Roger Bloemen is Vice President, Global Supply Chain for Solutia. He has degrees in Bio Engineering, Industrial Engineering and and Business Administration from University of Leuven, Belgium. Roger has an executive MBA from Stanford University and gives frequent lectures on Supply Chain strategy at key business schools around the world. In 2008, Solutia won the Belgian Pics Supply Chain award.
Having 25 years experience in the chemical industry, David has Global responsibilities for Arkema's Fluoropolymers Supply Chain and Asset Management/Planning activities. This responsibility includes maximizing the profitability and return on investment for all Fluoropolymer assets and maintaining the 5 year business asset plan. With manufacturing capabilities on 3 continents, the Global Supply Chain team is constantly challenged to adapt the supply chain to ever changing market and demand conditions. With sustainable, global supply chain processes and systems in place, the global team is able to quickly anticipate changes in business requirements and align the supply chain accordingly.
Ray Adams joined SAP in 2005 as a Field Services Manager for the Industry Business Unit (IBU) Chemicals. Ray has over 20 years of chemical industry experience and started his career in Polymers research. His management experience spans technical services, manufacturing, operations and supply chain. He has implemented ISO-9000, MRPII Class A, S&OP and ERP systems for multiple businesses including polymers, electronic chemicals and plastics additives.
In 2001, he led the order-to-cash, supply/demand planning and procurement teams during the pilot implementation of SAP at Rohm and Haas, Company as the Supply Chain Manager. He completed a working capital reduction project in the Business Process Excellence Center as a Six Sigma Green Belt. Ray holds a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of New Hampshire and an MBA degree from Santa Clara University.
Adam Bevier has nearly 30 years of experience in Supply Chain, Distribution, Manufacturing, Information Technology, and Finance. He has been with Sherwin Williams for 20 years and his current assignment is managing the Supply Chain in Europe and Asia. In this role he works with integrating acquisitions, cultural opportunities, long lead time supply chains, as well as the normal supply chain challenges of customer service and inventory management.
Supply Chain Director at Elementis Specialties located in Hightstown, NJ Supply Chain professional with over 25 years experience with a strong finance background with focus on supply, demand and distribution planning, customer service, purchasing, toll manufacturing and logistics linking processes and systems (SAP, Oracle-JDE and Baan) Previously worked for Vertellus Specialties, Honeywell Electronic Materials and Rohm And Haas Co
Tom Balzer has been Vice President of Customer Service, eBusiness and Supply Chain Center of Experts for Bayer MaterialScience in the NAFTA Region for the last six years. Over the last year, he has been the Project Leader on a Supply Chain Transformation Project to simplify, standardize and automate many of the processes within the Supply Chain. Tom has spent the last 14 years of his 24 year career with Bayer MaterialScience in a variety of Supply Chain related leadership roles related to Logistics, Customer Service and eBusiness. Tom holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Business and Systems along with a Masters in Business Administration from Duquesne University in International Business and Corporate Information Systems.
John Conley is President of National Tank Truck Carriers, the trade association that represents more than 200 highway transporters of commodities in bulk as well as nearly 300 suppliers to that industry. He joined NTTC in 1989 after serving as editor of Modern Bulk Transporter magazine for 12 years. He is a past member of the Board of the Dangerous Goods Advisory Council, on the Transportation Research Board’s Committee on the Transportation of Hazardous Materials, the National Association of State Fire Marshall’s Hazardous Materials Response Committee, and on the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance Hazardous Materials Committee. He also serves on the TRANSCAER National Steering Committee. Conley holds a Masters Degree in Journalism from the University of Maryland and is a veteran of the U. S. Navy.
Matt Francis is the Supply Chain Manager for Doe & Ingalls of NC. Doe & Ingalls specializes in providing chemical services, expertise and high-quality chemicals to the biotechnology and electronic industries. He has served the biopharmaceutical and electronics markets in a customer service, purchasing, logistics and supply chain capacity for the past ten years. Prior to joining Doe & Ingalls, Matt worked in a manufacturing setting supplying industrial chemicals to customers manufacturing coatings and adhesives. Matt received a BS in Economics from East Carolina University, an MBA from Colorado State University and will soon complete his ISM Certified Supply Chain Professional accreditation.
