Biography

Brou Gautier serves as the Director of Continuous Process Improvement and Innovation (CPI2) and lead strategist for USAF Operational Excellence supporting the Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force, Management and Deputy Chief Management Officer. In this capacity, MAJCOM/NAF commanders, CIOs, CTOs, Senior Executive Service members and government leaders rely on his counsel and leadership on lean policy and business strategies. 

Mr. Gautier is a Master Black Belt and private sector business owner with extensive experience in government and public sectors as both a leader and on-the-ground change agent. He developed tactics, techniques and procedures to improve command effectiveness, readiness & efficiency across a spectrum ranging from maximizing contract ROI and authoring enterprise IT architecture analysis to developing PMO governance support, business cases and root cause mitigation strategies for complex problems. He has presented leader and organization business transformation and deployment strategies for IQPC’s PEX LSS Summit, Shingo International, and multiple DoD CPI Symposia.

Mr. Gautier received a B.Sc. from the US Air Force Academy, a Master of Air Mobility degree from the Air Force Institute of Technology, and an MBA from Auburn University. 

Biography

Xiaochen is a Global Head of Innovation & Go-To-Market with AWS. In this role, he leads a team of both technical and operational staff in shaping AWS emerging technology and Web 3.0 related innovation offerings in the areas of digital assets, central bank digital currency, green finance and regulatory and supervisory technologies in supporting public sector financial institutions to achieve their missions in monetary policy, financial stability, economic growth, climate change and sustainable development.

Biography

Cynthia Long is an award winning Continuous Improvement Leader and Strategist.  Over the last 20 years, her passion for Lean Six Sigma has led her to create, innovate, and be a Revolutionary Leader for Continuous Improvement.  She is based in San Diego.

As a leader in technology, Cynthia is driven to mentor other women so that they can find magnificent opportunities for awesome careers in tech.

Her expertise includes, being a Revolutionary Leader for Continuous Improvement, Business Transformation Strategist,  Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Public Speaker and a dedicated  Philanthropist and Mentor to women in tech.

  Her speaking engagements include:

• Strategic Conversations- Mentoring and Beyond (Women in Technology)

• Build to Fit - Paint to Match; Continuous Improvement in an ever changing landscape (ICMI Contact Center Expo 2022)

• Data; Driving from the Customer Seat (Intuit)

• Cost of Complexity (Intuit)

• Surviving Domestic Violence (Compass Center For Women and Families )

Biography

Ana has 24 years of experience working for Multinationals in different countries, and currently, she is opening her own consulting company named Ignite Business.

Ana works as a Sr Customer Experience Manager supporting Johnson and Johnson to drive cultural change.

She is recently coaching and mentoring Johnson and Johnson technologies teams to implement CX metrics that matter to the business with a human-centric approach.

Ana has Customer Experience Certification, holds an executive MBA, and is fluent in 3 languages (English, Spanish, and Portuguese.)

Biography

Anish Sharan is the Head of Digital Transformation at Pritzker Private Capital where he leads the development of digital capabilities that enhance customer experience, drive operational excellence, and deepen data utilization across PPC’s portfolio of companies. Pritzker Private Capital ("PPC"), a leader in family direct investing, partners with middle-market companies based in North America with leading positions in the manufactured products and services sectors.

He joins Pritzker Private Capital from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where he was Director of Transformation and Execution, responsible for driving digitization, technology modernization, and enterprise transformation initiatives. Mr. Sharan brings 20+ years of global leadership experience across digital operations, e-commerce, and technology-focused roles at The Nielsen Company, Leo Burnett Worldwide, Motorola, and Toyota.

Mr. Sharan holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and is a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt. He is also an adjunct faculty at the Lakeforest Graduate School of Management.

Biography

Biography

Biography

Kamal Mohanty is Senior Vice President at Citi, New York.

An Indian American business executive with 20 plus years of cross functional expertise across product, technology, and risk in global organizations. Kamal is an expert at creating growth strategy for scale and leading transformational change with excellence. Successes include strategy, client experience, digital transformation, building global teams, cross-functional team leadership, general management, diversity, and inclusion.

Kamal holds a Bachelor's Degree in Electronics engineering from National Institute of Science and Technology India and later completed the Senior Executive Leadership Program at Harvard Business School.

Biography

Howard is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Winning Digital Customers: The Antidote to Irrelevance which was recently listed by Forbes as “One of the ten most important business books of 2021.”

Biography

Caring and Experienced Portfolio Operations and Project Management Leader within the Pharmaceutical Industry. I aspire to lead and grow organizations with vision and strategic focus, developing highly performing teams with energized leaders who work transparently and ethically, go the extra mile to ensure delivery to realistic and data-driven plans, collaborate with a sense of urgency to address unmet medical needs and bring innovation to patients and healthcare communities worldwide. Managed multi-million dollar annual budgets exceeding $100 million. Proactively self-started and led several successful strategic initiatives generating project lifetime savings greater than $52 million. I continually seek to learn new skills while delivering and creating a value-added rewarding work environment.

