Jennifer Hughey is currently the VP of Supply Chain with Electrolux Home Care Products where she has held this position for the past 6 years.  Prior to joining Electrolux her career was in finance and accounting at multiple Fortune 500 and start up corporations.  Hughey received her Executive MBA from University of Notre Dame and her Bachelor of Science in Accounting degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

Jennifer Hughey is a senior supply chain executive with fifteen years of quantifiable achievement across diverse cultural environments of Fortune 500 and start up corporations.  She has demonstrated operational leadership and change management skills to establish/stabilize processes and procedures to drive revenue, operating income, and improve working capital.  She has a Talent for making rapid assessments of diverse situational and organizational challenges while developing and leading the resulting action plans.  Hughey received her Executive MBA from University of Notre Dame and her Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

John is a member of PepsiCo’s CIO organization and is primarily responsible for developing the strategic direction for Integrated Supply Chain Planning (ISCP) products and services for the Quaker, Tropicana and Gatorade businesses.  He has over 22 years of experience in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Supply Chain industry in numerous different management capacities. 

In addition to John’s experience at PepsiCo, he has broad experience in selling, building, implementing and supporting ERP/SCM solutions and driving change in Consumer Packaged Goods, Electronics, Plastics and Metals customers. Before joining PepsiCo, John spent 6 years as Vice President of Client Services, at IT3, Inc., a division of Connor-Winfield Corporation in the Chicago suburbs. Prior to that, John spent five years at Tangible Vision, an ERP startup company based in Downers Grove, IL.  During that time, his positions included numerous management positions ranging from software development to client services.  John began his career as an International Implementation Manager at Cimnet Systems, Inc., Westmont, IL before joining Tangible Vision.

John holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Illinois.

As Director of Global Supply Chain Strategy and Systems for Colgate-Palmolive Company, Mark is responsible for supply chain business process systems and global initiatives such as Factory Performance & Reliability programs. Additional responsibilities include the linking global supply chain functional strategies and ensuring overall global supply chain metrics are in place.  Twenty years with Colgate Palmolive have seen assignments across the supply chain from Procurement to Engineering and Packaging.  Mark led the global supply chain efforts to develop new supply strategies which became a key part of Colgate’s major restructuring program a few years ago, driving new organizational design requirements, and the initial strategies for a focused value chain and risk management planning.  Prior to Colgate Mark spent over 15 years working for Pepsico and General Mills supply chains.

David Harrington is the Vice President of Supply Chain and Corporate Quality Officer for Stratus. He joined in 2009 and provides leadership for all facets of Stratus’ global supply chain and manufacturing operations including procurement, quality management and management of Stratus’ external contract manufacturers. Prior to this role, Dave served for 5 years as the Vice President of Supply Chain Operations & Manufacturing at Egenera Inc. Before assuming that position he served as co-founder and President of Allied Supply Chain Solutions, and held Sr. Management positions at Narad Networks, ACT Manufacturing and Data General. Dave is a graduate of Westfield State College, and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics.

Over the last 25 years, John Gattorna has earned an international reputation in the supply chain management field. He is a renowned lecturer and task force leader, and has a strong conceptual capacity, combined with a pragmatic approach to solving complex business problems.

Despite a demanding work schedule in industry and commerce John has been, and still is, a prolific writer, having published 10 books and numerous articles in his areas of interest. Many of his books have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish & Italian language editions.

As vice president and general manager of AMR Research’s Industry Value Chain Strategies Service, Roddy is responsible for managing the company’s value chain analysis and research across all industries. Roddy researches a variety of topics including systems support to operations, IT, and manufacturing strategy. Roddy was a key contributor in the development of AMR Research’s demand-driven supply chain model. His research brings together the strategic, business, and organizational issues faced when implementing IT and enterprise architectures, processes, and applications across the value chain.

