Christopher has been employed by the Fortune 500 manufacturer, Stanley Black & Decker for over seven years, and is currently Director of IT/OT Resiliency & Support. In this role, he is responsible for deploying Level 2/3 system architectures and connecting all other level systems to level2/3, while supporting them. Additionally, he manages remediation with Edge components, and deploys servers and connectivity for all OT-Related systems, plus Level 1 support of all OT-Related SW applications. Christopher began his career as a machinist, and tool & die maker, working for over 20 years in engineering, before transitioning to 100% IT/OT roles. He worked with complex materials and processes to design tools, processes, machines and assembly for automotive, aircraft, visual identification systems, food industry and industrial manufacturing and distribution. Since then he has managed industrial systems in manufacturing and distribution to deploy, link and support applications for quality, maintenance, tooling, and equipment (QMS, QCS, TPM, OEE, MES).

Connie is the Vice President of Business Excellence for Greenfield Global, a leading producer and supplier of high-value, mission-critical raw materials, ingredients, and additives that are vital to businesses and integral to a lower-carbon economy. Connie is responsible for creating and implementing long-term integrated business improvement and technology projects. She leads multiple teams that will collectively and collaboratively deliver an enterprise-wide transformation program. This includes enterprise software selection projects, multi-year ERP and other technology implementations, foundational projects, business optimization, and continuous improvement projects. As Vice President of Business Excellence Connie is accountable for developing and leading a center of excellence to provide advanced leadership, training and support for optimizing the business, resolving complex business issues and driving continuous improvement/ learning across the organization. Connie is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Ottawa University. She has received a Black Belt certification in Lean.

Dale Tibodeau, D.Eng., P.E., is a Professor of Practice of Supply Chain Management in the Department of Information and Decisions Sciences at the C. T. Bauer College of Business. He also serves as Director of the Bauer Supply Chain Forum, which oversees collaboration and engagement activities for students, faculty and industry partners. He was awarded his Doctor of Engineering degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas (1994) is a registered Professional Engineer for the state of Texas and has also been awarded numerous supply chain related professional certifications.

Tibodeau has over three decades of experience in a number of engineering and operations related roles including strategic supply chain planning, supply chain logistics, procurement, material handling engineering, warehouse design, engineering management and program management. His professional career began at Texas Instruments, where he worked as a Site Engineer, and later as a Material Handling Engineering Consultant. He joined Compaq Computer Corporation in 1989 (which later became Hewlett-Packard) wherein his roles included Supervisor for Industrial Engineering and Material Handling Engineering (1989-1992) Senior Commodity Manager (1992-1996) Planning Manager (1996-1998) Business Planning and Supply Chain Initiatives Manager (1998-2002) and Business Engagement Manager for HP's Product Development and Information Technology (2003-2010).

Prior to joining Bauer in August 2012, Tibodeau was a Clinical Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University's Mays Business School (2010-2011) and Director of Industry Relations for the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department (2011-2012). He has also served as an industry mentor for graduating students an industry college recruiter and as an Invention to Product (I2P) panel judge for developing college technology entrepreneurs. Tibodeau was honored to serve as a guest lecturer and a featured speaker at various Texas A&M University venues (2006-2010) at University of Florida (1990) and at numerous safety seminars (2000-present).

Outside of his professional career in academia, Tibodeau is President, Chief Pilot and Chief Flight Instructor of Texas Air Adventures, a privately owned aviation services company founded in 2002.

Geoff manages many different functions within the Operations and Supply Chain areas, including Production, Quality, Customer Order Fulfilment, Warehousing and Logistics, but most of his experience is in Sourcing, Purchasing, and Planning. Geoff has worked with suppliers and customers in high-tech manufacturing and electronics distribution for over 20 years in the Americas, Asia, and Europe, dealing with some of their most complicated global supply chain challenges.

A versatile Supply Chain Executive with over 16 years’ progressive experience managing international strategic projects and teams at Saint-Gobain. As a results oriented strategic thinker, Gonzalo currently holds the role of Director of Supply Chain at CertainTeed Insulation North America, managing 160 people and a budget of $60M, reporting to the Group’s General Manager and serving as a member of the Executive team. During his tenure at Saint-Gobain, he has lived and worked internationally in France, UK, Morocco, Spain and North America leading projects involving customer service, S&OP, process improvement and implementing SAP. He has a successful track record of leading complex mergers and acquisitions, managing world-class supply chain programs, and providing financial management. Fluent in three languages, English/Spanish/French, Gonzalo is a proven leader, with a demonstrated ability to manage people as well as processes. In addition to supply chain, he has managed finance, Audit and IT projects across multinational boundaries. Representative accomplishments include: • Defined a new Value Proposition and executed an improvement program leading to customer service improvement (CSI from 92% to 96%), $15M annual profit increase and 15 days of working inventory reduction. • Successful implementation of a new S&OP process for tactical planning ensuring the alignment of Sales & Marketing, Planning, Production, WH and Transportation. • With a specific focus on Customer Service streamlined communication between Supply Chain, Sales and the Customer. • Implemented cost improvement through product simplification, regional freight bidding, external warehousing and other outsourced services reductions. • Implemented of SAP ERP including APO and MRP as well as QlikView for reporting. • Won Supply Chain Award for best 2019 Saint-Gobain’s worldwide business improver. • Instrumental in improving CertainTeed’s IG operating profit from - $43M in 2017 to +$30M in 2019. He graduated from Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Madrid Spain with the equivalent of a Master’s Degree in Business Administration. Throughout his career, Gonzalo has been known for getting the job done and making things happen to the betterment of the companies he has served. As a strong team player and contributor, he gained a reputation for dependability and technical savvy, and for bringing extraordinary value to his positions.