Biography

Thomas Bertels is a management consultant and business transformation expert on a mission to make work more productive, valuable, meaningful, and impactful. He has more than 25 years’ experience helping companies across a range of industries, from start-ups to Fortune 500, transform how work gets done. Prior to founding Purpose Works, Thomas was a founding partner at OXYGY/Valeocon Consulting, a global consulting boutique. Earlier in his career, he led the process improvement and design practice at Aon Consulting/Rath&Strong and held various line management positions at ABB. Thomas has written several books and authored numerous articles on process redesign, strategy deployment, change management, organizational learning, metrics, and innovation. His latest book, Fixing Work, will be published in September 2023.

Biography

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

Highly Focused and a Visionary Digital Transformation leader with 23 years of experience and a successful track record in leading Organizations to achieve significant business results in large, global and complex Fortune 500 organizations achieving strategic and tactical goals. An Enterprise Architecture and Strategy Leader with a big picture visionary thinking and providing thought leadership to craft transformation strategies, aligned with Business Vision and Organizational goals. Extensive experience with driving Business, technology and architecture choices by setting up standards for simplification, standardization, innovation and modernization. Proven ability in the areas of Digital Business Transformation, Customer Experience & Growth, Change Enablement, Operational Excellence, Business and IT Alignment Strategy,M&A and Enterprise Business Integrations across various Business and Industry domains such as Banking, Finance, Insurance, Pharmacy, HealthCare, Real Estate, IT Consulting, Government and Retail Industries.

As a Digital Transformations, Enterprise Architecture and Strategy Leader, I have led globally distributed cross functional teams in highly matrixed organizations with people, processes, technologies and cultural barriers in Cloud strategy, Application Rationalization, Modernization, API/Cloud Modernization roadmaps, COE & Enterprise Governance, establish EA practices to achieve desired Organization and Business goals.

Biography

Accomplished executive with a 25+ year career globally in commerce, financial services, hospitality, telecommunications and pharmaceutical industries. Business development and revenue generation expertise to ensure profitability. Creator of innovative solutions that drive operational efficiency. Repeated success transforming business environments resistant to change.

Biography

Stan Howell, Vice President, Strategy & Business Excellence at Bristol Myers Squibb, holds an excellent track record in strategically leading and transforming organizations to achieve manufacturing excellence. He has expertise in developing strategic deployment plans that enable high-performance workforces to achieve stellar business results while serving customers through right-first-time business processes. With a career that spans across manufacturing, supply chain, strategy realization, program management and operational excellence. Stan is a proven leader in driving bottom-line results and improving KPIs across numerous operation modalities including Small and Large Molecule, Vaccines, Medical Devices and Cell Therapies.

Biography

Paul Moretti is an Agile Transformation Executive Leader with expertise in agile solutions, design thinking, and passion for embedding good practices, shifting mindsets, perspectives, and cultural changes. He coached and mentored highly collaborative cross-functional teams and stakeholders in FinTech, Banking, IT, Insurance, Education, and Risk Management industries. He is recognized for sustainability, operationalizing frameworks, developing and managing stakeholders, and innovative leadership across multi-year agile culture transformations. Paul is a solution designer and architect of enterprise agile planning frameworks.

Biography

Michael is a Change Maker, holding his Project Management Professional (PMP), Advanced Certified Scrum Master (A-CSM), and Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) credentials.  Formerly a Project Manager for the performing arts, Michael joined Stanford Health Care in 2020 on the Business Operations Transformation's Training and Communications team. There he spearheaded the creation, development, and tracking of standard operating procedures, training lessons, and role-specific onboarding.  He also designed a tailor-made Learning Management System within Supply Chain to be the source of truth for knowledge management.  In his work takes an Agile approach to prioritize value-based solutions to unsolved problems or unmet needs. During his tenure he has helped a dozen colleagues earn their Scrum certifications, eight leaders to earn their PMP, and four Certified Materials Resource Professionals (CMRP).  In his communication role, Michael produces a Supply Chain specific newsletter and podcast, as well as maintains their internal web pages and external website Lately Michael has been leading Change Management for Supply Chain Supply Chain transition ERPs.  Ask Michael about his Masters's in Puppetry or time at Clown College. 

