Tom Shoupe

Tom Shoupe is the executive vice president of production at Honda of America Mfg., Inc. (HAM).  In addition, he is also a regional function leader of the company’s human resources and staffing deployment across the company’s North American operations.

Prior to assuming his current role, Shoupe was executive vice president and chief operating officer at Honda.  He was also a co-leader of Honda’s auto manufacturing and engineering functions in North America and a member of the company operations committee, a senior leadership team that establishes business strategies for the company’s operations, which include four plants in Ohio.

Shoupe joined Honda in 1988 in corporate planning. In 1990, he was named manager of two departments: government and community relations; and foreign trade zone and customs (production control). Shoupe was named senior manager of Honda of America’s North American task group in 1993, and served a two-year assignment in Japan where he focused on production control and new model development.

He returned to Ohio in 1995 and was named senior manager of the company services group, followed by assignment as senior manager of the manufacturing planning group at Honda’s East Liberty Auto Plant. He was named plant manager of East Liberty in 1998.

In 2000, Shoupe was promoted to vice president and plant manager of Honda of America’s Marysville Auto Plant. During his tenure at the Marysville Auto Plant, he oversaw the plant’s “innovation project,” which replaced major weld systems and reorganized the assembly line to increase production flexibility, efficiency and quality.

In 2006, Shoupe was named senior vice president of Honda of America Mfg. and a member of the Honda of America operations committee, a top management team focused on establishing and executing company strategic direction.

From 2011-2014 Shoupe spent three years at Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, LLC (HMA) in Lincoln, Alabama,  as the company’s president and chief executive officer responsible for all HMA operations. HMA manufactures Honda light truck products and engines

Before joining Honda, Shoupe served as a legislative assistant to U.S. Representatives Thomas N. Kindness and Michael G. Oxley. Shoupe earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Shoupe is currently a board member for Columbus 2020, an economic development organization for the 11-county Columbus, Ohio Region.

Shoupe and his wife, Lisa, have three children.

Antonio Pinto

Antonio Pinto is President and CEO of Volkswagen Chattanooga. He assumed the position in August 2017. Pinto has over 30 years of experience in automotive manufacturing.

Originally from Portugal, Pinto began his career with the company at Volkswagen Autoeuropa in the city of Setúbal, Portugal. During his 12-year tenure with Volkswagen Autoeuropa, Mr. Pinto held leadership roles in Paint, Trim/Assembly, and then as Production Business Manager. In 2012, Pinto managed a segment of the production team for Volkswagen de Mexico in Puebla, Mexico. From 2012 to 2014 Pinto led manufacturing operations at Volkswagen South Africa, located in Uitenhage. Most recently, Pinto served as Head of Production and Logistics for Volkswagen de Mexico.

Maureen Midgley

Maureen Midgley joined Amazon Global Operations and Supply Chain in March 2015 to establish and lead the global engineering and technology development organizations.  These global teams partner with their regional counterparts to improve standards, designs, and best practices across all of Amazon’s fulfillment operations.

Prior to this role, Maureen served as Senior Vice President of Global Manufacturing Engineering and Lean Enterprise at Henkel Corporation.  Her teams created and deployed industry specific lean tools and protocol in over 140 adhesives manufacturing plants around the world.  Under Maureen’s leadership, the first global manufacturing engineering teams were formed to cover standards, packaging engineering, process engineering, project management, the advanced technology roadmap, and all major pilot plant operations.

Before her role at Henkel, Maureen served as the Executive Director of the Global Paint and Polymer Center (GPPC) at General Motors.  GPPC was responsible for technology development and deployment in GM paint shops, paint and polymer engineering for all product programs, and global exterior quality in 85 facilities across 35 countries.  Maureen began her career at General Motors (GM) as a summer intern at the St. Louis Truck and Bus facility.  Over 33 years, she worked in a number of manufacturing engineering and operations management positions in seven different assembly plants across the US.  Maureen was plant manager at both GM’s EV1 facility in Lansing Michigan, and in Lordstown, Ohio.

Throughout her career, Maureen has served on numerous boards including the Youngstown Business Incubator, the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra and the STEM Advisory Board. She also served as President of board of the Academy of Chemical Engineers in 2013.  Maureen is an Athena award recipient, recognized as one of the top 100 women in the auto industry since 2005, and has been awarded two honorary doctorates from the Youngstown State University and Missouri University of Science and Technology.  Maureen holds Masters Degrees in Engineering Management and Operations as well and Environment studies and has a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering.

A strong advocate for lifelong learning and education, she volunteers for STEM Advocacy with students of all ages and continues her own education, more recently focusing on public policy and the environment.   Maureen is married with three daughters, and currently resides in the Seattle, Washington.

Greg Ulmer

Effective March 19, 2018, Greg Ulmer is Vice President and General Manager, F-35 Lightning II Program, at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company. In this role, Mr. Ulmer leads all areas of the F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft program, to include development, production, sustainment and modernization supporting three F-35 aircraft variants for three U.S. military services, eight international partner nations, and multiple foreign military sales customers.

Prior to this position, Mr. Ulmer was Vice President, F-35 Aircraft Production Business Unit, responsible for all aspects of global F-35 production and delivery to include program management, production operations, supply chain management, quality, affordability, tooling and manufacturing rate readiness and customer engagement. He was named to this position in March of 2016.

Mr. Ulmer formally held the position of Vice President of Operations for Advanced Development Programs (ADP), also known as the Skunk Works® , located at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Palmdale, California. In this role, he was responsible for the ADP operations comprised of more than 3,000 employees across multiple Aeronautics sites overseeing the F-22 Raptor Modification Line, U-2 Dragon Lady Periodic Depot Maintenance, F-35 Lightning II sub-assembly work and ADP Special Programs.

Previously, Mr. Ulmer was the C-5 Vice President and Program Manager responsible for the overall operations and leadership of the C-5 Reliability Enhancement and Re-Engining Program and the Avionics Modernization Program at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Marietta, Georgia. In this role, he also had overall leadership for C-5 legacy fleet sustainment, to include depot services, block upgrades, unscheduled depot level maintenance, and the Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures program.

Throughout his career, Mr. Ulmer has established a diverse aviation background in commercial aviation, tactical and strategic airlift, ISR and fighter aircraft. Earlier career leadership roles include service as the C-130 Deputy Program Manager for Operations; C-130 Air Vehicle Director; Deputy Chief Engineer and Flight Test Integrated Product Team (IPT) Senior Manager and more. Mr. Ulmer began his career as a flight test engineer supporting the MD-11, C-17, and C-130J programs from first flight through certification for all three air vehicles.

Mr. Ulmer graduated from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, with a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering. He also holds an executive master’s degree in Business Management with an emphasis on aerospace from the University of Tennessee.

Greg and his wife Shawnie have two sons residing in Fort Worth, Texas.

Ramesh Chikkala

Management of end-to-end supply chain operations, encompassing logistics with 200 DCs/FCs, replenishment and flow, planning, forecasting, and food manufacturing for both e-Commerce and physical stores across 27 countries in Asia, Africa, Central America, South America, North America, and United Kingdom with over $130B business

Spearheading the deployment of 5- to 10-year strategy and logistics infrastructure, while overseeing network plan and design, value engineering, logistics distribution, transportation, replenishment operational performance, profit and loss, KPI improvements, up-streaming, and end-to-end supply chain strategic direction of all employees, while monitoring food manufacturing operations throughout 60 plants across all countries.

Fulfillment of other key tasks including talent acquisition, development and succession planning, organization structuring, customer promise delivery, and stores service management
Identification of supply chain capacity needs and maintenance of accurate product flow at lowest cost by collaborating with merchants, suppliers, and stores.

Prompt delivery of all customer promises in eCommerce, new distribution and fulfillment center openings, capital expenditure (CapEx) management, technology innovation advancements, and productivity improvements across international markets.

Responsibility for annual profit and loss account and annual capital expenditure management.

Attainment of significant reduction in cost of goods sold and selling, general, and administrative expenses (SG&A) of enterprises, while improving the freshness of products through the execution of long-term strategies and optimization of operational performance and supply chain key performance indicators (KPIs).

Jana Gessner

Jana M. Gessner is a globally seasoned EHS executive with extensive Supply Chain experience with Fortune 500 companies. Her 20+ year career includes positions in: automotive, food, and chemical manufacturing.

She has delivered consistent results through strong leadership, technical knowledge, business acumen, collaboration, and continuous improvement. Expertise includes development and deployment of global EHS management systems, strategic EHS processes, risk assessment and control, compliance assurance, & creating a zero incident culture.

Her in-depth experience at monitoring regulatory requirements, assessing business impact, and implementing EHS processes ensure the protection of people, assets, and product.

Jana holds a Master’s in Chemical Engineering – Environmental from Wayne State University in Detroit, MI, Bachelor’s in English and Sciences from the University of Toledo, and the Certified Safety Professional (CSP) and Certified Hazardous Materials Manager (CHMM) credential.

Roawen Chen

Dr. Roawen Chen is currently Senior Vice President of Global Manufacturing Technology and Operations at Qualcomm. In this role, Roawen oversees the worldwide operations with 3,000 people at groups including supply chain management, procurement, silicon and package engineering, product and testing engineering, quality and reliability, module engineering, and Asia operation functions for Qualcomm semiconductor business, the largest one in fabless semiconductor industry. He has overall responsibility for driving the global manufacturing operation to support >$20 billion annual revenue with one of the most complex and dynamic supply chain supported almost entirely by fabless model. Under Roawen’ s leadership, Qualcomm supply chain was recognized as top 25 in whole high-tech industry by Gartner since 2016.

Roawen is an experienced leader in semiconductor industry with diversified background in playing leading roles in multiple functions. In addition to his strong technical depth, he has proven experience in building fabless global supply chains and driving large organization to support high volume production. Prior to Qualcomm, Roawen was Vice President of Manufacturing Operations at Marvell Semiconductor in Santa Clara, California. Additionally, Roawen held a variety of leadership roles, including Vice President and General Manager of the Communications and Computing business unit and Vice President and General Manager of the Connectivity business unit, during his tenure in Marvell.

Prior to Marvell, Roawen held technical and business positions at Intel and TSMC-US. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Physics from Tsing-Hua University in Taiwan and a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley. He served the Board of Directors at Global Semiconductor Alliance and a number of non-profitable organizations.

Martial Genthon

Martial Genthon is President and Global Head of Manufacturing, Innovation and Technical Services at Olam International Ltd., a leading agri-business operating from seed to shelf in 70 countries with more than 23,000 customers worldwide. Olam is listed on the main board of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) and is committed to a core purpose of “Reimagining Global Agriculture: Growing Responsibly”.

In his role at Olam, Martial oversees 200 factories/operations as well as the safety of its people, quality of the company’s products and all supporting technical functions. Martial has over 25 years of experience in the agri and food sectors and spent more than two decades at Nestlé managing across its entire value chain and driving transformational strategies for its agribusiness and operations in the Americas, China, and Europe.

Prior to joining Olam, Martial was Chief Technical Officer Operations (Manufacturing) at Nestlé USA and Nestlé Canada where he served on the Executive Leadership Team managing all food & beverages manufacturing facilities under a single organization. He also initiated the “Sustainable Agriculture Initiative” at Nestlé, which today has more than 80 corporate members focused on shared values for sustainability and health in the food and beverage industry.

Known for evolving the “fork to farm” business strategy and operations globally for Fortune 100 companies and small businesses, Martial has taken on C-suite and Board leadership roles. He has led teams of up to 23,000 staff through growth, acquisitions and turnarounds, managing billion-dollar P&Ls and directing innovation and product development, sourcing, supply chain, manufacturing, and sales (ingredients).

Martial has also received numerous corporate and industry awards while living in five countries and working across four continents. He holds a MSc. in Agriculture from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and a Master of Business Administration in International Management (HEC) from the University of Geneva.

Per Berggren

Is the Industrial Strategy Manager at IKEA Industry. In this function his responsibilities include Manufacturing Strategy, Footprint, M&A, Product development, R&D, Technology, IT, Business Processes and Sustainability. IKEA Industry is IKEA’s manufacturing branch operating 40 plants across 10 countries and employing some 20 000 coworkers. Per has experience from SCM and Manufacturing where he has been running operations in a number of countries as well as headed global business units.

Per holds a M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering & Management and is an alumnus of INSEAD and Wharton.

Marcia Brey

Marcia Brey is the Executive Director, Lean Enterprise for GE Appliances, a Haier Company headquartered in Louisville, KY. She leads the Lean strategy for the business focusing on delivering winning products and services for our customers and consumers while minimizing waste throughout all functions. Marcia is responsible for implementing transformational, cross-functional processes, growing the capability of our people and improving management systems at GE Appliances.

Marcia earned Master degrees from both the University of Louisville in Mechanical Engineering and the University of Arizona in Quality and Reliability Engineering.

Marcia began her 25-year career at Appliances on GE’s Edison Engineering Program and has worked across multiple product lines in Design Engineering, Customer Service, Sales, Marketing, Distribution, Quality and Manufacturing. She most recently was the plant manager for the Bottom-Freezer Refrigeration factory where she managed a $100M budget and led a team of 1,000 employees making significant improvements in safety, quality, delivery, cost and employee satisfaction. She assumed her current role in January 2017.

Marcia serves as the Vice Chair on the Executive Board for the American Red Cross – Kentucky Region and volunteers at her church.  Marcia and her husband are raising their three children in Louisville, KY.

Arno Holschuh

Formerly VP of Coffee Production and employee #5 @ Blue Bottle Coffee, headed all roasting facilities in California, New York, and Tokyo, and managed entire coffee supply chain. Board member of 1951 Coffee, a non-profit giving vocational coffee training to recent refugees.

Sheri Henck

Sheri Henck is currently Vice President Global Supply Chain, Distribution and Logistics for Medtronic. Sheri and her organization are responsible for Medtronic global supply chain and distribution strategy and execution, working with the Medtronic Groups, Business Units, Regional leaders, and Operations Leadership team to drive key supply chain initiatives globally. Sheri and her team develop capabilities and initiatives to support supply chain performance, lead strategic initiatives and programs to ensure intended results in areas such as customer fulfillment and satisfaction, inventory optimization, leverage of systems, people and processes, and total cost.

Prior to this role, Sheri was the VP of Operations for the CRHF business, designing manufacturing and supply chain processes providing execution excellence. Responsibilities included 14 manufacturing sites, $500M in inventory and 4700 people around the globe. Sheri is an Operations professional with strong leadership skills and a successful career in a variety of different business sectors including aerospace, industrial and medical devices. Her experience includes Supply Management, Operational Excellence, Organizational Development, lean manufacturing and technologies, product development, productivity and organization transformation. Sheri started her career at Medtronic in 2009.

Sheri is involved in leading many other teams and organizations at Medtronic. She serves in an appointed role as Chair of the Medtronic Women’s Network. She introduced the MWN Global Manufacturing and Operations Hub serving aspiring Operations leaders across the globe. Sheri is also a certified Medtronic Coach and mentors several people across Medtronic.

Prior to Medtronic, Sheri spent 19 years with Honeywell in a variety of leadership positions.

Sheri also spent 6 years as General Manager of Fabrico, Inc., a precision metal fabrication company located in Champlin, MN.

Outside of Medtronic, Sheri served on the Osceola, WI Community Health Foundation Board for 5 years. She currently serves on the Trust Board of Directors.
Sheri holds a BA in Organizational Management from Concordia University. She is a Certified Purchasing Manager (CPM) from NAPM and a certified Medtronic Coach through CTI. Sheri lives in North Oaks, MN with Dan and her son Michael who is a Sr. at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Chad Harris

Chad Harris leads enterprise-wide Continuous Improvement at Tyson Foods, and is a member of the company’s senior leadership team.

As Tyson Foods puts the delivery of financial fitness through continuous improvement at the heart of its business strategy, Chad is channeling Tyson Foods’ distinct business models, and talented teams to deploy their internal lean operating model, commonly referred to as the Tyson Productivity System (TPS).  Through TPS, Tyson is embedding a “best in industry” mindset around performance management, and in doing so, building the financial discipline that will rapidly grow overall business. Leveraging diverse capabilities and experiences of teams with a focus towards operational excellence is one of Chad’s biggest strengths – a skill that will be critical as he and Tyson Foods set out to drive bottom-line performance improvement through a culture transformation that will touch all aspects of business from farm to table.

Chad partners closely with Tyson’s Executive Leadership Team in developing enterprise-level strategies necessary to tackle their unique business challenges.  To this end, he leads a “Center of Excellence” team focused on the design and deployment of “best in class” continuous improvement capabilities, advanced skill development, and integrated training systems, equipping each business to compete effectively in the most challenging of environments.

Prior to joining Tyson Foods, Chad worked for Kraft Foods for 21 years in multiple leadership roles in Engineering, Operations, Continuous Improvement, and Supply Chain.  He previously spent time in engineering roles with General Electric Company, Lafser & Schreiber Consulting, and Marathon Oil Company.

Chad earned his bachelor’s degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla.

Tana Utley

Tana L. Utley is vice president with responsibility for the Large Power Systems Division at Caterpillar Inc. Through this global organization, Caterpillar designs and manufactures the most comprehensive lineup of large diesel and natural gas engines and remanufactured components in the industry. LPSD’s large engines are used to power marine, electric power, oil and gas, and rail applications as well as Cat^® mining machines.  The division also provides engine, machine and component remanufacturing—the process of returning an end-of-life product to “same-as-when-new” condition in a manufacturing environment—which reduces Caterpillar’s overall environmental impact and helps customers reduce their total cost of ownership.

Since joining Caterpillar in 1986 Utley has held a variety of engineering and general management positions including key engineering and leadership roles in the development of the near-zero-emissions engines Caterpillar sells today. She has also held general management positions in Caterpillar’s components and engines businesses.

In 2007, the Caterpillar Board of Directors named Utley vice president and Chief Technology Officer in which capacity she was responsible for redefining the company’s technology strategy, and for the development of machines and engines to meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Tier 4 emissions regulations—the largest product development program in the company’s history. In 2012 Utley was named vice president with responsibility for the Industrial Power Systems Division and president of Perkins Engine Company, based in Peterborough, England, where she was responsible for the profit and loss of Caterpillar’s small reciprocating engines business. She was appointed to her current position in October 2013.

Utley earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Bradley University and a Master of Science in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she was a Sloan Fellow. She currently serves as Caterpillar representative on the Board of Directors of the Sustainable Manufacturing Innovation Alliance, and is a member of the Board of Directors of SPX Corporation and the Heart of Illinois United Way.  She is also a member of the Society of Women Engineers, the Illinois Valley Striders, and the USA Triathlon Association.

Carol Flack

Carol Flack is a Vice President with Dell’s Global Operations team and site leader for North Carolina. With revenues of $78 billion in FY18 and more than 140,000 people worldwide, Dell is the largest privately controlled technology company in the world. Dell holds leadership positions in 20 Gartner Magic Quadrants and customers include 99 percent of the Fortune 500 companies.

Carol is an experienced global executive in the technology sector with a track record of driving transformation. Carol is passionate about delivering superior business results through strong leadership and spends considerable time on mentoring and development activities for her teams. Carol supported the NC Chamber of Commerce in launching their first women’s conference in 2016 and growing it over the past three years to be one of the main professional events for women leaders in North Carolina.
As Vice President of North Carolina Operations, Carol is responsible for strategic direction and day-to-day operations at Dell’s manufacturing facility in Apex, with executive responsibility for the software development facility in Research Triangle Park and the data center / lab in Durham, NC. Carol is currently Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Tech Association and a member of the Board of Directors of the NC Chamber of Commerce.
During her tenure with Dell/EMC, Carol has held leadership positions in Indirect Procurement and Global Services. Prior to joining EMC in 2009, Carol held multiple executive leadership roles with APW, Ltd. and Cabot Corporation. Carol started her career with Eaton Corporation in manufacturing where she was Plant Manager and then Division Procurement Manager before joining APW as a general manager. At APW, Carol spend five years in Europe – first in Cork, Ireland and then London, leading progressively larger businesses. After returning to Boston, she join Cabot Corporation with responsibility for Cabot Supermetals, a $350 million global specialty chemicals business.

Carol holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maryland and a Master of Business degree from Carnegie Mellon University.