Roddy has over 27 years of experience, most recently as an executive at South African Breweries (SAB), one of the three largest brewers in the world. He held leadership roles in SAB's World Class Manufacturing program and the Strategic Corporate Change Management program. Prior to SAB, Roddy worked for ISCOR (Iron and Steel Manufacturers) as a technician and millwright in production operations. He also worked for G.H. Marais and Partners, an electrical an d electronic engineering consulting firm.

Roddy's qualifications include a millwright trade, a technician’s diploma, and a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Jim has been Vice President of Information Technology at Creativity Inc. since 2004.  He has more than 20 years experience building data warehouse and business intelligence solutions for pharmaceutical, consumer goods, and distribution companies.  His first data warehouse implementation, deployed in 1994, is still in use today, and the largest BI project involved 10TB of primary storage and over 200 million unique patient records.

While at Creativity, Jim developed their business intelligence solution (dubbed CRAFTnet) as a platform that provides daily metrics, analyses, and alerts to over 100 internal customers so that they can better serve external customers and achieve corporate objectives.

Nari Viswanathan is Vice President and Principal Analyst for the Aberdeen Group's Supply Chain Management Practice. Nari is a well recognized industry expert with extensive experience across industry analysis, market research, product management/marketing, consulting, solution design/development and presales. Nari has gained industry recognition as a Pro to Know by Supply Demand Chain Executive Magazine for two years 2008 and 2010. Nari has also published extensively in trade publications like Supply Chain Management Review, Supply Chain Brain, Supply Demand Chain Executive, Internet Retailer as well as leading business publications including Industry Week, CIO, Business Week etc.

Nari Viswanathan heads up the Supply Chain Management practice and counsels enterprises on their supply chain planning strategies in areas such as Integrated Business Planning, Sales and Operations Planning, Demand Management, Inventory Management, Network Design, and customer/ supplier collaboration with specific emphasis on financial performance.  Nari also covers the Software as a Service, B2B collaboration and process integration coverage areas. Nari manages the SCM research team, and possesses a very strong holistic understanding of areas like Transportation Management Systems, Warehouse Management Systems and Distributed Order Management.

Nari has published over 40 benchmark reports which have been downloaded by more than 50,000 supply chain executives and professionals. In addition Nari has published over 100 articles in aberdeen.com covering the blend of people, processes, and technologies needed to achieve organizational transformation.

Nari is a highly sought after presenter having lectured at leading events such as CSCMP, APICS, SCMWorld as well as conducted more than 50 webinars covering a wide range of topics. He is a trusted advisor to Chief Supply Chain Officers who rely on his research as well as advisory for taking technology purchasing and process improvement decisions. Solution providers rely on Nari’s unique in-depth understanding on solutions and how they map to customer requirements. Nari’s in-depth hands on background in product management and consulting makes him uniquely positioned to provide significant value to his advisory clients.

Nari’s current role at Aberdeen includes creating a research agenda for the SCM practice for a rolling period of 18 months, vetting and finalizing the research calendar, supporting advisory clients, developing benchmark reports, developing an enterprise advisory council and advising on vendor go to market strategies. A special focus for Nari is Industry Vertical research. Key vertical industries managed within the practice include Discrete (Automotive, Industrial Equipment, Aerospace and Defense), Process (Chemicals/Pharmaceuticals, Metals, Oil, Gas), Consumer Industries (Apparel, Footwear, Consumer Packaged Goods, Consumer Durables, Retail, Distribution), High-tech sector (Computer Equipment and Peripherals, Semiconductors).

