career, including Savannah Chamber of Commerce’s 2004 Industrial Person of the Year, the Journal of Commerce Leadership Roll in International Trade and Georgia Trend’s 100 Most Influential Georgians. In 1997 Marchand received Professional Port Manager (PPM®) Program Certification through the American Association of Port Authorities. 

Mr. Marchand and his wife, Brenda are the proud parents of a son and daughter.  They enjoy golf, gardening, reading and volunteer work as time permits.

The Georgia Ports Authority operates deepwater port terminals in Savannah and Brunswick and manages inland river barge terminals in Bainbridge and Columbus.

Ellen Martin
Chief Information Officer – Jeanswear Division
VF Corp.

Ellen Martin has been in the apparel business for over 30 years. She worked 7 years in various business units within Wrangler before transferring to IS. She continued on with VF when Wrangler was purchased in 1986. Prior to accepting the CIO position of Jeanswear, the largest division of VF, she was VP of Business Systems for VF Corporation. She was in charge of new projects and development for all supply chains systems for VF.  Specifically those systems were SAP SD,MM,PP, i2 SCP, i2 DF, NGC E-SPS, Logility, TXT and warehouse management systems. These systems cover from order to cash, including forecasting, planning, procurement of both raw and finished material, shipping both from a VF DC or direct to customer. Ellen is now focusing specifically on the information system needs for Jeanswear, which includes the brands Wrangler, Lee, Rustler and Hero.

Ellen has received numerous awards for her work in the supply chain area including:

Consumer Goods Technology magazine Top 25 Most Influential in 2003
Finalist for Computerworld Honors Program in 2002
3 Ken Sharma Excellence Awards from i2 in 2000,2001 and 2002
Received the i2 Chairman’s Award for Excellence in 2006
Voted one of the Premier 100 by Computerworld for 2007
Selected as one of the ten Best in Class projects by Computerworld in 2007

Marychris Melli
Program Director
Fair Factories Clearinghouse

Marychris Melli is Program Director at the Fair Factories Clearinghouse. As Program Director she is responsible for program management, strategy direction, and project management of FFC software development initiatives. Marychris also conducts outreach and sales efforts to promote new membership and to increase awareness of and support for the FFC’s programs and product launches. She previously worked with Bloomberg Financial Markets as Senior Project Manager for Bloomberg Television, coordinating international product launches. Subsequent to her experience at Bloomberg, Ms. Melli joined ePresence, Inc., a web solutions development company as Operations Manager where she managed business proposals, strategic alliances, and operational processes.

Ms. Melli graduated Magna cum laude from Monmouth University and received a MS degree in Global Affairs, with a focus on corporate social responsibility from Rutgers University.

Bob Pertierra
Vice President – Logistics Industry Development
Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce

Bob Pertierra is vice president of logistics industry development for the metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.  He was hired to spearhead the chamber’s logistics economic development efforts. In this position, Bob established and works with the chamber's Atlanta Logistics Innovation Council, to grow the logistic industry, increase international air cargo volumes and position the region as a global logistics center - the place the world turns for logistics solutions.

Bob brings to the chamber a solid foundation in military operations and logistics with eight years as an army officer and ranger.  He has an extensive background in corporate partnerships, marketing and fundraising as well.  Having worked for Pfizer in sales and marketing; and most recently, serving as Director of Corporate Relations for a national non-profit founded by Secretary Colin Powell, where he worked with Fortune 500 companies to create and manage public-private partnerships and corporate image campaigns.

Jonathan Rubio
Chief Executive Officer
Wayne Trading, Inc., Peru

Jonathan Rubio graduated from Villanova University with a double major in Economics and International Business. He started Wayne Trading in January 2005, based out of New York City's fashion district offering private label of apparel goods manufactured in Peru.

Wayne Trading, Inc. offers access to the top manufacturing facilities in Peru of knit and woven goods. The company manages exports from these facilities to clients in the United States, Canada, Venezuela, and the United Kingdom.

Stephen M. Rutner, PhD
Professor of Logistics and Transportation
Director, Southern Center for Logistics
Georgia Southern University

Dr. Stephen Rutner is a Professor of Logistics and Intermodal Transportation at Georgia Southern University.  He also serves as the Director of the Southern Center of Logistics and Intermodal Transportation.

Steve received his Ph.D. in Logistics and Transportation from the University of Tennessee and earned a MBA in Marketing and Logistics from the University of Alabama.

Steve’s professional background includes serving as a transportation officer in the U.S. Army and Army Reserve.  He also spent time at IBM working as a Strategic Analyst in the Service Sector Division for Alliances.

His research background has covered the areas of logistics value, logistics information systems, capacity problems in aviation, and alliances and partnerships in transportation.  He has published in a number of the major logistics and transportation journals.

Patrick Sherry, PhD
Professor and Director – National Center
for Intermodal Transportation
University of Denver

Dr. Patrick Sherry is a professor with a specialization in intermodal transportation and occupational psychology at the University of Denver. Since 2003 he has served as the Director of the National Center for Intermodal Transportation a University Transportation Center recognized by the US Department of Transportation. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver.

Dr. Sherry has directed several large research projects and consulted extensively with Fortune 500 transportation companies throughout the US and Canada in the areas of transportation safety, workforce development, and leadership training. He has conducted extensive research in the area of human factors related to hours of service for the transportation industry. He is currently working on a documentary film and a detailed case study describing state of the art intermodal transportation practices in the Seattle-Puget Sound Region and the Western United States.

Dr. Sherry has worked in both Europe and Asia, conducting training and assessment in intermodal transportation for the governments of Indonesia and the Philippines and been awarded a multiyear contract to develop intermodal training and educations programs for transportation professionals of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

Jeff Siewert
Director of International Logistics
The Home Depot

Jeff Siewert, Director – International Logistics, joined The Home Depot in June 2002.  His responsibilities include overseeing logistics services for merchandise moving from Home Depot’s global sourcing origins worldwide to the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and management of International 3rd Party Logistics Service Providers, Ocean Carriers, and Container Management companies.  He is also responsible for Global Trade Services including Customs Compliance, Brokerage Operations, Trade Risk Management and International Supply Chain Security for the enterprise. 

Prior to his current role, Jeff was in Shanghai, China, as Director–Business & Finance Integration, Asia, and was part of the leadership team spearheading the company’s entry into China’s retail market.  Jeff joined The Home Depot in the Internal Audit Leadership Program where he was Director for Merchandising, Marketing, and Global Sourcing, leading strategic and process improvement projects in those areas.

Prior to joining The Home Depot, Jeff worked in strategy management consulting in Deloitte Consulting’s Consumer Business unit and marchFIRST’s Strategy group.  Jeff began his career in Federal Express’s Tokyo, Japan, office where he worked in a variety of sales and operations roles before moving to the company’s headquarters to manage invoicing operations and systems for its Asia-Pacific region in roles of increasing responsibility.

In addition to attending grade school and then college as an exchange student in Japan, Jeff has lived and worked throughout Asia in his career, and is proficient in Japanese.  He is active in industry groups including the Retail Industry Leaders Association.

Jeff earned a BA in Asian Studies and Political Science at the University of Tennessee and his International MBA from the University Of Chicago Graduate School Of Business.