Peter Evans

Peter Evans was born in 1955. He joined the LEGO in February 2016

The early part of his career was in Finance in various industries, including Defence, Financial Services and Telecommunications.  Peter worked for GE Capital throughout the 90’s including spells in Manchester, Brussels, Shannon (Eire) and Connecticut in various Quality Leadership roles

From 2000 to 2013 he worked in Telecoms in the UK, first with Vodafone, then Cable & Wireless, before finally leading Operational Excellence for Virgin Media.

From 2013 to 2015 Peter led Process Excellence in Northern Europe for Maersk Line, based in Copenhagen

Since February 2016 Peter has been Director of LCI (LEGO Continuous Improvement) at LEGO with specific responsibility for Business Service Operations and is actively involved in establishing a Global Business Services Organisation for Finance, HR and other services

Peter is a Six Sigma MBB, a Lean Practitioner and has a deep and lasting interest in Change Management and the psychology of Change.

Peter Lives in Newtown, Wales, UK with his wife Amanda, Dogs Harvey and Maisie and various other pets and pests

Henning O. Bruns

Henning O. Bruns spent a total of 26 years working for Daimler AG in various leadership functions in Europe, USA, Brazil and China. In 1995 he was part of the initial engineering team setting up the Mercedes-Benz plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and launched a new truck 1997 in Brazil. In 2001 As Global Product Line Manager for Mercedes-Benz Trucks, he implemented a new truck model line up in Europe, Turkey and Brazil. From 2007-2012 he served as General Manager and Vice-President Operations of Detroit Diesel Corporation in Michigan, launching a global platform of new EPA10 heavy duty truck engines. In 2012 he assumed responsibility as Head of Global Product Planning & Strategy for Daimler Trucks. Since 2015 Henning has served as General Manager of Daimler Trucks’ (Freightliner) Cleveland plant in North Carolina.

Henning O. Bruns earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Germany and a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering from Texas Tech University. In 2000 he finalized his studies on ‘Lean Manufacturing and the Implementation of the Toyota Production System in Western Industries’ with a Ph.D.

Henning’s expertise lies in Lean Operations Excellence, Business Performance Turnaround and Product Launch Management. During his career he led the successful turnaround of 2 major manufacturing plants as well as 8 product launches (cars / trucks / engines) in quality, time and budget.

At NAMES19 Henning will talk about Operational Excellence and the required Leadership Culture. You can review the findings of his 26 years of industry practice at Google ‘The Top 10 Lessons for a Future Plant Manager.’

Together with his wife Mica – a Professor at UNC in Charlotte – and their 8^th grader Anna, they are living in Mooresville, NC.

EDUCATION

B.S. Industrial Eng. 1992 , M.S. Industrial Eng. 1992,  Ph.D. Mechanical Eng. 2000

Marc Helmer

As the Exec Director of Operations, I am responsible for many facets of the customer experience including: Order Entry and Customer Service, Design/Installation, International Services, Manufacturing, Receiving/Inventory Management, Pick/Pack/Ship and Logistics. Over the last 5 years I have had the opportunity to be part of a Team responsible for helping Demco navigate through our lean journey. Throughout this process our primary goals have been to 1) provide a safe and engaging work environment for our coworkers, 2) meet or exceed our customers expectations regarding service and quality while 3) maximizing efficiency in order to deliver value to the organization. To aid in our efforts we have employed such tools as Daily Management, Value Stream Mapping, A3 Problem Solving, Kata and 5S. Our results to date include a phenomenal safety record achieved by coworkers who understand our business and their impact on it, service and quality metrics which continue to deliver on our promises to our customers and annual efficiency gains which allow us to continue to modify the role of operations within the organization.

Gilbert Passin

Marco Baren

Allison Grealis

Michael Collinson

Tony Lopez

Gerardo Scheufler

Sudhi Bangalore

Tim Sullivan

Andrew Faury

Michael Bosbach

Eric Stockl

Melanie Cook

Melanie K. Cook is the Chief Operating Officer of GE Appliances, a Haier company, and is part of the Executive Council. She is responsible for operational excellence across Supply Chain, Sourcing, Services, Distribution, Quality and Information Technology. Melanie has over 23 years of experience and is skilled in leading profit & loss centers, lifecycle product management, new product development, organizational alignment, global sourcing, and continuous operational improvement. Some of Melanie’s past positions include Executive Audit Manager for GE Capital Europe; President, Azdel Inc.; Global Marketing Director at GE Plastics; General Manager, Industrial Communications at GE Energy and General Manager, Cooking Products at GE Appliances. She was most recently Vice President, Sourcing, at GE Appliances.

Melanie serves as a Trustee on the board of Family Scholar House, whose mission is to end the cycle of poverty through education, and is the current Chair for the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers. She is also on the Board of Directors for Mabe, a leading appliance manufacturer based in Mexico. She has recently been appointed to the Board of Directors for NAM, the National Association of Manufacturers.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with a specialty in Decision and Information Sciences from the University of Florida.

Melanie and her husband Brian have two children and reside in Louisville, Kentucky.

Richard McLeod

Rick McLeod is the Vice President of Global Family Care Product Supply, P&G Ventures and Global Manufacturing at The Procter & Gamble Company. Rick’s responsibilities include delivering seamless end–to-end supply chain operations within the Family Care business, ensuring outstanding service, cost and quality for customers and consumers. Rick is also the Product Supply leader for P&G Ventures, an agile and entrepreneurial team of professionals who identify new brands, partnerships and business models designed to radically accelerate future growth for the company.  Additionally, Rick has responsibility for P&G’s global manufacturing systems and capability building in our plant operations.

In his 30 years with Procter & Gamble, Rick has held numerous leadership roles across the supply chain including a new multi-business plant startup in the Philippines, leading the Baby Care Latin America Supply Network Operations in Venezuela, as well as multiple US plant and headquarters assignments.

Rick holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida in Mechanical Engineering.  He lives in Jacksonville, Florida with his wife and has two adult children. In his free time, Rick enjoys boating, fishing and life on the water.

Daniel Grieshaber

Appointed in May 2011, Dan is responsible for integrating activities across General Motors Global Manufacturing Engineering Centers – Body Systems, Vehicle Systems, Powertrain Systems, and Manufacturing Planning. Critical Business functions managed include industrial engineering, global manufacturing capital forecasting/balancing, manufacturing asset management, common Manufacturing Engineering process development, advanced manufacturing engineering strategy, advanced manufacturing technology, and Manufacturing 4.0/Smart Manufacturing.

Prior to his current position, Dan has held a number of executive leadership positions within General Motors including Director Global Die & Press Center, Director North American Manufacturing Strategy & Planning, Director Global Product Engineering/Body Structures, and Director North American Die Engineering. Experiences have progressed through a series of jobs with increasing responsibility, including brief assignments in both Germany and Brazil, along with management of global teams based in Germany, Brazil, South Korea, China and the United States.

Dan earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1985 and a Master’s Degree, also in Mechanical Engineering, from the University of Minnesota in 1986.

Thomas Carrubba

Thomas J. Carrubba is the Vice President of F-35 Production Operations for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company. He has oversight of the function production operations for the F-35 Lightning II program in Fort Worth, TX and Marietta, GA, in addition to international production in Cameri, Italy and Nagoya, Japan. This includes all aspects of manufacturing – safety, quality, delivery, and cost.

Prior to this role, Mr. Carrubba was Vice President of Aeronautics Quality Transformation and Enterprise Integration. In this role, he was responsible for developing and deploying enterprise solutions in Operational Excellence, Advanced Data Analytics, Quality and Strategic Initiatives.

In his 19 years with Lockheed Martin, Mr. Carrubba has held various leadership positions of increasing responsibility at the Aeronautics and Missiles and Fire Control Business units. Those roles included Production Engineering, Production Operations and Program Management.

Mr. Carrubba holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from North Carolina State University. In addition, he received his MBA and a master’s in Engineering Management from the Florida Institute of Technology. Additionally, he is a member of the National Engineering Honor Society (Tau Beta Pi) and the National Mechanical Engineering Honor Society (Pi Tau Sigma).

Tim Frosell

Tim Frosell is Vice President of Global Manufacturing and Environmental, Health, Safety & Sustainability (EHS&S) at The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. In this role, he leads the global manufacturing strategy, drives quality across the manufacturing organization, and sets the forward vision for EHS&S excellence.

Tim joined Goodyear in 1984 and has served in numerous manufacturing leadership positions across North America and Asia Pacific. Prior to his present position, he was VP of Manufacturing for Goodyear’s Asia Pacific Region. He was the Manufacturing Director for the new Goodyear facility in Pulandian, China from 2010 to 2013 and was Plant Manager in Fayetteville, NC and Buffalo, NY from 2004-2010.

Tim has a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering and Master of Business degree with a global emphasis

Liesbeth Geels

Liesbeth Geels is 15 year Starbucks partner. During her career she has held positions in Finance, Manufacturing, Commercialization and Quality.

Liesbeth is a hands-on, improvement-driven and committed leader, who believes developing people and building relationships are the cornerstones for success.  She is a strong professional, experienced in enabling growth, leading transformation, continuous improvement, creating and sharing a vision, coaching people, and positively influencing performance with the goal of accomplishing tangible results.

As the vice president of Manufacturing at Starbucks, Liesbeth is responsible for the quality, safety and operational leadership of the manufacturing plants in the USA and Europe as well as various external manufacturers producing coffee, tea and soluble coffee products. In her role, she develops key business strategies that ensure sustainable service and capacity for business growth as well as partner engagement, sustainability and community efforts.

Liesbeth earned Master’s degrees in Business Administration and Finance from the university of Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom and the university of Nijmegen in the Netherlands respectively.

Ricardo Estok

Ricardo Estok, has over 20 years of experience driving sustainable Operations, Commercial and Business Excellence Transformations

He has multicultural & functional experience at global companies in the US, ASIA and LA, including Johnson Controls, S.C. Johnson, Abbott and Pepsi.

He holds a master’s in business from the University of Miami; a bachelor’s in industrial engineering, and he is master black belt.

Currently, his role is as the Enterprise Principle Leader, Global Manufacturing Operations & Council at Johnson Controls

Ricardo moved to Wisconsin, USA, with his wife, 10 years ago.

Craig Williams

Craig Williams is currently Enterprise Principle Leader for Total Quality, Design for Manufacturing, and Visual Factory.  He first joined Johnson Controls and was appointed Vice President of Quality for the Power Solutions Business Unit in 2012.  Prior to coming to Johnson Controls, he was with Eaton Corporation and held roles as the Vice President of Quality for the Aerospace Group and Director of Quality within Eaton’s Corporate Quality team.  With previous companies, he held leadership roles in Quality within the Automotive, Pharmaceutical and Graphic Arts Industries.

He is active in the international quality standards community as well as various industry associations.  He is currently the convener for ISO/TC176/SC1/WG1.  Within this role he was the leader of the revision process for ISO 9000:2015.  He is also a member of the team revising ISO’s Integrated Use of Management Systems Standards Handbook. He is a previous chair of the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) Quality Steering Committee. He has authored and participated in multiple publications including industry reference manuals, articles, and two books in the field of Quality Management Systems.

He holds an MBA, with an emphasis in Operations Management from Lewis University and a bachelor’s degree in Biology and Chemistry from Illinois Wesleyan University.

Detailed experiences include:

• Extensive manufacturing experience in various industries including Pharmaceutical, Graphic Arts, Aerospace, Fluid Power, Electrical, and Automotive
• Convener of ISO/TC 176/SC 1/ WG1 – Chair in drafting the current revision to ISO 9000
• Member of revision team – ISO’s Integrated Management Systems Standards Handbook
• Vice Chair of TG 9001/9004 of the US TAG to ISO/TC 176 – US Technical Advisory Group to the international standards group on ISO 9001
• Delegate representing the US TAG on the international drafting committee for the publication of the ISO 9001:2008 revision (TG 1.19 of ISO/TC 176/SC 2)
• Member of the ISO/TC 176 Chairman’s Strategic Advisory Group (CSAG)
• Convener of the ISO/TC 176 Strategic Planning Task Force (SPTF)
• Secretary of the ISO/TC 176 Task Group on the Future of ISO 9001
• Past Chair of the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) Quality Steering Committee
• Contributing Author to the 2^nd Edition to the AIAG Advanced Product Quality Planning reference manual
• Senior Member of American Society for Quality and regular speaker at national/international quality conferences
• Co-Author of books entitled, “Insider’s Guide to ISO 9001:2008” and “The ISO 9001:2015 Handbook”

Tana Utley

Tana L. Utley is vice president with responsibility for the Large Power Systems Division at Caterpillar Inc. Through this global organization, Caterpillar designs and manufactures the most comprehensive lineup of large diesel and natural gas engines and remanufactured components in the industry. LPSD’s large engines are used to power marine, electric power, oil and gas, and rail applications as well as Cat^® mining machines.  The division also provides engine, machine and component remanufacturing—the process of returning an end-of-life product to “same-as-when-new” condition in a manufacturing environment—which reduces Caterpillar’s overall environmental impact and helps customers reduce their total cost of ownership.

Since joining Caterpillar in 1986 Utley has held a variety of engineering and general management positions including key engineering and leadership roles in the development of the near-zero-emissions engines Caterpillar sells today. She has also held general management positions in Caterpillar’s components and engines businesses.

In 2007, the Caterpillar Board of Directors named Utley vice president and Chief Technology Officer in which capacity she was responsible for redefining the company’s technology strategy, and for the development of machines and engines to meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Tier 4 emissions regulations—the largest product development program in the company’s history. In 2012 Utley was named vice president with responsibility for the Industrial Power Systems Division and president of Perkins Engine Company, based in Peterborough, England, where she was responsible for the profit and loss of Caterpillar’s small reciprocating engines business. She was appointed to her current position in October 2013.

Utley earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Bradley University and a Master of Science in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she was a Sloan Fellow. She currently serves as Caterpillar representative on the Board of Directors of the Sustainable Manufacturing Innovation Alliance, and is a member of the Board of Directors of SPX Corporation and the Heart of Illinois United Way.  She is also a member of the Society of Women Engineers, the Illinois Valley Striders, and the USA Triathlon Association.

Carlos Ruiz Rabago

Carlos Ruiz was born and raised in Mexico, where he achieved a degree in Industrial Engineering and an MBA with Financial Specialization.  Carlos has experience in 4 different industries and 6 different countries.  His background in these industries are Production, Quality, Maintenance, Lean Six Sigma (Master Black Belt) and Plant Management.

Carlos worked for Kraft foods from 2009 to 2015, during this 6 years he worked on the deployment of 6 sigma and also on manufacturing leadership positions in different divisions

Carlos joined the L’Oréal group in June 2015 as Vice President of Operations in Franklin leading the production of Lipsticks and skin care technologies. Some of Carlos’ efforts and results have been the creation of the “Franklin Integrated Work System” to optimize performance and develop capabilities at all levels in the plants, deliver great results not only in the performance indicators but also in Safety, Quality and Environmental.

Under Carlos’ leadership, Franklin has culturally transformed and delivered breakthrough results.

In February of 2017, Carlos was promoted to Senior Vice-President of Manufacturing for North America and is responsible for internal manufacturing in the US and Canada.

He is also responsible for Engineering, Operational Excellence and Advance Manufacturing.

Carlos was recognized as a Young Hispanic Corporate Achiever in 2015 by the “Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR)”.

Bart Talloen

As an executive supply chain leader for more than 25 years, Bart has a proven track record of success across several key SC functions such as Planning, Engineering, Technology Transfers, Project Management, Continuous Improvement, Mfg Operations, and General SC Management in Asia, Europe, and North America.

During his career in pharma, OTC, consumer goods, and logistics/ material handling, Bart has managed large supply networks, has acquired and divested operations, build new plants but also has overseen the closure of plants, and has developed and executed a three-year Consent Decree Work Plan including the successful re-certification of three US OTC manufacturing plants by FDA.

In his current role as Vice President, Product Supply Strategy & Deployment, Bart is responsible for developing and deploying advanced processes & capabilities, agile OT systems and disruptive technologies to improve the end-to-end Supply Chain performance.

Bart is also responsible for the J&J Supply Chain Academy to provide enterprise-wide subject matter learning & development programs and build future leadership capabilities for the end-to-end Supply Chain organization.

He and his wife live in Skillman, NJ and have two sons in college.

Daniel James

Dan James is the Ford Product System North America Regional Manager for Ford Motor Company. Dan was appointed to this position in 2016 and is responsible for driving standardization and lean maturity throughout 31 manufacturing facilities in North America. The Ford Production System is Ford’s operating system based on lean manufacturing principles and strategies to deliver Best in World Results.

Dan’s 30 years of experience in the automotive industry have allowed him the privilege to serve in many manufacturing leadership positions including; operations, manufacturing engineering, product development, supply base optimization, lean integration, and purchasing with a focus on commodity manufacturing strategy development. He has a passion for results oriented transformation through leadership behavior and the use of lean principle, tools and processes.

Dan has a Bachelor of Science in Manufacturing Engineering from Ferris State University and currently resides in the Rochester, MI area with his extraordinary wife and 3 children.

Peter Evans

Peter Evans was born in 1955. He joined the LEGO in February 2016

The early part of his career was in Finance in various industries, including Defence, Financial Services and Telecommunications.  Peter worked for GE Capital throughout the 90’s including spells in Manchester, Brussels, Shannon (Eire) and Connecticut in various Quality Leadership roles

From 2000 to 2013 he worked in Telecoms in the UK, first with Vodafone, then Cable & Wireless, before finally leading Operational Excellence for Virgin Media.

From 2013 to 2015 Peter led Process Excellence in Northern Europe for Maersk Line, based in Copenhagen

Since February 2016 Peter has been Director of LCI (LEGO Continuous Improvement) at LEGO with specific responsibility for Business Service Operations and is actively involved in establishing a Global Business Services Organisation for Finance, HR and other services

Peter is a Six Sigma MBB, a Lean Practitioner and has a deep and lasting interest in Change Management and the psychology of Change.

Peter Lives in Newtown, Wales, UK with his wife Amanda, Dogs Harvey and Maisie and various other pets and pests

Michael Dundas

In his role as Senior Vice President of Global Operations Manufacturing Operations and Technology, Mike is responsible for Dell Technologies global manufacturing, quality, and production planning.  This includes manufacturing across 14 different Dell facilities, ODMs and contract manufacturers as well as direct engineering support for product introductions, process engineering and manufacturing test.

In addition to day to day operations, Mike plays a key role in transforming Dell’s supply chain, with a key focus on customer experience through efforts in delivering best in class cycle time with on time and quality products. He is also passionate about developing his team, personally leading self-created training sessions on Individual Development Planning, Clear and Effective Communications and Inspirational Leadership. Mike is the executive sponsor for Dell’s Global Operations University Relations program as well as Dell’s Global Operations talent management efforts.

Mike joined Dell in 2000 and has held numerous leadership roles across product development engineering, new product program management, product quality, global operations engineering, global materials, global operations planning and inventory control. Mike currently reports to Kevin Brown, Vice President and Chief Supply Chain Officer.

Prior to joining Dell, Dundas spent nearly 12 years as a high school coach and teacher in the state of Texas. He holds a bachelor’s degree in History, Government and Economics. Outside of work he enjoys spending time with family outdoors and coaching sports.

Michael Gentile

Mike is currently responsible for leading Manufacturing, Engineering, and Quality efforts for the Snap-on Tools Group. This includes the Snap-on hand tool plants in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Elizabethton, Tennessee; Elkmont, Alabama; and our tool storage plant in Algona, Iowa.

Snap-on manufactures over 10,000 items. Mike has been with Snap-on for 27 years and has previously held the positions of President, Snap-on hand tools product division, Vice President Supply Chain, and Vice President of Product Management. Prior to joining Snap-on he spent four years in automobile manufacturing. He attended the University of Chicago Executive Business Program and has an MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management.

Derrick Register

Derrick is a highly motivated leader who believes in achieving success through building exceptional teams. He believes teams that exhibit great communication, leadership, and job competency, furnish exemplary results. Derrick worked in the Automotive Industry for most of his career. While working for Meridian Automotive Systems, his responsibilities included Environmental Health and Safety Engineering. Most of his success was in managing several launch facilities where he implemented ISO 14001 and EHS Programs. Derrick was promoted to Plant Supervisor, responsible for productivity metrics that drove the financial budget.