Previous to joining Aberdeen Group, Nari was a senior product manager at i2 Technologies. The product that Nari was managing won the prestigious Automotive News PACE™ (Premier Automotive Suppliers’ Contributions to Excellence) Award for product innovation.
Past experience includes a multi-year change management and IT enablement initiative at a large automotive manufacturer in Asia and process re-engineering of a large North American distribution network. Nari possess work experience that spans consulting engagements in 4 continents and 8 different countries that makes him a truly hands-on global and multi-cultural professional. Nari holds a masters degree in manufacturing systems engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Nari also holds a mechanical engineering degree from the world renowned Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Jim Beck is the President and CEO of Nature’s Best, the largest, privately held wholesaler/distributor of natural and organic foods in the United States.  During Jim’s 36 years in the family business, he has driven technology into every aspect of the company, with a bias for supply chain efficiency.

Nature’s Best has been at the forefront of natural and organic foods since 1949. Today, the family-owned company sells more than 20,000 items, delivering with their own fleet, to over 3,000 locations, across 11 western states, Hawaii and Asia. 

Jim started his career in the natural/organic foods industry in 1972. He was originally tasked to find ways to use technology to differentiate the company from its competition. After years driving technology for the company as CIO, Jim was given the CEO seat in 2005, and has since led Nature’s Best into the next generation at full speed.

To keep up with rapid business growth, Jim and team developed a vision and strategic plan for future expansion that included best practice processes and leading technology at every turn.

Overall supply chain excellence has an integral part of this plan and a key area of competitive advantage. Jim has always successfully strived to have the most efficient system in the industry. 

Nature’s Best continues to execute on its vision, evidenced by its recently completed construction of a new, 407,000 square-foot distribution facility in Southern California. 

This move has increased the company’s capacity and improved efficiencies, but most importantly, it has created a model for future expansion.  

As a result of Jim’s vision, direction, and leadership, the company has engineered its distribution center with scalability, flexibility, and expansion in mind. Distribution points in the company’s future include the Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountain Region, Northern California, and Texas. 

Jim describes himself as a 3^rd generation outlaw. He believes the company’s competitive advantage lies in the elegant balance of, technology, engineered process, knowledge of the channel and products, and a strong family culture. Jim recognizes that developing a growing company takes a clear vision and the best people, and feels extremely blessed to have both at his disposal. 

Married for 37 years to his high school sweetheart, Jim continues to share his love for motocross with his son Jason and enjoys spending time with his six grandchildren.

 Today, Jim continues to share his love for motocross with his son Jason. Married for 37 years to his high school sweetheart, has 6 grandchildren.

Jim Matthews is Senior Director of the Business and IT Solutions Group, at Research in Motion (RIM). In this position, Jim has responsibility for customer facing solutions in a rapidly growing and changing business landscape. His key priorities include the implementation of CPFR, a more savvy order management system, Demand Planning (DP), connectivity and ultimately delivering solutions that create an exceptional customer experience. 

Jim builds on many years of senior customer, operational and supply chain experience, primarily in High Tech (IBM, Celestica, RIM), bringing a passion for the customer and pragmatism to complex business solutions. Experienced in large acquisitions, integration and time sensitive turn around situations, and with most of his experience in line roles, Jim is quick to rally focus around the true business challenges, sound and executable options and delivery plans that balance long term vision with short term wins. 

Find out why RIM has put focus on a scalable demand management process and some of the innovative approaches, best practices and challenges Jim and his team are addressing, while driving this and the broader customer and supply chain strategies at RIM. 

Jim is a graduate of McMaster University, holding Commerce and Masters Degrees. He is a passionate and proud father of 2 wonderful children, a member of various volunteer boards and has a life long passion for waterskiing.

Vanessa Elkins-Rogers is Sourcing Director at Johnson Controls, Inc in the Global WorkPlaces Innovations business group. She is responsible for the development, documentation and execution of a comprehensive sourcing strategy to optimize customer service and profitability for the facility management function of the business group. 

Vanessa’s professional career prior to joining Johnson Controls in 2008 has included positions with The Coca-Cola Corporation, Home Depot, AT & T / Bellsouth & Suez/ United Water. An alumni of Kennesaw State University she possesses an undergraduate degree in Finance and a Master’s Degree with special emphasis on Executive Leadership. Vanessa also is an adjunct professor for Devry University’s Keller Graduate School of Management where she provides instruction in Contracts, Procurement and Project Management.