Biography

Brad Morrow is a Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma. He is a Principal Process Excellence Champion and Lead LEAN 6 Sigma Trainer at the Tulsa Based firm Helmerich & Payne. Brad invented and published the Lean tool TaaG analysis (Trends at a Glance). He is also the creator of the new contemporary art form Ignatian Rogue Art. Beyond this he is a professional magician (who performs under the stage name Zane Black). As a magician he invented the magic genre of Improv Magic. Brad is also a motivational speaker who speaks on topics such as how to turn dreams into reality and he is the creator of the empowerment podcast

Biography

I have been leading operational excellence for over 20 years at financial services, insurance and media companies. I currently lead Operational Excellence for the media in the Americas at dentsu. Since joining, dentsu in November 2021, my team has driven change for our external clients by leading the transformation of our company’s largest external client and redesigning key processes for other global clients. Recently, my focus has been to improve the satisfaction of our largest global clients through leading operational excellence remediation programs. I have designed and implemented core operational excellence foundational trainings and the structure to drive a culture of continuous improvement globally. Prior to joining dentsu, I created and led the process excellence and automation team at Moody’s for shared services. In this role, I introduced and embedded a culture of process excellence in order to drive results that resulted in the reduction of 365 days of cycle 6500 hours of non – value add work within 18 months through process and automation efforts. The Moody’s process excellence program was a finalist for The BTOES Business Transformation and Operational Effectiveness organization award for program with best value creation and innovation.

Biography

Niloofer is an accomplished leader, with proven expertise driving strategic initiatives at the CXO level, with significant impact for global conglomerates. She has an innate understanding of diverse cultures, working across Asia, Europe, and Americas.

Since joining Fiserv in 2016, she has lead multiple business innovation and transformation initiatives, around go-to-market strategies, improving customer experiences, and cost optimization. Preceding Fiserv, she was the transformation lead at Hewlett Packard involved in the design and execution of mergers & acquisitions, organization transformation and global delivery. She has been a Diversity & Inclusion leader at Fiserv a topic she is passionate about.As an industry-leading expert, Niloofer has been a key speaker at prestigious conferences across Asia, Europe and Americas. She was also a judge for the largest-scale, cross-industry leadership level event Digital Transformation & Operational Excellence Industry Awards in 2021, and was nominated for the "Change Agent" award at the Women in Payments USA Symposium 2022.

She is also a founding member of a global taskforce focused on creating more awareness of a genetic mutation called G6PD Deficiency that affects approximately 400 million individuals from diverse ethnicities.

Biography

Biography

Thomas Ball spent his early youth growing up among the radar sites and beautiful countryside of rural Germany as an USAF Airman after joining the AF at the earliest age possible. Transitioning through various technical programs, earning his BS in Electronics Systems from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and leaving the AF after serving on board a Communications Platform that performed redundant technical services to the US Pentagon and our National Command Authority, Thomas joined EDS, a pioneering technology leader, as Systems Engineer. Leaving EDS with a core group to launch a technology internet startup Thomas was pivotal in creating a foundational and pivotal technology platform that lead to new directions for correlating search and personal preferences in a new and challenging internet ecosystem. After consulting internationally, Thomas joined Starbucks as Infrastructure Architect. While at Starbucks Thomas has moved between the Data Platform, Foundational Infrastructure, and Cloud transformation space. Thomas very much enjoys sharing his foundational technology passion and experiences with others as well as listening to the questions and observations on how technical ecosystems can be more resiliently instantiated to provide higher levels of service and lower costs.

Biography

Patrick Tam is the Vice President of Operational Excellence at ServiceNow. In this role, he is responsible for driving enterprise-wide operational performance. Prior to ServiceNow, Patrick held various executive roles at Cisco, including leading Corporate Transformation & Corporate Planning. Patrick is also a professor at San Jose State University, teaching operational excellence management to the next generation of leaders.

Biography

A seasoned Technology Executive with a proven track record in Silicon Valley, including Apple, eBay PayPal, Cisco, AppDynamics AWS, , I am highly adept at optimizing team performance and building world class organizations at scale.. Passionate about system design and architecture coupled with disruptive technologies to achieve remarkable results. Leveraging my expertise, I have successfully built and elevated world-class engineering teams, organizations and companies. My approach to work involves embracing the cutting edge of technology and assembling a team of exceptionally talented individuals to work smarter and more efficiently.

Biography

Biography

Erin Neumann serves as the Vice President of Operations Excellence at United Rentals, the North American equipment rental leader. In her current role, she supports a branch network of 1,500+ locations through continuous improvement and automation of critical maintenance and logistics processes. Ms. Neumann joined United Rentals as a Director of Operational Excellence in 2017 and led multiple customer service and operations efficiency initiatives across the organization. Prior to joining the Company, Ms. Neumann specialized in Lean Manufacturing and Strategy in the Aerospace & Defense sector. She served both public and private sector clients as a Management consultant at Kearney in Washington, D.C. From 2007 through 2014, she held various roles at the former United Technologies subsidiaries Raytheon Technologies, Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky Aircraft. Ms. Neumann holds a Master’s in Business Administration from NYU Stern and a Bachelors of Business Administration from Loyola University Maryland.