After one year, he advanced to Operations Manager with P&L (profit and loss) responsibilities at multiple sites. In this role, Derrick’s direct responsibilities included managing the production and assembly departments, quoting, overseeing launches, budget development, customer liaison, quality auditing and implementation, capital justification and business plan development.

Later, Derrick traveled abroad on a special assignment with Ford Motor Company in Cologne, Germany, where he served for several years as a Program Manager on the global vehicle platform for future model vehicles. He developed the process flow to collect multiple inputs from the consumer business groups worldwide. After successfully completing that assignment, he moved to Product Planning to gain experience on vehicle development. There, he was responsible for developing the business cases for all Small Car platforms out of APA (Asia, Pacific and Africa) Consumer Business Group, which included engineering, marketing, purchasing, finance and cost estimating inputs to achieve financial targets.  The Small Car platform accounted for 15 percent of the overall business in APA.

Over the past 7 years, Derrick has performed as the General Manager at Coca-Cola Refreshments in the following locations, Detroit – MI, Bellevue – Washington and Dinuba – California. As the GM, he was responsible for the entire operation of producing and transporting carbonated beverages, Dasani Water, Hot Fill and NHB (Natural Health Beverages).

He served as Director of Manufacturing – Northwest, Vice President of Manufacturing – Northern Texas and Vice President of Manufacturing – West Region. He has had P&L responsibility for as many as 16 locations including co-manufacturing, which includes development, distribution, and strategic business planning.  Most recently, he served as Vice President of Supply Chain for the US Region, which includes Planning, Operational Excellence, Human Resources, Procurement, Quality, SES, and Engineering.

Derrick received a Bachelor of Science, Occupational, Safety, and Health with an engineering minor from Grand Valley State University and a Master’s in Business Administration with emphasis in Operations Management from Lawrence Technological University.

He volunteers throughout the year with various organizations.  During the holiday season, he participates in feeding the sick and shut-in, homeless, and special needs citizens through Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church.  He serves as a mentor in the SOAR program-assisting elementary schools children improve their reading skills through Grace Community Church.   Serves on the Parking Lot ministry at Grace Community Church.  Acts as a sponsor for the Special Olympics – Washington.  Participates in a host of activities to assist the local community when called upon.

Derrick Register is a native of Detroit, Michigan.  He is a proud husband to wife, Rajoielle and father to beloved daughter, Blake and son, Derrick. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his family, mentoring, traveling, reading and sports.

Earl Jewett

Earl Jewett is VP of Manufacturing at Klein Tool. Klein Tool is a 6^th generation family owned American company based in Lincolnshire, Illinois that manufactures hand tools. The company is known for its popularity with workers in the electrical and telecommunications industries.  Prior to joining Klein Tools, Earl was COO of WS Packaging, a leading producer of labels.   His responsibilities include operating performance for 22 manufacturing plants, IMPACT™ business system, and manufacturing engineering. Prior to that, as chief IMPACT business system officer he led the company’s implementation of Lean, supply chain performance management, and quality control related processes. Immediately prior to joining WS in 2010 he was vice president of North American Operations for Apex Tool Group, successfully merging two separate tool businesses with a dozen manufacturing plants and six distribution centers. His experience in manufacturing and quality management started during an 11-year stint with Trane, Inc.

Michael Brice

Michael Brice is a 32-year printing ink industry veteran.  He has served in every capacity:  lab technician, colormatching, manufacturing, inplant technician and management, sales and senior level management.  Mike became Chief Operating Officer of Superior Printing Inks in 2000 and named is President and COO in 2003.  He also worked in the energy sector and then for Squid Ink Manufacturing for two years until he joined INX International Ink Company in Nov, 2011.  Michael has served INX in a sales capacity as well as organizing and managing INX’s North American distribution effort.  Mike was appointed Director of Offset Operations in 2012 and then, his current position, as Vice President of Offset Operations in 2013.

Elie Ghazal

Elie Ghazal has been the Vice President of North America JIT Operations since 2014 for the Seating division.  North America JIT Operations consists of 28 plants in the United States, Canada and Mexico.  Prior to Vice President of North America JIT Operations, he held the position of Vice President Global Continuous Improvement.  Over the years, Elie has held senior positions as Vice President Program Management, Vice President China Operations and Vice President of Global Quality.   Ten of his 24 years at Lear have been on expat assignments in Sweden, Germany, France and China.

Ghazal joined Lear in November 1990 as an industrial engineer with responsibility for our Whitby and Ajax facilities. Before joining Lear, he was an industrial systems engineer for INCO Mining in Toronto, Ontario and an industrial engineer at Johnson Controls responsible for Toyota Corolla production.

Ghazal earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Industrial Engineering from Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto, Ontario and has recently completed his Masters of Business from Michigan State University where he was inducted into The International Honor Society of Beta Gamma Sigma – highest recognition a student can get in a Business Program and Inducted into the Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International scholars.

Roshan Rajappa

Roshan is the Vice President of Sourcing and Quality at Sonos. Prior to taking over the sourcing role Roshan was responsible for all aspects of Quality at Sonos which he still leads. His responsibility in Quality includes Product Quality (from inception to development), Operation Quality (how things are executed at the supply base) and Business Quality (the process to get the product to the customer). Roshan uses Quality culture concepts along with Lean methodology to get the time to market reduced and improve efficiency through the product development cycle. He ignites collaboration between supply chain and engineering to maximize quality, minimize risk and deliver a competitive product. Roshan plays a key role in transforming Sonos’s supply chain with a focus on efficiency, customer experience through efforts in delivering the right product, at the right quality at the right time. Before Sonos Roshan was at BlackBerry for 15 years where he held numerous leadership roles in operation. He was part of the journey at BlackBerry where the company grew from few hundred million dollars to 20 billion dollars within a decade. Participative and adaptable leader and coach, instigates a team spirited approach to maximize the use of talent. Frank, honest and influencing communicator, avid listener, seeks opinions, makes prudent decisions relevant to the situation. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Electronics engineering.

Jeff Thompson

Jeff Thompson is the Vice President of Continuous Improvement for US Foods.    He is responsible for driving the culture and capability of process improvement/problem solving throughout the entire organization.  Currently the main emphasis is continuing to build out a world class Supply Chain organization that uses CI as the backbone to empower employees to reduce waste and streamline activities.   Prior to his current role Jeff was the Executive in charge of leading the same effort at Univar as Vice President of Global Productivity and Lean Six Sigma.   He was also the Global Director of CI for Ecolab and the Global Director of Business Strategy & Optimization at Nalco Company.   Jeff is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt with an M.S. and B.S. in Statistics from Northern Illinois University and an MBA from Aurora University.

Jeffrey Summers

Jeff is a certified Master Black Belt with over 30 years leading and teaching various organizations to create sustainable continuous improvement cultures.  Jeff has extensive hands-on experience with Six Sigma, Lean, Design for Six Sigma and Organizational Change Management methodologies.  With this experience, Jeff helps lead organizations to identify their Cost/Quality strategy. Once identified and prioritized, he has a distinct and comprehensive skill set to help build the capability within an organization to execute that strategy and achieve the desired results.

Justin Kobler

Justin Kobler has been in the food industry for over 13 years and has held various leadership roles. Justin has been at Land O’ Frost for almost 2 years. Prior to Land O’ Frost he worked at Hillshire Brands and Kraft Foods. Justin specializes in Lean Manufacturing, Continuous improvement and Cross-Functional Team Leadership is recognized for having a unique blend of Lean Sigma Expertise and business understanding having worked at various levels in multiple organizations. Justin earned his BS of Finance from Illinois State University and is LSSBB Certified.

Rebecca Morlando

Rebecca A. Morlando, holds a PH.D., in Chemistry from the University of Missouri-Columbia and brings 20 plus years of dedication, commitment and leadership to 3M.  In February 2016, Dr. Morlando’s strong passion for demonstrating operational excellence as Value Stream Director for Display Materials and Systems Division catapulted her 3M career and afforded her with the leadership charge of Director for Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Lean Six Sigma for Safety and Graphics Business (SGBG) Unit.  SGBG is one of five core businesses of 3M representing $6B in revenue.

As the Director of Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Lean Six Sigma at 3M, Rebecca is responsible for aligning the global organization to the technology, quality, responsiveness, delivery and cost objectives of the customers, driving continuous improvement and creating a culture of commitment to the success of the organization.

Rebecca attributes much of her 3M success to following the first  principles of the Shingo Model for Enterprise Excellence.

Jeff Johnson

Jeff Johnson is a Director of Process Improvement at USG Corporation (USG). Jeff is responsible for establishing USG Lean Management at USGs 40+ manufacturing facilities in the US and Canada.

Jeff leads his team of Master Black Belts from USG’s  award winning Lean Six Sigma (LSS) program – 2017 American Quality Institute ‘Lean Six Sigma Deployment of the Year’ and 2017 Manufacturing Leadership Council’s ‘Improving Operational Excellence Award’. Jeff’s team trains and coaches corporate leadership and plant personnel, through a transformation, to a continuously improving management system.

Jeff’s previous role was as a Certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with PepsiCo. During the initial LSS deployment at PepsiCo Beverages, he led all training and computer systems, as well as his own meta-projects. He was a member of PepsiCo’s Global Lean Six Sigma Council.  Prior to PepsiCo, Jeff was the Lean Manufacturing Corporate Lead for Kraft Heinz and Management Consultant for AT Kearney and two other firms focusing on operations excellence.  Jeff has engineering project management and manufacturing engineering experience from petro-chemicals and consumer products industries.

Jeff earned an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Jeff resides in Richton Park, IL with his wife Daphne and three children. Jeff serves as chairman of the Illinois Alpha Phi Alpha Charitable Foundation and member of the TMLCF Foundation.

Patrick Johnson

As a Subject Matter Expert in Lean Six Sigma, Patrick leverages over twenty years of experience in Business Operations including Operations Management, Quality Management, Performance Excellence, and Continuous Improvement.  Patrick has the unique, highly sought after ability to bridge the organization from C-Suite to shop floor.  He prides himself on listening to the business and configuring customized deployment solutions that work – as such, he is a highly sought-after expert.   Patrick is highly proficient in program deployment leadership, curriculum development and delivery, project replication, change management and strategy execution across various industries.  Patrick has a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Organizational Management from Tusculum College.  He’s  a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, and an ASQ Certified Manager of Quality and Organizational Excellence.

Linnea Whisler

Linnea Whisler  joined Honeywell in 1995 and is currently the Corporate VP of the Honeywell Operating System. In this role, she is responsible for deploying HOS across ~300 factories globally, an Enterprise wide continuous improvement system that integrates Factory Lean Excellence with flawless new product introduction, aligned with the breakthrough strategies to drive growth, operating income, and working capital for the shareholders.

Linnea also spent 20+ years in Honeywell’s strategic business groups including both Aerospace and Automation Control Solutions (ACS).  In her last role, she led HOS as well as Quality and the Health, Safety, & Environmental organization in the ACS Business. In a previous role, she led Operations across ten avionics repair and overhaul sites in the Americas including locations in Canada, United States, and Brazil.  Prior to this role, Linnea was the Defense & Space Americas Aftermarket Business Director responsible for driving business growth in Canada, US, and Latin America for the Commercial Helicopters and International Distributor channel markets.

Earlier in her career, she held several leadership positions, including Plant Director, Six Sigma Plus Director, and various roles within Materials Management.

Linnea lives in Scottsdale, AZ with her husband, Gary, and three teenage children. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Purchasing and Logistics Management from Arizona State University, starting out her career with AlliedSignal in an ISC new grad rotation program. Linnea is a Honeywell certified Six Sigma Black Belt.

Scott Hibbard

Scott Hibbard has been associated with the industrial motion control industry for the past 40 years, 36 of those with Bosch Rexroth, including the former Indramat Division of the Rexroth Corporation. Scott played a key role in the pioneering introduction of the first practical industrial brushless AC servo drives and multi-processing CNCs used in high production manufacturing, as well as moving printing and packaging automation technology from mechanical systems to precision electronic motion control.  He recently moved from managing Rexroth’s Industrial Applications Development in North & South America, as well as management of the facility in Hoffman Estates, Illinois to managing Bosch Rexroth’s North American Innovation Group. Scott is currently active in the development of the Industrial Internet of Things (Industry 4.0) including development of use-cases and standards enabling meaningful interchange of information across the manufacturing environment.

Scott serves on the board of directors for Sercos North America, the trade association that stewards the ongoing development and adoption of Sercos, an international real time interface standard. Scott is also chairman of the Association for Manufacturing Technology’s Technical Issues Committee, chairs the MTConnect Technical Advisory Group, and is a member of the MTConnect Board of Trustees.

Scott graduated from DeVry Technical Institute in 1977.  He is the author of numerous technical articles and papers on AC servo, digital drive control, and open control system technologies, as well as energy efficiency in factory automation.

Michael Hennessy

Sr. Director Global Process Technology. 2016 to Present.  Led Global Process Technology organization to commercialize new products, improve existing process, develop new unit operation technology (internal and collaborative external) and qualify new sources of critical raw materials.

Global Process Technology Leader. 2016 to 2016.  Led Basics Global Technology Group to change research direction to align with the Transformation effort.  This included developing process technology to capture more key intermediates (KI) via redistribution and distillation improvements.  Demonstrated conceptual feasibility of using condensation/rearrangement technology to begin the journey to a common global polymer supply chain.  Worked with cross functional team to develop Waterford 2020 strategy and extend it to global nature.  Worked with Frankfurt University to finalize scope and agreement for alternate KI synthesis. Collaborated with CI group on Maturity Model development.  Provided support to Palm Tree Phase 2 project.

Global Technology Director – Circuits & Packaging Materials.  2012 to 2016.  Accountable for developing and implementing the innovation for a $600 million business within DuPont’s Electronic and Communications business.  Developed the strategy and execution plan to deliver greater than seven percent (7%) top line growth in a fast moving matrixed global business.  Responsible for identification of emerging technologies to help expand the core business capabilities.  Managed laboratories in China (2), Taiwan (2), North Carolina and Ohio.  Integral part of a global business team.  Accountable for the innovation pipeline, IP strategy and protection, global talent acquisition, and long term strategy development and execution.

DuPont Engineering and Technology (DuET) Global Value Accelerator Leader.  2010 to 2012.  Accountable for working across DuPont manufacturing sites globally to identify and achieve two hundred million in Gross Margin benefit by working closely with all levels of business, manufacturing and Engineering to identify opportunities, develop and implement short duration, high intensity programs to solve technical issues to release capacity for “sold-out” operations.  Programs were chartered and staffed from Engineering to realize these benefits.  Contribution for 2010 was >$205 million of Gross Margin.

Engineering Manager, DuPont Engineering Research and Technology.  2008 to 2010 for the Process Engineering Group.  Group expertise included reaction engineering, thermodynamics, heat, mass and momentum transfer and the Explosions Hazards Laboratory (45 employees).  Mission is to enable revenue growth by transforming R&D discovery into commercial products and increasing the productivity of manufacturing assets.  Responsibilities include working across DuPont businesses and technologies to understand process requirements for new technology commercialization, conceptualizing and designing the process through Front End Loading (FEL 2), then assisting with start-up and plant operation.

Innovation Leader – Clean Technology, DuPont Chemical Solutions Enterprise.  2002 to 2008 – Management responsibility for technology commercialization for the Clean Technologies Growth Initiative.   Led cross functional teams consisting of members from R&D, business management, Central Research, DuET, DuPont Canada and the regions.  Hired and staffed programs to promote growth and oversaw construction and startup of three new acid plants (Delaware, New Jersey and Texas).  Designed and commercialized new heat transfer technology for the Stratco Alkylation business.  Business grew from $50 million to over $300 million during this period.

Manager Process Control and Information Technologies, DuPont Chemical Solutions Enterprise 2001 to 2002 – Management responsibility for SBU-wide Process Control group in addition to the Information Science and Library organization.

Six Sigma Blackbelt – DuPont Chemical Solutions Enterprise 1999 to 2001 – Responsible for evaluation of process defects and identification and implementation of solutions in first pass first quality yield Improvement programs and improving the reliability of rotating machinery.   Achieved certification with two projects in excess of $1 million in pre-tax savings.

Technical Assignments- DuPont Chemical Solutions Enterprise 1988 to 1999 – Various technical positions including Research Associate, R&D Chemist, Manufacturing Technical Chemist, Technical Service Chemist which supported new product development and manufacturing in DuPont.  These included development of wood and textile coatings to repel dirt and oil, spin finishes for polyester and nylon BCF as well as antioxidants for Lycra.  Formulations included use of a variety of coating chemicals.  Assignments involved all aspects of working with customer to identify opportunity requirements, scouting and testing of candidates, scale-up and customer evaluation of preferred candidates then commercial manufacture of final product.  Technical Service accountability included working with customers, on their sites, to optimize use of DuPont products within their factories.

Education:

Ph.D. Organic Chemistry, University of Delaware, 1988.

B.S., Bachelor of Science Cum Laude with Departmental Honors in 3.5 years, Marietta College, December 1983.

Jiju Johnson

Jiju Johnson is a continuous improvement professional who engages with functional teams to increase their comfort with change, improve on operations, and ultimately, generate results.

Rooted in systemic thinking and a desire for continuous improvement, Jiju champions finding simple, scalable solutions. He has demonstrated that by creating a strategy, arming people with the right tools and empowering them to make well-thought timely decisions, they can make remarkable progress.

Jiju’s 13-year multi-national career has spanned diverse fields such as high-volume consumer product manufacturing, product development, machine design, ship building, 3D printing, conventional printing, power electronics, construction and sales.

Jiju holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. In keeping with the desire to engage in diverse fields, his continuous learning certifications range from finance and HR to a private pilot’s license.

Ernest Anderson

Ernie Anderson is Plant General Manager at Mercury Marine a part of the Brunswick Corporation. He is responsible for leading the Assembly and Coating Operations in Fond Du Lac, WI and Suzhou, China, which includes ensuring the sites meet customer expectations, performance metrics, and continue to drive a culture of engaging employees thru continuous improvement.

Ernie has been with the company for 19 years and has held numerous roles in the operations from production supervisor to plant manager of multiple sites.

Paul Walker

Paul Walker is the Director Manufacturing and Tooling at Otter Products in Fort Collins Colorado. In this role, Paul has the responsibility for supplying the manufacturing and tooling deliverables to support the product development needs for the company. This includes all R & D activities as well as core business support for both Otter and Life Proof branded products and a host of new product offerings.

Otter Products is the number 1 protective phone case manufacturer in the world. Otter products continues to gain market share. Otter products headquarters is located in Fort Collins Colorado with another product development side in San Diego and Offices in Cork Ireland, Hong Kong and Shenzhen China totaling around 1000 employees worldwide.

Paul started his career as a Senior Tooling Engineer in 2013 and then quickly moved into an Advanced Manufacturing and Tooling Development role. In 2014 Paul took the role as a Technical Lead Engineer leading and managing a team of engineers to develop new product lines. Paul was able to develop many new product offerings at the company during his time as a lead technical engineer. In late 2015, Paul moved into a manager position managing the advanced manufacturing team working on new process and material alternatives. In 2016, Paul was promoted to the Director of Manufacturing and Tooling.

Paul is a certified Mold maker as well as a Die maker from the Chicago chapter of Mold Builders. Paul worked for A-1 Tool in Chicago as a mold maker apprentice to learn the mold making trade. Paul has served in the plastics industry for 25 years. Paul spent 18 of his 25 years working for Compaq Computer / Hewlett Packard in in a variety of product development roles before leaving to Join Otter products in early 2013. Paul holds a BS in Industrial Technology with a concentration in “plastics” from Illinois State University.

Shankar Annamalai

Shankar is currently the Vice President of Operations for Apergy Energy (formerly Dover Energy). Shankar has served in this role since May, of 2017. Apergy Energy’s principal products consist of artificial lift equipment and solutions, including rod pumping systems, electric submersible pump systems, progressive cavity pumps and drive systems and plunger lifts, as well as polycrystalline diamond cutters for drilling.

Prior to joining Apergy Energy, Shankar held a variety of operational roles at Pentair. He was the Global Vice President of Operations and Supply (March 2015 to April 2017); Senior Director of Operations of Valves & Controls (March 2013 to March 2015); Director of Operations (June 2006 to March 2013). Prior to joining Pentair, Shankar was employed by Siemens Energy & Automation (May 2005 to May 2006). Shankar received his MBA from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas as well as a Bachelor’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering (May 2004).