Dave is a Senior Director for the American Chemistry Council’s Responsible Care® program; managing the Responsible Care Partner program and serving as a senior consultant for all aspects of Responsible Care field implementation. He retired as Plant Manager at DuPont’s Pontchartrain Works in New Orleans in 1996 following a 33 year career with DuPont where he began as a shift operator in Niagara Falls, NY. Dave subsequently worked as a supply chain and employee safety senior consultant for two years before joining the American Chemistry Council staff as a Member Relations Executive in 1998. Dave holds a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University and has managed the Responsible Care Partner Program since December 2005.
Janet F. Kavinoky is the Executive Director of Transportation Infrastructure in the Congressional and Public Affairs division of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She is the Chamber’s senior lobbyist and policy director on all transportation issues and leads the Chamber’s “Let’s Rebuild America” initiative advocating the need to modernize and expand our nation’s transportation, energy, telecommunications, and water infrastructure. In this role, Janet oversees the development of the initiative’s goals and strategies and is frequently a featured speaker at infrastructure events all around the country, drawing needed attention to our nation’s infrastructure challenges. Janet is also the Vice President of the Americans for Transportation Mobility (ATM) coalition, a national business-labor-construction industry coalition seeking maximum Federal investment in transportation systems. Prior to joining the Chamber, Janet worked at the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) specializing in infrastructure funding and financing, and she spent four years at the U.S. Department of Transportation rising to the position of Special Assistant to the Secretary. Janet has a bachelor’s degree in political economy from the University of Wyoming, and an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
After seven years as an engineer in R&D roles, Mr. Lord moved into production and inventory analysis and progressed into product supply management positions. He applied supply chain principles to add significant value to his businesses, and progressed into product line P&L management. In 2004, he was tasked with leading the process transformation of the order-to-cash processes within SAP and became a client of AMR Research. After five years leading process improvement projects, Mr. Lord joined AMR Research in April 2009. Paul Lord is an AMR research director in Gartner Research. His research covers supply chain practices in the chemical industry. Mr. Lord helps clients across all anufacturing industries with logistics strategies, inventory management and channel management challenges.
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 ha a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from MIT and earned her M.B.A. from Washington University.
Alan Milliken is a member of BASF Corporation’s Business Process Solutions group. Alan has over 20 years experience in manufacturing including production, logistics, quality & process control, industrial engineering, operations planning, and operator training. During the past 12 years he has served as a business consultant and educator specializing in supply chain & operations management. He holds an engineering degree from Auburn University and an MBA from Clemson University.
George Morrison is currently Vice President Global Supply Chain at IPS Corporation and also a member of the senior executive team. George is responsible for strategy development, capability building and execution for global supply chain and procurement, outsourcing, customer service, transportation logistics and information technology. He is also responsible for the company's SIOP process and cycle time reduction efforts and has implemented tailored improvements to dramatically improve perfect order, inventory and total supply chain costs. George joined IPS from Honeywell International, where he was the global director of supply chain for the $4.8 billion specialty materials group.
Peter Murray is currently one of DuPont’s Competency Leaders working on enabling DuPont’s Supply Chain Transformation and shifting the emphasis from a functional focus within operations to a strategic part of the business management process across DuPont. This includes extensive work on identifying and developing the competencies required at all levels of the organization to create the performance capability and make the improvement sustainable.Peter has 20 years of professional experience in supply chain, product and program management, operations, and business management. He has been with DuPont for eight years. Peter first joined DuPont as the Global Supply Chain Manager for the joint venture with Dow Chemical, DuPont-Dow Elastomers. Previously Peter has worked for other companies such as Newell-Rubbermaid, Raytheon, and Kao of Japan where as the primary supplier to Microsoft for packaged software Peter led the supply program for Windows 98. Peter is APICS CIRM certified was part of the development team for the new APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional Certification body of knowledge. He works with APICS to develop products and services for large organizations such as DuPont. Peter also works with the Corporate Executive Board and Supply Chain Council representing DuPont for Supply Chain Development research and development. He also is certified in Demand Flow Technology and has led LEAN centered change across businesses.
