Biography

Ross is the author of the recently published book "Strategic Workforce Planning: optimized talent strategies for future growth: and is expert and thought leader in the fields of Human Capital Strategy & Talent Analytics. 

With over 15 years experience in Talent Analytics and Strategic Workforce Planning,  he uses his background in statistics, business strategy, HR and HR technology to consult with C-Suite officers and senior leaders on strategic methodologies and frameworks for HR and corporate strategy alignment. The end goal is to provide these senior leaders with improved data and insights to make better 'people' related decisions that ultimately improve organizational performance.

He is currently the Head of Strategic Workforce Planning at Facebook where his key mandate is to create workforce forecasts and to develop optimized talent strategies for Facebook's future growth.  Prior to Facebook, Ross functioned as the Head of Strategic Workforce Planning & Analytics at GE Aviation, the Strategic Workforce Planning Leader at Devon Energy and as a Senior Consultant at Deloitte Consulting where he specialized in Human Capital Strategy and Workforce Planning & Analytics.

Ross is a global in-demand speaker who regularly presents on the topics of Human Capital strategy and Workforce Optimization.  He was recently awarded Best Practice winner by the Best Practices Institute  (BPI) and has received numerous accolades for or his innovative and results driven approach to Strategic Workforce Planning.

Ross Holds an MBA from Temple University’s Fox School of Business, an MA in HR from The University of Oklahoma and a MSc in Predictive Analytics from Northwestern University.  In his spare time he enjoys traveling, photography and learning new things

Biography

A Business Transformation leader with hands-on experience on how to manage technology, people, data and products to lead real change, innovation and growth in global organizations.

Yuval is experienced in building and leading high performance teams through the challenges organizations face when dealing with digital transformation, scale and innovation. By leveraging technology, human behaviour and the cultural dynamics in the workplace, his teams drive a habit and behavioural change that promotes a more holistic, data-driven, user centric and agile mindset in people, leading to a scalable and sustainable growth for the organization.

Currently at Google, Yuval has previously led the business transformation at Skype and Microsoft.

Yuval holds a B.S.c from the Technion - Israel's Institute of Technology and an M.B.A from INSEAD Business School in France and Singapore. Currently working towards his

MSc in Neuroscience at King's College London.

Biography

Jeff Davis is Executive Director of Operational Excellence at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Jeff’s operational excellence career spans nearly 29 years including nearly 6 years with JPMorgan Chase, 11 years with Toyota and 12 years of external consulting to clients such as Nike, Schlumberger, Lockheed Martin, the US Department of Defense, Daimler, BMW and others. His industry experience includes automotive, textiles, healthcare, retail, defense, aerospace, law enforcement and financial services.

Beginning his career at Toyota as a team member on the assembly line and progressing his way into executive leadership roles, Jeff has lived, learned and can relate operational excellence culture and tool usage from the perspective of all levels within JPMorgan Chase..

Jeff resides in Louisville, Ky. where he and his wife spend their spare time watching their three sons play sports.

Biography

Rias Attar is an accomplished operational excellence and project management professional. He is recognized for his ability to help strategize business architecture, identify areas to improve processes and outcomes, turn around businesses from deficient to profitability, champion continuous improvement efforts, deliver challenging cross-functional programs while working collaboratively with diverse types of stakeholders, lead and coach winning teams, and inspire staff to deliver ambitious results.

Mr. Attar has planned and executed transformational projects (Business and Technology) that contributed over $500M of combined EBITDA impact and is managing a portfolio of initiatives that adds between $200 and $300M of EBITDA annually. He established PMOs, led Lean and Six Sigma efforts, championed Change Management, ensured proper Governance while reducing Bureaucracy, and has set proper business directions while staying focused on motivating staff, inspiring trust and confidence, developing people’s skills, and generating enthusiasm.

Mr. Attar worked for different companies at a variety of industries such as: Michelin (Tires), Friede Goldman Halter (Oil & Gas) , DHL Express (Courier), and General Electric/Genworth (Mortgage Insurance), and Maple Leaf Foods (Food Processing and Supply Chain). Prior to working at Caesars (Entertainment/Hospitality), he spent a few years in the consulting business working with companies such as Danone Dairy (Food Processing), Steel Tech (Steel Manufacturing/Rolling Mill), Sport Master (Clothing/Retail), and dipndip (Chocolate F&B). 

Mr. Attar started his professional career in Finance as an FP&A analyst then moved to project management and operational excellence about 18 years ago. During that time, he worked/lived in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, Connecticut, New York, The Middle East, Toronto-Canada, and now in Las Vegas. 

Mr. Attar has a bachelor degree in Finance, got his MBA from University of Texas, and have a few certifications in project management such as (PMP) Project Management Professional, (ACP) Agile Certified Practitioner, and (CSM) Certified Scrum Master. He is also a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (LSSBB).

Outside of work, Rias is a devoted family man with a wife and 3 kids. His best time is when he spends it with his kids playing board games, riding bikes, swimming, or just watching movies. Rias loves sport, tries to work out often, practiced Jiu Jitsu and Kick Boxing for years, and enjoys lap swimming every once and a while. He also loves music and plays the classical guitar.

Biography

Richard, began his journey into Process Improvement early in his 20-year banking career. After implementing many traditional process enhancements in National Australia Group, Richard's exposure to Lean & Six Sigma began when he moved to Barclays as Head of Service, in the early 'Noughties'.

After training as a Black Belt and transforming the high net worth on-boarding process, his passion for continuous improvement was well set.

Over the past 5 years, as Head of Process & Change in the Santander Corporate Bank, Richard has led a drive to transform the capability and approach to process excellence in the Operations of the Bank. Through many lean sigma implementations and training of key leaders, Santander leads the customer services tables for UK Corporate Banking.

Now,  with the 2025 strategy set by the CEO as that of being a fully digital bank, Richard is working with the technology teams to implement RPA and BPM led solutions to enhance the efficiency of the front to back customer offering.

Biography

Description

As a Global leader of Continuous Improvement at Whirlpool, I am responsible for developing the CI strategy, coaching problem-solving behaviors, and transforming systems for executive leaders and their teams within Information Services.

By education, I’ve earned a Masters degree in Behavioral Science, along with undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Mathematics. Recently I’ve returned to obtain a doctoral degree focused on Industrial & Organizational Behavior Management.

By training, I’m certified in Six Sigma Black Belt by the American Society for Quality; certified in Labor Standards by HB Maynard; a Lean (Toyota Production System) Instructor/Coach; a Kata Coach; a certified Scrum Master; and an Agile Coach. 

By experience, I’ve led and improved Continuous Improvement in healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and education for 18 years.

In addition to my daytime career, I’ve taught courses as an Adjunct Professor in Mathematics, Psychology, and Business. 

Finally, I greatly value innovation. I've obtained backing with companies and invented two products through ideation programs.

Biography

Attila Dobai is the Head of Strategy and Innovation for the Budget Truck Rental division of Avis Budget Group.  He is passionate about applying the concepts of continuous improvement to drive business transformation, strategy execution, innovation, and data analytics.

Attila has over 14 years of experience in solving complex enterprise-wide business problems in a service-based transactional Fortune 500 business.  His data-driven process-centered approach to problem solving has been repeatedly proven successful at improving both process efficiency and effectiveness while impacting the bottom-line.

He is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and Project Management Professional (PMP) who has managed continuous improvement projects, programs, and portfolios.  He strongly believes that continuous improvement is the key to bridge the gap between the boardroom and the operation.

Biography

Maximiliano Just leads the Global Business Integration and PMO organization for Associate Services The Coca-Cola Company.  He is responsible for running Automation initiatives, Workday, Business Process Leadership and strategic planning across HR Operations, Travel Operations and Workplace Services.  Prior to that role Max setup the Americas HR Service Center in Costa Rica for The Coca-Cola Company.

Prior to joining The Coca-Cola Company, Max worked for consulting firms, such as Capgemini Consulting, helping clients like Warner Bros and McKesson in Finance, Supply Chain and Operations projects. Earlier in his career he worked for Ford Motor Company in Argentina and Lotus in Malaysia helping suppliers improve their manufacturing processes using Lean and Six Sigma.

Max received an MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University in Atlanta, a Master’s Degree in Business from the Universidad del CEMA in Buenos Aires and a Mechanical Engineering degree from the Universidad Tecnologica Nacional in Buenos Aires. Max is also a Master Black Belt and Certified Scrum Master.

Biography

Iassen Deenitchin is Head of Global Process Management at ING. He joined the global banking group in 2016, with the aim to support the execution of the Accelerate Think Forward strategy through a common process management and improvement practice centred around the customer. Prior to that, Iassen was Head of Lean and Process Management at Raiffeisenbank International and an Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company. He holds an MSc in Financial Economics from the Norwegian School of Management and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

Biography

Adjunct Professor, Health Informatics

University of Cincinnati

There are several words to describe Dr. Christopher Boone: health futurist, patient advocate, executive, professor, social scientist, and self-proclaimed “data hippie.” Boone is recognized as being a dynamic, innovative thought leader and a public voice on the power of health data and its ability to radically change the U.S. health care delivery system.

