2009 Speakers

Jim Adkins is a senior supply chain, sourcing, project management, and lean six sigma executive with over 28 years of experience spanning the agricultural, light industrial, hydraulics, electronics, automotive, service, and defense industries. Jim began his career as an Air Force officer and engineer/metallurgist. After serving his country for 20 years, he transitioned to industry and has moved through progressive positions in supply chain. He specializes in re-energizing supply chain organizations through a synergistic use of his skills with a focus on sound collaboration, change management and team building to create dynamic, empowered and sustained change. Currently he resides in Fargo North Dakota, and is the Senior Director for North American Sourcing at Doosan/Bobcat. In this role, Jim has responsibility for all supply chain, material, and six sigma processes from new product development to final line side delivery in the factory for multiple sites.

Chris Banschbach has over 15 years experience in product development, platform management, strategic sourcing, procurement operations, and supply chain strategy. Mr. Banschbach has responsibility for developing and managing ICG Commerce’s global products and delivery platforms for the Company’s sourcing & category management services business. Prior to joining ICG Commerce, Mr. Banschbach led several, large scale supply chain restructuring programs with Accenture for Fortune 500 companies. During his tenure at ICG Commerce, Chris has led the development of ICG Commerce’s global delivery platform and earlier in his ICG Commerce career he had responsibility for designing, implementing, and managing large procurement outsourcing programs for ICG Commerce’s key clients with direct reporting relationships to executive management. His operational outsourcing experience includes management of large teams, P&L responsibility, staffing and human resources management. While providing outsourcing services, he has also held several acting roles within the client organization including acting Director of Supply Chain Planning and acting Director of Strategic Sourcing.

Mr. Banschbach holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware.

Mr. Beylier has over 20 years of experience and expertise with many global companies’ supply chain and procurement groups across industries such as Oil & Gas, Specialty Chemicals, High-Tech, Financial Institutions & Retail, and he has done extensive work in Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas. Over his career, he has led and strategically sourced over $3 billion of various products & services and negotiated over $300 million in capital and operational savings for companies such as ChevronTexaco, British Petroleum/Atlantic Richfield, Bank of America, The Gap Inc. and Hewlett-Packard. He currently heads the supply chain & procurement organization of TETRA Technologies Inc.’, a $1B geographically diversified Oil & Gas Service Company. Mr. Beylier received his Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from Polytechnic Saint Louis ESCOM in Paris, after which he led R&D projects at M.I.T. for the U.S Department of Defense. He is also the recipient of an M.B.A from The University of California at Los Angeles (U.C.L.A.).

Farley Blackman is a bold international business leader, known for his ability to drive sustainable change across global organizations. His accomplishments have been made possible by focusing on shareholder and customer value; challenging corporate “norms”; and a diligent pursuit of transparency.

Based in London, he currently leads BP’s Refining & Marketing effort to create a culture of cost management while delivering savings to insure ongoing competitiveness. Previously Blackman was Vice President, Indirect Procurement & 6 Sigma having established and a led a team responsible for extracting optimal value from BP’s $8 billion annual indirect supplier spend, and driving the 6 Sigma agenda across the company. He has held executive positions with GE and Motorola, including roles in Beijing, Delhi, Hong Kong, Mexico City and throughout the US; and has worked directly with businesses and governments throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America.

His personal passions include nature conservancy, the preservation of historic buildings and the promotion of the arts. He currently lends his spare time and talents to leading the revitalization of the Lunenburg Opera House located in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Lunenburg; Nova Scotia. His easement grant of Gold River Lake to the Nova Scotia Nature Trust (NSNT) protects the pristine property in perpetuity and is the largest single act of conservation in NSNT history.

Farley is a graduate of the BS and MBA programs at the University of Vermont. He and his wife Courtney currently reside in central London.

A recognized pioneer in procurement and sourcing technology, Gregg Brandyberry is a Partner with Wildfire Commerce. Mr. Brandyberry was most recently the VP Procurement of Global Systems and Operations at GlaxoSmithKline, a fortune 150 company in the pharmaceuticals industry. Mr. Brandyberry has over 30 years experience in a variety of industries including automotive, textile, manufactured goods, electronics and healthcare. He has experience in laboratory, quality, manufacturing, IT systems, operations, procurement and supply chain having held senior management roles in each discipline.

Mr. Brandyberry sits on many advisory boards including Purchasing Magazine’s Editorial Board, and is a Trustee for the Center For Strategic Sourcing Leadership (CSSL).

In 2008, Mr Brandyberry was named as one of the Top 25 Supply Chain Executives by Supply Chain and Logistics magazine. He was also recognized as one of the Top 100 Most Inspirational Pharmaceuticals Executives by PharmaVoice100 (the first supply chain executive to achieve this award). Most recently he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by Emptoris, LLC the leading eSourcing, Spend Analytics and Contract Management technology provider.