Since joining Milliken in 1998, Myers has had development, sales, marketing, and supply chain responsibilities within the plastics additives business in the chemical division. He currently is leading the sales and operations planning process for the plastics additives business while supporting efforts to improve supply chain processes for the division. Myers holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and currently is pursuing an MBA from the University of South Carolina and the APICS CPIM designation.
Sean Ritchie is the Director of Logistics Operations and Distribution Safety at Bayer MaterialScience LLC. Sean is a graduate of the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, NY and holds an M.B.A. from Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, PA. Sean is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. He has worked for 19 years in the supply chain field in various functions ranging from international ocean shipping to plant warehouse and tank farm operations to leading supply chain performance improvement projects. In his current role, he is responsible for day to day operations of the Bayer MaterialScience distribution network in the United States. His responsibilities include warehouse and bulk terminal operations, transportation operations, international logistics and transportation distribution safety.
Matt Tichon currently heads supply chain function in North America for the Pigments and Additives Business Units of the Clariant Corporation. While at Clariant he also management the Customer Service function as well. Matt is also deployed as a LeanSigma Green Belt leading numerous supply chain projects throughout multiple Business Units of Clariant. Prior to joining Clariant, Matt held supply chain positions in consulting (LYTE Group), solution consulting & software sales (JD Edwards/PeopleSoft), and industry (Arby’s) in which he helped organizations: • Reduce obsolete inventory costs by 80% • Implement supply chain forecasting, planning and optimization solutions • Optimize manufacturing and distribution networks to achieve 30% cost reductions Matt holds a Bachelors of Business Administration degree in Logistics Management from Central Michigan University. He also studied at Centro Mexicano Internacional in Morelia, Michoacan Mexico and retains a working knowledge of the Spanish language. Matt is an active member of the APICS organization.
Roger is responsible for overall management of the Eco Services supply chain in North America. This includes developing and improving the supply chain business processes, systems, and policies in order to improve the efficiency and reliability of the supply chain. Rhodia’s Eco Services business is a major supplier of sulfuric acid regeneration services and virgin sulfuric acid to the petroleum refining and chemical industries. Supply chain modes include rail, truck, barge and pipeline. Roger joined the Stauffer Chemical Company (which later became Rhodia) in 1987. He has held a variety of manufacturing and business assignments at Rhodia, including World Class Manufacturing leadership in Eco Services, director of manufacturing in other business enterprises, engineering and technology leadership, and business development in Latin America. For the past three years, Roger has been heading up the global roll-out of a company-wide, integrated ERP system.
Vice President, Supply Chain, Momentive - Silicone & Quartz Division, Albany, NY– Responsibilities include: Sales, Inventory and Operations Planning (SIOP), Logistics • Background:
- Director, Global Sourcing, Convatec, New Jersey
- Director, Procurement Strategy, Rio Tinto Alcan, Montreal
- Director, Supply Chain Mgmt, Alcan Pharmaceutical Packaging, New Jersey
- Director, Supply Chain Mgmt, Van Leer Containers, Chicago
- Procurement and Supply Chain roles at Coca-Cola, Colgate Palmolive and Esselte Pendaflex
- ERP systems implementation / upgrades (BPCS & SAP)
- Global Sourcing integration roles – multiple times
Ed Hildebrandt began his career in information technology where he worked in sales, marketing and general management for IBM and Digital Equipment. His career in chemical logistics began in 1991 with Chemical Leaman Tank Lines where he served as Director, National Accounts representing Chemical Leaman to some of the world’s largest chemical companies. In 1997, he joined Leaman Logistics as Vice President and General Manager of Intermodal Services and continued in this position when Leaman Logistics was sold and became part of GATX Chemical Logistics. In 2001, he took over as Senior Vice President Operations building ChemLogix customer centric approach to doing business. Mr. Hildebrandt is responsible for outsource operations and customer retention and has built a team of highly flexible subject matter experts with the tactical capabilities necessary to drive high levels of customer service and economic value for ChemLogix clients. Mr. Hildebrandt received his bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Economics from Villanova University and resides in Bucks County Pennsylvania.