Boone currently serves as the Vice President and Global Head of the Real World Data & Analytics Center of Excellence at Pfizer, an adjunct professor in the health informatics program at the University of Cincinnati, an active board member of several influential organizations, and a co-founder of a few start-up companies. Most recently, he was honored as a 2017 40 Under 40 Leader in Minority Health Award by the National Minority Quality Forum and Congressional Black Caucus.

Boone also served as the CEO & Executive Director for the Health Data Consortium, a public-private partnership under the Obama Administration focused on advancing open health data and promoting innovation using health data in the U.S. and globally. Moreover, he launched the Real World Informatics and Digital Strategies advisory services practice at Avalere Health and ushered the American Heart Association into the digital age of research as the national lead for health informatics. 

Boone holds, or has held, appointments to some of the most influential national committees focused on health data and patient centricity, including the Board of Directors for the Stewards of Change Institute, the Executive Board of Directors for the Patient Advocate Foundation, the Executive Board of Directors for the National Patient Advocate Foundation, the Board of Directors for SHARE for Cures, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Data Across Sectors for Health (DASH) Initiative, the Interoperability Committee for the National Quality Forum, the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) Working Group on HHS Data Access and Use, the Health IT Policy Committee (federal advisory committee), and the advisory group for the American Society of Clinical Oncologists’ (ASCO) CancerLinQ initiative.    

Originally from Dallas, Texas, Dr. Boone earned a B.S. from the University of Tulsa, a M.S. from the University of Texas at Arlington, a PhD from the University of Texas at Dallas, and two executive certificates from the Harvard Kennedy School. In addition, he is a certified healthcare executive and Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Moreover, Boone has been a featured keynote speaker on digital innovation and real world data hosted by many prominent public and private organizations: President’s Cancer Panel, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Health Datapalooza, Columbia Business School, World Congress, BioData Congress, The Atlantic, HIMSS, eyeforpharma, MedCity, and many others.

Biography

Reagan is a senior business consultant specialising in transformation and change management programs with experience across Europe, the US and the Middle East. With experience across various sectors, he provides consultancy, guidance and support building on his expertise in strategy execution and the delivery of operational excellence programs across global organisations.

He has an Advanced Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt from Villanova University in the US with a focused speciality on Strategic Organisational Leadership. In the last 10 years, Reagan has established himself as an expert in Lean Thinking having worked with Lloyds Banking Group, Hertz International and recently with Transguard Group – part of the Emirates Group – leading the strategic execution and transformation programs across the group.

He is currently leading a global digital transformation program for Hertz Corporation. His extensive experience in mentoring and training ensures he is confident working with senior leaders and helping them to develop and execute their strategic aims and drive operational excellence across key areas. With a wealth of change management experience, he is able to help organisations deliver complex change programs for long lasting positive business impacts.

Biography

Bill Owad, senior vice president of Operational Excellence specializes in the strategies and tools that support the pursuit of a lean enterprise. Working with a team of nearly 150 Operational Excellence staff members and coaches aross Cardinal Health, Owad is responsible for developing and implementing an enterprise approach to Operational Excellence at Cardinal Health, ultimately improving the value delivered to the company’s customers.

In addition to his role as senior vice president, Owad also supports the extension of Operational Excellence external to Cardinal Health as the executive sponsor for the company’s relationships with the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) Partner Program, the Healthcare Value Network, The Ohio State University Fisher College Center for Operational Excellence and the Conference Board Quality Council. During his tenure, Owad has held several positions within Operational Excellence and has served as the primary architect of the company’s enterprise-wide deployment of Operational Excellence, which, over eight years, yielded significant improvements in customer loyalty, employee engagement, operational performance and working capital utilization.

Prior to joining Cardinal Health, Owad held several operations and administrative roles that have used the tools of Lean Six Sigma to transform health care provider organizations, supply chain and medical supply companies. These roles include corporate director of quality for ProMedica Health System, executive director for Cordelia Martin Health Center and several adjunct faculty positions with the College of Pharmacy at the University of Toledo and other nationally recognized programs.

Owad is also active in the community, serving in the past as board chair for the Central Ohio American Red Cross BioMedical Services, board chair for Cordelia Martin Health Center, senior examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program, and examiner / team leader for the Ohio Award for Excellence. Currently, Owad serves as a board member for the Partnership for Excellence, Mid-Ohio Foodbank, and the ASHP Research and Education Foundation.

Owad received his bachelor’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences and his Master’s of Business Administration from the University of Toledo. His post-graduate work includes the achievement of Fellow status with the American College of Healthcare Executives, multiple Lean Six Sigma certifications and continued development as a Lean leader through his work with Cardinal Health and LEI. Owad has also authored several publications and presentations on quality systems and customer loyalty. 

Biography

Nuray Gurtekin Sen has a dual role as Head of Global Quality and Process at Siemens AG Corporate Technology Digitalization and Automation organization and in US she is responsible for QM, EH&S and Sustainability at Siemens Corporation US in Corporate Technology .

In the early stages of her career, Nuray worked in food and pharmaceutical packaging manufacturing industry as QA manager for 5 years. Then she worked as an external auditor and consultant in Bureau Veritas for 2 years. During this period, she became ISO 9001, ISO 4001, OHSAS 18001 and ISO 22000 Lead Auditor and ISO 9001 Lead auditor trainer registered in IRCA. She audited over 200 hundred companies of BRC, GMP, HACCP and company specific management systems. After extensive process and management systems experience, Nuray joined Siemens Turkey Healthcare in 2006 as Change Manager. She led Siemens Healthcare in winning EFQM Business Excellence Award in 2007.

Following that, she was promoted as Siemens Turkey Head of Business Excellence and worked on all sectors and various countries (e.g. Israel, Austria and Central Eastern Europe countries). She established Lean Six Sigma model in Siemens Turkey and acted as key expert and ambassador in CEE and Eastern Mediterranean Clusters. Nuray also executed Project Management Coordinator role for Eastern Mediterranean Cluster.

In 2013, Nuray was transferred to Siemens US Corporate Technology and Research organization at Princeton to lead a big change management and organizational transformation program. End of 2013, she promoted to the Global Process and Quality Manager role at Siemens AG (Headquarters) and got selected “Corporate Core Digitalization and Automation Leadership Team”. Currently, Nuray is responsible for process excellence and quality management for the Digitalization and Automation unit in regions Germany, US, Austria, China, India and Russia. Nuray has B.S. degree in Food Engineering from Middle East Technical University in Turkey and MBA from New York University Stern School of Business. 

Biography

Alex Goryachev is an entrepreneurial go-getter. He takes risks, thinks ahead, and loves making way for new innovations. Over the past 20 years, he’s made it his business to turn disruptive concepts into emerging business models.

For him, it’s all about a passion to create a strategy and then drive it home to “get things done.” And as Cisco’s managing director of Innovation Strategy and Programs, he has plenty of opportunities to put this passion to the test.

He sparks internal innovation by providing employees at all levels the chance to share their big ideas, many of which make their way into the company’s innovation engine. Alex also carries the torch for co-innovation across Cisco’s ecosystem.

He’s especially excited about Cisco's Innovation Centers, which can be found in major cities around the world. Led by Alex, these hubs bring together customers, partners, startups, accelerators, governments, research communities, and universities in a lab setting. Their goal is to discover, develop, and implement game-changing, outcome-based solutions.

He also heads up the Cisco Innovation Grand Challenges. These polished events help creative thinkers bring their technology ideas to life. And then there’s the Cisco Technology Radar, the company’s engine for identifying emerging technology transitions.

Alex began his Cisco journey in 2004 with a singular focus: Innovation. He defined and operationalized several high-profile Cisco initiatives, including the company’s Country Transformation plan for Cisco in emerging markets. He also held senior roles in Development, Marketing, Finance, and Channels, providing him a 360 view of how a great company ticks.

Prior to Cisco, Alex was a successful consultant with extended assignments at Napster, Liquid Audio, IBM Global Services, and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals.