James E. Butts was named senior vice president in December 2007, having served as an executive and officer of C.H. Robinson since April 2002. Previous positions with the company include transportation manager at the Chicago South and Detroit branches. Jim has been with Robinson since 1978, and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wayne State University. Jim serves on the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management's Supply Chain and Operations Board of Advisors, Logistics Quarterly’s Advisory Board, and CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly's editorial board. Jim is also a member of the Board of Directors of Store to Door and Junior Achievement, two non profit agencies.

Jim often speaks on topics such as “The Principles of Courageous Management,” “Account Development”, as well as “Customer Communication Strategies.” His articles have appeared in Logistics Quarterly, Inbound Logistics, Journal of Commerce and he is often quoted in other well-known transportation periodicals. His presentation, “Beyond Brokerage”, which details many of the differences between transportation providers, has become one of his company’s consistent messaging themes.

Leslie Cedar has been with Ketera since early 2003 serving in channel sales, direct sales, and sales management. Now serving as Vice President of Business Development, she is responsible for the overall strategy and execution of Ketera′s partnerships, indirect channels and M&A activities. Leslie has over 12 years of experience in marketing, sales, business development, supply chain and operations consulting.
From 2000 to 2003, Leslie was a Director at ICG Commerce, a procurement outsourcing firm, responsible for sales execution and services delivery. Prior to ICGC, Leslie was a management consultant at Deloitte Consulting in its CRM practice. Leslie began her career in architecture, and spent four years in Japan teaching English language classes.
Leslie holds an MBA and a BS in Architectural Studies, both from the University of Texas at Austin.

Randall C. Clark is a Global Senior Strategic Buyer for Volvo Group Non-Automotive Purchasing (NAP). His role is to create the procurement strategy for MRO and Packaging products and services required by the brands of Volvo Group worldwide. He is focused on the requirements of each manufacturing facility to create the process for supplier selection, negotiation, implementation and development. He has over 15 years of manufacturing experience focused on reducing cost, increasing revenue and streamlining operations through the procurement strategy. Cost containment, supplier rationalization and revenue enhancement are areas that he has contributed to several industries with strategic initiatives on a global basis.

Randall has also been featured in Purchasing magazine on several occasions regarding supplier selection, procurement strategy, and the overall distribution chain of MRO suppliers. He has served on Volvo Group NAP steering committees to develop the Strategic Sourcing Process and the Project Management Process. He is frequently asked by companies and universities to lead workshops and discussions on international business procedures.

One of his core values states that every meeting with a supplier is a negotiation. Our job in procurement is to understand the market so we can establish a fair profit margin and mutually beneficial business relationship for both buyer and seller.

Randall is a graduate of Tennessee Tech University with a B.S. degree and Elon University with an M.B.A. Degree. He currently resides in Greensboro, North Carolina with his family.

Kelly Coleman serves as manager of staffing processes for The Home Depot, where his responsibilities include talent acquisition policy oversight, background check program management, and contingent workforce program management. He is heavily involved with supplier contract negotiation and management, process development and governance, and procedure and policy compliance. He led a successful contingent workforce initiative by consolidating the number of non-IT vendors from 160+ down to 8 primary vendors. The results of this effort streamlined internal processes, mitigated risk, and brought substantial cost savings to the company. He also led a cross-functional project team tasked to select and implement a Vendor Management System for governance and visibility of the entire contingent labor process. Prior to joining The Home Depot, Kelly’s experience includes recruiting management and national account management in the contingent labor industry. His experience from both client and supplier perspectives offer him unique first-hand knowledge of “needs” and “pains” of both organizations.

Pete Connelly is Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer for Leggett and Platt, Incorporated, a $4.5 billion diversified manufacturer with 200 factories worldwide.

His previous engineering, operations, and purchasing experience was at Xerox, Alcon Laboratories, and Trinity Industries in Zurich, Switzerland. He has a Mechanical Engineering degree, MBA, MA, and Doctorate from Columbia University, and a Masters degree from Southwestern Theological Seminary.

Ralph DeNino has over 20 years of experience in supply chain and operations management, e-commerce systems, and procurement consolidation programs. Prior to joining L-3 Communications, Ralph served as the principal associate of the DeNino Group, a consulting firm that advised L-3 and other Fortune 500 clients on cost-reducing procurement strategies. Prior to that, he served as director of corporate consolidated procurement for Lockheed Martin and held various subcontracts and procurement management positions for the Loral Corporation.

Vel has worked on over 100 Supply Chain projects for multinational clients and has extensive Business/Market Intelligence development experience at more than 75 Fortune 500 clients. These projects have run the gamut from quantitative analysis to strategic supply chain redesign. A regular speaker at procurement conferences, his areas of expertise are Procurement Management, Market Intelligence and integration of Market Intelligence with Sourcing.