Patrick Steele

Pat Steele is the Executive Vice President of Operations at Aquion. Aquion is a manufacturer water treatment equipment and water quality solutions that serve markets around the world. Pat’s responsibilities include the development and optimization of operations that are focused on using continuous improvement and lean tools to drive growth across the business.  Pat has responsibility for Aquion’s manufacturing and supply chain activities.

Pat has more than 25 years hands-on experience with Lean, Six Sigma, and Change Management methodologies.  With this experience, he has led many organizations in developing continuous improvement cultures to sustain operational excellence.  Pat has had the opportunity to work with GE, Elkay, Pentair, and RainBird prior to his current position

Pat graduated from the Naval Academy in 1988.  He lives in the Chicago area with his wife and has 3 adult children.

Victor Mroczkowski

Victor is director of Manufacturing and Quality for Propulsion South Carolina (PSC). Established in 2015 as Boeing’s Nacelle Center of Excellence, PSC is part of Boeing’s vertical integration approach toward key elements of the value stream. PSC supports Boeing Commercial Airplane programs’ nacelle technology development, design, manufacturing, and Boeing Global Services’ nacelle aftermarket needs.

In his role, Victor is responsible for the 737 MAX program, which includes a greenfield factory start-up for engine inlet assembly. He leads a tightly integrated design-build team of engineers, mechanics, and support personnel responsible for inlet and fan cowl type design, production engineering, manufacturing assembly, quality, and supply chain activities.

Over the last ten years with Boeing, Victor previously led Boeing South Carolina (BSC) 787-10 Airplane Development, factory assembly teams in the 787 Aft Body and Mid Body, and European Interceptor Site (EIS) Facility design for Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) European Capability Program in Boeing Defense, Space and Security.  Before joining Boeing, Victor served eight years on active duty in the U.S. Army Infantry and Special Forces.

Victor has a BS in Mechanical (Aero) Engineering from The United States Military Academy at West Point; an MA in Central and Eastern European Studies from Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland; MS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT; and MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.

Victor and his wife Danielle have four children and reside in Charleston, SC.

Michael Cortez

Mike Cortez is Sr. Director of Continuous Improvement for the Final Assembly Line, USA. In this position, he is responsible for Operational Improvements across all A320 Family Final Assembly activities in Airbus’ Mobile, Alabama manufacturing facility.

Cortez joined Airbus in January 2017 from Forefront Consulting where from 2014 he served as President and Sr. Consultant with a few key roles under his tenure: VP of Operations and Sales for YCS Texas in Houston, Texas and Director of Operations for Bandy Aerospace, Inc. in Burbank, California.

From 2009 to 2014, Cortez was General Manager of Aerospace Logistics Company in Wichita, Kansas. From 2005 to 2009 he held various roles at Hawker Beechcraft Corporation in Wichita, Kansas, including Director of Operations H987 Program, Operations Manager Hawker 900 & 750, and Six Sigma Blackbelt within the Performance Excellence Organization. Mike is an accomplished leader with a 12-year track record of successful strategic and tactical leadership roles within the Aviation and Manufacturing industry. While offering a unique combination of executive project management and technical expertise, he embraces a “continuous improvement” approach to drive organizational change and achieve maximum results.

Mike takes pride in personally coaching, training, and mentoring his direct staff and frontline employees. Leading from the front and employee empowerment are the two key focus areas for Mike’s leadership.

Mike attended Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and holds an Airframe and Powerplant License from Westwood College of Aviation Technology.

Mike, his wife and 7 year old son live in Spanish Fort, AL while his older son attends Kansas State University and daughter attends the University of Arizona.

Marian Futrell

Marian graduated with honors from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1985 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemical Engineering.  During her college career, she co-oped with Monsanto (Columbia, TN) and Dow Chemical (Plaquemine, LA).   Upon graduation, Marian began her 29 year career with Procter & Gamble.  In P&G, Marian worked in 3 Global Business Units (Paper, Fabric & Home Care, Snacks & Beverages); 5 Categories (Pulp, Chemicals, Home Care, Fabric Care, Snacks); 7 Locations (Memphis, TN; Kansas City, KS; Cincinnati, OH; Lima, OH; Jackson, TN; Augusta, GA, Alexandria, LA); 2 Technical Centers (Ivorydale Technical Center. Winton Hill Business Center); and 5 Supply Chain Areas (Manufacturing, Logistics, Initiative Management, Quality, Finance/IT).  Marian joined Mondelēz International at the Deerfield Headquarters in November, 2014 as the Director of Capability and Learning for the Integrated Supply Chain and expanded the role in 2016 to include Strategy.  This role includes providing benchmarking, ways of working, and a virtual academy and learning management system for 70,000 colleagues world-wide in Manufacturing, Customer Service & Logistics, Procurement, Engineering, Quality Control, Innovation and Health, Safety & Environmental.  Marian’s mastery includes manufacturing excellence (TPM, Lean Six-Sigma, high performance organizations, global and regional leadership, multi-functional Initiative Team Leadership, Joint Value Creation with Customer Teams, and end-to-end organizational capability development.

Marian is married with two children and one grandson.

Strengths:

• Strategic Thinking (specifically, business integration and context linkage)
• Clear linkage with Consumers and Customers to insure value added activities are leveraged, and eliminating non-value-added activities.
• Quickly transforming cultures, building effective leadership teams to systemically exceed business needs.
• Implementing Value Chain Best Practices in the industry to insure continual improvement.
• Inspirational, Systemic, Influential, In-touch & Accountability Leadership Mastery
• TPM, Lean Six Sigma Methodology, practical development, implementation, and leadership coaching

Passion:

• My passion and expertise is in delivering supply chain excellence in costs, cash, service, and human capital in both global and regional organizations.
• I believe we have four assets to manage in an organization. These assets are people, equipment, information systems/work processes & money.  The most important of these are the people, because they are the critical integration by which we build and sustain a robust and synchronized supply chain.
• I believe LEADERSHIP defines the culture and a great culture enables stellar, sustainable results.

Shawn Mack

Since 1997, Shawn Mack has been a leader in sales and sales management with a focus on bottom line profitability. As Senior Director of Continuous Improvement, for TreeHouse Foods, Mack supports all aspects of Margin Expansion projects to maximize return on investment and value delivery.  Under his leadership, TreeHouse Foods and at previous employers, Continuous Improvement Margin Expansion has consistently received recognition for exceeding performance.

With more than 25 years of experience, Mack has held a series of increasingly expanding positions, including Divisional Sales Manager, Director of Commercial Sales, Global Deployment Champion, Director of Commercial Excellence,and Senior Director Continuous Improvement.

Mack received his bachelor’s degree in business with a minor in project management from DeVry University.  He has completed numerous executive leadership and sales management training programs during his career and is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.

Reginaldo Ecclissato

Alistair Hirst

Alistair Hirst has been Senior Vice President, Global Supply Chain, Kellogg Company, since 2012. He is also a member of the company’s Global Leadership Team.
Mr. Hirst joined Kellogg Company in 1984 as a Food Technologist at the Springs, South Africa plant. While at the facility, he was promoted to Quality Assurance Manager and Production Manager.

In 1993, he accepted an assignment at the company’s Botany, Australia, plant as Production Manager. In 1994, he returned to South Africa when he was promoted to Plant Manager, and in 1997, he was named Director, Supply Chain at the facility. Mr. Hirst relocated to the Manchester, England facility in 2001 when promoted to Director, Procurement, and in 2004, he was named European Logistics Director. In January 2005, he relocated to the U.S. when promoted to Vice President, Global Procurement. Mr. Hirst was promoted to Senior Vice President, Snacks Supply Chain in January 2008 and to Senior Vice President, North America Supply Chain in October 2011.

Mr. Hirst received a Bachelor’s degree from Leeds University, England.

Pietro Di Pilato

In his current role as Senior Vice President, North America Manufacturing and Distillation, Pietro oversees Diageo’s distillation, maturing spirit and bottling operations across the US and Canada. In addition, he will lead the engineering function and the operational performance of the NA third party manufacturing base. He is a member of the North America Supply Executive Team (SET), as well as the North America Conversion Leadership Team (CLT).

Following a career at Unilever Bestfoods North America spanning more than 15 years in various manufacturing roles, Pietro joined Diageo in 2006 from food manufacturer Kai Conveni Global Inc., where he held the role of Director of Operations. After 12 months as Director of Operations at Dorval, in August 2007 Pietro took on his role of VP of Operations at Relay, leading the team there on a major change journey and making a significant contribution to both our manufacturing organization and the wider NA Supply business.

He continues to play a key role in the ongoing transformation of the NA Supply business, by driving safety, quality, compliance and operational performance through leadership of the North America Supply Excellence strategic initiative and plant performance.

Pietro is married to Marianna and they have three children.

Gustavo Lopez Ghory

Gustavo Lopez Ghory joined Procter & Gamble in 1981 as an MSG/PSF Team Manager at the CCS Plant in Venezuela. Over the last 35 years he has held roles of increasing responsibility within Procter & Gamble overseeing both manufacturing and supply chain functions. Gustavo is passionate about leadership and what it takes to be a good leader. He has coached baseball for 11 years, has been a member of the Board of the Foundation of Education for the Americas since 2000, and is an active runner and cyclist. He now lives in Geneva, Switzerland with his wife and five children.

Walter Charles

Walter Charles is the Chief Procurement Officer at Biogen. Walter is a sought after speaker at national and international Supply Chain and Procurement Conferences, a visionary Supply Chain leader, an impactful results deliverer and an inspiring Procurement Futurist.

At Biogen, his global procurement teams support the purchase of billions of dollars a year of products and services supporting Research & Development, Manufacturing, Marketing, Legal, Capital, IT, Plant Operations, Travel, and General and Administrative services for the $11B revenue/year biotechnology innovator.

Prior to joining Biogen, Walter has held Chief Procurement Officer roles at iconic companies such as Kraft Foods, Kellogg’s, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Supply Chain and Cordis (one of J&J’s former medical devices companies). As such, he has the unique perspective of serving on Supply Chain Leadership Teams, and leading procurement transformations across Biotechnology, Consumer Packaged Goods, Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Businesses.

Walter holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Columbia University; a Master of Engineering Degree in Environmental Engineering from The Stevens Institute of Technology; and a Bachelor’s of Science Degree from the United States Merchant Marine Academy.

Ken Snyder

Ken Snyder, the executive dean and chief administrative officer of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, recently joined the Shingo Institute as the executive director. Mr. Snyder has served as a member of the Shingo Executive Advisory Board for the past seven years and has intimate knowledge of the Institute and its history.

Mr. Snyder developed an interest in Japanese business practices while living in Japan during the time he was a student. His interest led him to major in Japanese history and then to pursue an MBA for the purpose of working with a Japanese business expanding to the United States. Inspired by the work of Professor Mike Yoshino and Professor William Ouchi, Mr. Snyder wrote his master’s thesis on “Applying Japanese Business Practices in American Companies.”

Immediately after graduation, Mr. Snyder joined a Japanese electronics manufacturing company and helped lead the establishment of its U.S. affiliate company. As plant manager, and later president of that company, he led the company through the implementation of TQC, QC Circles, and then later as the company implemented JIT and kanban initiatives.

After ten+ years with the Japanese company, Mr. Snyder led the startup of Progressive Impressions International (PII) in Bloomington, Illinois. There he created a “lean accounting” system even before that term existed, and he led the growth of PII from pre-revenue to over $25 million in annual revenues.

Before joining the Huntsman School, Mr. Snyder was president of Marketing Communication Inc., an operating division of Taylor Corporation, where he directed a group of six companies while growing revenues from $25 million to over $80 million. He joined the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business in 2008.

Mr. Snyder has served as a member of the Shingo Executive Advisory Board since 2009, and as a Shingo examiner since 2010. He was named chairman of the Shingo board and executive director of the Shingo Institute in 2015.

He earned an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business in 1980 with an emphasis in international business. Prior to that he earned a bachelor’s degree in Japanese history from the University of Utah in 1978.

Mark Dickson

Mark A. Dickson is General Manager of the John Deere Dubuque Works John Deere’s Worldwide Construction & Forestry Division, a position he’s held since April 2015.  He is responsible for providing leadership for the Dubuque operations while ensuring a low-cost flexible operational structure to enable strong financial performance across the business cycle.

Dickson joined Deere in 1998 and has served in a number of increasingly responsible positions in product engineering, manufacturing engineering, operations, and quality management. He has served at various Agriculture & Turf units globally, including Ottumwa Works, Des Moines Works, Harvester Works and John Deere Werke Mannheim. He previously served as the Global Crop Harvesting Customer Support Manager from 2009 to 2012. From 2012 -2015, Dickson served as Global Director of Supply Management, Harvesting and South America at the Global Crop Harvesting Product Development Center in East Moline/Silvis, Illinois.

Prior to joining John Deere, Mark worked at Becton Dickinson, a medical manufacturing company.  He worked in the areas of manufacturing engineering, quality engineering and product development.

Dickson holds B.A. in Math and Physics from Hasting College, a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Colorado State University and an MBA in Business Administration from Arizona State University.

Deere & Company (NYSE: DE) is a world leader in providing advanced products and services and is committed to the success of customers whose work is linked to the land – those who cultivate, harvest, transform, enrich and build upon the land to meet the world’s dramatically increasing need for food, fuel, shelter and infrastructure. Since 1837, John Deere has delivered innovative products of superior quality built on a tradition of integrity.  For more information, visit John Deere at its worldwide website at www.JohnDeere.com.

Daryl Taylor

Daryl Taylor is Airbus’s Vice President and General Manager-Final Assembly Line, USA. In this position, he is responsible for all A320 Family Final Assembly activities in Airbus’ Mobile, Alabama manufacturing facility.

Taylor joined Airbus in August 2015 from GKN Aerospace where from 2013 he was Vice President and General Manager of two facilities: Precision Machining, Inc. in Wellington, Kansas and Bandy Aerospace, Inc. in Burbank, California.

From 2010 to 2013, Taylor was General Manager of the Q400 Program at Bombardier Aerospace in Toronto, Canada. From 1997 to 2009 he held various roles at Hawker Beechcraft Corporation in Wichita, Kansas, including Director of Operations H4000, Director of Assembly Operations Hawker 900 & 750, and Director of Six Sigma & Performance Excellence.

The appointment at Airbus is somewhat of a homecoming for Taylor—from 1989 until 1994 he was a Certified Engineering Apprentice at Airbus in the UK.
Taylor has a Higher National Diploma in Aeronautical Engineering from Kelsterton College in the UK, and a B.S. in Manufacturing Technology from Southwestern College in Kansas.

Taylor, his wife and three children live in Fairhope, Ala.

Eric Branyan

Eric R. Branyan is the Vice President, F-35 Supply Chain Management, overseeing the complex international network of suppliers that provide critical hardware for the F-35 program. He was most recently Vice President, F-35 Aircraft Production Business Unit, responsible for global F-35 production and for the full life cycle of production aircraft from proposal of long lead components through delivery to operational bases. Key elements supporting F-35 production include: program operations, supply chain, affordability, tooling, and quality.

Mr. Branyan has also held the position of Vice President & Deputy General Manager responsible for the overall execution of the F-35 development across tri-company team and suppliers, and F-35 Air System Development. His responsibilities also included leadership of 1,900 technical professionals across Air System Integration, Air Vehicle Development and Mission Systems. Prior to that Mr. Branyan held the title of Vice President F-35 Mission Systems where he was responsible for avionics development and integration, including Airborne Software, Sensors, Core Processing and Off-Board Mission Support Systems.

Throughout his 35-year career with Lockheed Martin, Mr. Branyan has led teams with responsibility for the design, build, test and operation of complex systems. In addition to roles on F-22 and F-35 and during his tenure at Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems and Global Services, he led large-scale system development for products including satellites, sensors and information technology systems. Prior to joining Lockheed Martin, he held technical and leadership positions at GE Aircraft Engines working on both fighter and commercial engines.

Mr. Branyan was voted Pennsylvania State University 2011 Outstanding Engineering Alumnus, one of twelve recipients from 81,000 living graduates. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Cincinnati.

A native of Southeast Pennsylvania, he and his wife Janet reside in Fort Worth, Texas. His hobbies include a passion for flying in which he has built an experimental aircraft, and pilots both powered aircraft and sailplanes.

Anthony Hoskins

Anthony Hoskins is the North American Director of Manufacturing of Transmission Operations, transitioning from the Director of Manufacturing for the Michigan, Chicago and Oakville Assembly Plants at the end of the 2015 calendar year.  As the Assembly Director of Manufacturing, he led the region with JPH/Capacity increases at both Chicago and Oakville Plants along with the major launches of the Edge (CD539N), MKX (U540) and Edge Export (CD539X) at Oakville.

Prior to the Director of Manufacturing, Anthony was the Plant Manager at Michigan Assembly where he led the introduction of the Michigan Assembly 3rd Crew and  introduced the broadest electrification and complexity management within from via the Focus BEV, C-MAX HEV/PHEV and Focus SVT while taking MAP to its lowest Warranty levels.

Mr. Hoskins was the Vehicle Operations Plant Manager of Ford’s Dearborn Truck Plant located in Dearborn, Michigan.  He assumed the position in August, 2009 after serving as the Plant Manager for the company’s Chicago Assembly Plant for five years.

Ford’s Dearborn Truck Plant, home of the best-selling Ford F-150, is the flagship for the company’s vision of sustainable manufacturing, incorporating state-of-the-art lean and flexible manufacturing processes.  Mr. Hoskins managed all operations of the facility, including its 3,800 employees working on three crews of production.

In his previous role as Plant manager of the Chicago Assembly Plant, Mr. Hoskins oversaw a $400 million modernization of the facility that included the addition of a flexible body shop in 2004 and another $134 million upgrade in 2007 that included state-of-the-art equipment with controls to ensure with precise accuracy the quality of the vehicle assembly.  He also led the successful launch of the new award-winning Ford Taurus and Taurus SHO.

Before moving to Chicago, Anthony was the lean manufacturing manager of Ford’s Atlanta Assembly Plant. While in that role, he and the plant earned the title of Most Improved North American Assembly Plant in Lean Manufacturing Implementation and the Bronze Award from J.D. Power & Associates for overall vehicle quality.

Anthony joined Ford in 1990 as a Production Supervisor at the Dearborn Assembly Plant.  Since that time, he has held various positions including: superintendent of final body at Dearborn Assembly Plant, final area manager and lean manufacturing manager at Dearborn Assembly Plant and assembly and stamping area manager at the Dearborn Frame Plant, where he was instrumental in the plant achieving $1.2 million in total cost and labor improvements.

In addition, Anthony managed the launch of the Dearborn Paint Plant where he coordinated activities for seven facilities as the interior site manager.  Mr. Hoskins’s strengths are in Ford Motor Company’s lean principles and processes.

Mr. Hoskins earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial technology from Iowa
State University and a master’s degree in science from Central Michigan University.

Carolin Seward

Carolin Seward is vice president in the Technology and Manufacturing Group and director of Global Supply Management at Intel Corporation. In this role, she manages Intel’s global capital expenditures and materials sourcing for assembly and packaging manufacturing operations. The scope of her position includes development and delivery of supplier capabilities to enable Intel’s five-generation technology roadmap, which includes developing and implementing strategies to enable a healthy and affordable supply chain ecosystem through collaborations, investments, intellectual property management and supply chain capability development. Other responsibilities include capacity and supply planning and management, and global manufacturing support for assembly manufacturing operations.

Since joining Intel in 1991, Seward has served in a variety of technical and managerial roles in the company’s technology manufacturing engineering organization, including as director of supply chain strategy integration and as engineering manager of fab capital equipment development.

Seward holds a bachelor’s degree in materials engineering from San Jose State University and a master’s degree in business administration from Pepperdine University.

Mike Dundas

In his role as Senior Vice President of Manufacturing and Operations Engineering, Mike is responsible for Dell’s global manufacturing, quality, production planning and global operations engineering & technology teams.  This includes manufacturing across 14 different Dell facilities, ODMs and contract manufacturers as well as direct engineering support for product introductions, process engineering and manufacturing test.

In addition to day to day operations, Mike plays a key role in transforming Dell’s supply chain, with a key focus on customer experience through efforts in delivering best in class cycle time with on time and quality products.  He is also passionate about developing his team, personally leading self-created training sessions on Individual Development Planning, Clear and Effective Communications and Inspirational Leadership.   Mike is the executive sponsor for Dell’s Global Operations University Relations program as well as Dell’s Global Operations talent management efforts.