He was the “Emerging Stars” gold recipient of Brandon Hall Group’s 2016 Human Capital Management Excellence Awards Program, and his organization won golds for “Employee Engagement” and “Innovation Talent Management” programs. A sought-after keynoter and media authority on innovation, Alex has a passion for sharing knowledge, mentoring, and guiding innovation programs. Please reach out at agoryach@cisco.com

Biography

Biography

Steve Remsen is passionate about driving continuous improvement, advocating first principles thinking, and understanding how to harness and translate data-driven solutions into substantial and customer-oriented business results. As a senior internal technical consultant, he has successfully driven numerous continuous improvement projects across diverse functional areas of the Intel enterprise, ranging from designing functional materials on the nanometer scale to deploying strategic business process architecture on the global scale. An inspiring jack of all trades, Steve is currently a part-time MBA student at the University of Portland and holds a PhD in Experimental Solid State Physics from Northern Illinois University. He is also an Intel Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt candidate as well as a Prosci certified Change Management Practitioner.

Biography

Mr. Crotty is currently responsible for capital productivity and execution strategies for HCA's Design and Construction's $1.5B project portfolio.  Mr. Crotty has over 30 years of experience in leading a diverse set of supply chains from check printing, automotive parts to power generation in operational excellence and transformations.

He also has provided operational excellence and transformation leadership in over 40 industries to include telecomm, defense electronics and the aviation industries.  Mr. Crotty joined HCA in May of 2015 to lead the embedded Building Capital team and the extended partner advocate team leading HCA’s Design and Construction transformation.

Mr. Crotty has a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Systems Engineering from Ohio University and an MBA from Golden Gate University.  Mr. Crotty is certified Project Management Professional and Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence Lead Examiner.

Biography

José Pires serves as the Global Excellence & Innovation (E&I) Leader for Andeavor Corporation, where he oversees the global identification, prioritization and execution of mission critical business improvements and innovations that add value to the company, business partners and external clients in multiple markets.

Prior to his current role, Pires held Excellence and Innovation leadership positions in large, global companies in the electronics (Sony), semiconductor (Cymer-ASML), food (Nestlé) and infrastructure (Black & Veatch) industries. Throughout his career, Pires developed and refined E&I as an award winning program for innovation, leadership development, strategy execution and value creation globally.

Pires is an advisory board leader and keynote speaker for several global conferences on innovation, operational excellence, leadership development, strategy execution, business transformation, customer engagement and growth acceleration.

He holds a Bachelor in Engineering Physics from the University of Kansas and a Master in Business Administration focused in Investment Banking and Entrepreneurship from the University of San Diego.

Biography

Brent Williams is Director of Lean Six Sigma for enterprise corporate functions and has been at McKesson six years. Brent leads a team to consult, identify and manage process improvement initiatives by advancing the Six Sigma capabilities across McKesson's corporate functions, a $1B+ shared service. The team's mission: Increase the value of Corporate Functions services back to the business by improving operational excellence and reducing costs. During his tenure, the Corporate Functions have had the highest annual Six Sigma savings since the inception of the program.

Brent has 30+ years' experience launching new services and improving existing services to add value to the customer. He has had leadership roles in manufacturing, non-profit, and technology businesses with a focus on the shared services domains. He was an early adopter of Scrum agile methodology deploying it at an enterprise level in 2009 and is currently aligning Lean Six Sigma service with the SAFe framework now being used by McKesson technology. Brent holds an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M, a masters in biomedical engineering from the University of Virginia, and an MBA from Georgia State University.

Biography

Dave Coleman is the Finance Business Partner and Continuous Improvement Manager of Goodyear Race manufacturing. His leadership career includes positions over various functions as Controller, Operations Manager, Manager of Project Management, CFO, Director of Operations and Director of Strategic Planning.

Dave’s first significant business culture training was as a member of a transmission launch team that started a business from the ground up. Subsequently, he led a clutch manufacturing business through a 3-year culture transformation. He then successfully replicated his achievements in the company’s transmission business. Later, as a Director of Operations over 3 plants located in North Carolina, Canada and Singapore, Dave led his third culture transformation. His team received a Starship award for demonstrating lean manufacturing principles and world class safety. Dave has recently been on a 4-year transformation journey that turned a “broken plant” into an AME (Association of Manufacturing Excellence) award recipient.

He teaches culture 101 and 201 for Race manufacturing. He is a certified Krause Bell Group safety trainer and is APICS certified.

Dave’s wide community involvement has included membership in the JCs, director in Optimist club, Sunday school teacher, church board director and board member of University of Tennessee, Martin. Dave was an associate professor of business at St. Andrews Presbyterian College in North Carolina.  He coached youth sports for over thirty years, refereed high school wrestling, co-chaired Race for The Children and was a volunteer umpire. The community experience having the most impact on Dave’s community perspective was a church mission trip for flood relief in North Carolina.  Most recently Dave has accepted a board member position for the North East Ohio Medical University student run free clinic.

After living in 5 states while his father served in the military, Dave’s family settled in what he considers his home town, Carnegie, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. Between the military moves and work, Dave has lived in 11 states and now resides in Hudson, Ohio, with his wife, Kim. They enjoy spending time with family and friends and activities surrounding their 5 children. With their youngest child entering college, Dave and his wife have committed to more exercise.

He attended Clarion University of Pennsylvania on a wrestling scholarship and was a Division I National Qualifier. After receiving a degree in Accounting, Dave started his career working for a Big 8 public accounting firm. He has an MBA from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

Biography

Brian started his career with Westvaco in Forest Operations and joined International Paper in 1987. He has held roles in the company’s manufacturing and commercial operations, including the director of the company’s Russian operations, president of IP Asia, Vice President Investor Relations, and most recently Deputy CEO of Ilim Group.

Brian earned his bachelor’s degree in Biology at Brandeis University. He has a Master of Forestry degree from Duke University, and an MBA from the University of Virginia.

Brian served two terms as a Board of Visitor’s member of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University, and has served on the Board of Eisenhower Fellowships, and Carter Holt Harvey.

Brian, his wife, Margaret, and their daughter, Isabel, reside in Memphis.

Biography

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 General Electric throughout the 90’s including spells in
Manchester, Brussels, Shannon (Eire) and Connecticut.

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.

Biography

Ryan Leuty is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt for COUNTRY Financial.  With experience in DMAIC and Process Management, he has a track record of leading teams towards solutions that make their processes more efficient and mistake-free.  Ryan partners with business areas to improve the customer experience and ensure employees can focus on value-add activities.

Ryan has used Lean Six Sigma in many areas of insurance, including billing, claims, agency, commercial and farm underwriting.  His passion for cultivating the knowledge of teams and making the flow of work visible is apparent in the success of Ryan’s projects and the relationships he builds along the way.  Ryan also enjoys leading Yellow Belt classes and mentoring Green Belts.

Previously, Ryan served as Assistant Director of IT for McLean County, IL where he oversaw day-to-day operations and led several transformational projects like VoIP, point-to-point wireless, and a website overhaul.  He holds an M.B.A and a Bachelors in Systems Analysis and Design from Illinois State University.  Ryan enjoys spending time with his family, woodworking and playing guitar.

Biography

Minette Norman serves as Vice President of Engineering Practice at Autodesk and is responsible for a collaborative culture and state-of-the-art engineering practices. Minette spearheaded “radical collaboration” – initiatives that recognize engineers who contribute to one another’s code, designs, and tests. Previously, she gained international attention by transforming Autodesk’s localization team through best-in-class automation and machine translation.

Before joining Autodesk, she held a variety of technical communication and management positions at companies including Symantec and Adobe. Named in 2017 as one of the “Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business” by the San Francisco Business Times and in 2018 as one of the YWCA Silicon Valley’s “Tribute to Women” Honorees, Minette is a recognized industry expert with a unique perspective.

Minette has a broad approach to community service, working with local, national and international non-profit organizations. She serves on the Board of Directors of D-Rev, a non-profit devoted to developing medical technologies for impoverished and vulnerable populations worldwide. Minette also works with GirlsWhoCode and YesWeCode, national organizations that help under-represented populations succeed in the technology sector.

Minette holds degrees in Drama and French from Tufts University and studied at the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris.

Biography

In her current role, she leads the operational excellence and transformation strategies for Transport Solutions NA/EMEA and its partnering dealer network.  She has led successful business transformations globally and has extensive experience in leading teams to accomplish breakthrough results. 

Prior to this role, she was integrated supply chain leader for Fluid Management, Material Handling and Power Tools, she drove continued improvement of the value streams and was responsible for a supply chain strategy to optimize performance in critical operational areas, including cycle time, safety, quality, delivery and productivity for three of the company’s 11 strategic business units.

Griselda joined Ingersoll Rand in January 2013 as a director in operational excellence with our residential solutions business in Tyler, Texas. She was appointed in January 2014 to one of two regional operational excellence leader roles for North America and was appointed vice president, operational excellence in November 2014. Prior to Ingersoll Rand, she was with Honeywell as director, global growth; Flowserve as a multi-site leader; Volvo-Novabus as senior manufacturing engineering manager; and AlliedSignal-Honeywell as lean supervisor and global transitions leader.