Ryan Doerksen has been Director of Strategic Sourcing of Indirect Materials & Services since 2004. Prior to that, Ryan held various positions within Cessna’s Supply Management Organization, Finance, and Information Technology. Over the past five years Ryan has lead the implementation of Cessna’s Indirect Commodity Teams, successfully lead the roll-out of the Ariba procurement process, and development of an automated “pay on receipt” process for indirect goods and services.

Ryan’s current responsibilities include all strategic and sustaining sourcing, contracting, and fulfillment activities related to Indirect Materials and Services for the Aerospace Center of Excellence. This includes all Cessna Aircraft Company facilities and all Bell Helicopter facilities located in Texas.

In 2003, Ryan was part of the Supply Chain Management team at Cessna that was awarded Purchasing Magazine’s, Medal of Professional Excellence. Ryan has been published three times in Purchasing Magazine, detailing best case practices concerning strategic solutions for office equipment sourcing, the automation of indirect spend, and Cessna’s team-based buying strategy .

Ryan has a Bachelors degree in Mass Communication and is currently working on his Masters Degree at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri. Ryan is married with two children and resides in Wichita, Kansas.

Mr. Donohue manages Connolly’s Commercial business which services our clients in twelve industry verticals. He brings his diverse expertise of operations management, process improvement and consulting experience to Connolly Consulting. His experience includes operations assessments, development of improvement plans and implementation management.

At SBI & Co., he helped engineer the aggregation of a number of e-business focused consulting firms including, Scient, Lante, IXL and MarchFirst into SBI, with funding support from Cerberus Capital Partners. 

At Arthur D. Little, he had global responsibility for operations and information management functional practices. He served as the integration “point-person” with eleven global industry practice leaders.

With Coopers & Lybrand, Mr. Donohue was responsible for the sale, management and execution of consulting engagements involving: Manufacturing Strategy, Systems, and Operations across a variety of industries. Typical engagements entailed both planning and implementation work. His emphasis on client service resulted in multiple long-term relationships and increased client retention.

Prior to graduate school, Mr. Donohue worked in manufacturing operations for the General Motors Corporation.

As Chief Procurement Officer and Vice President, Dean Edwards heads the national Procurement and Supply (PS) organization at Kaiser Permanente (KP). Edwards leads this team with the goal of establishing a robust sourcing and supply capability, to ensure the people of KP have the products and services they need to provide the best quality care at the lowest possible cost to their members and patients.

With nearly 25 years of purchasing and supply chain experience, Edwards has held various leadership positions across countries and industries – including banking (Credit Suisse First Boston), hospitality (Hilton), food processing (H.J. Heinz), and automotive (Rover Car Group) in Britain, Mexico, Brazil, and the United States – before joining Kaiser Permanente in 2004.

As vice president of Procurement for the Americas at Cadbury Schweppes from 2002 to 2004, he centralized procurement operations across North America. With the integration of Cadbury Schweppes and Adam’s Confectionery in 2003, Edwards contributed to significant synergistic savings. Prior to his role at Cadbury Schweppes, Edwards headed the US Marketing and Sales Purchasing team at SmithKline Beecham/Glaxo SmithKline for 10 years. During his time there, Edwards also led the purchasing function for SmithKline's subsidiary – Diversified Pharmaceutical Services – helping them become one of the first Pharmaceutical Benefit Management companies to adopt strategic purchasing.

Edwards graduated with honors from the University of Leicester in England with a Bachelor of Arts degree in politics. He is also a graduate of the Center for Creative Leadership’s Leadership Development Program (LDP) ® located in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Edwards is an active member of The Conference Board’s Strategic Sourcing Leadership Council and the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Northern California chapter. He also serves on the board for Broadlane and the Tri-Valley YMCA. At Kaiser Permanente, Edwards serves as Company Incident Commander, as his team helps leads national efforts to prepare for and provide an effective, timely response in the event of a natural or manmade disaster.

He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal and a number of industry publications, such as Purchasing Magazine (December 2007), Modern Healthcare (February 2008), and Computer World (January 2008).

A native Englishman, Edwards has resided in the United States for 13 years and recently gained American citizenship. He currently lives in Pleasanton, California with his wife and three children.

Randall S. Ellis has served as Vice President and Chief Information Officer since April, 2001. He was previously Director of Corporate Development of FMC Corporation since 1998. He joined FMC Corporation in 1976 and held several financial management positions prior to becoming Controller for the former Ground Systems Division. Since then he has served in a variety of management roles at FMC Corporation, including Director of Gun Systems for the former Armament Systems Division and Manager of Energy Systems' operation in Sens, France.
Mr. Ellis received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Kansas State University and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Business at Northwestern University.