Biography

15 years partnering with organisations and leaders to architect and execute complex organizational change and transformation programs. Spent many years in Mining and Resources as well as Banking and Finance, with the most recent experience in aviation. Background as an Occupational Therapist. Ex Deloitte Consulting.

Biography

Biography

Todd VanHouten is Senior Director of Strategy & Innovation at Cintas, overseeing Product, Technology, and Operational strategy along with large change initiatives. Todd has always been driven by a passion for innovation and views technology-done-right as the greatest enabler of innovation in our generation.

Biography

Biography

Rob is the VP- Business Process at ProMach. He is responsible for developing and driving ProMach’s best practice approaches and KPIs for customer service, operational improvements and excellence, and margin growth. Rob’s experience spans 11 industries within 8 companies to include Sony, PepsiCo, Allegheny Technologies Inc., GE, Johnson Controls Intl., Global Container Terminals, and REV Group. In addition, Rob serves as the Chairman of the Board for Parkview Community Federal Credit Union and Committee Member for the Aviation Maintenance Program at Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics.

Rob has an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh and is a graduate of MIT’s Advance Certificate in Executive Leadership Program. Rob’s background is in Operations, Engineering, and Operational Excellence. In addition, Rob is a veteran of the United States Air Force. 

Rob has published breakthrough concepts through the American Society for Quality and is currently in the process of publishing his first book.

Biography

Monika is a Managing Director with our Los Angeles practice focusing on driving finance transformation across various global energy clients leveraging digital technologies. She is a consulting boomerang joining Deloitte after spending more than a decade in the OG&C industry. Outside of work, Monika is passionate about volunteering and mentoring, in the area of sustainability, education, and women empowerment, and serves on the board of a Maryland based non-profit. She enjoys spending time with family, especially reading and traveling with her son for soccer in her free time.

Biography

Biography

Anoop is leading transformational changes towards making Infosys a Live Enterprise and driving business excellence in collaboration with senior leaders and cross-functional teams to amplify business outcomes, create sentient organization and enhance business agility. He has diversified experience in agile transformation, strategic quality management, change management, business value articulation, analytics, competency development, and service efficiency improvement by leveraging digital technologies. During his rich career, he has gained extensive experience in implementing quality models/ framework/methodologies e.g., CMMI, Agile, SAFe, DevOps, ITIL, ISO, MBNQA, Six Sigma/Lean to drive continuous improvement in product, process and service quality for internal stakeholders and external clients at global scale. He has been the Assessments Team Member (ATM) in several large scale, high maturity CMMI assessments for over a decade. His thought leadership is manifested through various publications, presentations, panel discussions, patents, blogs, and development of prediction models.

Biography

Biography

Mike has spent his career working at the intersection of strategy and transformation in large scale organisations. Mike is currently the General Manager of   Transformation at Virgin Australia Group. In this role he is accountable for the performance of the enterprise-wide transformation, encompassing core operations,  the rewards and charter business units, as well as organisational change and program management. Prior to this role, Mike was an Associate (Junior) Partner at McKinsey & Company. At McKinsey, Mike worked in partnership with C-suite leaders and Boards of large complex organisations in transformation and capability building at scale. Mike completed his MBA at UNSW. He has completed the AICD Company Directors Course, extensive technical training in complex project and program management, and is a graduate of the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, UK.

Biography

20+ years of experience in line functions and central roles, driving sustainable operations, supply chain and commercial excellence transformations.

Multicultural experience at global companies in the US, Asia and Latin America, including Goodyear, Johnson Controls, Abbott Labs, and Pepsi.

Holds a master’s of science in business from the University of Miami, Florida, and a bachelor’s of science in industrial engineering as well as master's black belt.

Ricardo has been a keynote/speaker at several universities and conferences and has published several articles in magazines and e-publications.

Currently leading Global Operations Transformation at Goodyear  driving for one- operating system and its key enablers for sustained value delivery.

Along with his wife Sandra, they partner with non-profit organizations supporting foster children aging in the system to find their way through technology and live Happily Ever Cyber!

Biography

Ashish Chopra, is currently Head of Technology and Chief Information Officer for TDECU Bank. He is also a Wells Fargo veteran, where he served as SVP - Technology Chief Operating Officer (Office of Head of Technology) and Digital Product Leader for Cloud Blueprints. Chopra has more than 20 years of senior technology executive leadership experience solving complex business challenges by Modernizing Technolgy platforms, Leading strategic Merger & Acquisitions and Optimizing International Operations resulting in increased business value. He has a successful track record with major organizations including IBM Consulting, Target, New York Life Insurance and Sprint-Nextel. He holds a degree from Kit College of Engineering in India and completed leadership development training at Cornell University.