Griselda holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Stanford University, which includes overseas study in economics from the Pontificía Universidad Católica de Chile, and a master’s degree in business administration from Arizona State University. She has also earned her Lean Master certification from Shingijutsu and Honeywell, and is a member of Prospanica, the National Society for Hispanic MBA’s, a member of the Society of Women and Hispanic Professional Engineers, and is the current Chair for the Women in Manufacturing national association.

Biography

Loren is the Director of the Lean Management Office at State Street Corporation.

He has worked in the Lean Management Office (LMO) for the last 8 years and has led the team for the last 4 years. Prior to that, he worked in a number of leadership roles in financial services; spending most of his time in Client Service and Relationship Management as well as Operations Management. It was during that time that he was involved in many client and internal initiatives which introduced him to process improvement methodologies and project management and laid the foundation for a career in operational excellence.

State Street is the second oldest financial institution in the United States providing investment management, research and trading, investment servicing and data analytics solutions to institutional clients. The company operates in 100 geographic markets worldwide and has over $30 trillion of assets under custody and administration and over $2.5 trillion under management.

State Street’s LMO exists to build a sustainable culture of problem solving, innovation and process improvement that enhances the customers’ experience, empowers employees and creates shareholder value. To accomplish this mission, the LMO has developed a strategy and approach to embed continuous improvement and innovation into the culture of State Street that will enable the Lean Management System to be part of their DNA and the way that they work.

Biography

Phillip Murphy is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with the United States Postal Service. He is part of the Headquarters Continuous Improvement team and is responsible for supporting the USPS CI work across the country. His passion for Lean is evident in his support of various processes within the USPS and his diverse portfolio of work.

Phil began his Lean journey in 2007 while he was a maintenance manager in a plant environment. Since then he has served in several positions at the plant, area and national levels during which times he was also serving as a coordinator for the Lean efforts within each area of responsibility. His blend of maintenance, operations and headquarters experience has provided a unique perspective which allows him to easily relate to the various project teams with which he has worked.

Phil joined the USPS Continuous Improvement Office as an LSS Trainer responsible for developing and delivering the Green Belt and Black Belt curriculum to students across the country in 2014. In 2016 he transitioned to the role of Master Black Belt where he focuses on coaching leadership and working to further integrate Lean into the culture of the US Postal Service. Keeping with his passion for teaching and sharing Lean, Phil is responsible for the Lean Leader program which is used to further develop high performing Black Belts within the US Postal Service. 

Phil received his Master Black Belt certification through The Ohio State University, Fisher College of Business and MoreSteam in 2017. He has also earned the CSSBB certification from the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and is a graduate of the United States Postal Service Managerial Leadership and Lean Leader programs.

Biography

VP Operational Excellence - Diageo North America, Plainfield, Illinois, USA

Manage a team of 53 subject matter experts developing best practices, establishing standardization, building capabilities, providing technical support and assuring compliance of 5 manufacturing sites, 5 distilleries and 12 sales offices

Responsibilities: Environment, Health & Safety, Quality, Food Safety, Customer Care, Risk, Regulatory, Custom & Trade, Security & Manufacturing Excellence for Diageo North America

Acquired a solid manufacturing experience and expertise in Safety excellence, lean manufacturing, total quality and Continuous improvement with large organizations in the various aspects of a total supply chain.

Previous roles:  Project engineer, maintenance manager, safety chair, packaging & brewing operation management, plant operation and corporate governance.

Joined Diageo on September 2007.  Previously worked 20 years in the beer industry for Labatt Brewing Company and Latrobe Brewing Company in various locations in Canada and the US

Electrical Engineer from Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal & Brewmaster from Scandinavian Brewing School in Denmark

Fluent: English & French

Member of the OIQ and the Institute of Brewing

Other interest: Back country hiking, fly fishing and Hockey

Biography

Responsibilities: Agustin Stengel is Fannie Mae’s Vice President – WoW (Way of Working). Agustin is responsible for instilling WoW for top executive teams, and designing the overall WoW maturity program to deepen the adoption of its principles and tools; developing team capabilities; and improving knowledge and methodologies on the maturity of the WoW program. WoW is centering the company’s culture on customer service and continuous improvement.

Experience: Prior to joining Fannie Mae in April 2017, Stengel was Vice President – Continuous Improvement at Voya Financial. Before that, he was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company.

Education: Stengel has an industrial engineering degree from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica Argentina and a master of business administration from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

Biography

Biography

Corey Rathburn is a seasoned Process Improvement and Operations Excellence professional with 15 years of experience driving effective and positive change in various industries spanning from Healthcare to Consumer Goods.

Corey received his degree in Industrial Engineering and Logistics at Purdue University. He began his career as a project engineer with Avery Dennison where he went on to receive his Six Sigma Black Belt certification and lead record-breaking new product launches. 

He then joined the healthcare world leading Lean, Six Sigma, and Process Improvement projects for Quest Diagnostics and HCA (Sunrise Hospital).  During his time at HCA, he led many throughput and Process Improvement initiatives in the Emergency Department and Operating Room.  Then later at Sunrise, Corey worked in administration as the Chief Staffing Officer and Associate COO.  In this role, Corey oversaw all aspects of labor management, focused on overall patient flow of the hospital, and had various departments he was responsible for.  During this time, Corey received his MBA with a focus on Healthcare Administration.

Before joining Providence St. Joseph Health, Corey was a Master Black Belt and oversaw Global Operations of the Process Improvement program at Anheuser-Busch InBev, responsible for establishing and developing a framework for the company's global Continuous Improvement Program. 

Corey’s first role at Providence St. Joseph was the Master Black Belt at Holy Cross Medical Center.  While at Holy Cross, Corey focused on Patient Flow improvement, implementation of HRO/Learning Boards, facilitating various process work-out events, and continuing to develop the culture of improvement and empowerment at the ministry.  Currently, he focuses on Clinical Excellence and Value Orientation Architecture for the Southern California region.

Biography

Kishore leads the business process architecture and automation practice for CSAA Insurance Group with 18 years of Business Architecture experience spread over high-tech, consumer electronics and insurance industries. He is passionate about bringing process perspective to every aspect of the business; from marketing, product and manufacturing to customer and service domains.

Biography

I have worked for the National Health Service (NHS) for 28 years, 15 of which as a Community Matron and a District Nurse, prior to that working in an acute hospital on a general medical and haematology ward.  During that time I became an Independent Prescriber, gained a teaching qualification as had passion for teaching and improving management of patients with long term or terminal conditions.  I was nominated by one of the Nursing Homes I supported for the Kate Granger Compassionate Care Award in 2014.  I was a finalist which was such an honour and led to having a raised profile which helped secure my next post.   

I have four years experience in my current role as ‘Matron, Achieving Excellence (AE)’ at the Royal Surrey County Hospital, in Surrey.  AE is an internal accreditation programme for identifiying improvements and excellence within the organisation as well as areas for improvement in both our clinical and non clinical departments.

I moved into this current role to improve my career development, experienceing something new as I felt I needed to be more directly involved in improving NHS services.  My role helps wards and other clinical areas to share good practice and further improve.  My work involves carrying out comprehensive assessments to ensure all wards and departments within the hospital are operating efficiently and effectively within local and national Key Performance Indicators and policy.   Also, promoting multidisciplinary working and responsibility for moving AE forward in their own departments, with standardised processes and sharing of evidence of learning.

I enjoy  that my work supports the organisation to be more open on information that is shared.  This information allows others to see where there are further areas for improvement and areas of good practice to share.  My work supports the organisation become more structured and coordinated, and enables me to work in areas I have not previously experienced before during my NHS nursing career. 

Most recently as a finalist in the National Patient Safety Awards, 2018, in the category for ‘changing culture’ - relating to supporting medical clinicians to work closely with nursing and allied health professionals in leading a clinical area and ensuring its success in continually improving and working together.

Biography

Daniel Fahey is the Director of Global Operational Excellence at Martin Brower in Rosemont, IL.   

He has led Martin Brower’s Global Operational Excellence strategy for the last 3 years. Prior to that, he worked in a number of leadership roles across several manufacturing industries. He spent most of his time leading continuous improvement initiatives and multi-site functional departments such as maintenance, materials, and production systems. Through these roles and industries, he learned how core process improvement methodologies can be tailored to suit different cultures and laid the foundation for a career in operational excellence.

Martin Brower has been in business for over 60 years and is dedicated to being the leading supply chain solutions provider for restaurant chains around the world, creating an outstanding work environment for our employees and delivering unmatched value for our customers while protecting their brands. The company is comprised of a world class team of 9000 employees located in 19 countries and operates over 60 distribution centers to service our customers.

Martin Brower’s Operational Excellence culture drives the organization to become the leading supply chain solutions provider for restaurant chains around the world through investing in our talent and cultural development, standardizing our best practices, and continuously improving business processes.