Results-driven and strategic leader who develops and aligns key business initiatives with more than 25 years of experience in manufacturing and quality systems from plastics, steel and other industries. Heinz holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, a certificate in project management from University of British Columbia and a master’s degree in organizational psychology from Adler University. He currently works for Primex Technologies as VP of Manufacturing, where he seeks advice and insight from his team members on how as a team, they can best drive growth. Heinz was a speaker at “Advantage through Excellence” by Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium (EMC) in Toronto last year and collaborated this year with the University of Waterloo with an interview for their operations and supply chain management graduate studies.

Jerry Hamilton is a Procurement Engineer at Lockheed Martin. Jerry works with a team of engineers to employ the use of Lean Six Sigma and statistical tools/methods to production processes within the supply chain. He has worked in the semiconductor, transportation and aerospace industries and is certified through the American Society for Quality (ASQ) as a Six Sigma Master Black Belt. He holds a Master of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Houston and a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from New Mexico State University.

Julianne Youngblood is the Strategic Program Director for Global Supply Chain Quality & Reliability at Intel Corporation. In this role, she is responsible for leading strategic programs including automation, supplier quality and traceability initiatives.  Youngblood also plays a key role in corporate and divisional diversity and inclusion programs including inclusive language, understanding bias, and emotional intelligence.

Prior to this role, she was the Director of Strategic Programs in the Silicon Engineering Group, where she led the organization responsible for driving execution reviews of key programs, quality program management, and the learning & development activities.

Youngblood joined Intel in 1997 as a senior environmental engineer.  She has held numerous leadership positions including Senior Operations Program Manager for Supply Chain Transformation, Quality Director for Manufacturing and Validation Engineering, Director, Strategic Technical Programs for the Windows OS Division, and the Director of Global Business Operations for the Software & Services Group.  In addition, she previously spent 8 years in Corporate Quality Network as a Quality Systems Account Manager.

Youngblood has a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering, a master’s in organizational management, and completed her doctoral studies in Business Administration.  In addition, she is a Transformational Leadership Coach and Spot Coach Practitioner.

Dr. Justin Goldston is a Professor of Project and Supply Chain Management at Penn State University. He is also an industry veteran where he has worked with organizations around the world such as Intel, Siemens, and Blue Buffalo on business performance improvement, organizational change, and enterprise-wide digital transformation initiatives. Dr. Goldston is the author of multiple peer-reviewed journal articles on supply chain management and innovative technologies, of Critical Success Factors in ERP Implementations, and is a five-time TEDx speaker where he discussed emerging technologies such as blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. Dr. Goldston has also led and assisted in the development of Supply Chain Management and Business Analytics programs at Georgetown University, Texas A&M University, North Carolina Wesleyan College, and has evaluated programs for the Department of Higher Education while serving on the Management Advisory Board at various higher education institutions.

Miguel has over 30 years of experience as a technical leader in industrial automation, electricity, manufacturing execution systems and related engineering activities in manufacturing. His comprehensive technical experience includes functional leadership and guidance, capital investment planning & execution, compliance, building engineering capabilities, operational support, develop and manage strong network of professional and knowledge partners and suppliers, standardization, continuous improvements, operational innovations and renovations, technology evaluation and deployment of IoT platforms and solutions for the manufacturing industry. Thus, enabling manufacturing facilities to achieve high performance targets, manufacturing flexibility, cost improvements, substantial energy consumption reductions and improve manufacturing performance. In his current role as Director of Technology Programs at CESMII (The Smart Manufacturing Institute), Miguel is leading the development and execution of a comprehensive strategic evaluation and implementation program with regards to technical investigation areas and test-beds in Smart Manufacturing, MES systems, and large scale deployment to radically improve the precision, performance, efficiency, energy productivity and growth of U.S. manufacturing. In addition, Miguel’s responsibilities include supporting outreach, training, certification, communications, workforce development and education to improve the precision, performance and efficiency of U.S. advanced manufacturing.