Mike joined Dell in 2000 and has held numerous leadership roles across product development engineering, new product program management, product quality, global operations engineering, global materials, global operations planning and inventory control.  Mike currently reports to Kevin Brown, Vice President and Chief Supply Chain Officer.

Prior to joining Dell, Dundas spent nearly 12 years as a high school coach and teacher in the state of Texas.  He holds a bachelor’s degree in History, Government and Economics.  Outside of work he enjoys spending time with family outdoors and coaching sports.

Tana Utley

Tana L. Utley is a Caterpillar Inc. Vice President with responsibility for the Large Power Systems Division at Caterpillar Inc. Through this global organization, Caterpillar provides the most comprehensive lineup of diesel and gas large (greater than 18 liter) engines in the industry. Caterpillar large engines are used to power marine, electric power, oil and gas and rail applications as well as Cat mining machines.

Since joining Caterpillar in 1986, Utley has held a variety of engineering and general management positions across Caterpillar. Her technical career has been focused primarily on solving the challenges of reducing diesel engine emissions in accordance with U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and equivalent global regulations. She has played a number of key engineering and leadership roles in the development of the near-zero-emissions engines Caterpillar sells today. She has also held general management positions in Caterpillar’s components and engines businesses.

In 2007, the Caterpillar Board of Directors named Utley Vice President with responsibility for the Technology & Solutions Division (now the Product Development & Global Technology Division) and Caterpillar Chief Technology Officer. In 2012 she was named Vice President with responsibility for the Industrial Power Systems Division and president of Perkins Engine Company, based in Peterborough, England. She was appointed to her current position in October 2013.

Utley earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Bradley University and a Master of Science in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she was a Sloan Fellow. She currently serves as Caterpillar representative on the Board of Directors of the Energy Technologies Institute in the UK, and is a member of the Board of Directors of SPX Corporation in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is also a member of the Society of Women Engineers and received the Suzanne Jenniches Upward Mobility Award from that organization in 2011. Utley is a member of the Illinois Valley Striders and the USA Triathlon Association, and with her husband is co-chair of the 2015 Heart of Illinois United Way Campaign.

Steve Landry

Steve Landry has 15 years with The J. M. Smucker Company. Currently the Vice President, Operations – Coffee, his prior work experience with Smucker includes Vice President, Consumer Operations, Vice President, Oils & Baking Operations, Director of Operations, Oils & Baking, and Plant Manager of Crisco (Smucker, P&G). Before working for Smucker, Steve worked at Procter & Gamble for 15 years in roles including IWS (SQMS) Manager of Europe (P&G in Belguim), Global TPM Training Manager, and various Operations & Finance assignments with Paper Category. Steve, his wife Julia, and their daughters Alison 17 and Lauren 15, reside in Hudson, Ohio.

Bart Alfons Talloen

As an executive supply chain leader for more than 25 years, Bart has a proven track record of success across several key SC functions such as Planning, Engineering, Technology Transfers, Project Management, Continuous Improvement, Mfg Operations, and General SC Management in Asia, Europe, and North America.

During his career in pharma, OTC, consumer goods, and logistics/ material handling, Bart has managed large supply networks, has acquired and divested operations, build new plants but also has overseen the closure of plants, and has developed and executed a three-year Consent Decree Work Plan including the successful re-certification of three US OTC manufacturing plants by FDA.

In his current role as the Vice President, Product Supply Strategy & Deployment, Bart is responsible for developing and deploying innovative processes, systems and technologies to improve product supply from raw materials, through the manufacturing, to distribution.

Bart is also establishing a J&J Supply Chain Academy to provide enterprise-wide subject-matter learning & development and build differentiating capabilities for the E2E supply chain.

He and his wife live in Skillman, NJ and have two sons in college

Rob Hogan

Rob Hogan is vice president of Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management for Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries. Named to this position in 2015, he is responsible for manufacturing supporting all shipbuilding programs, as well as all supply chain management functions. This includes sourcing and procurement, logistics and inventory control, transportation, and material operations in support of all shipbuilding contracts and clients throughout the design, construction, operation, overhaul and repair of naval vessels.

Hogan began his career with the shipyard in 1976 as a welder and has held positions at all levels of production and construction leadership. In 2004, he was promoted to director of Process Excellence, where he helped identify process improvements, initiated changes and measured results. In 2009, he was appointed director of Manufacturing for Steel Fabrication. Throughout his career, Hogan has looked for new and innovative opportunities to improve efficiency while also improving the tools and equipment used by shipbuilders, and their overall work environments. As a direct result of his work, he won the NNS President’s Model of Excellence Award in 1998 for his process improvement initiatives in Manufacturing.

Hogan is a graduate of the Newport News Shipbuilding Apprentice School and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Strayer University. He currently serves on the board of directors for the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing and the Virginia Manufacturers Association, where he recently served as Chairman. In addition, he is active in the American Welding Society, Society of Manufacturing Engineers and the Association for Manufacturing Excellence. He is also a member of The Apprentice School Alumni Association.

Joshua Freeman

Joshua Freeman is the Vice President and Quality and Process Excellence at HID Global.  One of his priorities is the development, deployment and integration of Sales and Operational Planning aimed at improving overall enterprise performance.  Josh has been serving HID since May of 2014 as the leader of process excellence and recently increased his responsibility to lead the Global Quality organization.

Prior to joining HID, he held various leadership roles during his 10-year tenure at Dell in the areas of Operations Management, Supply Chain Management, and Business Process Transformation.  During his time at Dell, Josh was part of the teams that enable radical innovations in operations and supply chain management.

Prior to Dell, Josh was a product development engineer at Ford Motor Company in engine systems.  He also served as an Infantry officer in the United States Army upon graduating from University.

Josh has a BS from the United States Military Academy at West Point and a MBA from the University of Texas  at Austin.

Jim Haney

Jim Haney is the Global Business Manufacturing Technology Director for the Performance Plastics Portfolio that includes the Packaging and Specialty Plastics, Elastomers, Electrical & Telecommunications assets and Performance Plastics External Manufacturing.

Jim is responsible for 132 manufacturing units at 22 sites in 12 countries spanning four geographic areas.  There are five businesses with 28 technologies that produced approximately 21 billion pounds in 2016.  Five more world scale units at three sites are currently under construction with estimated startup dates in 2017 and 2018.

He is accountable to the global business team and regional value center teams for all manufacturing and engineering activities within the Packaging and Specialty Plastics, Elastomers and Electrical & Telecommunications technologies, ensuring safe, environmentally sound, reliable, and competitive cost operations.

Prior to being named to his current position, Jim held other leadership positions in Manufacturing & Engineering and Supply Chain within the Performance Plastics and Chemicals Businesses.  He joined The Dow Chemical Company in 1989 as a production engineer at the Chlorine I Plant in Plaquemine, Louisiana.  While in Plaquemine, he served in a variety of engineering and plant leadership positions within the Chlor-Alkali, Chlorinated Organics, and Polyethylene Businesses. In 2005, Jim relocated to Midland, Michigan to assume the role of Site Maintenance Leader.  In addition to his site role, Jim became active in the Midland community by serving as a director on the boards of the North Midland Family Center and United Way of Midland County.

In early 2008, Jim was named Supply Chain Operations Director for the Basic Plastics Businesses and subsequently moved to the Houston, Texas area.  In 2009, Jim assumed the role of Business Manufacturing Director for the Gas Phase and Slurry PE businesses in Dow and later expanded this role to include LDPE and Primacor technologies.  In late 2012, Jim was named Business Manufacturing and Technology Director for Solution Polyethylene and Elastomers.  He moved into his current position in 2014.

Jim holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Clemson University.

Lane Ballard

Lane Ballard is vice president of Materials & Manufacturing Technology and leads the Boeing Research & Technology (BR&T) Research Center in South Carolina. Materials & Manufacturing Technology is part of BR&T, Boeing’s advanced central research and development unit. BR&T provides innovative technologies that enable the development of future aerospace solutions while improving the cycle time, cost, quality and performance of existing Boeing products and services. As vice president of Materials & Manufacturing Technology, Ballard oversees a team of scientists, technologists, technicians and engineers who lead company research and development in metals and ceramics, chemical technology, nondestructive evaluation, composite fabrication processes, composite materials, assembly and automation, mechanical parts, and production services in ergonomics. His team is responsible for reducing the cost of materials and growing the company’s advanced manufacturing capabilities by taking a systems-level view of operations, identifying opportunities for low and high rate production, and developing new market- changing technologies. Ballard also manages the BR&T-South Carolina research center which leads the company’s development of advanced manufacturing technologies with a focus on composite fuselage and propulsion production. Prior to this assignment Ballard was director of the 787 Lean+ Global Production System, where he was responsible for linking the 787 global production systems and helping it achieve world-class levels of efficiency with a focus on quality, stability and flow.

Since starting his career at Boeing in 1996 as an engineer in composites and advanced assembly technologies Ballard has served in a number of leadership roles of increasing responsibility and breadth, including: leading start-up and sustaining production of the Interiors Responsibility Center South Carolina and serving as the center’s director; various leadership positions in the BCA Lean Enterprise Office, the Next-Generation 737 Program, Tooling and Shipside support organizations; and factory supervisor in the Boeing Fabrication organization for both composite and metal fabrication centers. Ballard earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech University. He went on to earn a Master’s of Business Administration and a Master’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering, both from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Jorge Perez

Jorge joined GE in 2001 and is a graduate of the Operations Management Leadership program. He has amassed broad experience across Aviation including Engine Assembly, Overhaul, Systems and Component Manufacturing. Roles ranged from front line leader, black belt and operational leader to plant leader at three different supply chain sites. This positioned him well to lead the strategic initiatives including ‘Brilliant Factory’ for GE Aviation Supply Chain. In addition, he has a demonstrated track record of delivering results in uncertain times and growing and developing strong diverse teams.

Jorge has a bachelor’s degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Boston University. Outside of GE, he enjoys spending time with his wife Caroline and two young daughters Gabriella and Sophia. He is an avid runner and enjoys training for marathons.

Susan Freije

Susan Freije is Vice President of Quality Assurance at Benjamin Moore & Co., a unit of Berkshire Hathaway, and North America’s most respected architectural paint company.   As part of the Senior Management team, Susan is responsible for leadership in all areas of Quality Systems, Color and Product Standards, Customer Satisfaction, and Supplier Quality Management. Her team is focused on developing processes and standard practices to assure quality across the supply chain, from supplier materials, through Product Development, on to Manufacturing and Distribution, and finally at the customer level.  Susan’s additional area of focus is leading the Continuous Improvement effort.  This team, working with the entire Operations organization, implements standards of excellence to improve efficiency and effectiveness measured using metrics.

Susan came to Benjamin Moore in 2013 after a long career as Director of Quality Systems at Colgate-Palmolive.  In her tenure at Colgate, Susan developed and implemented the company’s first Good Manufacturing Practices initiative and subsequent audit program of more than 60 sites around the world.  Susan was a founding member of what became Colgate’s Global Quality organization where she developed Quality Standards, lead the internal audit and Supplier Management programs, and developed e-learning for Validation and GMP.  Ms. Freije was also responsible for obtaining Colgate’s accreditation to ISO 22716.  Prior to Colgate, Susan held various positions in the quality organization of the Coca-Cola Company.

Susan holds a B.S. in Biochemistry from Upsala College and an MBA in Finance from Fairleigh Dickinson University. She is a member of American Society for Quality, Audit and Food, Drug and Cosmetic Divisions.

Antonio Rodriguez

Joined Seneca in 2012 responsible for leading Lean Transformation deployment with responsibility to develop, implement, and integration of a Process Excellence program across Seneca’s unique business platforms and cultures.  Experienced Kaizen Sensei to mentor teams in Process Improvement events toward achieving operational excellence

Bachelor degree in Management Information Systems – UW of Milwaukee (2001),  Master of Business Administration – Cardinal Stritch University (2006), Master of Science in Biotechnology – UW of Madison (2011).

Six-Sigma Master Black Belt Certified, Project Management Certified, Quality Function Deployment – Black Belt Certified.

Married with 2 daughters, enjoy running marathons and backpacking, as well as travelling for vacation.

Mark Brajer

Mark Brajer is currently Epicure’s Vice President of Operations and Supply Chain. Before this position he was a director of supply chain at Unilever and a director of operations and supply chain at Alberto Culver. Mark holds an MBA, a B.Eng in chemical engineering, and a B.Sc. in chemistry.

Ebly Sanchez

Ebly Sanchez has worked in the Volvo Group  since 2008 both in Sweden and in USA mainly in the area of Continuous improvement. Before 2008, he worked for the Ford Motor Company for almost 20 years in several areas of manufacturing including quality, production, Manufacturing engineering, new product launches and general operation management in USA and South America, particularly Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela. Currently, Ebly has overall responsibility for Continuous improvement in Region Americas including strategy, deployment, and coaching for the whole organization including Manufacturing, Sales/Marketing, Purchasing, Product Development and the support organizations such as HR, Group IT, logistics, customer service, business control and financial services.

Jeff Klabunde

Jeff Klabunde is the Executive Director of Manufacturing Excellence for Adient, the recently spun off automotive seating business of Johnson Controls. He has been with the company for 23 years and served in a variety of leadership roles ranging from accounting, program management to operations. He is a results-oriented leader focused on world class manufacturing through the practical application of lean principles. Jeff has a deep passion for lean and has been instrumental in developing the Adient Manufacturing System and transforming Adient into one of the most operationally capable companies in the world.

Paul Walker

Paul Walker is the Director Manufacturing and Tooling at Otter Products in Fort Collins Colorado. In this role, Paul has the responsibility for supplying the manufacturing and tooling deliverables to support the product development needs for the company. This includes all R & D activities as well as core business support for both Otter and Life Proof branded products and a host of new product offerings.

Otter Products is the number 1 protective phone case manufacturer in the world. Otter products continues to gain market share. Otter products headquarters is located in Fort Collins Colorado with another product development side in San Diego and Offices in Cork Ireland, Hong Kong and Shenzhen China totaling around 1000 employees worldwide.

Paul started his career as a Senior Tooling Engineer in 2013 and then quickly moved into an Advanced Manufacturing and Tooling Development role. In 2014 Paul took the role as a Technical Lead Engineer leading and managing a team of engineers to develop new product lines. Paul was able to develop many new product offerings at the company during his time as a lead technical engineer. In late 2015, Paul moved into a manager position managing the advanced manufacturing team working on new process and material alternatives. In 2016, Paul was promoted to the Director of Manufacturing and Tooling.

Paul is a certified Mold maker as well as a Die maker from the Chicago chapter of Mold Builders. Paul worked for A-1 Tool in Chicago as a mold maker apprentice to learn the mold making trade. Paul has served in the plastics industry for 25 years. Paul spent 18 of his 25 years working for Compaq Computer / Hewlett Packard in in a variety of product development roles before leaving to Join Otter products in early 2013. Paul holds a BS in Industrial Technology with a concentration in “plastics” from Illinois State University.

John Sekowski

John Sekowski is celebrating his twentieth year in Danaher. For the last thirteen years, he has led the Danaher Business System (DBS) Office, which is the Corporate Team responsible for deploying and evolving the Danaher Business System. John has held various Operations Leadership roles. Prior to Danaher, John spent seven years with Nissan’s Industrial Machinery Division in Quality and Manufacturing Leadership roles. John earned his BS in Industrial Engineering from Marquette University and his MBA from Illinois Institute of Technology Stuart School of Business

John has significant experience in deploying DBS with countless acquisitions and helping evolve DBS as Danaher continues to evolve as a global science and technology innovator.

Henning Bruns

Henning O. Bruns grew up in North-West Germany. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Wilhelmshaven University. He later earned Master of Science in Industrial Engineering from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX.

In 2000, after having worked for Daimler (Mercedes-Benz) in various functions and locations – Germany, Spain , USA, Brazil – he finalized his studies on ‘Lean Manufacturing and the Implementation of the Toyota Production System in Western Industries’ with a Ph.D. from the University of Clausthal-Zellerfeld.

Henning O. Bruns has  spent a total of almost 25 yrs working for Daimler AG in various leadership functions and locations. He was part of the initial engineering team setting up the first car plant of Mercedes-Benz outside of Germany in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. As Global Product Line Manager for Mercedes-Benz Trucks, he implemented a new truck model line up in Europe, Turkey and Brazil. From 2007-2012 he served as General Manager and Vice-President of Detroit Diesel Corporation in Redford, MI launching a global platform of new EPA10 heavy duty truck engines.

In 2012 he relocated to Stuttgart, Germany to assume responsibility as ‘Head of Global Product Planning & Strategy’ for Daimler Trucks.

In 2015 Henning has been named General Manager of Daimler Trucks’ (Freightliner) Cleveland plant in North Carolina.

Together with his wife Meike – an International Schools Teacher and from 2016 Lecturer at the University of NC in Charlotte – and their daughter Anna, they are living in Mooresville, NC.

Matt Swain

Matt Swain’s career has spanned more than two decades, during which he has accumulated impressive credentials in corporate leadership and lean implementation. His current role is Global Director of Enterprise Lean Six Sigma with Littelfuse, the world’s leading manufacturer of circuit protection devices with more than one billion dollars in annual revenue.  Matt has lead the recent Littelfuse transformation from having no lean strategy to winning the coveted AME Award for lean excellence.  Matt also directs the Littelfuse Technology Council, with global responsibility for exploring cutting edge, market leading technology.  Prior to joining Littelfuse, Matt held leadership positions in design, engineering, and operations with several world-class corporations, including Honeywell and Finisar.  Matt’s academic credentials support his passion for learning and include a Master’s in Manufacturing Systems Management, a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering and certifications in lean and six sigma.

Mark Sroka

Mark Sroka serves as a Corporate Lean Leader for Littelfuse, Inc., coaching and mentoring associates at seven manufacturing sites across Mexico and Europe.  He currently manages the development of the Littelfuse Operating System, an internal program that drives a culture of operational excellence throughout 15 Littelfuse manufacturing sites in Europe, Asia and North America.  Prior to joining Littelfuse, Mark managed manufacturing operations at ABB and held various leadership positions in Engineering, Production and Quality in the electronics industry.  In addition to Six Sigma Black Belt and Lean certifications, Mark holds a Bachelor’s in Manufacturing Engineering and a Master’s in Business Administration.

Michael Brice

Michael Brice is a 31-year printing ink industry veteran.  He has served in every capacity:  lab technician, colormatching, manufacturing, inplant technician and management, sales and senior level management.  Mike became Chief Operating Officer of Superior Printing Inks in 2000 and named is President and COO in 2003.  He also worked in the energy sector and then for Squid Ink Manufacturing for two years until he joined INX International Ink Company in Nov, 2011.  Michael has served INX in a sales capacity as well as organizing and managing INX’s North American distribution effort.  Mike was appointed Director of Offset Operations in 2012 and then, his current position, as Vice President of Offset Operations in 2013.

Jennifer Vicknair

Jennifer Vicknair is the North America Operational Excellence Business Leader at BASF.  She is an electrical engineer with over 20 years of experience in manufacturing, specifically in maintenance and reliability, automation, and continuous improvement.  Jennifer is a member of BASF’s North American OpEx organization responsible for driving continuous improvement, including Lean Six Sigma, across the network of 90+ North American manufacturing sites.  Jennifer joined BASF in 2012, and, previously, she served in multiple capacities at Honeywell International and International Paper Company.  Jennifer lives in New Orleans, LA, and she enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, and attending live music events.

Britt Autry

Britt Autry is a Vice President of operations DENSO Manufacturing Tennessee (DMTN), an affiliate of DENSO Corporation. Marty joined DENSO in 1993 and has held various management positions in both operations and engineering. He is currently responsible for the Electronics and Safety Division at DMTN and the cross plants functions for Supplier Quality, Maintenance and Production Control/Logistics. He has a BSME from Vanderbilt University and currently serves on the Board of Visitors for the Engineering School.

Brad Rhorer

Brad is the Human Resources Assistant Senior Manager at Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. (SIA). He began his career with SIA nearly 25 years ago, as a Production Associate. He received his Associate’s Degree in Organizational Leadership and Supervision from Purdue University and his Bachelors in Human Resource Management from Bellevue University.