Daniel has a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University and is a Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.

Biography

Biography

Michael Greenidge is the IT Director/Sector Manager of Enterprise Applications at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Massachusetts.  In his role, Michael provides strategic leadership and directions for developing, implementing, and supporting enterprise business applications.

Since joining MIT Lincoln Laboratory in 2009, Michael has contributed to a numerous improvement initiatives.  Most recently, successfully directing a major initiative to move the Laboratory’s ERP environment to a modern platform in the Cloud.  In his current role, he also serves as one of the leaders for the overall Laboratory Digital Enterprise Transformation program, where he is partnering with the Business Transformation Office to simplify processes, modernize business applications, and build an integrated data architecture.

Michael has nearly 30 years of experience implementing and deploying global and enterprise-wide business applications.  Throughout his career, he has effectively applied his business and technical leadership to transform business application landscapes in support of an organization mission.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Rice University, a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from Texas Southern University and an MBA from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Biography

Biography

Rose Manjarres serves as Senior Vice President, Digital & Technology, and is responsible for product engineering for CBRE’s global Marketing and Research applications portfolio.  She is also responsible for leading the agile transformation and improving employee engagement for the Digital & Tech organization globally.

Ms. Manjarres joined CBRE in April 2012 as Vice President, Information Technology responsible for PeopleSoft, Business Intelligence, and JDE applications support and delivery.  She was promoted to Senior Vice President in 2014.

Ms. Manjarres has over 30 years of experience leading large scale, multi-site software development, delivery and support organizations. She possesses a diverse background leading multifaceted complex international projects, managing all phases of the software development lifecycle, and leading global teams to deliver mission critical Enterprise Applications. 

Prior to CBRE, Ms. Manjarres was employed with Perot Systems Corporation (later acquired by Dell Corporation) for 17 years.  The first 15 years were spent in IT supporting, developing and managing Dell's internal PeopleSoft and Microsoft application development teams with a focus on Human Capital Management (HCM) and Finance.  Over the remaining two years, she focused on building and leading Dell’s PeopleSoft and Business Intelligence Global Applications Management Outsourcing practice, growing the practice to include service offerings around PeopleSoft Higher Education and further expanding Dell’s capabilities around Oracle’s BI products.  She began her career as a Programmer Analyst at Adistra Corporation in 1988 and later joined Electronic Data Systems as a Systems Engineer in 1989 where she was with the company for six years prior to joining Perot Systems Corporation.

In her spare time Rose enjoys bicycling, traveling and enjoys spending time with her family and friends.

Biography

Holly Rogers is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt for the Enterprise Lean and Operational Excellence division of Farmers Insurance.  As a Black Belt, Holly is part of a team that assists the organization in streamlining processes across the enterprise.  In addition, she uses her strong facilitation and communication skills to lead the Yellow Belt certification program at Farmers and trains and coaches interested employees in learning basic problem solving skills to achieve Yellow Belt certification.

Holly has a 34 year history with Farmers Insurance, with a prior background in project management and business analysis, legal work, marketing, and actuarial reporting.  Holly has also been an active participant in the Women’s Inclusion Network at Farmers, leading the Mercer Island chapter in Washington state.

Holly has several industry designations such as the CLU, ChFC, LUTCF, AIRC, and FLMI and earned most of these through the American College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

Biography

Steve is a passionate international speaker and writer having over 20 years’ experience in global multi-site supply chain planning for Fortune 100 & 500 manufacturing companies of retail consumable goods, chemical plants, and medical device products. He has also led numerous IBP / S&OP / SIOP implementations and enhancement projects over his career. Currently, as the Director of Supply Chain for Newell Brands – Shakespeare Company, he oversees the IBP process, production planning, procurement, warehousing, and logistics to service numerous omnichannel retailers including Walmart, The Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Amazon

Biography

Elli Hurst is responsible for the strategy and development of Cognitive Enterprise Automation with a particular focus on automation for application management.

Elli's experience includes over 20 years in leadership roles within IBM in the application development management and innovation space, including deep expertise in global delivery models.

Biography

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

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

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

He speaks English, Hungarian and Spanish

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

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

Biography

Anu George is Chief Quality Officer for Morningstar. She is responsible for providing strategic direction to Morningstar’s operational excellence & continuous improvement initiatives. She works at the intersection of operational excellence, human behavior & technology. Anu is an avid reader, and has an eclectic choice of the books she reads. She enjoys learning and experimenting with new thoughts in the world of change management, organizational behavior, operational excellence, LEAN & Agile.

Anu has more than 20 years of experience in operations management and Lean Six Sigma. Before joining Morningstar in 2010, she had worked for Unilever and GE. She is a frequent speaker on topics including business process excellence and leadership.

Anu holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and accounting and a master’s degree in business administration, with a specialization in marketing, from the University of Mumbai. 

Biography

Biography

Biography

Biography

Alina Aronova is Chief of Staff for the Global Product Technology organization at Cengage. She is responsible for driving meaningful business transformation and operational maturity through the development and implementation of strategic and tactical initiatives across all functional areas of the technology group. She is also in charge of the management and execution of all activities for the Chief Technology Officer's Transformation Office and oversees the Program Management Organization and Agile teams.

With a strong track record in business transformation in diverse functional areas, industries, and organizations from start-ups to global enterprises, Alina is committed to tackling the challenges and complications that companies face in a multitude of stages. She has an ability to build actionable and executional workflows to deliver results.

Prior to joining Cengage in 2014, Alina was VP of Process Management for Euro-Pro LLC where she drove new business development, built a center of excellence, and overhauled the talent strategy in the program management function. Prior to Euro-Pro, she spent three years at the John Hancock Life Insurance Company, where she was responsible for ensuring the completion of global regulatory and compliance initiatives, rolling out project management processes and infrastructure and directing global-scale IT projects.

Alina has a reputation amongst her colleagues as a trusted advisor, natural relationship builder and persuasive change evangelist. She holds an MBA from Babson College and a Bachelor's degree from Northeastern University. She resides in Newton, MA with her husband and two sons.

Biography

Dr. Gallagher is Senior Vice President of Operational Excellence for CACI International Inc, a $4 billion information systems solutions and services company. In this role, he is responsible for CACI’s integrated program management and delivery methods, process effectiveness, quality assurance, and continuous improvement initiatives.     

Prior to this position, Brian was the Director of Engineering and Mission Assurance for Northrop Grumman’s Intelligence and Cyber Divisions where he provided leadership critical to mission success involving engineering, quality assurance, process effectiveness, program execution, and supplier assurance.   

Previously Dr. Gallagher served as Director of Acquisition Support at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), Carnegie Mellon University, leading teams serving the Department of Defense and other government agencies. He also served in the U.S. Air Force, with assignments as Deputy Chief of Software Engineering with the Air Intelligence Agency; Chief Engineer on the Range Operations Control Center Project at Cape Canaveral in Florida; program manager on the Titan IV Program; and as an engineer with the Strategic Air Command. 

Dr. Gallagher earned a PhD in Systems Engineering through Colorado State University, an MS degree in Computer Science from the Florida Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Technology degree from Peru State College. He is Six Sigma trained, PMP certified, and is certified as a CMMI high maturity lead appraiser for CMMI for Development and CMMI for Services. He is an associate fellow of AIAA and a member of IEEE, NDIA, PMI, AFCEA, and INCOSE, as well as a contributing author of the Guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK).  Dr. Gallagher is an associate professor at University of Maryland, University College where he teaches graduate course in Systems Engineering and Information Technology.

Biography

Ira founded T5 Equity Partners, LLC as the direct, private equity investing affiliate of a family office.  He has completed nine acquisitions including several manufacturing companies, military parts businesses, oil and gas companies, and a bank.  Ira serves as Chairman of five of the companies and as Chairman of the Credit and Compliance Committees of the bank.  He focuses on oversight of company operations, new business development, acquisitions and joint ventures with other family offices and companies.   Ira is also a Founder of the Cleantech Family Office Syndicate, and has developed a program with the U.S. Department of Commerce, Minority Business Development Agency.

Ira has completed over $15 billion of restructuring, turnaround and bankruptcy/distressed M&A transactions in over 50 industries, as a banker, investment banker and principal.  His own financial advisory firm, Cove Capital Advisors, Inc., completed over $5.5 billion of assignments. Among the more notable engagements were appointment as Trustee of the $700 million, Daewoo International (America) Corporation bankruptcy trust and serving as exclusive financial advisor to JP Morgan Chase on two multi-billion dollar bankruptcies.

Biography

Helen is an experienced and passionate healthcare innovator and futurist.  She has expertise in partnering with c-suite executives and peers, team development, execution of strategic planning and global governance programs, building international collaborations, client loyalty programs and helping to formulate global best practice solution portfolios.   