Marc Ensign received his bachelor's degree in Political Science from Brigham Young University and his MBA from the Keller Graduate School of Management. His work experience began in 1978 at Honeywell's Micro Switch division in Illinois where he worked in all phases of Materials Management, including production control, inventory control, and purchasing. Marc and his family moved to Arizona in 1992, joining Honeywell's Industrial Control business in Supply Management. Marc left Honeywell for a stint as a General Manager of a small machine company where he learned the importance of working capital and cash flow. After returning to Honeywell in 1996, Marc worked as Director, Strategic Sourcing, for several business units. In 2001 Marc joined Sonoco Products Company, a premier custom packaging company. Marc is the Director, Strategic Sourcing, Services, International Procurement and Supplier Diversity. In this role he manages supply strategy and leads corporate efforts to reduce cost, increase working capital and drive supplier diversity. In 2007, Marc received the “Buyer of the Year” award from the Carolinas Minority Supplier Development Council.

Marc has been active in all phases of education, serving on a local school board as both member and president, serving as Education vice-president of a local APICS chapter, and receiving the CPIM designation. He is on the board of directors for the regional supplier diversity chapter (Carolinas Minority Supplier Development Council). Marc is also an on-going speaker for several industry groups. Marc enjoys gardening, reading, and photography. Marc is most proud of his 5 children and 8 grandchildren.

As Global eProcure's CFO and Executive Vice President, Sam directs all of the company's financial and investment activities. In addition, Sam leads Global eProcure's Asia operation. Prior to joining Global eProcure, Sam was the Director of Product Management for Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch Inc. where he implemented the strategy for CityGuide's customer Internet and advertising business and developed the strategy for distribution of content and transactions over wireless devices. Before that role, Sam was an investment banker at Oppenheimer & Company where he led mergers and acquisitions activity in the technology and consumer products industries.
Previous to that role, Sam held various management positions at Avery Dennison, including leading the company's software division and establishing the company's office products operation in India. He also served as an executive in Johnson & Johnson's consumer products division.
Sam received his MBA with Honors from Harvard Business School and a M.S. from the University of Missouri. He also received his undergraduate degree from the University of Bombay.

Mr. Goodman is responsible for leading the development and marketing of ICG Commerce’s Market Intelligence products and services that are designed to help corporate executives leverage deep category knowledge and expertise to gain competitive advantage with better visibility and control over outside expenditures. Mr. Goodman has over 14 years of business leadership experience in corporate strategy, brand management and new product development with a focus on capturing deep customer insights to drive breakthrough product innovation.

Prior to joining ICG Commerce, Mr. Goodman served as Group Product Manager at Church & Dwight Co., Inc. where he led the ARM & HAMMER® fabric care brand and as Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble responsible for multiple facets of the global Olay® skin care brand. Mr. Goodman is also a former Consultant with LEK Consulting where he was responsible for corporate strategy development and mergers and acquisitions advisory for clients in the biopharmaceutical and manufacturing industries.

Mr. Goodman earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Duke University and a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Mr. Hart has overall responsibility for non-product commodity management, quality assurance processes, global SCM process innovation, and SCM team development. Mr. Hart and his team are focused on driving commodity strategy development, standardized processes, organizational development, and metrics that create competitive advantage for Dresser-Rand. His efforts center on value streams that intersect the supply base and Dresser-Rand. His responsibility includes the worldwide corrective action process, ISO certification governance, SCM, PI and Quality process development, D-R’s SCM/PI leadership development process, as well as SCM/PI technology.
Key areas of focus: spend management, performance metrics (TCO, Quality/COQ, On-Time Delivery, Lead Times), supplier risk/relationship management, supplier development, supplier diversity, scorecards, organizational effectiveness, and “lean” business operations.
Mr. Hart began his career with Dresser-Rand in 2006 as a Director, Indirect Non-Product Commodity Management. In 2007 this responsibility expanded to include all product direct materials commodities in addition to Non-Product commodities. Over the past three years, his leadership has contributed to improvements in team performance, supplier performance, and customer satisfaction. Prior to joining Dresser-Rand he held various positions in supply management and operations with Bristol Myers-Squibb, United Technologies Corporation, and The Vanguard Group.
He earned his Masters of Business Administration from The Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia. Additionally, He holds a BA from Washington & Lee University. Mr. Hart lives with his family outside Philadelphia, PA.

Julius Heil is responsible for Strategic and Tactical Planning, Strategic Sourcing, Plant Operations, Transportation, and Logistics Operations. Julius is a dynamic solutions executive offering expertise in operations management, global supply chain, multi-modal transportation systems, global sourcing and procurement strategy, and leading multi-plant and multi-functional teams throughout the US, Europe and Asia. Awarded for innovation in shipping design solutions, and named inventor of nine US patents, Julius has extensive experience with technology system implementations including TPS, TMS, WMS, ERP, MRP and others—certified in Six Sigma, Lean, Kaizen and Kanban methodologies.

David Hope-Ross is Senior Director, Procurement & Supply Chain Management. David is responsible for worldwide product marketing of Oracle's procurement applications including messaging and go-to-market planning. David joined Oracle from Gartner where he was the Research Director for Enterprise Procurement Applications. David has spent nine years at Gartner where he focused on procurement applications.