Currently, Brad is the chair of the Region 4 Works Council and Sector Partnership Taskforce. He serves on the Indiana Automotive Council, Indiana Chamber Workforce and Policy Committee, Afterschool Network Advisory Council STATE Workforce Innovation Council (SWIC) and Purdue University Technology Leadership and Innovation Advisory Board. Brad formerly served as an active board member of the Indiana Youth Institute, Indiana career council core 40 subcommittee, and the WIOA taskforce.

Brad continues to lead workforce development initiatives and collaborations across the state and region with education and training providers, economic development agencies and workforce development providers. In this effort, the region and the state continues to gain momentum in manufacturing talent development, workforce best practices and grant funding partnerships.

These collaborations have resulted in over $15.8 million in grant funding. The intention is to facilitate greater employer engagement through a focus on work-based learning strategies, such as apprenticeship, on-the-job training programs and paid internships coupled with classroom education, facilitating the industry and sector partnerships and career pathways strategies.

Gregg Drake

Gregg is the Director of Operational Excellence for the Superior Essex Company. He has been serving in this capacity for the past 18 months developing & installing an Operating System which has included internally staffing/training an Operational Excellence team, launching a Hoshin Kanri Planning process, developing and deploying a fully integrated Stage/Gate environment, and he is currently engaged in the development & deployment of both a Demand Planning/Scheduling Platform as well as a collaborative MES Platform. Gregg has been leading Continuous Improvement efforts for more than 20 years in a variety of sectors including Automotive, Defense & Aerospace, and Industrial. He is a Master Black Belt in Six Sigma with extensive knowledge and experience in Transformational Lean implementation.

Thomas McDermott

Thomas McDermott is the Executive Director of DMDII and the Chief Program Officer for UI LABS. In that role he oversees membership engagement, business development and operations.  Tom is passionate about partnering with DMDII members to validate digital technology and business model solutions to the most intractable manufacturing problems.

Prior to joining UI LABS, Tom was a consultant in McKinsey & Company’s Operations Practice, where he led numerous strategy and operations projects across manufacturing, service operations, and logistics topics. Tom joined McKinsey from the US Navy where he served as a submarine officer.  He holds a MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and BS in Ocean Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy.

Jay Ford

Jay Ford is the Director of Membership for UI LABS, a Chicago based innovation accelerator that brings Universities, Industry, and Government together to deliver solutions to tomorrow’s challenges.  Jay is charged with recruiting the best and brightest Industrial leaders to join UI LABS Digital Manufacturing Design and Innovation Institute.  DMDII brings together technical experts, entrepreneurs, executives, investors, and leaders in government to reimagine the challenges they face and to guide them toward solutions that will drive innovation in their industries.

Before devoting his work fulltime to UI LABS, Jay served in senior leadership roles with software and hardware startups in Silicon Valley and Chicago.  In addition to his day job at UI LABS, Jay leads the UI LABS running club –  better known as the Goose Island Rat Dodgers, he maintains and races a vintage Miata, and care takes of a flock of nineteen chickens and two ducks.  He is a lifelong Chicagoan and lives in the northwest suburbs with his family and flock.

Shawn Otto

Shawn Otto is responsible for Labor Relations and Human Resources for all of Beam Suntory’s Kentucky manufacturing facilities including Clermont, Boston, Frankfort, and Loretto sites. Prior to joining Beam Suntory, Shawn worked for the Ford Motor Company for twenty years in roles of increasing responsibility in and out of the United States in both Labour Relations and Human Resources. Shawn completed a Masters of Science in Education from the University of Louisville, during which time he held a full-time position at General Electric for three years.

Bruce Blackmon

Bruce Blackmon leads an enterprise excellence and operations organization responsible for continuous improvement activities across multiple Raytheon Space & Airborne Systems (SAS) facilities, directly impacting customer satisfaction, safety, quality, delivery, and cost; responsibilities include operational effectiveness and efficiency through implementing process improvement activities, developing world-class talent, establishing best practices & ensuring lessons learned. Before joining Raytheon, Bruce held manufacturing, engineering, process improvement, and quality roles at ATK, Bushnell Outdoor Products, Emerson Electric, Eaton, Dexter Corporation, and Texas Instruments. He was also a US Army infantry officer for six years. Bruce has a Bachelor of Science from West Point and an MBA from the University of North Texas.

Reginald Haith

Reginald Haith is the Plant Director for McCormick’s Flavor Manufacturing Center located at the Company Headquarters in Hunt Valley, MD.  In this role, he has responsibility for the plant facility that produces most of McCormick’s single sourced Flavor & Seasonings finished goods and company intermediates for the Industrial Division, along with other horizontal Supply Chain responsibilities.

Reginald has over 19 years of experience working in various Supply Chain roles including Manufacturing, Start-Ups, and Logistics.  Prior to joining McCormick, he spent 18 years working for Procter & Gamble in 3 different Global Business Units.  Reginald has a General Engineering Degree from the University of Illinois.

A native of Chicago, Illinois, he, his wife Tamara, and daughter Talliyah currently reside in Perry Hall, Maryland. His hobbies and interests include Music Production and playing Basketball and Soccer.

McCormick & Company, Incorporated is a global leader in flavor. With $4.4 billion in annual sales, the company manufactures, markets and distributes spices, seasoning mixes, condiments and other flavorful products to the entire food industry – retail outlets, food manufacturers and foodservice businesses.

Dean Kossila

Mr. Dean Kossila is a senior principle business solution architect for Medtronic. Dean’s primary responsibility is the strategic direction and blueprint design for supply chain and manufacturing solutions globally for Medtronic.

Previously, Dean was Sr. IT manager responsible for the deployment of SAP manufacturing solutions globally. Medtronic has plants in Asia, Europe, North and Central America running SAP Mii and SAP Me with footprint expanding yearly.

Dean has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from North Dakota state University, and a master’s degree in software engineering from the University of St. Thomas St. Paul Minnesota.

Dean is married with with three children, two grandchildren and is an avid baseball fan having played collegiately​ at NDSU. The attached bio picture was taken at spring training in Phoenix.

Robert Gorski

Bob Gorski is the former Executive Vice President, Integrated Supply Chain, leading Kraft’s Procurement, Manufacturing, Engineering and Customer Service and Logistics groups.

Bob joined Kraft Foods Inc. on August 1, 2012 as Executive Vice President, Integrated Supply Chain, Kraft Foods North America. He most recently served as Vice President, Supply Chain for Procter & Gamble’s global baby care business from 2003 to 2012. In his distinguished 34 year career with P&G, Bob held supply chain leadership roles from the plant floor to senior roles in multiple categories in North America and Europe. His experience in working with Lean Six Sigma and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) will be invaluable as we continue our journey to improve our supply chain on an end-to-end basis. Throughout his career, he has successfully helped supply chain, R&D, quality and marketing work well together to drive business performance by increasing productivity and moving the entire supply chain to an integrated model.

Rich Morris

Rich joined BMW Manufacturing in 1993 as the Assembly Quality Manager for the initial 3 series and Z3 launches. During the early years of BMW’s plant in South Carolina, he served as Production Leader responsible for launching night shift operations and Planning Manager during the planning phase for the first generation X5. Rich was also Assembly Manager for the Z3/Z4 production line and Assembly Project Leader for the first-generation Z4.

In 2005, Rich and his family lived in Munich, Germany while he worked as Plant Project Leader for the second-generation X5. In 2009, Morris became Vice President of Assembly for the South Carolina plant.

In 2015, to better serve the needs of the plant’s future growth, Morris assumed his current role as Vice President, Project Integration, responsible for the integration of all new vehicle projects at Plant Spartanburg.
Rich has his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from General Motors Institute and an MBA from Clemson University.
Prior to joining BMW, Rich worked for GM’s Buick Transmission Division in Michigan and for Nissan Motor Manufacturing Corp in Tennessee.
He is married and has two children.

David Cowperthwait

David Cowperthwait joined Kellogg as Vice President, Global Supply Chain Capability in November 2011. He reports directly to Alistair Hirst, Senior Vice President, Global Supply Chain.

In his role, David focuses on building global organization capability aimed at achieving supply Chain Excellence through the delivery of world class results.

He and his team are accountable for development of the KWS through bringing together all of the best practices on key Centers of Excellence and deploying KWS through the regions.

David comes to Kellogg from McCain Foods, where he most recently was the Senior Vice President, Operations, responsible for regional leadership strategy and operational plan development. He also brings with him many years of operations experience with Frito Lay and Quaker Oats.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in Science and Agricultural Engineering from Pennsylvania State University and a master’s degree in Business Administration from Shippensburg University, also in Pennsylvania.

David resides in Richland, Michigan, with his wife Lisa and his four children.

Tana Utley

Tana L. Utley is a Caterpillar Inc. Vice President with responsibility for the Large Power Systems Division at Caterpillar Inc. Through this global organization, Caterpillar provides the most comprehensive lineup of diesel and gas large (greater than 18 liter) engines in the industry. Caterpillar large engines are used to power marine, electric power, oil and gas and rail applications as well as Cat mining machines.

Since joining Caterpillar in 1986, Utley has held a variety of engineering and general management positions across Caterpillar. Her technical career has been focused primarily on solving the challenges of reducing diesel engine emissions in accordance with U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and equivalent global regulations. She has played a number of key engineering and leadership roles in the development of the near-zero-emissions engines Caterpillar sells today. She has also held general management positions in Caterpillar’s components and engines businesses.

In 2007, the Caterpillar Board of Directors named Utley Vice President with responsibility for the Technology & Solutions Division (now the Product Development & Global Technology Division) and Caterpillar Chief Technology Officer. In 2012 she was named Vice President with responsibility for the Industrial Power Systems Division and president of Perkins Engine Company, based in Peterborough, England. She was appointed to her current position in October 2013.

Utley earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Bradley University and a Master of Science in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she was a Sloan Fellow. She currently serves as Caterpillar representative on the Board of Directors of the Energy Technologies Institute in the UK, and is a member of the Board of Directors of SPX Corporation in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is also a member of the Society of Women Engineers and received the Suzanne Jenniches Upward Mobility Award from that organization in 2011. Utley is a member of the Illinois Valley Striders and the USA Triathlon Association, and with her husband is co-chair of the 2015 Heart of Illinois United Way Campaign.

James Bonini

James “Jamie” Bonini is vice president of TSSC at Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. (TEMA), located near Cincinnati in Erlanger, Kentucky.  TEMA supports Toyota’s engineering and manufacturing operations in North America.

TSSC is a not-for-profit corporation affiliated with TEMA which shares Toyota Production System (TPS) know-how with North American organizations that have a true desire to learn and adopt TPS; as a way to strengthen their production system.

Bonini began his career with Toyota in 2002, as assistant general manager for TSSC, responsible for planning and leading shop floor improvement activities. He later joined Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky’s powertrain group as assistant general manager responsible for V6 and four cylinder engines as well as axle production, quality and safety.

From 2004-10, he served as general manager for TEMA’s supplier commodity engineering (SCE) division which leads new model projects and mass production supplier development projects in North America.  His duties included managing supplier parts for new model preparations as well as mass production models.

Prior to joining Toyota, Bonini worked at DaimlerChrysler where he held a variety of roles including the company’s cost management group and new model projects at three assembly plants in North America.  He also held key positions with Tritec Motors and the Pilette Road Truck Assembly Plant in Windsor, Ontario.

He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University (1985), a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley (1987) and two Master of Science degrees in management and material science engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1992).

Rick Turvey

Rick Turvey is Executive Vice-President of Operations and Supply Chain for Sofina Foods Inc, a Canadian food company since joining Sofina in January 2014.

Prior to Sofina, Rick worked at Procter & Gamble for 31 years in Operations and Supply Chain roles in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland and US.  He worked in many P&G’s businesses including Fabric Care, Home Care, Baby Care, Fem Care and Beauty.  Between 2008 -2012 Rick was responsible for all Manufacturing strategy and capability work for P&G’s 135 global manufacturing operations.

At Sofina Foods Rick is leading an operations/supply chain excellence breakthrough focused on continuous improvement, foundational capabilities in health and safety, quality and operational leadership development.  Sofina is rapidly expanding through organic growth coupled with significant acquisitions.  Rick’s mandate at Sofina is to build the Operations and Supply Chain capability and culture to enable continued rapid expansion.

Rick graduated from McMaster University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and Management and currently lives in Toronto Canada.

Amy Meyer

Amy Meyer (Adams) is Vice President of Kohler Operating Systems at Kohler Co, where she is responsible for company-wide supply chain and manufacturing centers of excellence. Included in the Kohler Operating System (KOS) are Safety, Quality, Supply Chain, Continuous Improvement, Maintenance Systems, and Sustainability. Amy is focused on Operational Excellence and through KOS, enables the creation and distribution of durable knowledge throughout all global operations. In addition her responsibility for KOS, she leads three service based, global organizations for Kohler: The Chemical and Metallurgical Laboratory, the Machine Build and Process Automation Team, and the India Technical Center.

Amy joined Kohler in February 2009 as Vice President – Engineering, Kohler Engines where for five years she was responsible for global engineering and execution of product innovation for Kohler Engines. Prior to 2009, Amy worked for 18 years in the automotive industry in Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, and Product Engineering where she acquired a passionate and disciplined approach to Continuous Improvement, Product and Process Engineering Development and Program Management.

Amy holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics from Michigan Technological University (1988). Additionally, she has completed a Master of Science in Computational Mathematics from Michigan State University (1990) and a Master of Science in Manufacturing Engineering from Case Western Reserve University (1996).

Kathleen Taylor

Kathleen is Vice President of the J&J Operating System, Johnson & Johnson — a position she has held since 2014. She is responsible for leading the deployment of operating and improvement standards and tools for the J&J Operating System across all of the Johnson & Johnson manufacturing sites and the Supply Chain organization.

Kathleen joined Johnson & Johnson in 1987 as a production supervisor with Ethicon Inc. in Somerville NJ. She held positions of increasing responsibilities including Engineering, Packaging, and Manufacturing Unit Manager roles across the United States and subsequently becoming plant manager in 2000 for the Ciudad Juarez, Mexico site for Ethicon Endo-Surgery.  Over the course of her career she has also held roles in ERP system deployment, Global Strategy, as well a leading Obtech Medical in Switzerland.  Most recently Kathleen was the Vice President responsible for Chemical API manufacturing globally for Janssen Pharmaceutical Supply Group of J&J.

Michael Gentile

Mike is currently responsible for leading Manufacturing, Engineering, and Quality efforts for the Snap-on Tools Group. This includes the Snap-on hand tool plants in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Elizabethton, Tennessee; Elkmont, Alabama; and our tool storage plant in Algona, Iowa.

Snap-on manufactures over 10,000 items. Mike has been with Snap-on for 27 years and has previously held the positions of President, Snap-on hand tools product division, Vice President Supply Chain, and Vice President of Product Management. Prior to joining Snap-on he spent four years in automobile manufacturing. He attended the University of Chicago Executive Business Program and has an MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management.

Pietro D’Arpa

Pietro is currently responsible for manufacturing strategies and capabilities for P&G’s 135 sites globally. He has worked for P&G for 26 years in on many of P&G’s business all over the world, including laundry detergents, beauty, paper and pet products in a variety of manufacturing and supply chain roles. His experience managing P&G’s manufacturing sites and his passion for operational excellence led him to his current global responsibilities. P&G has recently renewed and strengthened its Integrated Work Systems (IWS) approach to building and sustaining world class manufacturing results integrating TPM, Lean and High Performance methodologies in an E2E supply chain environment.

Chuck Statz

Chuck Statz is General Manager of International Manufacturing Operations for Harley-Davidson Motor Co. He’s responsible for leading the manufacturing sites in India, Brazil and Australia, which includes ensuring the sites meet performance metrics, drive a culture of continuous improvement and engage employees in that performance. He also leads the advanced manufacturing group at the company’s Product Development Center.

Statz has held various positions with Harley-Davidson since joining the company in 1990, including management roles at the company’s York, Pa., Tomahawk, Wis., and Kansas City manufacturing plants.

Statz earned his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin and participated in the Advanced Management Program at Duke University.

Marc Turco

Marc Turco is the Director Global Manufacturing Operations for Tyco Fire Protection Product Division, Water and Mechanical Segment.  He leads the product segment’s 12 manufacturing operations and oversees the performance of the entire supply chain.  Previously, he led the Enterprise Quality and Operational Excellence efforts for the division, and served as the Operational Excellence leader for Tyco.

A certified Black Belt and Master Black Belt, Marc has 16 years of coaching, application and champion experience with Six Sigma, Lean, quality and change management methodologies.  He has applied that experience across the entire value chain, including manufacturing, transactional and design areas.  He has led multiple global Operational Excellence & Lean/Six Sigma programs at various stages of maturity, and the development and deployment of a global enterprise quality management system.  As a manufacturing operations leader, he has successfully applied his Six Sigma and Lean expertise to exceed safety, growth and productivity milestones.

Marc holds an M.S. in Material Science Engineering from the University of Connecticut and B.S. in Ceramic Engineering from Rutgers University.

Rob Hogan

Rob Hogan is vice president of Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management for Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries. Named to this position in 2015, he is responsible for manufacturing supporting all shipbuilding programs, as well as all supply chain management functions. This includes sourcing and procurement, logistics and inventory control, transportation, and material operations in support of all shipbuilding contracts and clients throughout the design, construction, operation, overhaul and repair of naval vessels.
Hogan began his career with the shipyard in 1976 as a welder and has held positions at all levels of production and construction leadership. In 2004, he was promoted to director of Process Excellence, where he helped identify process improvements, initiated changes and measured results. In 2009, he was appointed director of Manufacturing for Steel Fabrication. Throughout his career, Hogan has looked for new and innovative opportunities to improve efficiency while also improving the tools and equipment used by shipbuilders, and their overall work environments. As a direct result of his work, he won the NNS President’s Model of Excellence Award in 1998 for his process improvement initiatives in Manufacturing.
Hogan is a graduate of the Newport News Shipbuilding Apprentice School and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Strayer University. He is the current chairman of the Virginia Manufacturers Association, and also serves on the board of directors for CCAM (Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing). In addition, he is active in the American Welding Society, Society of Manufacturing Engineers and the Association for Manufacturing Excellence. He is also a member of The Apprentice School Alumni Association.

Zane Ferry

Zane Ferry is responsible for developing the infrastructure and systems needed for a companywide lean operating system at Polaris. This includes assessment of the corporation’s enterprise strategy, systems, approach, and methods. Zane assess organizational structure and maturity and evaluate the rigor and reliability of Polaris’s production systems, management systems, IT systems, and standards. Zane supports training and development, strategic planning, tiered metrics, benefits tracking, problem-solving and capability development at all levels.

Prior to joining Polaris, Zane worked at Ingersoll Rand leading lean transformation across several industrial-product value streams extending through Europe and East Asia. Previous work includes a variety of operations roles in the automotive industry during 10 years in Japan as well as lean manufacturing leadership positions in the US in industries such as aerospace, healthcare, and banking.

Zane has an undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and a Master’s degree in International Business and Economics from Kyoto University of Foreign Studies.

Dean Jablonsky

Dean Jablonsky is the Global Director of Enterprise Excellence at Boston Scientific Corporation. In this role, Dean leads the Global Enterprise Excellence consulting team that is responsible to drive Value Improvement efforts across all of Boston Scientific to improve Gross and Operating Margins.  He supports all Manufacturing & Supply Chain sites, Global Functions, Divisions, Countries and Regions in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Dean joined Boston Scientific in 1995 in engineering  and has since taken roles with increasing responsibility in manufacturing & supply chain, exploratory innovation, research & development systems, new product development, strategy development, healthcare solutions, process improvement and has led numerous functional/site turnarounds.  In addition, he has led the development and deployment of Boston Scientific’s global Enterprise Operating System that has been awarded the prestigious Shingo Award three times and Industry Weeks Best Plant five times.

Dean has a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Minnesota and an Executive MBA from Northwestern Kellogg School of Management.