She has served in three Fortune companies and non-for profit organizations such as Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS).   Additionally, she has supported, consulted and guided several start-up health IT companies to successful next steps such as LumiraDx, HealthBox, Haven Health and Carefully, Inc among others.  Helen has achieved HIMSS fellow status and secured HIMSS healthcare IT certification. 

Helen has served on several national committees and Boards such as HIMSS, CHIME, The Sullivan Institute for Healthcare Innovation, WEDI, State University of New York’s Global Institute for Health and Human Rights and State University of New York’s School of Public Health.  Helen serves in several senior advisory roles such as for the Albany College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Sciences President’s Council, the National Health IT Collaborative for the Underserved, Inc. based in Washington, D.C., New York State’s HIMSS National Liaison and is Chair, Health 2.0 Boston.

Helen has secured service and career awards, published and lectured extensively in healthcare and regularly presents and authors on healthcare technology.  She holds academic appointments at University of Maryland, the Sage Colleges, New York and Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Science, Boston.  She holds a Baccalaureate in Science, a Doctorate of Pharmacy, an MBA in healthcare administration, completed a drug information research fellowship, is a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt and Six Sigma Lean Sensei.

Helen has been  recognized by Health 2.0 as a “Ten Year Industry Leader”.  For three consecutive years, 2016, 2017 and 2018, Helen has been named “Most Powerful Women in Healthcare IT” by Health Data Management.  She was named in 2018 on Becker’s prestigious “Women to Know in Healthcare IT” listing.  Helen is a career coach, mentor and passionate about supporting the environment. She volunteers her time and raises money for several philanthropic organizations including the Alzheimer’s Association. 

In her spare time, Helen mentors for organizations interested in positioning product development and go to market strategies in healthcare such as Carefully, Inc. where she serves as one of the original founders and as Chief Communications and Public Relations Officer.  Helen is Chief Strategy Officer for MedicaSoft based in Arlington, Va.

Biography

As the CMMI Institute’s Director of IP Development and Chief Architect of CMMI Products and Services, Ron brings over 34 years of experience with continual performance improvement, quality, and process management to supporting the development and launch of CMMI Products, including CMMI V2.0, the Medical Device Discovery Appraisal Program (MDDAP), and Cybersecurity Assessment products. 

Ron is a Certified High Maturity Lead Appraiser (CHMLA), certified Instructor, and experienced consultant in the CMMI Institute’s Capability Maturity Model Integration with over 300 appraisals completed to date with multiple global industries and small and large (e.g., Fortune 50/500) organizations, including aerospace, automotive (e.g., U.S. Army Tank Command, Tier 2 and 3 automotive Suppliers, BMW, Volvo), biomedical, defense, finance, healthcare, insurance, IT, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and systems and software integrators.

Ron has also successfully held numerous executive and management roles for product and solution development, service delivery, and supplier management. In these roles, he has managed both small and large teams and projects delivering high-quality software, hardware, systems, and services to a wide variety of clients who are still using those products and services today.   This experience also includes agile, DevOps, and CMMI High Maturity-based development and services efforts.  Besides using the CMMI, Ron has extensive experience delivering solutions to clients leveraging ISO, and numerous other continual improvement and quality models and standards. 

Ron is an accomplished, senior quality and continual improvement executive and advisor and is an internationally recognized leader in several key organizations:

• CMMI V2.0 Chief Architect
• Former CMMI V2.0 Sponsor, Architecture Working Group representative, and advisor
• Senior Member of the American Society for Quality (ASQ)
• Member of the United States ISO 9000 Technical Committee (ISO/TC 176 or TAG 176)
• Former member of the Conference Board Quality Council
• Former corporate representative and liaison to the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) and ASQ

Ron is an ISO 9001 2015 Lead Auditor and is an ASQ Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence (CMQ/OE).

Biography

Peter Fritsche is Vice President, Global Operations at Data Sciences International (DSI). His responsibilities include: process engineering, supply chain leadership, manufacturing, logistics, client services, documentation, continuous improvement and technical support. Prior to DSI, Peter was Director of Global Quality at both Emerson and Honeywell. He has also worked at ADC and FSI International. 

Peter is a hands-on leader, driven by a passion to create value-based improvements that result in higher customer loyalty and substantial savings for his company. Throughout his career, he has performed at a very high level in many technical and managerial functions including: design, manufacturing, quality, safety, supply chain and product management. By engaging team-members, utilizing appropriate improvement tools and implementing necessary system-level changes for continued success; Peter has established a strong history of permanently solving the “unsolvable” product performance and reliability issues while shortening lead-times, reducing cost-of-goods-sold (COGS) and improving other key balance sheet metrics.

Peter is a six-sigma black belt and an instructor at Manufacturers Alliance where he currently leads Six-sigma green belt certification classes. He achieved a B.S. in Engineering Mechanics from UW-Madison and earned an MBA from the University of St. Thomas.

Biography

Biography

Gerald A. (Jerry) Faunt is the Vice President of Quality for Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. and a Colonel in the United States Army (Reserve).  Jerry has held progressive positions and been an executive in automotive, commercial and defense aerospace and private equity.  In the military, Jerry has held command and staff positions with multiple combat deployments from company through battalion and brigade to serving as the Executive Officer to the Deputy Commanding General – Operations, U.S. Forces – Afghanistan and the Deputy Chief of Staff – Operations, NATO Resolute Support Mission.  Jerry holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and Master of Science in Manufacturing Engineering from Wayne State University, and a Master of Science in Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College.

Biography

Each day, Steve looks forward to meeting new people, new challenges, learning, and opportunities to bring business performance, competitiveness and growth to new levels.

Steve is the Vice President of Operational Excellence for Greene Group Industries, a privately-held major supplier to leading industrial manufacturers, with locations across the USA in California, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.  Reporting to the President, Steve works across the company’s business units and functional areas driving organizational alignment and fostering a customer focused culture to support the goal of continuously improving competitive advantage.

Prior to the Greene Group, Steve spent 20 plus years working internationally, gaining experience and expertise across industries and disciplines.  He has worked seven years in management consulting, seven years in operational leadership roles, five years running a high-tech start-up, and served four years in the United States Air Force, where he was awarded the Air Force Achievement Medal.

A firm believer in understanding fundamentals, Steve strives to make sure that all team members understand what constitutes the foundation of their organization’s competitive advantage and how each person’s role strengthens that foundation.  He is focused on providing the leadership, strategies, and development needed to help enable individuals to more productively contribute to the organization’s success.

Biography

With more than 20 years’ experience in Operational functional and business HR roles Sarbari has worked in over 5 countries across multiple sectors including manufacturing, retail, distribution and services.

Prior to joining Cummins Distribution in the US, Sarbari led the HR organization for Cummins in the Middle East based in Dubai in the UAE. Prior to relocating to the UAE, Sarbari led the HR team for a Greenfield venture for Reliance Industries one of the largest Petrochemical producers in India. She leads People Strategy, HR Operational and Process Excellence, Workforce Analytics in her current role for Cummins Distribution which operates in almost 90 countries and has over 16,000 employees.  Her expertise covers strategic business partner roles, Talent Management, Workforce planning and strategy, HR process excellence organizational and employee development, HR metrics & reporting, succession planning, and performance management. 

Sarbari holds a Bachelor in English Literature and an MBA from Calcutta University. She is a candidate for the 2018 Global Fellow of Talent Management at The Wharton School. She is certified Six Sigma Green Belt and a certified SWP practitioner and is currently dabbling in Organization Design and Change Management.

Biography

Erin Pelletier is employed at Care England, the second largest health system in Rhode Island, as the Director of Operational Excellence. Here, she has led multiple transformation projects yielding savings over $100 million. As the organization continues to improve, she is installing an integrated approach to system-wide performance improvement activities designed to drive transformational change and maximize financial results.

Erin holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from the University of New Haven, B.S. degree in Mathematics with a concentration in statistics, and is a certified Project Management Professional and Six Sigma Green belt.

Erin lives in scenic Connecticut with her husband and three children. She enjoys cooking and any activity outdoors such as hiking, passing the football, or lounging on the beach.

Biography

Stefan currently leads innogy Consulting’s Operations & Lean Practice and has more than 15 years of international operational excellence and lean experience in the energy industry. He has implemented large-scale Lean and Change transformation programs in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany, and eastern Europe, with the result of enabling more than 40,000 employees and training 300 experts. He has also led operational excellence and lean projects along a major utility’s entire value chain, from exploration and production to retail and cross-functions.

innogy Consulting is an energy-focused management consulting firm with operations in North America, Europe, and the Middle East. Its 200 consultants drive projects from performance improvement to innovation and change management to corporate finance for leading U.S. energy companies intent on fortifying their businesses for the future.