Michael Kalfopoulos is the Manager of Strategic Procurement Engineering for Boston Scientific within their Global Sourcing organization, responsible for their Supplier Risk Management and Supplier Engineering programs. Over the past couple of years, one of his responsibilities was to develop and manage BSC’s Supplier Risk program. Most recently, due to the current economic climate, he developed a focused Vendor Health program to identify address financially distressed vendors and develop mitigation plans for each vendor. He has worked at BSC for 4 years and has 20+ years experience in the area of Operations. He started his career working for Northrop Grumman in the quality field. He then spent 10 years consulting in Operations Management for Arthur D. Little and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Mike received his MS in Mechanical Engineering from Northeastern University and his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University.

Jill co-founded the non-profit organization, Chemical Strategies Partnership (CSP) in 1996. CSP seeks to reduce chemical use, waste, risks, and cost through the transformation of the chemical supply chain by redefining the way chemicals are used and sold. Jill has worked with numerous industries to assist manufacturing and pharma companies to implement a new supply chain model called "chemical management services" (CMS) with impressive results for the companies. She also led the effort to initiate the membership-based, CMS Forum, which was launched in 2000 with the support of several CMS providers. Prior to joining CEA, Ms. Kauffman Johnson was the founding Director of the Pacific Coast Regional Office of the Ocean Conservancy (formerly the Center for Marine Conservation) and served as a plastics market analyst for the US EPA. Jill holds an M.A. in Public Policy from Harvard University and a B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University.

Rob Kyre is the IT manager responsible for the strategy, development, and deployment of all NCR Procurement and Finance applications. Rob holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and began his career with NCR in 1996. From 2002 to present he's managed the deployment of Oracle ERP applications to over 40 NCR country marketing entities and two manufacturing facilities. These deployments cover 90% of all NCR spend and revenue. In conjunction with these deployments he's also driven NCR's end to end Procurement process to 80% full electronic automation and document delivery via an aggressive approach to both EDI and iSupplier Portal engagements with suppliers.

 Jim Lawton is senior vice president and general manager of the Supply Management Solutions division of D&B, a division he helped to create. In 2006, he helped drive D&B’s acquisition of his employer at the time, Open Ratings. At Open Ratings, Lawton helped drive rapid growth, leading it to become the market-leading provider of supply intelligence.

Prior to joining Open Ratings, Lawton was vice president of marketing for Optiant, where he positioned the company as the leader of a high-growth market for supply chain optimization solutions. During his tenure, the company launched five products and dramatically expanded its customer base, resulting in 300 percent annual growth.

Jim’s ability to launch innovative manufacturing solutions into commercially viable businesses stems from his experience as a supply chain executive at Hewlett-Packard. There, he led an initiative that rapidly achieved profitability, saving millions of dollars through the reduction of inventory and reorganized supply chain operations.

An inaugural fellow of MIT's prestigious Leaders for Manufacturing program, Lawton is a frequent speaker at industry conferences including Supply Chain World, National Manufacturing Week, ISM’s annual conference, and Oracle OpenWorld and has been named twice to the Supply & Demand Chain Executive “Pros to Know” list in 2006 and 2004.

Justine MacDonald is the VP of Supply Chain at Sigma-Aldrich Corporation where she overseas the company’s global supply chain, procurement and planning organizations. Previously, she was the VP of Supply Chain at Albemarle Corporation. Justine has been key in both organizations in creating a stronger link between business and manufacturing in the S&OP process. She has also held leadership positions within Solutia and Monsanto. Justine has a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from MIT and earned her M.B.A. from Washington University.

Gary A. Miller is the Vice President of Global Supply Chain and Chief Procurement Officer at A. Schulman. He oversees the company's supply chain and procurement activities to better leverage its worldwide purchasing power, reduce materials inventories, eliminate waste and improve efficiency.

Gary is tasked with creating a new supply chain and procurement organization for A. Schulman with members from all business units around the world. His team focuses on three key priorities -- reducing the cost of materials used and purchased; improving working capital utilization; and identifying new sources of supply for existing products as well as new products in the pipeline to achieve corporate business objectives of returning North American operations to profitability and positioning the Company for long-term global growth.

Most recently, Gary was Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer for The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and President of Goodyear/SRI Global Purchasing Company, a joint venture between Goodyear and Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd. He has more than 35 years of experience with Goodyear, including responsibility for the company's global purchasing activities for the past 16 years.

For over 25 years, Dr. Monczka has researched, taught and consulted about strategic purchasing/sourcing and supply chain management strategies and implementation processes. He directed and led The Global Procurement and Supply Chain Benchmarking Initiative, a “first-of-its-kind” third party benchmarking initiative at MSU, and has been Principle Investigator on two major National Science Foundation projects in the area of procurement and supply chain strategy and practice. He is currently leading major strategy research initiatives determining the next generation of sourcing and supply chain strategies that will lead to 5X to 10X performance improvements.