Biography

Travis is an expert in change management, organizational effectiveness, and business transformation. With +10 years of experience helping Fortune 100 companies from varying industries and across the globe go through large, strategic organizational changes, Travis brings this expertise to Google's customers and partners as the Americas Change and Culture Lead. Travis holds a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology with an emphasis in consumer behavior, business management, and neuropsychology and a Master of Business Administration with an emphasis in management, organizational behavior and theory, and accounting. Travis' education is also comprised of several notable experiences including time studying neuropsychology and neuroscience at Harvard University and performing neurology research on cognitive functioning at Aalborg University in Aalborg, Denmark.

Biography

Jennifer Ford, Director of Product Effectiveness at Veteran's Health Administration, possesses nearly two decades of health care experience. Ms. Ford optimizes health care investments by producing evidenced-based assessments to maximize the intended value for America's largest integrated health care system, providing care at 1,255 health care facilities and serving 9 million enrolled Veterans each year.

Enhancing health care performance through a whole systems approach entails the expertise to improve patient care delivery and experience for the demonstration of positive patient outcomes while remaining cost effective. Ms. Ford deploys proven methodologies tailored to the health care industry to extract and maximize value throughout the health care continuum. She specializes in high reliability organizations, access to care, whole health and health IT programs which supports the mission of VA's healthcare model. Director Ford ensures that health care organizations learn and adopt the products and programs in which they invest to achieve the expected valuation, while maintaining a culture of quality improvement and patient safety.

Jennifer Ford is a published author and a frequent speaker at national and international conferences. Ms. Ford is a frequent contributor to congressional inquiries and data requests. In addition to her work at VHA, she is an adjunct professor at both Georgetown University and George Washington University. Director Ford is a graduate of American University and holds an MBA from George Mason University. Jennifer Ford has earned a Project Management Professional (PMP) designation and is a Whole Health Coach.

Biography

Brou Gautier serves as the Director of Continuous Process Improvement and Innovation (CPI2) and lead strategist for USAF Operational Excellence supporting the Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force, Management and Deputy Chief Management Officer. In this capacity, MAJCOM/NAF commanders, CIOs, CTOs, Senior Executive Service members and government leaders rely on his counsel and leadership on lean policy and business strategies. 

Mr. Gautier is a Master Black Belt and private sector business owner with extensive experience in government and public sectors as both a leader and on-the-ground change agent. He developed tactics, techniques and procedures to improve command effectiveness, readiness & efficiency across a spectrum ranging from maximizing contract ROI and authoring enterprise IT architecture analysis to developing PMO governance support, business cases and root cause mitigation strategies for complex problems. He has presented leader and organization business transformation and deployment strategies for IQPC’s PEX LSS Summit, Shingo International, and multiple DoD CPI Symposia.

Mr. Gautier received a B.Sc. from the US Air Force Academy, a Master of Air Mobility degree from the Air Force Institute of Technology, and an MBA from Auburn University. 

Biography

Trusted senior advisor to business leaders across all Aon solution lines and geographies to identify creative solutions that drive revenue growth and increase operational efficiency.

Steve joined Aon in 2009 and currently leads the Global Corporate Strategy & Implementation team, focused on developing & driving growth strategies and margin enhancement initiatives. Previously he served as Senior Vice President of Global Operations and Supply Chain Management & Vice President of Finance within legacy Aon Hewitt. In these roles, he focused on a variety of corporate functions including supplier management, real estate strategy, financial operations, and global initiatives. He started at Aon as a Principal at Inpoint Consulting, a business within legacy Aon Benfield.

Prior to joining Aon, Steve worked for McKinsey & Company primarily serving financial institutions and insurance companies across various strategic and operational engagements. He received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University.

Biography

Lee Cockerell retired as the Executive Vice President of Operations for the WaltDisney World® Resort.Growing up in Oklahoma, Lee attended Oklahoma State University for two years before joining in the United States Army.

Lee’s career includes eight years with Hilton Hotels, seventeen years with Marriott International and sixteen years with The Walt Disney Company. Lee Joined Disney in 1990 as Director of Food and Beverage, Quality Assurance and Vice President of the hotel division for Disneyland Paris.

In 1993 Lee became the Senior Vice President of the hotel division at the WaltDisney World® Resort in Florida and in 1997 was promoted to Executive Vice President of Operations for all of Walt Disney World Operations, serving in that position for ten years before retiring to start his own business, Lee Cockerell, LLC., a training and development company.

Lee is author of six books on leadership, management and world class customer service; Creating Magic…10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney (22 languages). The Customer Rules...The 39 Essential Rules for Delivering Sensational Service (16 languages). Time Management Magic…How to Get More Done Every Day. Move from surviving to thriving. Career Magic…How to Stay on Track to Achieve a Stellar Career, Hardwiring Magic…A guide to implementing Disney Magic into your business (co-author) A-Game Magic…Business 101 Course and Workbook (college text book, co-author)

Other Resources: Creating Disney Magic weekly 15 minute podcast www.LeeCockerell.com COCKERELL ACADEMY…On line learning systemwww. CockerellAcademy.com

Lee and his wife Priscilla reside in Orlando, Florida. Lee enjoys teachingleadership, management and service excellence seminars, traveling, dining out and most of all spending time with his three grandchildren, Jullian, Margot, and Tristan.For more information go to: www.LeeCockerell.com

Biography

Biography

Rameshwar is the Head of Digital Automation @ Avaya. He is an International speaker and blogger on Digital Transformation, Enterprise Architecture & Automation.