Jack Weiss is the CEO and founder of WAM Systems—a leading provider of supply chain planning solutions to the chemical industry and home to Picaso™, a globally-recognized supply chain planning solution supporting a broad range of chemical markets. Starting his career in finance as a senior manager at L. F. Rothschild Securities and member of the securities trading desk at Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, Jack later entered the chemical industry, joining Exxon Chemicals in Houston as Manager of U.S. Decision Support Services. While there, he seized on an opportunity to independently support supply chain planning activities with an enterprise software solution. This led to the founding of WAM Systems in 1987 and the development of a new breed of advanced decision support and analysis software—the Picaso Supply Chain Planning Solution. Over the next 20 years, Jack led his company through numerous successes in delivering planning and optimization solutions to global customers like Basell, Ergon, Degussa Engineered Carbons, DuPont, Lyondell, Petrobras, and PetroChina. Today, he continues to build WAM’s strong reputation in the industry by directing the company through ongoing success, providing world-class best practices analysis and consulting and holding a well-deserved place among the recognized leaders in the global supply chain planning marketplace.
Michael Kelton is the Chairman and CEO of Inland Star Distribution Centers, Inc. After founding the company in 1981 in Fresno, California, Mr. Kelton grew the organization into a national provider of warehousing, distribution and transportation services specializing the in the handling and storage of hazardous and flammable chemicals. Mr. Kelton has spoken at numerous industry events and conferences, including WERC and CSCMP, on the topics of warehouse safety and chemical warehousing. He is an avid supporter of the Boys & Girls Club of Fresno and United Way. Mr. Kelton retains a Class A driver’s license and a certificate to drive a forklift.
• Provide global leadership and coaching on how to maximize the business model efficiency and offer tactical executions
- Convert business strategy into tactical implementation for operational excellence
- Manage all data elements of the web-enabled business model including all elements of SAP to ensure proper linkage to xiameter.com
- Optimize logistical activities for the XIAMETER brand to capitalize on efficiency gains
- Identify and implement supply chain efficiencies to maximize customer experience and improve operational effectiveness
Experience and Expertise Mike’s ability to match both strategic business initiatives, customer needs and our supply chain capabilities has been the cornerstone of Mike’s 15 year career. His broad experience in various supply chain operations has proven to be invaluable in ensuring the automated web-enabled functionality of xiameter.com is a success for both Dow Corning Corporation and our customers. His intimate knowledge of SAP excellence coupled with his business experience allows him to offer unique and valuable solutions to optimizing operations and improving efficiencies. His passion for continuous operational improvement in production planning, inventory control, logistics operations and supply chain management has driven the XIAMETER® business model to be best-in-class in operational effectiveness.
Shari Ruelas is the Americas Supply Chain Manager for Chevron Oronite responsible for the supply and distribution of gasoline and lubricant additives in North and South America. Key functions include planning, inventory management, procurement, subcontracting, logistics, warehouses and terminals. She has over 20 years experience in the chemical industry and holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nebraska and a MBA from the University of Houston. She has also earned her APICS CPIM and CSCP certifications.
Laura Rokohl is the Supply Chain Industry Marketing Manager at AspenTech, specializing in supply chain solutions for the chemicals, polymers, and specialty chemicals markets. Laura has been with AspenTech for 12 years, working in a variety of roles, including implementation services, business consulting, and industry marketing. Laura conducts ongoing supply chain market research and has helped many chemicals, polymers, and process CPG clients define and improve their supply chain business processes.
David Johnston is senior vice president of manufacturing and wholesale distribution at JDA Software. He previously served as vice president of forecasting and replenishment solutions at JDA, responsible for the strategic direction and business development of JDA’s forecasting and replenishment solution offerings. Prior to JDA, David held various positions at E3 and IBM, including vice president of industry marketing and partner relationships and vice president and manager of product development.