Dr. Monczka’s consulting experience includes purchasing/sourcing and supply chain strategy development; benchmarking of best practices worldwide; organizational analysis; assessments of sourcing and supply chain strategies, practices and e-sourcing/supply systems; developing and conducting worldwide supplier surveys; and developing and implementing effective human resource development programs in strategic sourcing/supplychain management. He has worked with over 150 firms in varying capacities over the past twenty-five years.

Dr. Monczka has researched and published over 150 articles, books and monographs in the field of sourcing and supply chain management including a leading textbook, Purchasing and Supply Chain Management, which is now in its fourth edition. He was the Principal Investigator for two studies funded by the National Science Foundation, Integrating Suppliers into the Product Value/Supply Chain: New Product Development and Purchasing Performance: Measurement and Control. He has also authored Effective Global Sourcing and Supply for Superior Results; Outsourcing Strategically for Sustainable Competitive Advantage; Cross Functional Sourcing Team Effectiveness; Supply Strategy Implementation: Current and Future Opportunities; and Succeeding in a Dynamic World: Supply Management in the Decade Ahead. His major current strategic sourcing and supply chain strategy research includes Supplier Relationship Management, End-to-End Supply Chain Integration and Accelerating Innovation Through Effective Supplier Collaboration.

He is a member of the Council of Logistics Management, Institute for Decision Sciences and the Institute for Supply Management. He is Contributing Editor on Sourcing Strategy for Purchasing Magazine and served as Associate Editor of the Journal of Supply Chain Management. He is also the 2008 recipient of the J. Shipman Gold Medal Award, supply management’s highest honor.

A graduate of the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, Jim Nelles has more than 15 years of professional experience, including 9 years as a consultant. He began his career in the US Navy and has also served as the Chief Procurement Officer of Pall Corporation, the world's largest filtration company.

He joined Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in 2008, where he specializes in operational strategy topics such as procurement, supply chain, manufacturing footprint, and sales & operations planning. His project work has included improving performance for clients in the consumer packaged goods, consumer electronics/high tech, and industrial sectors.

Ian O’Brien has over 15 years of supply chain leadership experience, spanning multiple disciplines and industries. He has led a variety of supply chain teams, including value chain (strategic sourcing), supplier management, procurement, operations, contract management, technology, warehouse and fulfillment. Ian recently led an enterprise project to secure a robust source-to-pay technology suite, which is currently transforming supply chain capabilities. He has also outsourced a variety of functions (including procurement) in order to deepen skills, provide variable support models, drive savings and gain efficiencies.

Prior to joining SunTrust, Ian was a member of Ernst and Young’s consulting practice for 5 years, where he managed multiple organizational and strategic sourcing engagements for manufacturing and services clients – both domestically and internationally.

Ian is a founding board member of the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) Business Process Management Society. He holds a BA in Economics from Duke University, and an MBA from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.

Keith Orchard is an experienced Procurement and Supply Chain professional with multiple years of experience in leading the Supply Chain function. He joined McCain in 2002 and is currently serving as Vice President for Global Procurement & Supply Chain Planning. In his previous role he was responsible for handling the Supply Chain for McCain in the US region.
Keith has earned his Bachelor’s in Business Administration from New Brunswick University of, Canada and is also a Certified Management Accountant by the Society of Management Accounting, Canada.

Ravi Panchanadan has more than 18 years of post-PGDM experience in Supply Chain Management functions focused on Global Sourcing, Logistics and FMCG distribution and planning. At Infosys BPO, Ravi is responsible for setting up a robust Sourcing and Procurement Practice to move up the S&P value chain. His goal is to transform the practice from a traditional BPO offering to a value-added offering by introducing large components of differentiated value-added processes such as Platforms, Category Management, Spends and Contract Management.

John Proverbs has more than 18 years experience in strategic sourcing. Currently John is the Senior Director of Supply Chain at KLA-Tencor. Notably, KLA-Tencor was a recipient of the ISM's 2006 R. Gene Richter Award for Leadership and Excellence in Supply Management. Prior to KLA-Tencor, John was a Senior Executive at a start-up engaged in strategic sourcing solutions. Previously, John was an integral member of teams at Hewlett-Packard and IBM that received, in 1992 and in 1999 respectively, Purchasing Magazine's Medal of Professional Excellence for organizing global procurement transformation. While at IBM, he led global sourcing teams. He has experience in both direct and indirect supply chain with strong skills in strategy development, strategic sourcing, contracts development, negotiations and building organizational capability.

Joseph Richardson is Manager, Global Subsea Sourcing at FMC Technologies. He is a member of various Boards of Directors, Institute for Supply Management, National Black MBA Association; Awards: Procurement Excellence Award, Digital Equipment Corporation; Stock Recognition Award, IBM; Best-of-the-Best in Supply Chain Management, A.D. Little; International Procurement Excellence Award, Samsung. He holds Undergraduate & Masters Degrees from Cambridge College, Business & Management; Ph.D. Trinity University, Organizational Behavior.