He has partnered with the likes of CTO.Academy to Launch the next Generation Enterprise podcast to groom future leaders. He runs the 3^rd largest Automation meetup group in the U.S.A known as DFWRPA which runs on the 2^nd  Wednesday of every month and covers a wide range of topics dealing from Quantum to Cybersecurity .

He is an advisor at various startup’s focused on Blockchain & E-Sports

Biography

Aditi Sinha is the Global Head for Consumer Source Data Acquisition at NielsenIQ (formerly The Nielsen Company LLC) and is based in New York, USA. In her space, she is responsible for creating and executing the operational strategy, digital transformation of data collection and consumption, as well as directing the delivery of the day to day operations across the global markets where NielsenIQ operates.

Aditi has over 25 years of experience in leading country, regional and global teams in massive transformations, operations, customer service & sales across 2 diverse industries - data analytics & logistics. Her forte is leading agile digital transformation in complex market environments. She has a demonstrated track record of success in managing large scale global operations, culturally and ethnically diverse teams, stakeholders and clients.

She is a mentor for start-up incubators for leading technology institutions in India and a sponsor of education for orphaned & abandoned girls through social institutions.

Biography

Donald Kuk is an innovative, multiple industry award winning Global Transformation, Cognitive Automation and Operational Excellence Senior Executive with 20 plus years of delivering record setting top line growth, customer and employee satisfaction, and margin improvement leading rapid Enterprise Transformation and Intelligent Automation for the world’s most highly regarded manufacturing, retail and centralbanking, insurance, technology, health care and health sciences industry leaders.

Widely published successes include advanced metrics, analysis, strategy, mission, vision, opportunity identification, milestones, budget and roadmap development, multi-tiered communication, transformation and improvement program management, training, change and performance management, and results verification.

Named the “Enterprise Whisperer” by Fortune Magazine, Donald is a frequent invited Conference Chairperson, Keynote Speaker, Session Chairman and Tutorial Presenter at CEO, CFO, CIO, CTO, Operational Excellence and Enterprise Strategy events worldwide.

Biography

As Vice President Customer Transformation at Celonis, Dr. Reinkemeyer is advising companies on their process transformation journey. He brings more than 20 years of industry experience, e.g. supporting Siemens’ Digital Transformation. Since 2008 he pursued Big-Data-Analytics to drive digital transformation and applied Process Mining since 2014.

In close collaboration with functional departments like procurement, sales, finance, logistics he leveraged Process Mining insights and built a user community in excess of 6.000 active users. In addition to IT, he commands international leadership experience in Strategy, Sales, Distribution, Compliance and is a regular speaker at international conferences and visiting scholar at Stanford GSB and UCSB.

Biography

Dr. Chris Wilkie currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of SHPE (Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers), a national organization focused on empowering the Hispanic community and creating a powerful network of students and professionals via the promotion of careers in STEM. Since his appointment in 2017, he has led the membership expansion to over 13,000 members across the 280+ U.S. chapters; diversified revenue streams, and expanded SHPE's national programs.

Prior to SHPE, Chris was the AVP of Regulatory, Oversight, and Monitoring for SourceAmerica, a national nonprofit that creates employment opportunities for people with significant disabilities. He began his nonprofit executive career in Public Health, expanding his reach by becoming entrepreneur: launching his own consulting company, working with County Health Departments, Public Independent School Districts, and nonprofit organizations across Texas.  

He has over 20 years experience in the nonprofit industry and is a subject matter expert in operational excellence, change management, nonprofit compliance, and research-based programming.

In 2008, Chris was a recipient of a 40Under40 Award by the Fort Worth Business Press. In addition to his formal education and advanced degrees, Dr. Wilkie holds professional certifications in nonprofit executive management; nonprofit fundraising; governance, risk, and compliance; and leadership. Chris currently resides in Keller, TX with his wife of 20 years, Christina, and their two daughters, Mayson and Londyn.

Biography

Cody Bateman is internationally recognized as a thought leader in the field of advanced analytical techniques and most recently hydrogen production and storage. He earned his degree in Computer Science with a minor in Electric Engineering from Texas A&M University and later earned his MBA from Duke University. For more than 35 years he has built a career utilizing a combination of applied mathematics, quantum mechanics, and artificial intelligence (AI) to advance computational physics in numerous industries.

