John Gattorna, Supply Chain “Thought Leader” and Author

John Gattorna is an acknowledged “thought leader” on the global supply chain scene. For over two decades he has researched, consulted, and worked in various capacities in and around enterprise supply chains. He established and led the Australian and South Asian Accenture supply chain practice, 1995-2002, and has since focused on advising Boards and senior management on how to improve the “alignment” of their enterprise supply chains with customers, suppliers, and third party providers. John’s book, Living Supply Chains (FT Prentice Hall, Harlow, 2006), received   wide acclaim for its innovative content which cuts across all disciplines in the enterprise. His latest book, Dynamic Supply Chain Alignment, (Gower Publishing Farnham, 2009) is likely to do likewise as he continues his explorations for a radically new business model that can be applied to enterprise supply chains. He is a prolific writer of short articles and is much sought after as a speaker on the international conference circuit. He holds several visiting professorships at universities in Australia, the UK, Asia, and Europe, and was recently invited to join the Supply Chain & Logistics Group (SCLG) leadership team in the Middle East. John always welcomes contact from interested parties in the global supply chain community, and can be contacted as follows:
john@johngattorna.com;   or his website www.johngattorna.com

Duncan Lowe, Supply Chain Director, PEPSICO

Duncan Lowe is Supply Chain Director for PepsiCo UK&Ireland. He has been responsible for developing PepsiCo UK's supply and customer strategy as well leading the Pepsi International supply chain best practice council. Over the last 2 years PIUK has focussed on developing world class customer collaboration and as a result service has improved by a full 2% points.
 
Prior to PIUK Duncan worked for ABF as Operations Director where he ran manufacturing, supply chain and purchasing functions.
 
He lives in cambridgeshire with his wife, Sue and 2 sons. In his spare time he loves music, playing in a gigging band.

Chris Carden, Head of Food Supply, ASDA

Chris has been involved with the retail supply chain for over 20 years. He started life with Tesco Distribution where he held various physical distribution roles during his 9 year stint. He then joined the Asda distribution team in 1996 and progressed to become the Head of Distribution, South. In 2003 Chris took a step closer to the retail coal face with a move into Fresh Replenishment. During his 6 years in supply he has held a number of different roles and he now heads up replenishment for the whole of food.

Mawgan Wilkins, Sr Director Global Service Supply Chain, CISCO SYSTEMS

Mawgan is a Senior Director in Cisco’s Technical Support organisation currently responsible for Innovation of the TS delivery model. He and his global team are chartered with identifying and executing transformational change utilising a structured innovation process and new technology adoption to create customer value.  He has held multiple positions during his 9 years with Cisco leading both the EMEA and Global Service Supply Chain organisations and serving as Director of Globalisation and Emerging Markets.

Kevin O’Marah, Chief Strategy Officer, AMR RESEARCH

As chief strategy officer for AMR Research, Kevin O’Marah brings a unique blend of intellectual prowess, practical business experience, and energy to AMR Research’s clients. During his nearly seven years with the firm, Kevin has worked with hundreds of companies on manufacturing, product lifecycle management (PLM), and supply chain strategy.

Kevin launched AMR Research’s PLM practice, and is a seminal author on PLM, having been included in over 100 articles defining the application's footprint, business impact, and market dynamics. He has also contributed to the firm’s definition and coverage of demand-driven supply networks (DDSN), having authored several reports, including the AMR Research Supply Chain Top 25, defining the link to business operating metrics. He was named an AMR Research Fellow in 2002.

Prior to joining AMR Research, Kevin worked on supply chain projects in a variety of industries including telecommunications, semiconductors, and chemicals.

As a vice president at Oracle Corporation, Kevin focused on supply chain and product data management strategy. He spent several years with Gemini Consulting, now part of Ernst & Young (GCE&Y), working with manufacturing companies on supply chain and product strategy. He worked with Mercer Consulting in London and Company Assistance Limited in Warsaw earlier in his career.

Kevin is a graduate of Boston College, Oxford University, and Stanford Business School.

Christian Verstraete, Chief Technology Officer, Manufacturing & Distribution Industries, HP

Christian Verstraete, CTO for HP’s Manufacturing and Distributions Industries Worldwide, has been a member of HP’s manufacturing team for more than 29 years. Verstraete is responsible for thought leadership and innovation - scanning industry and technology trends and assessing their mid/longer term effect on emerging MDI business opportunities and how to capitalize on these. He is the linkage to the CTO community both inside HP and with our customers and partners.

Prior to his current position, Verstraete was responsible for the development of solutions for the Manufacturing & Distribution Industry. Before that he led HP’s global High-Tech Industry Group and its manufacturing industries Supply Chain go-to-market strategy where he was responsible for growing the company’s $300 million consulting and system integration business.