Bill Robinson has been in the fleet industry with Wheels for nine years. He began his career there by managing the re-design of the company website to include new web-based information and transaction tools created specifically for Fleet Managers and Drivers. Bill ran the Marketing Department for Wheels for six years, and held the title of Assistant Vice President of Client Relations before assuming a role as Vice President of International. Bill spends his time addressing strategic fleet issues for our global clients and is responsible for business development in the global fleet market.
Before working at Wheels, Bill was a Marketing Consultant for the Richmark Group in Chicago where he focused on helping companies adjust their marketing and sales strategies to take into account the opportunities and challenges provided by new technologies.
Bill received his MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management in 1994.

J. Michael Sharp serves as Director, Procurement BPO Practice with enrich IT. Mr. Sharp is responsible for managing the procurement practice at enrich IT and placing an emphasis on providing advanced procurement technology and services.

Mr. Sharp brings over 20 years of experience in sales and business development. Prior to enrich IT, Mr. Sharp held sales and management positions with companies including AT Kearney and Ariba focusing on supply chain management, technology and sourcing solutions. Mr. Sharp attended Kennesaw State University and has worked as a trusted adviser with numerous clients spanning across North America and Canada.

Ron Tabbitas is the Director, Subcontracts, Cost Analyst, and Technical Support for Telephonics Corporation headquartered in Farmingdale, Long Island, New York.
Mr. Tabbitas and the “World Class” Telephonics Subcontract Management Team is responsible for the end-to-end management and control of the critical Telephonics Supply Chain employing a collaborative approach anchored by tried and tested subcontract management practices and principles with a trust but validate business approach to ensure success.
Mr. Tabbitas is also an Adjunct Professor of Business at both Dowling and St Joseph’s College on Long Island, New York and a staunch supporter of workforce development and revitalization of the manufacturing sector in America. Mr. Tabbitas works closely with both industry and academia to bring each together in order to develop targeted training and certification programs to address the industry skillset needs of both today and tomorrow including new skills required in response to the needs of the emerging energy efficient and renewable energy industries.
Mr. Tabbitas brings with him twenty- seven (27) years of experience in subcontract management and material services. Mr. Tabbitas began working for Telephonics Corporation in 1997 as Manager, Subcontracts. Mr. Tabbitas began his career in Procurement at Grumman Corporation in 1987 after being accepted into a Grumman procurement training program. Mr. Tabbitas started at Grumman Corporation in 1982 where he held positions in the stockroom, warehousing, and logistics. Mr. Tabbitas left Grumman in 1992 to work for Loral Corporation (later Lockheed Martin and finally BAE Systems) as a Subcontract Administrator where he remained from 1992 to 1997 while rising through the ranks to Supervisor, Subcontracts and Procurement before his move to Telephonics Corporation where he remains today.

Josh Scofield is the Director of Global Supply Chain Strategy and Operations at the Jarden Corporation. Jarden is a manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer of more than one hundred consumer product brands including Sunbeam, Coleman, Oster, Mr. Coffee, Crock-Pot, First Alert, Campingaz, Ball preserving, Pine Mountain, and Bicycle playing cards.

At the Jarden Corporation, Josh is a member of the Corporate Supply Chain team operating as an internal consulting group across four market segments, eleven divisions and more than twenty companies to reduce costs, improve processes, manage business risk, and share best practices.

The Jarden Corporation has grown primarily through acquisition including, more recently the acquisitions of Penn Fishing, the Pure Fishing company and K2 Inc. which added leading consumer products brands such as Shakespeare, Berkley, Rawlings, Madshus, K2 Sports, Volkl Marker, JT Sports, and Marmot.

Josh and his colleagues are focused on ensuring that synergies are realized across product development, supply chain, marketing, manufacturing, and other front-office operations at the companies that join the Jarden family.

DK has 23 years of leadership experience in consumer product, technology, auto, and power equipment manufacturing environment with direct experience in engineering and supply chain including procurement (direct and indirect), logistics, supply-demand, inventory management, and operations.

DK is currently the Senior Vice President of Procurement for the ConAgra Foods and has the responsibility of $6B spend for the direct, indirect, and contract manufacturing. He has been with ConAgra Foods since March 2006.

Prior to his current position at ConAgra Foods, DK spent three years at Motorola where he held the roles of senior executive in Procurement. He was the Vice President of Procurement for the Motorola’s Mobile Devices Group and had the responsibility of $12B Sourcing for the hand set business. Prior to this, DK was the Vice President with Motorola’s Global Procurement function with the responsibilities of Indirect Global Sourcing with $6.0B+ spend.

Before joining Motorola in 2003, DK spent 15 years with IBM Corp in many different leadership roles including product development, engineering, logistics, supply/demand, inventory mgmt, and Global Procurement. His last responsibilities at IBM included managing Global Services Procurement with significant responsibilities.