In 1994 Mr. Bateman utilized his knowledge of advanced analytics and database management to help define and promote the concept of Data Warehousing and is still globally recognized as one of the founders of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Data Mining.

For the last decade Mr. Bateman has focused on the commercialization of advanced technologies associated with hydrogen production and storage. In 2012 he built a laboratory in Titusville, FL to research and optimize the combination of multiple technologies to create an advanced cryogenic ‘system’ in association with the Cryogenics Test Lab at Kennedy Space Center. Headquarters for his multi-state organization remain at the Space Life Science Laboratory at KSC, Florida.

In all Mr. Bateman has worked in 12 different countries where he continues to participate in both missionary and philanthropic activities.

Biography

Michael Muilenburg is the Director of Operational Technology at 3M in the Engineering, Materials, and Process Technology Organization.

• During his 35+ year career at 3M, he has worked in manufacturing
  operations, process development, product development, Lean Six Sigma
  and supply chain. 
• He holds a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University
  of Nebraska-Lincoln and masters degrees in Manufacturing Engineering
  from Northwestern University, and Polymer Engineering from Stevens Institute
  of Technology. He has also completed a masters certificate from the Shingo
  Institute at the Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University.
• Outside of his operational excellence career, He is an avid musician who
  plays guitar, bass, mandolin, bouzouki and other instruments. He is the
  sole proprietor of Sheridan Avenue Music, a recording studio and music
  lesson business.

• Contact: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelmuilenburg/
  email: AlchemyMN@gmail.com phone:612.209.1468

Biography

Andrae Kirkland is an ASQ Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt who has led transformative initiatives for NASA, Nike, and Anheuser-Busch InBev. In his current role as a Sr. Program Manager at Twitter, Andrae pairs his continuous improvement expertise with next-level technologies to develop innovative solutions to combat some of the most pressing challenges that exist today - content integrity and data protection.

Biography

- Currently leading global analytics and insights capability for Consumer Care at Estee Lauder companies
- More than 20 years of experience in analytics, operations, technology, consulting, business process re-engineering and transformation.
- 10+ years of experience in setting up and leading organization wide quality & analytics programs - designing and deploying process improvement / quality roadmaps to drive cultural changes in large organizations.
- Broad industry background ranging from financial services, healthcare administration, pension, telecom, business travel, real estate, procurement, HR & employee benefits, and business process outsourcing,
- Proven track record of driving dramatic improvements in customer experience, efficiencies in back office & consumer care operations through applied analytics and leaning of business processes.
- Specialization in large scale data integrations for enterprise-wide analytics solutions, Speech & Text analytics, Social Listening Tools, Process Automation, Workflow designs, and Robotics Process Automation (RPA)
- Specialization in deploying business process management systems and re-designing end-to-end processes through data and process analytics.
- Certified Six Sigma Black Belt and CMMI Associate

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.

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

Dr. Abramov has an internal drive to improve things around him. Throughout his career, he has developed and implemented processes to improve organizations and operations and their effectiveness by leading significant changes.

Dr. Abramov joined Adama in 2012 as Executive VP for Global Operations. ADAMA Agricultural Solutions Ltd. is one of the world's leading crop protection companies, with a revenue of ~4 B$.

A large part of Eli’s role at Adama has been to deliver on the company purpose of "Creating Simplicity in Agriculture” through operations. 

During the 6 years, under Eli’s leadership as an Executive VP for Global Operations, Adama has become the best in class within its Industry on all aspects of Supply Chain and Inventory management. In addition, the Operations team have managed to drastically reduce the cost of goods which reflects in huge improvement on all aspects of the business performances.

Before Joining Adama, from 2009 to 2012, Dr. Abramov has served as CEO of Baran Group, the largest and leading Engineering and project management Group in Israel. The Group serves many different industries (Chemical and Petrochemical, Energy, Water, Infrastructures, Telecom and more). 

Dr. Abramov holds a Ph.D. (Summa cum Laude) in Materials Science and Engineering, 

Ben- Gurion University of the Negev.

Eli is also a member of the Executive Board of the Israeli Manufacturing Association and serves as the Head of the biggest Union within the association responsible for the Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Industries

On a more personal note, Eli is a strong proponent of giving back to the community, and serves as Chairman of the Executive Committee for the Sami Shamoon College for Engineering.

Biography

Dr. Karen Tilstra, Ph.D., believes everyone is creative with leadership potential. She thinks the world would be happier if everyone embraced this truth. Until that happens, she wants to help anyone who’s interested develop their inner wellspring of creativity.

Karen co-founded the award-winning AdventHealth Innovation Lab (priorly knows as FHIL), co-created the Orlando Magic’s Innovation Lab, and helped launch the San Diego State U Idea Lab. She co-designed one of the nation’s first undergraduate degrees in Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship at Rollins College.