Vanessa is a firm believer that the key to a successful procurement team is your most valuable asset “people”. Come learn her strategy for attracting, identifying and retaining quality resources.

Matt Filbern is the Vice President of Operations and Supply Chain for the Branded Consumables division of Jarden Corporation a leading provider of niche consumer products.  Matt has a diversified background with 17 years of experience in business turn-around, acquisition integration, and strategic planning with former work experience with Newell Rubbermaid, Applied Power, JPMorgan Chase, and the Inteplast Group.  Matt holds a Bachelor degree from Purdue University and an MBA from Michigan State University.

Sondra McCulley is currently the Vice President of Operations for American Wholesale Book Company (AWBC), which counts among its retail customers, its parent company, Books-A-Million, the nation's 3rd largest retail book chain. In this position, Sondra is responsible for overseeing the daily operations of wide variety of departments, including: Order Fulfillment, Outside Sales, Internet Fulfillment, Bargain Book Distribution, Supply Procurement, Returns, Restock and Customer Service. Her duties include full P&L responsibility, with a focus on reducing salary and supply costs through efficiency improvements, as well as automation.

Sondra joined the Books-A-Million team in August of 1989 as an Assistant Store Manager and worked her way through the ranks as a Store Manager, District Manager, Regional Vice President and Director of Warehouse Operations before being promoted to Vice President of Operations in 2004.

Sondra holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and Organizational Psychology & Development Degree from American Intercontinental University, where she graduated with a 4.0 GPA, while maintaining her duties as Director of Warehouse Operations for AWBC. In addition, Sondra holds International Certificates of Advanced Education from: Ohio State University, Iowa State University, Golden State University and Auburn University.

Michael Hasler is a Lecturer at the Red McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin where he teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in the Information, Risk, and Operations Management department. He is also the Associate Academic Director for the Supply Chain Management Center of Excellence at McCombs. The bulk of his professional experience was in the auto industry in Supply Chain and Operations, and he moved to high technology in the semiconductor equipment industry with Applied Materials in Austin, Texas. While at Applied he helped launch their Supply Chain Management activity, led operations for a $1 billion division, and was the Head of Global Materials Operations before leaving in 2003. As one of the operations executives at Applied, he was chosen to help create and lead Applied Materials’ Leadership Development program, and it was this experience that led to his PhD in Human Resource Development at Texas A&M University in 2009. A native of the Midwestern US, Michael (Mike) Hasler grew up in Indiana and Michigan, and has lived throughout the Great Lakes region. With his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from General Motors Institute (now Kettering University), Mike spent over twenty years in the auto industry working for a few different companies including General Motors and Nissan; as well as owning a company that was part of the auto, defense, and engineering industries. During this time, he attended the University of Virginia as a GM Fellow, where he obtained a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Engineering in Systems Engineering. Mike and his wife, Nancy, are the parents of two adult children—Adam and Whitney—and live in Dripping Springs, Texas.

Bio Coming Soon

Greg Goddard is the Director of Operations at the Consolidated Services Center for ROi, where he is responsible for the management of ROi’s distribution operations and inventory management functions. Greg joined ROi in August of 2003, after nine years of retail pharmaceutical experience with a regional drug store chain in Southwest Missouri where he was responsible for technology, inventory control, opening new stores, sourcing, third party billing, and accounts receivable.  Greg joined ROi as the pharmacy data administrator and was also a part of the information solutions team as a business analyst before joining operations.

John has been involved in the electronics supply chain at Avnet for 30 years and has worked with many of the world’s largest electronic OEMs including Xilinx, Cisco, Ericsson, and Motorola to drive down supply chain costs, increase asset velocity and improved customer service levels. John received a bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of Phoenix.