Dave Salentine

Dave has 29+ years manufacturing/Supply Chain experience at 3M Company. He joined 3M as an Inventory Accountant in July of 1985. From 1990 to 2004 he transferred to three other 3M manufacturing locations (Hutchinson, MN; Nevada, MO and Cordova, IL) and held various leadership positions in manufacturing and supply chain. In 2004 he re-located to the 3M Headquarters in St. Paul, MN and held various positions in Supply Chain, Lean Six Sigma, Corporate Acquisitions and Corporate Lean Operations Manager, which is the current position he holds today. Dave obtained a degree in Production Management in 1985 from St. Cloud State University, interned with 3M in the Fall of 1984 and achieved his APICS certification in 1991.

Barb Callander

As VP Operations Excellence & Learning with Maple Leaf Foods, Barb is responsible for the design and deployment of the MLF Operations Excellence System (OES) as well as execution of operations learning objectives. In prior roles with Maple Leaf, Barb was VP Manufacturing, VP Process & Technology Optimization and VP Network Transformation. She was a leader in the MLF Value Creation Plan initiative, responsible for the extensive manufacturing restructuring of the MLF processed meats network including the addition and renovation of 1M ft², and the closure of 8 facilities. Prior to joining MLF in 2009 Barb held Vehicle Assembly Operations Leadership and Manufacturing Engineering positions with General Motors.

Bryan Fontaine

Monica Johns

Monica Johns is an expert in Design for Six Sigma having spent over 15 years as a DFSS Black Belt and Master Black belt working in R&D for several different organizations.   With a chemical engineering background, Monica is currently focused on implementing a Global Quality Improvement and Integrated Risk Assessment program at British Petroleum for both fuels and lubricants products.   Monica’s greatest wish is to use statistical and practical tools to provide the highest quality, unique, and robust new products that will wow customers globally.

David Hart

David is an established global leader and expert in Lean Six Sigma organizational performance improvement strategies.  His pragmatic approach to unlocking shareholder value spans a variety of industries to include engineered products and services, building materials, metal products, paper production, and specialty chemicals.  David has held senior leadership positions with Tyco International and NewPage Corporation and is a certified Master Black Belt.  He currently serves as Valspar Corporation’s Executive Director for Lean Six Sigma.  David holds a BS in Workforce Education & Development from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, a dual MA in Management and Human Resource Development and a MBA from Webster University in St. Louis.  He served the United States Air Force for 12-years and is a veteran of the Gulf War.

Don Bruce

Donald “Don” Bruce is the Vice President of NATO Manufacturing for the Cooper Tire & Rubber Company.  In this role he has full P&L responsibilities for Cooper’s North American Manufacturing operations in additional to Corporate Industrial & Facilities Engineering, Manufacturing Strategy, and Equipment Reliability.

Don leads a team of more than 3,500 employees in the manufacturing of high quality tires for the light vehicle market.  He is a 30 year veteran at Cooper serving various roles in technical, manufacturing, R&D, and manufacturing strategy before taking on his current role. It was in his prior strategy role where he was responsible for the development and implementation of Cooper’s Manufacturing Strategies to assure they were aligned with Cooper’s overall key strategic imperatives.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toledo and a Master of Business Administration from Tiffin University.

Don and his wife Christine have four children and reside the Findlay, Ohio.

Mike Sarpu

Michael (Mike) Sarpu is vice president of Lockheed Martin’s Mission Systems and Training (MST) Operations organization.

In this role, Mr. Sarpu is responsible for MST’s supply chain, production operations, global sustainment and facilities management. He also chairs the Corporate Council on Operations Leadership Development.

Previously, Mr. Sarpu served as vice president of Business Transformation for Lockheed Martin’s Global Training and Logistics (GTL) business unit and was responsible for the development and implementation of business models and systems to support the GTL enterprise.

Mr. Sarpu joined Lockheed Martin in October 1986 as a member of the Technical Operations organization and worked assignments of increasing responsibility within the Corporation. Mr. Sarpu’s diverse background includes advanced manufacturing technologies, factory management, hardware engineering, supply chain integration, mergers and acquisitions and information technology.

Mr. Sarpu has also served as director of Engineering Process Improvement for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control (MFC), director of Production Operations for the MFC factory in Orlando, Florida, general manager of the MFC facility in Ocala, Florida, and vice president of Operations for GTL.

Mr. Sarpu holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Connecticut and an MBA from the University of Central Florida.

Bart Talloen

As an executive supply chain leader for more than 25 years, Bart has a proven track record of success across several key SC functions such as Planning, Engineering, Technology Transfers, Project Management, Continuous Improvement, Mfg Operations, and General SC Management in Asia, Europe, and North America.

During his career in pharma, OTC, consumer goods, and logistics/ material handling, Bart has managed large supply networks, has acquired and divested operations, build new plants but also has overseen the closure of plants, and has developed and executed a three-year Consent Decree Work Plan including the successful re-certification of three US OTC manufacturing plants by FDA.

In his current role as the Vice President, Product Supply Strategy & Deployment, Bart is responsible for developing and deploying innovative processes, systems and technologies to improve product supply from raw materials, through the manufacturing, to distribution.

Bart is also establishing a J&J Supply Chain Academy to provide enterprise-wide subject-matter learning & development and build differentiating capabilities for the E2E supply chain.

He and his wife live in Skillman, NJ and have two sons in college.

Heather Callahan

Heather Callahan has been in the heavy duty truck industry since 2003 spending most of her career as a Sr. Environmental Engineer at Daimler Trucks North America LLC manufacturing locations in Mt. Holly and Cleveland, North Carolina. For the last 2 ½ years she has served as the Truck Operations System Manager in Daimler Trucks Operational Excellence department in Fort Mill, South Carolina. She is responsible for leading the deployment of continuous improvement, training, standards, and tools across eight manufacturing locations in North America. Daimler Trucks’ lean expert program produced approximately $4.0 million is savings in 2015 from waste reductions in assembly and logistics functions across all manufacturing as part of a two year initiative to meet high value added goals set forth by Daimler. Most recently the Operations Excellence department has taken the lead with Supplier Management in developing an End to End Supply Chain Optimization council which brings together key business units across the entire Daimler Trucks organization.
Prior to joining Daimler Trucks, Heather held various engineering roles in the private consulting sector and with the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Heather earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Engineering from North Carolina State University. She and her family currently reside in the Charlotte area where they spend time attending sporting events and hiking in the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Aubrey Jones

30 years professional experience in manufacturing and continuous improvement for manufacturing and business processes. Has served as engineering and technical leader as well as leading the continuous improvement transformation of a $6B food ingredients company. Aubrey is a trained LSS Black Belt and is currently leading a successful global LSS implementation that has more than doubled the efficiency and cost savings efforts of the total company, for both manufacturing and business processes. Previous experience includes 20 years in the consumer food industry as the Corporate Engineering director and a successful time initiating and leading a high tech development unit to develop and implement step change manufacturing technology. Aubrey has two global patents in food manufacturing and was recently recognized by the CEO for global leadership.

Craig Sutton

Craig Sutton is the Manager, Advanced Manufacturing Innovation at Deere and Company.   His role is to prospect, evaluate and validate new emerging trends which will enable the competitive advantage of John Deere manufacturing units.     He has over 19 years’ experience at Deere with roles which range from customer support, quality engineering, reliability engineering, product engineering, product validation, and manufacturing engineering.   He has worked directly on their precision farming equipment, self-propelled sprayers, and combine harvesters.  His most recent role has focused on new technologies such as additive manufacturing, robotics, digital manufacturing, and business optimization techniques.   He received his bachelor’s degree in agriculture engineering from the University of Illinois and his executive MBA from the Tippie School of Business at the University of Iowa.    He is located at the John Deere Technology and Innovation Center in Moline, Illinois.

Jack Feng

Dr. Jack Feng is in charge of Commercial Vehicle Group’s corporate Lean Six Sigma deployment. With a Vision that was developed in 1998, CVG, incorporated in 2000, was privately-held. Product offerings included seats, trim components, mirrors, wipers and switches and wire harness for a cab in commercial trucks / buses and construction / mining / agricultural and military vehicles. CVG now has over two dozens of manufacturing facilities in the US, Mexico, China, India, Australia, UK, Belgium, Czech and Ukraine with 7000+ employees.

Prior to joining CVG, Dr. Feng served different leadership roles within Caterpillar such as Strategy Manager / Master Black Belt, Industrial Engineering Manager, Director of Asia Pacific Lean 6 Sigma Planning and Deployment and Senior Technical Steward. From time to time, he managed an annual budget up to $20M. At Caterpillar, he led the development of Caterpillar’s Caterpillar Production System (CPS) Master Black Belt program and taught its first four waves.  He led the development of the CPS Master Learning Center including curriculum and labs in CPS Assembly, CPS Machining, and CPS Welding. In his Asia Pacific role for Caterpillar, his team assisted the Lean & 6 Sigma deployment to Caterpillar suppliers and dealers as well as internal Caterpillar facilities in the region. Before that, he was a tenured Professor / Associate Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Bradley University and Assistant Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Penn State University.

As its founder and owner since 1995, Dr. Feng’s consulting company has conducted research projects or provided consulting services to Boeing, Caterpillar, China National Science Foundation, Cincinnati Machines, Dana Corporation, Deere & Company, Rockwell International, Rubbermaid, Society of Manufacturing Engineers, Tyco Health Division, University of Illinois Medical School and the US State Department Fulbright Program to name a few. He has also founded a property management company in the US to buy and rent real estate properties over three states in the US since 2006. He was the China CEO of a Hong Kong company in mainland China with three facilities before he came to the US to pursue his PhD degree. He has also co-founded two manufacturing companies in China – one started in 1997 and one started in 2008.

Dr. Feng has his PhD and MS degrees in Industrial & Management Engineering from The University of Iowa and his MS degree in Manufacturing Engineering / BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Wuhan University of Technology, China. He has co-authored and published about 100 books, book chapters and technical papers in world class journal and conferences.

Due to his lifelong professional achievements, his biography has been collected in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Science and Technology, Who’s Who American Educators, and Who’s Who International Professionals. He was elected to be the Lean Leader of the Year of China in 2011 when he was taking an international assignment for Caterpillar in Asia Pacific. At Caterpillar, he won the Leadership Award in recognition of his leadership in collaboration for Team Caterpillar China.  At Bradley University, he won the Caterpillar Inc. New Faculty Achievements Award in Scholarship (first person from the Engineering School to win this award) and was the first recipient of College of Engineering Faculty Excellence Award for Research and Scholarship.  He serves on the Industrial Advisory Board of the University of Iowa’s Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, the Board of Directors of the Greater Columbus Chinese Chamber of Commerce on behalf of CVG, on the Editorial Board of International Journal of Production Research and on the China’s State Six Sigma Promotion Committee.  In addition, he serves as a referee for the China National 1000 Talent Plan and China Yangtze Scholar Program. He served as an international advisor to the China State Council’s Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs in 2010 to visit and consult for some state owned enterprises in Shengyang and Fushun with final report presented at the People’s Great Hall to select Chinese leaders. He has also organized or chaired a number of international conferences or programs for various professional societies in the US and China.

Dr. Feng has published about 100 technical articles. Among the 60+ peer reviewed journal papers, 20+ appeared in the top journals such as IIE Transactions, IEEE Transactions, ASME Transactions Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, SME Journal of Manufacturing Systems, SPE Transactions Precision Engineering, and the International Journal of Production Research.  Dr. Feng is a Guest Professor of Tsinghua University (IE), Huazhong University of Science and Tech (School of Mechanical Science and Engineering), Wuhan University of Tech (School of Logistics Engineering), Hubei University (School of Business), and Shangdong Weifang Institute of Technology. In addition to presenting invited seminars to the above universities on industrial engineering research, education and applications, Dr. Feng was also invited to present seminars by the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation to Xi’an Jiaotong University, Tianjing University, Shandong University, Beijing University of Aerospace and Aviation, Nanjing University of Aerospace and Aviation, and Guangdong University of Industry.

Greer Tidwell

Greer Tidwell serves as Director of Environmental Management for Bridgestone Americas Manufacturing Group (Bridgestone), where he leads environmental performance, compliance, and reputation progress for the company’s North and Central American tire manufacturing, testing and distribution facilities.

During his tenure with Bridgestone Americas, Tidwell has overseen the implementation of a number of programs and initiatives that contribute to the company’s leadership position in environmental sustainability, including the ISO14001 certification of all of the company’s tire manufacturing facilities. Most recently, he provided direction to the Bridgestone Americas Wilson, N.C. tire manufacturing plant as it implemented processes to become the first facility in the world to earn Underwriters Laboratories (UL) claim validation for Zero Waste to Landfill. Tidwell also has overseen the company’s achievement of the world’s first two LEED-certified tire plants and the world’s first combined Superior Energy Performance (SEP) Mature Pathway with ISO 50001 certification (all industries). Under his direction, all six of the company’s U.S. tire plants were included in the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Performance Track Program.

Tidwell actively serves on the Board of Directors of the National River Network and the Friends of Radnor Lake State Park where he serves as immediate past chairman. His other community service includes past Chair of the Tennessee Air Pollution Control Board, President of the Tennessee Conservation League, and Co-Chair of the Nashville Green Ribbon Council Education Committee.

Tidwell has degrees from Baylor University and Tennessee Technology University in engineering, and earned a Juris Doctorate from Vanderbilt University. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Linnea Whisler

Linnea Whisler  joined Honeywell in 1995 and is currently the ACS HOS & Quality Vice President. In this role, she is responsible for deploying the Honeywell Operating System in 110 factories and 60 non-factory locations globally across ACS, a ~$15B global business segment within Honeywell. She is also responsible for Quality across the ACS business, including Customer Quality, New Product Introduction, Manufacturing and Supplier Quality.  Previously she was the Vice President of the ISC – Americas Electronic Service Center for Honeywell Aerospace, based in Phoenix, Arizona.  In this role, she led ten avionics repair and overhaul sites in the Americas including sites in Canada, United States, and Brazil.

Prior to this role, Linnea was the Defense & Space Americas Aftermarket Business Director where she was responsible for driving business growth in the defense markets in Canada, US, and Latin America, as well as Commercial Helicopters and the International Distributor channels.

She previously held several leadership positions of increasing responsibilities in supply chain and operations, including Plant Manager, Procurement, and various roles within Materials Management.

Linnea lives in Scottsdale, AZ with her husband and three teenage children. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Purchasing and Logistics Management from Arizona State University, starting out her career with Honeywell in a new grad, supply chain rotation program. Linnea is a Honeywell certified Six Sigma Black.

Tim Ambrey

Based out of Ogden , Utah, Tim is responsible for driving manufacturing and logistics efficiencies throughout the 14 Autoliv plants operating in Canada, US, and Mexico.

Tim has now 30 years experience working for Autoliv and its predecessors, having worked thoughout this time in a multitude of functions, including quality, program management, engineering, and operations.

Tim had the unique opportunity to have received direct mentorship in the early 2000’s  from a representative of Toyota’s OMCD group. During a three year period, Tim was able to learn the basics and fundamentals of Management of TPS during weekly face to face engagement with the OMCD representative. From this experience, Tim and a select few others within Autoliv were able to devise, formalize, and institute the practices now established as the Autoliv Production System.

This system, APS, forms the foundation for all manufacturing processes worldwide within Autoliv, across 7 geographic divisions, and more than 80 manufacturing and technical sites worldwide.

Michael Begler

Michael is a motivated leader with extensive management experience in all facets of domestic and international manufacturing including small, venture capital funded, high tech start-ups (six companies to date) to large corporations with emphasis on the commercial high tech industries. Recognized for the ability to positively impact bottom line results and improve customer satisfaction through effective management, team-building and comprehensive project implementation. Significant experience with organizations facing gross margin pressure, poor fulfillment performance, manufacturing productivity concerns, ineffective supply chains and departmental re-engineering Experience with low, mid and high volume production both in commercial and government funded programs Breadth of experience includes transitioning game changing technology into profitable businesses. Exposure to the rigor of continuous audits regarding process, process discipline and product pedigree. The blend of commercial and aerospace manufacturing experience provides a unique ability to apply the appropriate manufacturing tools, processes and people to the needs of the business. My prior experience and education includes accounting, finance, facilities, inventory control, budgeting, vendor management and various operational processes. Experience with merger/acquisition events, high growth challenges, technology replacement projects and corporate relocation.Michael is goal oriented, focused with solid leadership skills that inspire team work.

Claudio Gelman

Claudio is Director of Domestic Partnerships for New Balance Athletics.  In this role Claudio is responsible for leading all aspects of the partnership including capacity planning, commercialization of new models as well as enhancing supplier’s manufacturing capabilities and efficiencies via Lean training and consulting.

Since joining New Balance in 1995 Claudio has held positions in Engineering, Quality, Plant Management and R&D for Made in USA models.  One of Claudio’s key contributions to New Balance was the development and implementation of the Lean program at all NB USA manufacturing plants.

Claudio holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Universidad de Cuyo in Mendoza, Argentina and an MBA from Worcester Polytech Institute in Massachusetts.

David Landgrave

David started his Continuous Improvement journey in the 80’s when he went to work for Dana Corporation. In the 90’s he was able to spend time at Toyota in Japan and learned that Lean is more than tools but a Management style. Since them David has supported several other companies in their lean journeys.

John Hensley

John is the Sr. Director for Continuous Improvement at Revlon since September 2014 where he is responsible for the development and deployment of the company’s Operational Excellence initiative.

John began his career with 20 years at Duracell, Gillette, and Procter & Gamble where he held positions of increasing responsibility in Manufacturing and Supply Chain.  He assumed the roles of Global Continuous Improvement Manager within the Duracell Strategies & Initiatives Group, P&G IWS (Integrated Work Systems) Internal Consultant, and member of P&G’s IWS Global Renewal Team.   John continued his work in continuous improvement by joining Coty, Inc. in 2009 as Global Lean Director to lead development and deployment of the company’s Lean initiative for North America, Europe, and United Kingdom.  Within Coty he went on to lead integration of the Sally Hansen Nail Lacquer business into the Sanford, NC manufacturing operation.  John later took a brief stent outside of CPG as the Continuous Improvement Director of the Windows Division for PlyGem, Inc. to lead development and deployment of their continuous improvement initiative.

Scott Sabatini

Richard Saad

Brian Rauch

Brian Rauch is Senior Vice President, Engineering, Manufacturing, and Supply Management for John Deere’s Worldwide Construction & Forestry Division, a position he’s held since March 2013. He is responsible for all manufacturing, engineering, supply management, quality, and remanufacturing activities for the division.

Rauch joined John Deere in 1994 as a product engineer. Since then, he’s held a number of positions in the Worldwide Construction & Forestry Division including Manager of Advanced Research and Development, Program Manager, and Director of Engineering and Technology. In 2007 Rauch was appointed Vice President of Engineering. In this position, he was responsible for design engineering, product validation and verification, and research and development for all construction and forestry products worldwide.

Rauch holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in engineering mechanics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also holds an M.B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Jack Fish

Jack retired from General Electric in 2009 where he spent 30 years focused on business turnarounds. His first 17 years was in the GE Aviation business($30B revenue) where he established a track record of fixing operational issues in quality, cost, delivery and compliance. The next 4 years he spent in GE’s locomotive business($3B revenue) as the Vice President of Global Operations. His successes in revenue growth and cost efficiencies lead to his promotion to Officer of the company. He takes great pride in the fact that he was the last officer appointed by Jack Welch.

Jack Welch recognized Jack’s knack for driving turnarounds and had him spend the rest of his tenure at GE driving growth and profitability at GE’s two toughest consumer business GE Lighting($3B revenue) and GE Appliances($6B revenue). His two key positions during that time were President and COO of GE Lighting and Senior VP(COO) of Global operations for Lighting and Appliances. In early 2009 Jack volunteered for an early retirement with the goal of consulting to help other companies in need of turnarounds.

Jack then joined Goodyear Tire and Rubber($20B revenue) in 2009 as the Senior VP of Global Operations which was in need of improving it’s cash flow and profitability. After two years in the role the company returned to positive cash flow and profitability. Jack moved on to his next adventure but left the new CEO with a strategic plan to drive additional margin improvement of another $2.5B.

After leaving Goodyear in 2011 Jack was quickly contacted to fix the North America Operations for Husqvarna($5B revenue). Jack joined the company as COO of North America and 18 months later EBIT margins returned to profitability by moving 5 basis points. Continued improvements are in progress to achieve another 5 basis points over the next 18 months.

Jack has a degree in Manufacturing Engineering Technology from Miami of Ohio graduating in 1979, He also has a MBA from Xavier University graduating in 1989.