Biography

Kevin J. Duggan is a renowned expert in applying advanced lean techniques to achieve Operational Excellence and the author of four books on the subject: Design for Operational Excellence: A Breakthrough Strategy for Business Growth, Creating Mixed Model Value Streams, Operational Excellence in Your Office: A Guide to Achieving Autonomous Value Stream Flow with Lean Techniques and Beyond the Lean Office: A Novel on Progressing from Lean Tools to Operational Excellence.

As the Founder of the Institute for Operational Excellence, the leading educational center on Operational Excellence, and Duggan Associates, an international training and advisory firm, Kevin has assisted many major corporations worldwide, including FMC Technologies, Chromalloy, Aetna, SpaceX, Caterpillar, Pratt & Whitney, Singapore Airlines, Sikorsky, IDEX Corporation and Parker Hannifin. A recognized expert on Operational Excellence, Kevin is a frequent keynote speaker, master of ceremonies, and panelist at international conferences, and has appeared on CNN and the Fox Business Network.

Biography

Jeff Holmquist leads business transformation at Crowe to accelerate improvements to the efficiency and effectiveness of the firm overall and its internal and external business units. Crowe is a public accounting, consulting, and technology firm that combines deep industry and specialized expertise with innovation. The firm consistently achieves client engagement scores far exceeding industry averages and has received numerous accolades as a great place to work, including being named to the 2018 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list.

His career has focused on operational excellence, from transformation to continuous improvement; project and change management; and the application of technology, including agile product development. He has primarily worked as an internal and external consultant in a variety of industries and for companies of all sizes and stages of growth.

Jeff has an MBA from the University of Chicago, and Bachelor of Science degrees in Accountancy and Organizational Behavior form the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In addition to family involvement, he is active in his community, loves to travel, and tries to lead a healthy lifestyle.

Biography

Sean Tinney is CTO of IBM's Intelligent Automation Innovation Center, leading an interdisciplinary team focused on solving complex business problems leveraging the latest in automation technology. His team tackles transformation that is lead by the business agenda - starting with how business process can be enabled by technology (instead of technology dictating business process) - and takes an integrated approach to leveraging the full range of automation from basic to advanced. 

Biography

Matthew Krathwohl is working to bring about profound change to his organization and help take it to a different level of effectiveness. Crowe is an accounting, consulting, and technology firm and 2018 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For. Previously, he was Innovation Program Director at the University of Notre Dame where he sought to fully establish its Certified Innovation Mentor program as the recognized standard for innovation education across all industries. He was also Executive Director of Innovation for over a decade at Beacon Health System in South Bend, IN guiding the system’s innovation strategy while also serving as Lead Faculty for its sponsored community-based innovation center. He is an accomplished leader with over 25 years of experience in leading key strategic initiatives. His history of success includes: transforming organizations by introducing innovation and process improvement methodologies, building high performing teams that accomplish organizational objectives, developing strategic alliances for new forms of profitable growth, and analyzing the financial impact of key business decisions. Matthew is frequently called for presentations on building innovation competency, capability, and culture. Most recently, he helped develop and launch the aforementioned Certified Innovation Mentor program, founded by Notre Dame, Beacon Health System, and Whirlpool Corporation.

His diverse background includes serving as an adjunct professor at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business and Director of Business Development and later a Director of Finance at Whirlpool’s global headquarters. His professional experience also includes management consulting positions with RSM and EY.

Matthew received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Management with Highest Distinction and a Master of Science degree in Management from Purdue University. He is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive) and a GE Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.

He actively participates in civic, academic, and faith-based volunteer activities. When he isn’t enjoying his family or working, you’ll find him listening to his favorite music.

Biography

Randy Shumway founded the Cicero Group (www.cicerogroup.com) in 2001 with four people working out of abasement. At the beginning of 2017, when Randy stepped down as CEO, Cicero had grown to over 350 professionals with offices crossing the United States. In 2016, Randy was awarded Utah’s Lifetime Achievement award and wasnamed CEO of the Year in recognition of his professional accomplishments.

Randy’s vision in founding Cicero was to deliver more than mere strategic recommendations to organizations but to actually roll-up his sleeves and help organizations effectively execute the ideas.

During his more than 16 years at Cicero, Randy has led multiple transformation and change managementengagements for Fortune 1000 clients in such sectors as High Tech, Telecommunications, Life Sciences,Manufacturing, Financial Services, Consumer Products and Education.Having stepped down as CEO, Randy currently leads the Change Management and Transformation practice at Cicero,as well as the firm’s private equity subsidiary.

Randy is on the corporate board of Snowhite and of Angoss Software (TSX: ANC). He serves on two state appointedboards – the state’s Economic Council and its Education Commission. Randy serves on multiple volunteer boards suchas Southern Utah University, Utah’s Employment Taskforce, Boy Scouts of America Great Salt Lake Council, and EducationFirst. He is a prolific author in the Deseret News and in Forbes regarding effective education and economicpublic policy.

Prior to starting Cicero, Randy was the Executive Vice President and Managing Partner at Answerthink. He started hiscareer at Bain & Company.

Randy obtained his MBA from Harvard Business School, graduating with highest academichonors (Baker Scholar).

Biography

Dr. Trent Kaufman is the Chief Executive Officer of the Cicero Group (www.cicerogroup.com).In 2006, he sold to Cicero the education transformation firm he had founded five years earlier.

Today, that company, Education Direction (www.eddirection.com), is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cicero and works with over one thousand schools around the world to measurably improve student learning.Dr. Kaufman is respected globally for developing sophisticated systems to enable the use ofperformance data to maximize individual and team performance at organizations of variedpurpose and form. He is a leading author of two best-selling books regarding organizational transformation.

Prior to becoming a leader in organizational design and transformation, Dr. Kaufman’s first“career” was in public education. He began as a social studies teacher in Washington D.C.before becoming a high school principal in the Bay Area of California.Dr. Kaufman received a bachelor’s degree in Social Science, with an emphasis in Economics,from Brigham Young University. He earned a master’s degree in Education and Leadership from the University of California, Berkeley. Trent earned a master’s degree in Policy Managementand a doctorate in Performance Management from Harvard University.Dr. Kaufman’s public service includes volunteer leadership positions with the Boy Scouts of America, church service, and advisory board roles with the Nike Innovation Fund, StrayerUniversity, and High School Futures.

Biography

As the Global Leader of IBM Automation’s CoE Offering, Ben collaborates with clients on their automation-led transformations with best practices from his many years of Automation CoE leadership.

His expertise includes designing and delivering CoEs that integrate IT and Business to enable rapid, scalable benefits realization from Cognitive Virtual Agents, Machine Learning and Robotic Process Automation using industry-leading platforms. His previous experience includes global leadership of industrialized software delivery systems and Agile transformations. 

Recent Achievements:

Co-chaired an Enterprise CoE leading the first cognitive and robotic deployments inside a major North American bank; achieved over 30 FTE reduction in one year 

Leads the engagement, initialization and delivery of Automation COEs across multiple clients 

Led IBM’s consulting Agile Go-to-Market strategy, transforming GBS to market leader in under 18 months 

Concepted and managed IBM’s Software Automation factory, from internal startup of <20 people to over 22,000 in just five years

Biography

Lawrence Cowan is a Partner at Cicero Group (www.cicerogroup.com) and leads Cicero’sAdvanced Analytics Practice. Lawrence has spent the last decade building Cicero's analytics practice and has experience using data to help Fortune 500 firms solve real business challengessuch as attrition, segmentation, sales prioritization, change management, pricing, business transformation, and customer satisfaction.

Lawrence is also the firm’s leader in predictive analytics and Big Data related engagements, applying Cicero’s deep expertise in strategy execution to ensure data delivers ROI. He partners with companies to help them shift from reactive to predictive analytics, allowing management to make better, faster decisions that move the business forward.

Lawrence is a frequent speaker and thought leader in the advanced analytics space, and hasserved as chairperson for the Data Analytics Leaders Event. His views and recommendations on Big Data and advanced analytics have been published in CIO Review and Predictive Analytics Times.

Lawrence earned a master’s degree in Predictive Analytics from Northwestern University, anMBA in Business Economics from Westminster College, and a bachelor’s degree in Communications from Brigham Young University.

Biography

Kyle Mielke is a Certified Black Belt at Cardinal Health a fortune 15 health care services company.  He has spent the past year as part of the Medical Commercial Operations team running special projects for this group.  Kyle spent the previous 4 years as part of the Operational Excellence division that has engaged more than 18,000 employees in 6,000+ projects improving processes an average of 40 to 60 percent. 

He was able to take his 15 years of sales experience coupled with his passion and training on Lean Six Sigma to successfully lead several different Lean Six Sigma projects with the sales and marketing teams.  One project was able to free up sales reps from customer service activities to create more selling time.  Another was creating an integrated selling model between two of the sales teams.  He has also consulted with many different groups inside Cardinal Health helping them implement the Cardinal Health Operating Model.