Sabrina Lin currently is the Senior Director of Supply Chain Operations for Hewlett-Packard’s North America Consumer business. She is responsible for ensuring that HP’s PSG (Personal System Group) computing products get delivered on-time and efficiently to her customers.  She has over 15 years of professional experience spanning supply chain operations, planning, program development, retailer delivery supply chain, order management, S&OP, and e-commerce. She helped to establish HP as a market leader in Retail Supply Chain in N. America.  Sabrina holds a BS in Industrial Management and MBA from Purdue University.

Scotts background is a unique combination of law enforcement and business experience. Scott spent over 15 years in public law enforcement where half of his time was spent in various Investigations units. After leaving law enforcement he completed his Bachelors Degree in Business Management and then his Masters Degree in Organizational Management. 

Scott transitioned his career into the private sector and was hired by Seagate Technology in Corporate Security. He was promoted to the Director of Supply Chain Security where his responsibilities included the secure delivery of raw materials and finished goods in the Americas, Asia Pacific, and the European Union. Early on, Scott recognized the business value of C-TPAT participation and enrolled Seagate Technology in the program. Seagate was subsequently validated in 2003 and received Tier 3 status.

In 2006 Scott was hired by Sony Electronics Inc. as the Director of Supply Chain Security. Scott is responsible for the C-TPAT program for Sony Electronics Inc.(another C-TPAT Tier 3 company) as well as Sony Pictures and Entertainment, Playstation, and several other business groups in the Sony family of companies.

Jim Apple is an internationally recognized industrial engineer with over thirty years experience in the design of material handling systems for applications in both manufacturing and distribution operations. He is a founding member of the Progress Group, a firm of experienced professionals providing education and consulting in logistics and distribution. Formerly, Jim was a partner with the SysteCon Div. of Coopers and Lybrand. He holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech. 

Jim has been a major contributor to continuing professional education in the materials handling and distribution fields; speaking regularly at conferences and seminars, and was director of the annual Materials Handling Management Course. He has authored chapters in the Warehouse Management Handbook, the Handbook of Industrial Robotics, The Production Handbook and in Profitable Logistics Management. He has served as a board member of the Materials Handling and Management Society and the Alumni Advisory Board for the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech.

Swati Saran leads Customer Value Team Operations in Cisco’s Customer Value Chain Management organization. 

Appointed to this position in July 2009, she is responsible for the development and implementation of Cisco’s customer value teams. This innovative customer relationship organization focuses on fulfillment and quality for top-tier customers.  Under her leadership the global team is responsible for delivering segmented solutions encompassing collaborative planning, large deal fulfillment, logistics and network quality sensing solutions and has been responsible for driving increased loyalty and ease of doing business. 

Prior to this role, Swati successfully launched a full spectrum of planning and execution capabilities for Cisco, ranging from the high-touch service provider market to the high-frequency distribution market. In addition, Swati launched sales and operations planning pilots for Cisco. The success of these programs has increased partner and customer loyalty and has contributed to Cisco’s growth. 

Throughout her career, Swati has held increasingly senior leadership roles on supply chain planning teams. In 2006, she joined Cisco from Agere Systems, now part of LSI, one of the world's top communications chip manufacturers, where she served as Director of Global Supply Chain Planning. In this role, she delivered significant operational and process improvements, increasing both customer satisfaction and revenue. While at Agere, she also held the position of Director, Business Planning, and was Solution Architect for a successful ERP implementation. Prior to that, Swati held key management positions at both Lucent Technologies and AT&T. 

Swati holds an MBA from Lehigh University and a Bachelor of Science from the Manipal Institute of Technology.

Mickey North Rizza brings 22 years of global sourcing and supply chain management experience to her role as a research director in the procurement and sourcing practice at AMR Research. Mickey is a key member of the supply chain team and works to communicate effective procurement and sourcing strategies to AMR Research’s clients.