After having participated in the planning of the HP/Compaq merger, he headed HP’s manufacturing practice within the Consulting and Integration business unit from 2002 to 2004. The 1200 consultants he led created and delivered solutions in the areas of supply chain, procurement and sourcing, product lifecycle collaboration, demand chain and collaborative business integration in all segments of the Manufacturing Industry.

Prior to that, Verstraete served as the Global Lead in the Extended Manufacturing Practice and the Supply Chain Infrastructure and EAI. From his first HP job as a systems engineer through project, regional, district and global management, Verstraete has concentrated on developing, marketing and advancing infrastructure services.

Frequently published in periodicals, Verstraete is a featured speaker at several global supply chain events and runs HP’s Manufacturing-Distribution blog. He is one of the authors of “Connected Manufacturing, Thought-provoking essays from industry leaders” and of “Collaborative Sourcing, Strategic Value Creation through Collaborative Supplier Relationship Management”. He is member of the board of the Supply Chain Council.
Verstraete holds a mechanical engineering degree from the Universite Catholique de Louvain in Belgium and a degree in industrial management from Katholieke Universiteit van Leuven, also in Belgium. He is based in Brussels, Belgium.

David McMillan, Director of Sourcing, Europe, IBM

A 25 year employee of IBM, David McMillan has worked in a wide range of supply chain leadership positions. David is currently the Director of Procurement for Europe, Middle East and Africa, based in the UK and responsible for a spend of $7B. Prior to his current role, David was based in the US where his roles included, leading the Global technology products sourcing team and the Director of Procurement Strategy. David previously had assignments to Paris and various UK Management roles.

Edwin van der Meerendonk, VP European Supply Chain, DISNEY

Edwin van der Meerendonk is Vice President at the Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment in Europe and in charge of the European Supply Chain. In this role, he is end responsible for efficient and effective customer focussed supply chain operations. This is achieved by the monitoring, managing and controlling of the performance of the supply chain (partners) and the initiation of continuous strategic improvement projects.
Edwin has more than 15 years experience in supply chain management, of which five years in the role as international consultant. He worked with a number of multinational companies on supply chain related projects concerning order management and fulfilment, inventory management, network optimisation and consumer response management.

Dave Powell, Sales & Operations Planning Director, KIMBERLY-CLARK

Following Seven years as an electrical engineer for the Royal Navy, Dave joined Kimberly Clark in 1993 within Manufacturing. For the next seven years Dave worked at the Barton upon Humber Facility where he undertook a number of roles in Operations leadership followed by a move into production planning in 1999 as the mill scheduling team leader.

In 2001he moved to Kimberly Clark’s European Headquarters and spent the next few years building up levels of accountability in centralised planning within the Personal Care business.
In 2007 he was appointed as Strategic Planning Director for the European Consumer Business and become responsible for the long term capacity management of 15 producing locations as well as the introduction of an S&OP process into the European business.

In 2009 he was appointed S&OP Director for Europe, extending his responsibilities, beyond Planning, to include Demand Management through to Product deployment.

Dirk Holbach, Corporate Vice President Global Supply Chain Operations, HENKEL

Dr. Dirk Holbach (38 years), Corporate Vice President, is in charge of Global Supply Chain Operations for the business sector Laundry & Home Care at Henkel AG & Co KGaA. Before that he lead the Global Purchasing of the same business sector for four consecutive years, and occupied different leading positions in purchasing and sales. He studied Business and Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern and holds a Ph.D. in Information Management from the University Duisburg-Essen.

Kris van Ransbeek, VP Product Supply & GM Ingredients Business Europe, CHIQUITA

Kris is responsible for all Supply Chain activities on the European continent at Chiquita Brands International and has P&L responsibility for a $40 Million B-to-B fruit ingredients business unit.  Previously, Kris held several senior positions at Carrefour Belgium and Reckitt & Colman Benelux.

Prof Alan Waller, President - Benelux, LEADERS IN SUPPLY CHAIN

Alan G Waller is Vice-President for Supply Chain Innovation at the International Consultancy Solving Efeso. He is also Visiting Professor in International Supply Chain Management at Cranfield Centre for Logistics and Supply Chain Management at Cranfield School of Management, International Vice-President of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, Chairman of the European Logistics Users Providers and Enablers Group (ELUPEG), Chairman of the Logistics Directors’ Forum, and President of Leaders in Supply Chain Benelux.

Alan was educated at St. Catherine's College, Oxford, Leicester School of Management and Cranfield School of Management.  Following a number of years in production line management and management services, Alan moved into management consultancy and has spent over 35 years working on logistics and supply chain consultancy assignments with manufacturers, retailers and logistics service providers over a wide range of industries across Europe, North America and the Middle and Far East.