He and his wife(Karen) live in Hudson, Ohio. They have 3 children; their youngest is finishing her studies and swimming career at theUniversity of Georgia. Their son is CEO of his internet startup company, Roobiq and their oldest daughter is a chemical engineer for GE Aviation.

Since 2008 Jack has not only been a shareholder in Xurex but has volunteered his own time and expertise to make Xurex successful. As an example he was asked to act as CEO for 6 months in 2009.

Jim Durkin

Jim Durkin leads the Oscar Mayer Supply Chain organization, including Procurement, Manufacturing, and Product Supply.  He was appointed to this role in October 2013.

Jim led the Kraft Cheese & Dairy Integrated Supply Chain organization from 2006 to 2013.  In his 30-year career with Kraft, he has held multiple positions, including leading Global Engineering and managing a Biscuit factory.  Jim spent four years at Oscar Mayer as Senior Director, Business Teams from 1997 to 2001.

Jim earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Lehigh University.

Stephen Moore

Stephen Moore is the Vice President – Lean Enterprise & Quality for Parker Hannifin.  Named to the position in June 2011, Steve is responsible for the development and implementation of lean enterprise and quality programs and initiatives for Parker Hannifin worldwide.

Steve joined Parker in 2006 and has held  the position of  Business Systems Manager for Parker’s Instrumentation Group with responsibility for lean enterprise, quality and supply chain.  In 2008, Steve became the Aerospace Group Lean Manager.

Prior to coming to Parker, Steve had more than 20 years of experience in the automotive components industry holding leadership positions in lean manufacturing, operations management, and manufacturing engineering.

Steve received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Kettering University (formerly General Motors Institute) and a masters degree in manufacturing engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Collis Heath

Collis is currently working for Avigilon as Senior Vice President of Operations and has over 20 years of experience in varying operational and business roles.  Collis’ office is based in Juarez, Mexico and he is responsible for over 3,000 employees in multiple locations including, Houston, Indianapolis, Juarez and El Paso.  His operations produce over $3 billion in revenue annually.

Collis received his Bachelor’s Degree from Prairie View A&M University in Mechanical Engineering.  Collis is from Springfield, Virginia, married, has two children and serves as a Deacon at his church.

Collis’ believes his leadership is a combination of Servant and Transformational styles.  Collis believes any opportunity to pay it forward is not only considered a pleasure, but an obligation.  “It is our duty to help prepare those that will come after us, just as someone helped prepare us.”

When he isn’t at work, Collis enjoys spending time with his family, photography and traveling.

Shane Yount

Shane A. Yount is a nationally recognized author, speaker and principal of Competitive Solutions, Inc., an international Business Transformation consulting firm which pioneered the acclaimed organizational development system known as Process Based Leadership® – A business transformation methodology designed to create a sustainable culture of clarity, connectivity, and consistency through the use of Non-Negotiable Business Processes.

Shane began his career with Perdue Farms, Inc., the nation’s second largest poultry grower and processor. Having performed such roles as Front Line Supervisor, Operations Manager, Quality Manager, Director of Human Resources, and Corporate Continuous Improvement Champion, Shane brings extensive experience in every aspect of organizational dynamics and effectiveness. His “Real World” process driven approach to creating and sustaining high performance has led leaders across the country to embrace the Process Based Leadership® methodology as a core operating system in driving organizational focus, urgency, and accountability.

Since 1991 he has led the offices of Competitive Solutions, Inc. (CSI) in becoming one of the nations most recognized Business Transformation consulting firms, personally working with such organizations as Michelin, Glaxo Smith Kline, Pfizer, Lockheed Martin, the Department of Defense, and many others. Shane’s approach of challenging leaders to confront what truly “powers performance” within their organizations often allows leaders a unique glimpse into their personal leadership legacies. His impactful message and delivery has made him a coveted speaker at national conferences and tradeshows. His two books, “Buried Alive: Digging out of the Management Dumpster” and “Leaving Your Leadership Legacy” are required readings for engaged leaders desiring to improve themselves and their organizations . His third novel, “Leading Your Business Forward: Aligning Goals, People, and Systems for Sustainable Success” was published in spring of 2013.

Christopher Couch

Christopher Couch has served in manufacturing operations and business leadership roles in the automotive industry for more than 20 years, both as an OEM and a supplier.  Chris joined Lear Corporation in early 2013 in the newly-created role of Chief Technology Officer, and as of late 2014 is responsible for worldwide manufacturing performance and advanced technology.

Prior to Lear, Chris served for 8 years at Johnson Controls, where lived in Asia and had global responsibility for Asian automotive customer businesses. His role covered worldwide sales, development, program management, and manufacturing for this multi-billion dollar customer base. Prior to JCI, Chris spent 12 years at Toyota in production engineering and plant management roles, and has a background in the Toyota Production System.

Born and raised in Texas, Chris earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering with Japanese, and doctorate degree in operations management with finance, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Chris is fluent in Japanese and speaks rudimentary Spanish and Korean. He enjoys outdoor sports, photography, and cooking, but has fully embraced his lack of skill in each, and on the advice of his wife and children, intends to keep his day job.

Richard Youngblood

Rick joined Nissan in 1983 as a production technician and was promoted to the management team in 1989 where he has served as Director of Base Trim & Chassis Plant, Body Assembly Plant and Stamping Plant at the Smyrna facility.  Currently, he is the Plant Manager/Director of Nissan North America Powertrain Manufacturing, Decherd, TN.  He’s served as president of the Tennessee Automotive Manufacturers Association in 2008; and has been a member of the organization’s board since 2005.  Rick was 2009 Alumni of Leadership Franklin County.

Born in Louisville, KY, Rick currently lives in Murfreesboro with his wife Donna and their two youngest sons, Taylor & Wyatt.  Avid baseball fan, Rick was a catcher at UTC, where he earned an Associates Degree in Structural Steel Design, and has coached Little League Baseball for 22 years.

Earned his bachelor’s degree in management and human relations at Trevecca Nazarene University, Nashville.

David Hart

David is an established global leader and expert in Lean Six Sigma organizational performance improvement strategies.  His pragmatic approach to unlocking shareholder value spans a variety of industries to include engineered products and services, building materials, metal products, paper production, and specialty chemicals.  David has held senior leadership positions with Tyco International and NewPage Corporation and is a certified Master Black Belt.  He currently serves as Valspar Corporation’s Executive Director for Lean Six Sigma.  David holds a BS in Workforce Education & Development from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, a dual MA in Management and Human Resource Development and a MBA from Webster University in St. Louis.  He served the United States Air Force for 12-years and is a veteran of the Gulf War.

Michael AbouEzzi

**Roundtable Leader Day 1**

Michael joined PepsiCo in 2012 as TPM director for the Quaker, Gatorade and Tropicana division. He has since led different aspects of the continuous improvement program for the Beverages division which includes TPM and LSS. Currently, he leads LSS for Global Operations and North America Beverages.

Prior to PepsiCo, Michael worked for 16 years in Procter & Gamble leading several aspects of the continuous improvement program. In P&G, Michael had several engineering, manufacturing and supply chain roles. In his last role, he was the Global internal consultant for Integrated Work Systems for the Beauty Care division.

He earned his Master’s degree in mechanical engineering at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Michael, his wife Betsy and his 3 kids live in Naperville, IL.

Dean Jablonsky

Director, Global Business Excellence, Boston Scientific, leads the Global Business Excellence group supporting Value Improvement efforts across all of Boston Scientific; including Operations, Global Functions, Divisions, Countries and Regions.  Dean has a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Minnesota- Duluth and an Executive MBA from Northwestern Kellogg School of Management.  Dean has been with Boston Scientific for 17 years.

Bryan Crowell

Bryan Crowell is the General Manager for JD Machine Corp a precision machining and sheet metal fabricator.  Prior to Joining JD as the General Manager Bryan served on the Board of Directors for 6 years during in which time the company grew 5 times in sales and profit.  JD was most recently awarded the 2012 Utah Manufacture of the Year by the Utah manufactures association.  JD has also received numerous awards from its customers including Boeing, ATK and NASA.

Bryan was the former Vice President of Manufacturing for ATK Armament Systems Group, Headquartered in Clearfield Utah.  As the VP of manufacturing Bryan and team developed the ATK business model and initiated a lean conversion throughout the company.  In the role of VP of Manufacturing Bryan also led the largest of all ATK divisions the Lake City Army Ammunition plant with over 1 billion in Sales and .approximately 3000 employees.  During Bryan’s tenure at the ATK army ammunition plant the plant saw great success.  Production increased to its highest level with over 1.7 billion rounds produced with no capital investment, machine downtime was reduced by 40 percent and quality and profitability improved to record levels. Most importantly, ATK secured the long term government contract to run the facility, a critical win for the corporation.

Bryan was also the former Plant Manager at the highest scoring and first 2 time Shingo prize winning Autoliv Airbag Module Plant in Ogden Utah. Bryan has had the opportunity to lead multiple organizations through cultural transformation.  With the combination of structure, processes and leadership behaviors Bryan has demonstrated the ability to engage all team members to drive results. Employees under Bryan’s leadership and processes have implemented over 500K ideas being recognized as world class throughout industry.  Mr. Crowell had the opportunity to set up the first model TPS area at the inflator facility for Autoliv, under the tutelage of Harada-san from Toyota over a 3 year period.

Bryan started the Autoliv consulting group which has clients with some of the largest companies in the world including Honeywell, GE, Medtronic, ATK, Bosch, Bose etc.  The consulting model was based on going to the worksite to see management systems in place and let the clients interact real time in the systems.  Hundreds of companies have visited the Autoliv Ogden Module plant to learn the systems Bryan and his team developed.  Bryan and the module plant have had been recognized  in Industry Week magazine and highlighted as a case study in a graduate text book on operations management.

Bryan has spoken to many groups including the Honda Lean Network, Toyota Blue Grass Network, Multiple Shingo conferences and multiple company leadership teams.  In 2012 Bryan and his Co Author Mike Martyn won the Shingo Prize for operational excellence research for the book, Own the Gap how to build a Kaizen culture.  The book has been adopted as a model for multiple organizations and is a recognized model throughout the medical, manufacturing and service industries.

Bryan received a Bachelor in Physics from WSU, and an MBA from Utah State.   He has worked most of his career in Engineering, and Operations management roles through the VP level.

Eric Pope

Eric Pope serves as vice president of operations at US Synthetic (USS), a leading provider of diamond solutions for the energy industry. Mr. Pope joined US Synthetic in 1990 as a machine operator, with a focus on processing diamond products. He has worked as a production manager, process engineer, and R&D engineer during his time at US Synthetic. In 2001, Mr. Pope worked as an on-site USS customer engineer at Halliburton. He later became the product manager over the USS diamond rock bit and percussion product lines in 2004. 

Throughout his career, Mr. Pope has been a driving force behind US Synthetic’s move from a typical batch and queue manufacturing system to a world-class, lean manufacturing facility. As part the of senior leadership team since 2006, Mr. Pope has been instrumental in implementing lean training and techniques at every level of the organization. These efforts helped the company receive the world’s most prestigious award in 2011 for enterprise excellence, The Shingo Prize. Under Mr. Pope’s leadership, the company maintains a strong focus on empowering employees and encouraging continuous improvement. This focus helped the company implement more than 32,000 employee-sponsored improvements in 2011. As a result, product innovation has increased and USS customers have been better served with improved delivery times, decreased inventory, and superior quality and performance. Lean improvements have allowed US Synthetic to grow at 23 percent annually since beginning the journey in 2005. 

Mr. Pope holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering and a Master of Business Administration both from Brigham Young University.

Heidi Dirgins

Heidi recently joined Barnes Group Inc. this year as the Vice President of Barnes Enterprise System.  Previously worked for DRS Technologies as VP Manufacturing of multi sites and United Technologies – Hamilton Sundstrand and Pratt & Whitney.  Building 28 years of Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management experience.  Leader of change management through employee engagement and empowerment to achieve exceptional results.    She received her Bachelors of Science  in Finance from the Central Connecticut University.  Heidi lives in Westbrook, CT with her husband Dave and two black labs Madison and Riley.

Terry Bates

Terry Joined Barnes Aerospace in 1984 and has held many positions in manufacturing and management.  Most recently, Terry held the position of Operations Excellence Specialist, Barnes Aerospace, Ogden Division. He played an integral role in developing and leading Barnes Aerospace Ogden Division’s cultural transformation and the recent recognition as the Shingo Prize winner.

Terry holds a Master of Business Administration degree as well as a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix.  Terry Lives in Morgan, Utah were he enjoys spending time with his wife and four children.

Bart Talloen

As an executive supply chain leader for more than 25 years, Bart has a proven track record of success across several key SC functions such as Planning, Engineering, Technology Transfers, Project Management, Continuous Improvement, Mfg Operations, and General SC Management in Asia, Europe, and North America.

During his career in pharma, OTC, consumer goods, and logistics/ material handling, Bart has managed large supply networks, has acquired and divested operations, build new plants but also has overseen the closure of plants, and has developed and executed a three-year Consent Decree Work Plan including the successful re-certification of three US OTC manufacturing plants by FDA.

In his current role as the Vice President, Product Supply Strategy & Deployment, Bart is responsible for developing and deploying innovative processes, systems and technologies to improve product supply from raw materials, through the manufacturing, to distribution.

Bart is also establishing a J&J Supply Chain Academy to provide enterprise-wide subject-matter learning & development and build differentiating capabilities for the E2E supply chain.

He and his wife live in Skillman, NJ and have two sons in college.

Marc Turco

Marc Turco is the Director, Global Manufacturing Operations Water & Mechanical Products for Tyco Fire Protection Products, a $1.5B division of Tyco, and acting Operational Excellence Leader for $11B Tyco. He leads a global team of Operational Excellence Leaders, Master Black Belts, Quality Professionals and Supply Chain Engineers to support growth, customer performance, quality and efficiency goals.

A Certified Black Belt and Master Black Belt, Marc has 14 years of coaching, application and champion experience with Six Sigma, Lean, Quality and Change Management methodologies across the entire value chain, including manufacturing, transactional and design areas. He has led and supported multiple Global Operational Excellence & Lean/Six Sigma programs at various stages of maturity. Over the past 2 years he has led the development and deployment of a Global Enterprise Quality Management System, and more recently the creation of a Supply Chain Engineering Function. As Manufacturing Operations Leader at GE, he successfully applied his six sigma and lean expertise to exceed Safety, Growth and Productivity milestones.

Marc holds an M.S. in Material Science Engineering from the University of Connecticut and B.S. in Ceramic Engineering from Rutgers University. He resides outside Chicago, Illinois with his wife Kyra and sons Samuel and William.

Eddie Smith

Eddie Smith is an experienced professional in the manufacturing sector. He has been a catalyst to improving the bottom line of several mid- to large-size manufacturing companies, including Michelin Tire, Titan Wheel International, AmeriForge Group, Metaldyne, Case New Holland, etc.  Eddie is the Director of Operations at Kuhn Krause in Hutchinson Kansas, a Division of Kuhn North America.

Graeme Reid

Graeme Reid is the VP Six Sigma for Maple Leaf Foods, responsible for supporting achievement of business results across all functions and operating units.  The Six Sigma team has been an integral part of driving process improvements across the organization and has lead critical pieces of our business transformation that included the implementation of SAP and over $1B of investment in facility upgrades, equipment and automation over the past 4 years.   Graeme has been with the company for 10 years and has worked in the 3 protein operating units in various technical operations roles as well as managing two ready-to-eat facilities.

Prior to joining Maple Leaf Foods, Graeme held various engineering and operations roles within the automotive, machine building and steel industries.  He has been a trained practitioner in the major continuous improvement and quality programs over the last 20+ years.  He has extensive experience working with and benchmarking world class manufacturing organizations.

Graeme has an undergraduate degree in Engineering from Queen’s University and a master’s degree in Economics from McMaster University.

Dave Salentine

Dave has 29+ years manufacturing/Supply Chain experience at 3M Company. He joined 3M as an Inventory Accountant in July of 1985. From 1990 to 2004 he transferred to three other 3M manufacturing locations (Hutchinson, MN; Nevada, MO and Cordova, IL) and held various leadership positions in manufacturing and supply chain. In 2004 he re-located to the 3M Headquarters in St. Paul, MN and held various positions in Supply Chain, Lean Six Sigma, Corporate Acquisitions and Corporate Lean Operations Manager, which is the current position he holds today. Dave obtained a degree in Production Management in 1985 from St. Cloud State University, interned with 3M in the Fall of 1984 and achieved his APICS certification in 1991.

Denise Coogan

Denise has a degree in Biology from the University of Illinois at Springfield, and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Sustainable Development from the same university. She has over twenty three years of experience in the Environmental, Health and Safety field.  Denise started with Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc, in 2001 as the environmental group leader.  In 2006 Denise was promoted to Manager of Safety and Environmental Compliance. In 2004 Denise played a vital role in making SIA the first Automotive Manufacturing facility in the U.S. to achieve zero landfill.  SIA also has the honor of having the best safety record in the industry  SIA has received numerous environmental awards making Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. the industries leader in environmental stewardship.

Edward Tymick

Edward Tymick is the Vice President, Global Operations at Coriant (formerly Tellabs). In this role, he is responsible for the global planning, demand management, procurement, outsourced manufacturing, and logistics processes utilized to meet Coriant’s customers requirements. He has more than 20 years of experience in supply chain and logistics. Ed previously served as Director of Supply Chain at 3Com, a networking solutions provider, where he managed various supply chain activities including outsourced manufacturing management, OEM/ODM procurement, and 3^rd party vendor managed inventory programs. Ed holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Marquette University and a Masters in Business Administration from Purdue University. Additionally, Ed is a board member for the Loyola University Quinlan School of Business Supply & Value Chain Center and is also an elected official involved in local government.

Kim Rutherford

Kim joined General Atomics in 2004 as a Director of Manufacturing at General Atomics ASI Division in Poway, CA

He has over 35 years of manufacturing experience in low volume high mix aerospace environments.  He is responsible for manufacture of cables, harnesses and avionics supporting the Predator Unmanned Aerial Systems.  In addition he is also responsible for the integration and systems test of the aircraft and ground control systems.   His scope includes driving lean principles, continuous improvement, new product introduction and flexible manufacturing in a very vertical integrated organization.

Prior to joining General Atomics, Kim held leadership positions in a number of aerospace companies including Ford Aerospace, Loral and Lockheed Martin.   In addition, he has also worked in the Biotech industry leading the manufacture and integration of large scale drug discovery platforms.
Mr. Rutherford graduated from West Coast University with a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and a Master’s degree in Engineering Program Management.

Juan Perez

Juan is the Senior Director leading the Integrated Lean Six Sigma strategy for Kraft Foods Group. He leads the implementation of world class capability building systems across the supply chain delivering world class results while building performance and organizational excellence. Juan Joined Kraft Foods in March 2014.

Prior to joining Kraft, Juan worked for Procter & Gamble for 24 years, holding several leadership positions across the supply chain including Plant Management, Innovation delivery, go to market strategy development, and Leading Integrated Work Systems for a Global Business Unit.

Juan earned his Mechanical Engineering Degree from the University of South Florida.  Juan his wife Lizette and children live in Winnetka, Il.

Mitch Burke

Mitch Burke in his position as Executive Director of Process Systems Development, Mitch is responsible for operational excellence, developing improvement strategy and building strong and effective teams.

Burke joined the Bridgestone Americas family of companies in 1989 as a Process Engineer for the Warren plant. Since then he has held various positions, including Technical Service Manager in both Warren and LaVergne plants; Sales Engineering in Nashville; Area Business Manager in Warren; Operations Manager, and, most recently, Warren Plant Manager.

Burke holds a degree in chemical engineering from Tennessee Technological University with a major in mathematics and chemistry.

Hari Menon

Hari Menon is currently the Global Program Quality Manager for the launch of the Dual Clutch Transmission in GM Powertrain. He has extensive experience over the last 20 years in all aspects of Design, Engineering and Manufacturing in the automotive insdustry have functioned effectively in Design Studios, Product Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Die Manufacturing, Stamping, Body shop Paint, General Assembly and Final Line. Prior to coming to GM he has worked at automotive suppliers manufcturing forgings and machining components. He has a Black Belt in Design for Six Sigma in addition to Masters degrees in Finance and Industrial Engineering. His Bachelor’s degree is in Metallurgical Engineering.

Jerry Thiel