Milson Gondim currently serves as Senior Vice President, Small Molecule Network - Elanco Manufacturing. Dr. Gondim has worked in various areas of leadership including biotechnology, consumer care, and small molecule. Strong focus on acquisition, integration, capacity modeling, improvement projects and strategic initiatives. Milson received his D.M.V. degree from the State University of Ceara, Brazil and Ph. D. in Immunology from the Ceara Federal University. Milson also received his MBA from the European Business School in Spain, and Project Management Master Degree from Dom Cabral University in Brazil.

Dr. Nick Vyas is a known practitioner in operations management and organizational excellence by applying Blended Quality Management, AI, ML, RPA, Blockchain, and Data Analytics. Vyas received his Doctor of Education from the University of Southern California, with his published dissertation on Conceptualization of Higher Education Excellence System (HEES): Use of Advanced Data Analytics and Blended Quality Management. A Subject Matter Expert (SME) in End-to-End Global Supply Chain Management, Dr. Vyas has led cultural and business transformation for fortune 100 companies. He implemented breakthrough process improvements for over 500 projects that have transformed businesses for clients in the field of health care, service, government, retail, and end-to-end supply chain, focusing on procurement, sourcing, IT, distribution, logistics, and transportation.

As the founding Executive Director of USC Marshall’s Center for Global Supply Chain Management (GSCM), MS in GSCM, and as an Associate Professor, educating the next generation of business leaders. Nick was recognized as a “Supply Chain Leader of the Year” for the APICS Excellence Awards and the Golden Apple Award for teaching excellence.  He is a fellow for the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and serves as a chair-elect for Lean Enterprise Division.

Dr. Nourredine Boubekri is currently a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of North Texas. He received his Ph.D. in Industrial and Management Systems Engineering. He received both his Master and Bachelor of Science degrees in Manufacturing Engineering. His career started at the University of Miami. There he founded the University of Miami Industrial Assessment Center in the year 2000, which is currently still funded by DOE. His experience includes his roles as Department chair /Director of Research and Innovation /Director of UNT SACSCOC reaffirmation. He directed more than thirty-five Master and Ph.D. Students and published more than 100 technical articles and journal papers in the areas of Green Manufacturing, New Product/Process Development Management, Project Management and Quality Management. His research funding exceeds five million dollars in grants and contracts. He has been an invited/Keynote speaker at a number of international conferences and symposiums.

Rebecca is the Business Optimization Manager for Greenfield Global, a leading producer and supplier of high-value, mission-critical raw materials, ingredients, and additives that are vital to businesses and integral to a lower-carbon economy. 

Rebecca is responsible for optimizing technology processes across the enterprise using Lean, facilitation and agile project management tools . She leads a team of Business Lean Analysts and an OKR program coordinator that are responsible for collaboratively delivering business optimization projects to ease growth of speed at scale.  This includes ERP system improvements and support, RCA and Lean event facilitation and New Product Introduction facilitation. As the Business Optimization Manager Rebecca is accountable for delivering on business quarterly priorities as approved by the senior leadership team and an aligned OKR program.

Rebecca is a long time Greenfield employee who has worked in all areas of the business supporting end to end processes.  She has received a Green Belt certification in Lean, Certified RCA Facilitator, Certified Scrum Master and Certified Executive OKR WorkBoard Coach.

At Veryable, Rich leads market operations for the Southwest region and supports organizational development initiatives for the company. Prior to Veryable, Rich was a management consultant at Deloitte Consulting and Slalom Consulting where he led consulting engagements across a number of industries and functional areas focusing on strategic planning, operational improvement, customer engagement, and organizational development. Rich holds a bachelors degree from Vanderbilt University and a MBA from Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business.

Sean MacCarthy is the Executive Director of Global Analytics and Store Segmentation for Claire’s Inc. Sean has worked in Retail, Operations, Supply Chain and B2B Analytics and Strategy for the last five years across the Home Appliance, Chain Drug Retailer and Fashion Accessories Industries with a focus on utilizing cross-functional data and insights to drive company strategies. He has been the “boots on the ground” cleansing the data and building the models, the leader in introducing emerging technologies and working with IT to implement them and the strategist who utilizes his team’s insights across their various functions to provide company direction. Prior to his corporate work, Sean was a Philosophy Professor whose area of concentration was epistemology.

He completed his Philosophy graduate work at Fordham University and his undergraduate work at Miami University (OH).

Sean resides in the Chicago, Illinois area with his wife and four children.