DK has a Master’s in Industrial Engineering, a BS in Mechanical Engineering and has been registered Professional Engineer (PE). He has published many articles related to manufacturing and supply-chain in external and internal journals. He is on the Board for NMSDC (National Minority Supplier Development Council) and on their Executive Committee.

Chris is responsible for sales, customer relations, and the development and deployment of solutions for the expansive customer base of retail, consumer packaged goods (CPG), chemical, pharmaceutical, food & beverage companies and more. His critical role in the company ensures customers like Unilever, Rich Products Corporation, Ace Hardware, Northwest Pipe, Barilla, Dannon and more, are satisfied with their LeanLogistics’ investment.. Additionally, Chris’ responsibilities include LeanLogistics’ overall SaaS platform development and deployment, business development and the expansion of the company’s service footprint internationally.

Chris has nearly 20 years of experience in transportation and logistics management. Prior to joining LeanLogistics, Chris held multiple positions with Third-Party Logistics companies, from transportation operations to Supply Chain management , where he developed solutions for clients in the food products industry.

Ginny Tucker is Vice-President of Procurement Solutions for Xerox Corporation. She is responsible for helping customers drive productivity and profitability to give them a competitive edge in their marketplace. She does this by leveraging Xerox Corporation process, technology, and knowledge in the procurement arena.

Ginny is a senior executive who has global experience in a variety of business areas. She has staff and line experience in sales support and service operations, finance, master data management, knowledge management, Go-To-Market & channel development strategy.

Ginny holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Human Development from St. Mary’s College of Maryland as well as an Executive MBA from Emory University. She is also a Xerox certified Black Belt.

Karen Weinstein-Millson has over 26 years of practical experience in all facets of supply chain management, operations, contract management, and training and development. Her areas of expertise, developed through managerial positions in medical and technology companies, include organizational development, managing and strengthening supplier performance, negotiation, and supplier evaluation and appraisal. Karen has led all aspects of material management teams, managed diverse supply bases in support of global manufacturing, and coordinated procurement and cost management programs. Currently, as Vice President for Natick, Massachusetts-based Boston Scientific Corporation, Karen is responsible for developing long-term approaches to procurement that integrates sourcing efforts with manufacturing operations, research and development, and quality.

Mr. Young has close to 35 years of experience in the field of Supply Chain Management covering commercial and government markets. Beginning February, 2004 he assumed the position of Vice-President, Supply Chain Management with Barrick Gold Corporation and was promoted to Sr. Vice President in January, 2008. In this role, Dave is responsible for setting the procurement, contracts and logistics strategy for the company in achieving their corporate objectives in maintaining their position as the senior gold low cost producer. As the largest gold mining company in the world, Barrick is based in five continents with 26 operating mines and 9 development projects.

Prior to this assignment he worked at Rockwell Collins as the Vice President of Material and Supply. In this capacity, Mr. Young was responsible for all Material activities at fourteen manufacturing locations in N. America. He led the reorganization of the Material functions within Rockwell Collins and played an integral role with the acquisitions of Hughes Avicom, Sony Transcom, Kaiser Aerospace and Electronics into the Collins family.

Dave has worked at Hughes Aircraft Company in California as well as two divisions of American Hospital Supply Corporation. He is a member of several associations and was the past Chairman of Stack International, a global consortium of leading manufacturing companies. Prior to re-locating to Canada, Dave was a member of the Board of Directors for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He has an undergraduate degree from Purdue University in Industrial Engineering and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Illinois.

Chuck Zdrojowy is an Operations Professional with a solid track record of successful start ups and business transformations.
Chuck balances the the day to day operational needs while still driving the the tactical and strategic changes required. He thrives in dynamic environments.

He has worked in numerous industries including retail, hitec, , 3PL and consulting. He has also worked in Truck Load, LTL and Parcel environments, Pallet Pick, Case Pick, Pick & Pack for B2B and B2C companies.

Chuck has managed organizations that included distribution centers of over 1 million square feet, over 400 associates with operations in multiple states.

Most recently as program manager at Ryder Integrated Logistics, Chuck was responsible to the simultaneous closing of one national DC, opening of 2 regional DCs, the integration of 2 additional divisions and an SAP DWMS implementation. While at the same time project managing a new start up in Singapore for micro chip manufacturer.

In addition to his professional career as a SCM Professional and project manager Chuck has been a significant contributor to the growth education of SCM Professionals in leveraging social media for business. Chuck is the founder of SCNI Supply Chain Network International and several other Social Media Communities with a focus on business.

Chuck is a firm believer that Social Media and other collaborative tools in one form or another will and are having a significant impact for the better in the way that work is done.

This will be especially true for supply chain management. Today the competition between companies is my supply chain vs. your supply chain. To maximize the optimization of your supply chain you have to take a holistic approach. The companies that leverage collaborative tools and increased supply chain visibility to work with their suppliers and customers will be the dominant players.