Cloe Zeng, Demand Flow Director, ELECTROLUX

Cloe Zeng is Demand Flow Director (UK & Ireland) of Electrolux Major Appliances, a global leader in home appliances and appliances for professional use. In her role Mrs Zeng is responsible for international factory sourcing, demand forecast and inventory optimisation, supply chain development, sales operations and E-Business. Her continued business strategy of improving customer service and maintaining supply chain excellence ensures that Electrolux sustain their position in the marketplace.

Mrs Zeng joined Electrolux in 2004 as Sales Planning Manager; she was promoted to Supply Chain Development Manager in 2006, and was made a member of the board of directors in 2008. She was a finalist of Young Manager of the Year 2006 (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, UK). Under Mrs Zeng’s leadership, in 2009 Electrolux were winners of ‘Best Collaborative Practice’ in the Supply Chain Distinction Awards, and winners of ‘Supply Chain Integration’ in the CILT Annual Excellence Awards.

Mrs Zeng obtained her masters degree in Management Information Systems from Manchester University in 2001. After graduation Mrs Zeng was with Fujifilm Electronic Imaging (UK) for 3 years as Product Co-ordinator, promoted from their graduate trainee programme. 

Simon Williams, VP Supply Chain, CONSTELLATION EUROPE

Simon has been involved in the drinks industry for over 20 years with some 4 years spent in the cosmetics Industry. In this time Simon has held a variety of Supply Chain roles.
Having recently joined Constellation Brands ( the largest global wine company ) he is responsible for all matters concerning the supply chain for Constellation in the above regions. To include warehousing and distribution, procurement, planning for demand and supply, forecasting, marine shipping, production in both UK and South Africa as well as all contract packing.

Prior to joining Constellation Europe, Simon was the Global Supply Chain Director for Avon Cosmetics . A Fortune 500 company with over 1bn customer transactions a year with operations in 58 countries and sales in 143 markets worldwide . Tasked with establishing the newly formed Avon Global Supply Chain Department.

The previous 19 years were spent at Allied Domecq , the second largest alcoholic drinks company at that time, where he was a board director of the Wine Division and Head of the Global Supply Chain for the wine group. Having held previous roles as ERP integration director, Operations director and Group Logistics Development Director

Simon’s outside interests include rugby which he played professionally ,a long time ago!  His three sons play rugby - so most weekends are taken up as a chauffeur to his children

Anne Bruggink, General Manager Supply Chain, ELECTROCOMPONENTS PLC

Anne Bruggink is General Manager Supply Chain at Electrocomponents Plc.  He has global responsibility for managing the supply chain across RS Components, Radionics, Radiospares and Allied.  Since joining the Group in 2007, Anne has been pivotal in achieving significant cost and stock reductions whilst effecting service improvements.

Under Anne’s direction, Electrocomponents was a runner-up in the Supply Chain Distinction Awards 2009.  In addition, the company was a runner-up in the European Supply Chain Excellence Awards 2008 for the re-engineering of its supply chain planning systems to create a single, transparent operation offering significant business benefits.  Anne was also a runner-up in the Individual Contribution category of the European Supply Chain Excellence Awards 2008 due to his commendable management of service, cost and stock at Electrocomponents. 

Through his international career, Anne has gained experience in the FMCG sector working for United Biscuits, in the automotive industry working for Autoglass/Carglass and in the technology sector working for Honeywell.  He has been recognised for driving change in local, European and global supply chains through systems implementations, outsourcing, mergers and integrations, flow and footprint optimisation, S&OP implementation as well as process re-design.

Anne gained a MSc at the University of Wageningen (NL) and is fluent in Dutch, English and German. 

Shaun Murkett, Head of Global Supply Chain Excellence, BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO

Shaun has over twenty years’ supply chain experience in large blue chip FMCG organisations as both a practitioner and a consultant. During this time he has specialised in the planning and logistics functions of supply chain management.

Until the middle of 2009, Shaun was responsible for the implementation and management of British American Tobacco's (BAT) Lead Logistics Provider operation in Western Europe. He managed the movement of all products for BAT’s eight Western European Factories to the company's End Markets across Europe, Africa, the Middle East and beyond.

In September 2009 Shaun moved to BAT's Global Supply Chain Service Centre in London to focus on the development of the Group's global planning process. He also took on the responsibility for BAT’s Supply Chain Excellence Tool and Programme.

Shaun will be running the workshop ‘Case Study: Turn global strategy into reality’

Nick Miller, Principal, CRIMSON & CO

Nick Miller has worked for Crimson & Co for over 5 years. The firm, founded in 2003, has grown rapidly and has supported many blue chip multinationals in delivering efficiencies from their global supply chains.

Nick has worked in Supply Chain consulting for over 20 years, specialising in distribution and manufacturing strategy and supply chain excellence benchmarking. His interest is in the trade-offs across operations and how these can be exploited for medium and long term benefit. Most of his experience has been in the retail and consumer goods sectors, which offer substantial challenges in terms of dynamics and variety.