Shauna Gamble joined Bombardier in 2017 as vice-president of Procurement of the Business Aircraft division. Soon thereafter, Shauna’s role was expanded to lead a newly-formed Aerospace Procurement and Supply Chain organization, responsible for commodity strategies, contract management, supplier relations, purchasing, logistics, and inventory management for both business and commercial aircraft at Bombardier. In 2020, Shauna was promoted to Chief Procurement Officer of Bombardier Aviation

Since joining Bombardier, Shauna has made it her mission to transform Procurement Aviation into a best-in-class organization. She initiated the Diamond Supplier Program to increase accountability across the supply chain and to raise the company’s profile. The Diamond Supplier Program recognizes outstanding supplier performance across Bombardier Aviation. Shauna also spearheaded the creation of a Procurement Academy at Bombardier, providing an opportunity for team members to improve their expertise at all levels.

A seasoned executive with excellent leadership, communication and negotiation skills, Shauna has more than 20 years of experience in global supply chain and operations. Prior to joining the organization, Shauna held senior leadership positions at Danby Appliances and Telecommunications equipment provider Ciena.

Shauna holds an Executive MBA and post-baccalaureate Diploma in Management from Athabasca University, and she completed a Senior Executive Program at the London Business School. Shauna Gamble is based at Bombardier Aviation headquarters in Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Sydney Badger is a twelve-year fashion supply chain and retail veteran, having spent the bulk of her career between Amazon.com and Ralph Lauren. She lives between Shenzhen, China and Seattle, WA where she co-founded Public Habit in 2019. Public Habit is a fashion eCommerce business committed to making only what we sell in order to eliminate textile waste in the fashion industry. They are disrupting the fashion supply chain by flipping the traditional model, starting with customer demand and producing only what is needed. They ship straight from the source and deliver within 2-4 weeks.

As Chief Scientist, Tom is the most senior engineer at Tandem Diabetes Care, and his charter includes both (a) innovating Tandem’s technology, processes, and products, and (b) mentoring Tandem’s next generation of engineers and engineering managers. Tom earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in engineering at UC Irvine, and has 34 years of experience developing (and helping others develop) real time embedded software for life critical mechanical systems for both the Aviation and Medical industries. After a decade as Tandem’s Senior Director of Software Engineering, Tom began a Ph.D. program in organizational leadership and expects to finish by Summer 2018.

Dr. Tom Butkiewicz is a Core Faculty-Research member in the PhD Management program at Walden University. Dr. Tom is the faculty advisor for The National Society of Leadership and Success and the PhD Management Fellowship program. He is a reviewer for the Academy of Management and the International Journal of Applied Management and Technology. Dr. Tom also serves as the vice president for the Walden University Virtual Fulbright Association Chapter. Dr. Tom worked 26 years as an operations manager in the automotive industry for Mitsubishi Motors. He proudly concluded 20 years of honorable service to our great country as a field operations Chief Warrant Officer (CWO-3) in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. Dr. Tom is a certified leadership speaker, coach, and trainer who serves individuals and organizations for sustainable competitive advantage outcomes. He pursues positive social change by supporting the Multiple Sclerosis Society through a fundraising commitment for 20 years. Dr. Tom's positive social change focus also is demonstrated by being a member of the strategic development committee for a new church building project in Southern California.

Victoria Bryazgina, Head of SCM Development at United Metallurgical Company (OMK) and TOP 100 (9/100) Women in Supply chain 2021, has 10 years of experience in Supply Chain Management.

Her background includes: SCM and logistics network development, development of SCM processes at large petrochemical and metallurgical enterprises, SCM strategy and cross-functional teams creation and management.

Her current SCM projects include: participation and implementation, including new facilities creation and implementation projects, supply chain design, supply chain optimization, individual business processes modelling, and the implementation of specialized planning and scheduling systems.

Bill has worked in the medical device industry for over thirty years in a variety of manufacturing, operations, and design roles. He holds several U.S. and International patents related to surgical implants and instruments, many of which have been successfully commercialized. His design activities range from direct product development and outside collaboration, to manufacturing process and equipment development. Bill is a board member of the Southern California Biomedical Council and Ventura County Workforce Development Board, and he advises academic programs at UC Riverside, Moorpark College, and the national Community College Consortium for Bioscience Credentials.

Dennis Suedkamp is an accomplished executive with a proven track record of growth, employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction across several sectors of Aerospace and Defense (A&D). 

Dennis has 40+ years of industry experience and has a strong background in several areas including manufacturing for both commercial & defense along with commercial & defense distribution. He is also experienced in commercial maintenance repair & overhaul (MRO) and group support equipment.

He currently is the President/CEO of Fastener Technology Corp. (FTC) in North Hollywood, CA and the President of Avantus Fasteners, overseeing California Screw Products (Cal Screw) in Paramount, CA and Fastener Innovation Technology (FIT) in Rancho Dominguez, CA.

His company leadership roles and consulting experience covers customer service, operations, sales, engineering and executive management as Senior VP Sales, Senior VP Sales and Engineering, COO, President and CEO.