Biography

Biography

Dr. Kirchmer is a visionary leader, thought leader and innovator in the field of Business Process Management (BPM), combining his broad practical business experience with his extensive academic research. He has added significant value to organizations of various sizes and industries in an international environment.

Most recently, Dr. Kirchmer co-founded BPM-D, a company focused on establishing and applying the BPM-Discipline for strategy execution in a digital world. BPM-D was named by CIO Review one of the 20 Enterprise Architecture solution providers to watch and by InsightsSuccess one of the 50 most valuable Tech Start-ups in the US. Before he was Accenture’s Managing Director & Global Lead for BPM and CEO of the Americas & Japan for IDS Scheer, best known for its ARIS software. 

Dr. Kirchmer remains involved in academia as an affiliated faculty member at University of Pennsylvania, Widener University, Philadelphia University and guest professor at the Universidad de Chile. In 2004, he received a research and teaching fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Dr. Kirchmer has published 6 books and over 120 articles.

Dr. Kirchmer holds a PhD in Information Systems from Saarbrucken University, Germany, a Master in Business Informatics from Karlsruhe Technical University, Germany, as well as a Master in Economics from Paris-IX-Dauphine University, France.

Biography

For nearly 25 years, Rob and his team have been helping organizations “get people on the same page” for deploying Lean, Six Sigma, Operational Excellence, and Project Management.  OpusWorks has pioneered the wise, and customized, application of advanced blended learning and execution technologies so customers can accelerate skill-building, propel culture change, and increase ROI.

Rob began his career with IBM and he is a graduate of Emory University in Atlanta.

Biography

Jim de Vries is a skilled thought leader with more than 30 years of experience helping clients achieve their desired outcomes through his ability to facilitate teams and drive improvement. His experience encompasses financial, commercial, CRM, services, IT, call centers, security, transportation, automotive, power systems, oil and gas, nuclear energy, research and development, government, and electronics industries.

Biography

Kenneth “Ken” Giles is a Quality and Continuous Improvement Principal with FedEx Corporation.  In this role, he helps FedEx develop enterprise-wide strategies for the application of their unique approach to continuous improvement known as Quality Driven Management (QDM).  On a day to day basis, Ken also supports the implementation of QDM throughout the enterprise by focusing on projects and tactics that drive engagement at all levels of the organization, enhance learning & development resources and support rewards & recognition programs. 

Ken came to FedEx with over 20 years of experience in Quality Management, Quality Engineering, Continuous Improvement and Operations Management.  He has a diverse professional background including experience with some of the world’s most well-known companies including Coca Cola Refreshments, Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Canon Incorporated, Delta Faucet Company and others. 

Ken earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Tennessee Technological University and a Masters in Business Administration from Union University.  He is an American Society for Quality (ASQ) Certified Manager of Quality & Organizational Excellence, an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer and an ASQ Certified FedEx Quality Driven Management Expert.

Focusing on the customer (internal & external), treating all people with respect and being willing to roll up his sleeves and do the work are the three vital personal characteristics that have been instrumental throughout his career.  He looks forward to continuing to utilize these characteristics in the future as the science and application of Quality & Continuous Improvement methodologies continues to evolve.

Biography

Byron Tatsumi is a senior director at Salesforce and leads the company wide process innovation program.  He has more than 20 years of industry and consulting experience in strategic planning, business process improvement & transformation, business operations, and strategic sourcing. He has a strong background in strategy development and business plan implementation and considerable program, project, and change management experience.   

Biography

Marco Chmura is Director of Quality & Transformation at Morningstar, whose mission is to create great products that help investors reach their financial goals. Marco’s spent the past 5+ years helping Morningstar achieve that mission by developing a process mindset and client-centric culture by championing the voice of the customer and mentoring/guiding leaders as they manage LEAN Six Sigma and Agile development projects. For the past year and a half, he’s also been responsible for helping Morningstar enhance the customer experience through the adoption of emerging technologies such as Robotic Process Automation, AI, ML, Chat, etc.

Biography

Farrah Pepper is the Chief Legal Innovation Counsel (CLIC) at the Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC).  In the newly designed CLIC role, Farrah makes things… click. Farrah leads MMC’s legal innovation initiatives to simplify the way the legal and compliance teams work and drive better outcomes, often by harnessing the power of technology.  Farrah also leads the MMC legal data discovery program and team.

Farrah has a long history of building and leading in-house and law firm teams to solve business challenges, create enterprise value and reduce risk.  Previously, Farrah was GE’s global discovery counsel, where she served as the large, diverse conglomerate’s first dedicated legal expert on discovery strategy and policy.  Farrah created and led the GE Discovery Center of Excellence and reinvented GE’s approach to global discovery and data management to drive dramatic savings, efficiencies and risk reduction.  Prior to joining GE, Farrah was a litigator in the New York office of Gibson Dunn, where she was a founder and leader of the firm’s global electronic discovery practice group.

Farrah has been named a Rising Star by the New York Law Journal, a three-time Top eDiscovery Counsel by First Chair, an Emerging Leader by DiversityMBA Magazine and a Hero of Simplification by GE’s CEO.  Most recently, Farrah received the 4th Annual Monica Bay STEM Leadership Award.  Under her leadership, Farrah’s teams received recognition such as the Analytics 50, Corporate E-Discovery Hero, Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Value Champion and an LTN Innovation Award.  

In addition to regularly publishing and speaking on legal discovery and innovation, Farrah serves on various industry advisory boards and working groups, including the Georgetown Advanced E-Discovery Institute, SOLID (Summit on Legal Innovation and Disruption), Legaltech, Legaltech News and the Cardozo Data Law Initiative.  

Farrah is a double-NYU grad; she earned her B.A., summa cum laude, at New York University’s College of Arts and Sciences and her J.D. at the New York University School of Law.

Biography

César and his team vet tens of thousands of projects per month, and then facilitate the purchase and delivery of materials to classrooms across the country. In addition to office management and several IT functions, César also manages the organization's human capital, customer relations, finance, and donor appreciation efforts. As Chief Operating Officer at DonorsChoose.org, César is responsible for leading the operations, finance, and HR teams and ensuring the operations’ workflow is fully scalable. In less than seven months, he was able to scale the organization from supporting 10,000 public schools to over 100,000 public schools while at the same time increasing customer satisfaction with a minimal increase in budget. César has significant experience building team structures, tools, systems, and processes that ensure the organization is scalable.

Prior to joining DonorsChoose.org, he spent 11 years with AT&T in various capacities, including Sales, Finance, Legal, and Vendor Management.

César earned his mechanical engineering degrees from Caltech (B.S.) and MIT (M.S.) and holds an MBA in Strategic Management from the Wharton School of Business. César was also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at New York University (NYU), where he taught Social Entrepreneurship.

Biography

Sandra Lechiaro is a Business Transformation Manager, a key leadership role responsible for introducing enterprise transformation at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, with the recent creation of a Business Transformation Office.  In this new capability, Sandra is bringing leadership to strategic projects that have an enterprise impact, by improving efficiencies and effectiveness of people, process and technology, that close capability gaps, minimizing operational risk and empowering the Laboratory’s “business of research”.    

Sandra has spent most of her career at the Laboratory, in various key leadership roles in Business Operations and Contract Management, with her most recent role in Financial Operations focusing on business process improvement.   She co-leads an Enterprise Applications Governance Board which brings strategic prioritization to IT investments, and a roadmap for long-term initiatives.   With a deep understanding of the Laboratory’s unique culture, she is effective in building partnerships and cross-cutting teams across the organization to foster change management activities to minimize impacts and improve adoption. 

Sandra holds a Bachelor of Science in Food Marketing from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and her MBA with a concentration in Management of Information Sciences from Western New England University.   She also earned Certificate from MIT’s Leader to Leader program, and a Certificate in Government Contract Management and is a Six Sigma Green Belt.

Biography

Kristof Kovacs is a change agent, a transformational leader, and a developer of early career leadership talent in charge of executing on complex, organization-wide transformations. He started his corporate career in his home town of Budapest, Hungary as part of General Electric’s Financial Management Program. He transitioned from successful global financial leadership roles into management consulting and leading complex internal and client facing transformational engagements.

Currently he is heading up IBM’s Continuous Improvement mission for its $17B services business, improving quality, productivity, and competitiveness. He is the founder and program director of IBM’s first of a kind Transformational Leadership Development Program, an in-house degree level program to develop change agents of the future. Most recently he has been collaborating co-creating with ESPM University of Sao Paulo, Brazil to build out and globally scale a first of a kind master’s degree in business leadership coined Master’s in Business Transformation or MBT. He is a certified Management Consultant, Lean Master, and Six Sigma MBB. He and his wife and their two children live in Southern Maine, USA.