Prior to joining AMR Research, Mickey worked at Moduslink Corporation, where she held the positions of vice president of global supply base management and director of procurement and sourcing.

Mickey also worked as a materials manager at M/A-Com, Inc., a division of Tyco International.  During her career, Mickey worked as a purchasing manager at Advanced Techcom, Inc., Innova Corporation, and Motorola.

Mickey is a member of the Institute for Supply Management.

Mickey earned a BA in material logistic management from Michigan State University.

As a member of AMR Research’s Engineering and Manufacturing Operations team, Simon Jacobson examines how manufacturers apply IT within both the local production environment and across the entire product supply network.  He researches and works closely with clients on current and future manufacturing architectures, measurement strategies, and technology best practices across the manufacturing industries that AMR Research serves.  

Simon is frequently quoted in the press and presents often at industry events on such topics as manufacturing compliance and Manufacturing 2.0.  He provides insights on technology markets, including Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence (EMI), Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S), Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), Quality Management Systems (QMS), as well as the evolving role of manufacturing-focused service providers.  

Prior to his role as Research Director, Simon was a Sr. Research Analyst covering both manufacturing operations and the midmarket ERP segment.  Before that Simon worked as the Program Manager for AMR Research’s manufacturing operations service. In this position, he managed the team’s strategic client relationships, business development efforts, and coordinated research efforts to ensure that market trends and demands were adequately reflected.  He also worked to create cross-functional synergies with AMR Research’s sales, marketing, and research departments.

 Simon earned his BA from the University of Vermont.

Mr. McClure joined the MeadWestvaco corporation in 2006 and held positions of increasing responsibility in Supply Chain throughout his career in automotive, consumer goods, and freight forwarding industries.  From 2006 to 2007, he served as project manager, Supply Chain Solutions team in the corporate Global Supply Chain organization, acting as an internal consultant.  In 2007, he was promoted to Sr. manager, Supply Chain Solutions, and in February 2009, he was promoted to his current divisional role of Director.

Education

Thunderbird School of Global Management

MBA, Master of Business Administration in International Management                                                                               

North Carolina State University

Bachelor of Science, Business Management

Bachelor of Arts, French Language & Literature 

Professional

Certified SCOR Professional, SCOR Supply Chain Council, Houston, Texas                                                    

2010

Certified Six Sigma Green Belt and Black Belt trained, MeadWestvaco, Richmond, Virginia

2009

Certified Lean practitioner, MeadWestvaco, Richmond, Virginia

2008

PMP, Certified Project Management Professional, Project Management Institute                                                                      

2005

CCIP certificate administered by the Paris chamber of  commerce

2000

John Hiovich is the Director of Procurement – North America for GKN Sinter Metals LLC. In this role, John’s procurement department oversees all purchasing related to direct and indiect material and supplier quality. His strategic direction is creating a fully engaged procurement organization, optimize spend portfolio, establish best practices while driving savings within the organization. 

GKN plc is a global engineering and manufacturing business serving mainly the automotive, industrial, off-highway, and aerospace markets. John joined GKN in 1996 and has served all divisions with his purchasing expertise. John’s background in engineering and manufacturing provided him the opportunity to work within various divisions providing leadership and development of the procurement organizations.  John has lead teams of commodity managers with a spend of over $700 million, direct material buyers, supplier quality engineers, and the development of entire purchasing organizations. He also has extensive experience in capital expenditure purchasing. He has spent a significant time with international sourcing in Europe and Asia. 

Other accomplishments;

• Author of global supply agreements with various machine tool builders, consumable tooling manufactures, robot companies as well as several indirect commodity suppliers
• Established regional supply agreements for common services among the various GKN divisions
• Established energy hedging policy
• Created and implemented sourcing strategy for a division with China, Korea, and Taiwan. 

John is also a member of the GKN Purchasing Directors Committee, a global committee formed to leverage GKN’s overall spend on global commodities.