Karen has designed innovation labs and developed design thinking teams at Santa Clara University, Pioneers International Institute, Seminole County Health Department, and Orange County. Over the last ten years, Karen and her team have facilitated over 610 Design Thinking projects for healthcare, government, universities, and Fortune 100 companies. Karen and her team have earned three innovation awards.

Karen has presented both nationally and internationally and has taught at the university level in both the US and Asia. She currently serves as an adjunct professor at AdventHealth University, and a visiting professor for Rollins College.

Karen holds a Ph.D. in Innovation and is a licensed Educational Psychologist. She holds an MA in Counseling Psychology and a BS in Journalism. She currently serves as the Executive Fellow for Innovation at the University of Santa Clara.

Biography

Chris McCann is a Chief Business Engineer who has transformed organizations and functionsby developing change visions and strategies then leading execution. A career in the corporate world with companies as such as Bose, GE and Lockheed-Martin, has taught Chris that driving strategic change is both art and science.

He believes the imperative tore-formulate people, process and technology for the robotic age requires skills in manydomains. As Managing Director of Pricing and Production at the MFA Companies, Chris is responsible fordriving strategic business transformation for The MFA Companies.

Through business processmanagement (BPM), digital transformation and a collaborative approach, Chris’s efforts are designed to support profitable growth, enhance customer value and deliver real change to MFA’s business operations. Chris is a certified LSS Black Belt with a BA in Economics fromCornell University.

Biography

Biography

Biography

Biography

Marcus has been working at Klöckner since February 2019. The Digital Transformation Department is a Shared Service Center and offers Solutions and Servicesfor Logistics, Operations, eCommerce, CRM, Procurement and Process Management.

Main business fields are optimization of Logistiscs and Operations, strengthen Digitalization and drive process automatization within the value chain. Marcus holds a Diploma in Business Adminsitration from the Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt.

Before he joined Klöckner he was Managing Director for eCommerce Solutions at FIEGE Logistics and the Westphalia Datalab in Müster. Marcus started his career after University at Arvato AG in the CRM Solutions Unit. Main interests of Marcus are Photography, Sketching, Cross-Fit, Arts and Architecture.

Biography

30 years experience at the convergence of software and information technology. Experience managing commercial SaaS products, information services, and management consulting.

General Manager at 5 companies with P&L responsibility leading all aspects of a business including sales, marketing, product development, operations, and technology.

Resume includes work experience with Bloomberg BNA, Thomson Reuters, LexisNexis, Dun & Bradstreet, ATX Kleinrock (acquired by CCH WoltersKluwer), and US Interactive.

BS in Electrical Engineering and MBA.

Specialties: General management, strategy, strategic marketing, innovation, developing & launching new products, scaling and growing businesses profitably, business transformation.

Biography

Ms. Murphy is a global technology executive providing technology strategy, architecture, and digitaltransformation leadership at IBM, EY, KPMG and other firms. Over the last several years, much of herwork has focused on the use of technology to improve human well-being and develop solutions tosupport smart city innovations and leverage emerging technology to create enchanted products andsimplify sustainability and ESG challenges for clients.

Gwen established Athena to help companies drive digital transformation and product innovation andlater launched SCERTIFY.co, focused on using technology to enable first-to-last mile sustainability inglobal supply chains and bring together a very fragmented technology marketplace where solutions onlyaddress small segments of supply chain abuses. SCERTIFY, is a blockchain agnostic Artificial Intelligenceplatform that leverages technology from mobile and edge/IoT computing to blockchain and drones toensure ethical supply chains and track sustainable development goals in terms of social justice,environment, and ethics abuses.

Ms. Murphy is an experienced strategy and scenario planning consultant, and her organization offerscorporate board and business professional education and certifications on climate change and ESG. Sheis an experienced public speaker and panelist covering topics ranging from emerging technology,women’s economic empowerment, the role of ethics in technology and the impacts of blockchain,AI/ML and Robotics on human well-being.

Biography

Dessalen Wood, CHRP, is an innovative HR executive, seasoned speaker, and coach. She specializes in passionately leading Learning and Development and Human Resources teams at some of North America’s most-respected organizations.

Dessalen has over 20 years of experience in national corporations such as Reitman’s Canada, Hudson’s Bay Company, The Children’s Place and The Disney Stores. In 2019 she left her role as Vice President, Talent Development at Cineplex Entertainment to join ThoughtExchange in the newly created role of Chief People Officer.

ThoughtExchange is the Enterprise Discussion Management platform modern leaders use to quickly gain unbiased, critical insights to improve decision making.Throughout her career, Dessalen has coached senior leaders and built teams from the ground up, in addition to designing and delivering multiple original programs. The results have been engaging corporate cultures and high performing leaders at all levels.

Biography

As the Managing Director of the Americas at TLGG Consulting, Katrin helps her clients navigate the digital age, advising some of the world’s leading companies on digital strategy, business model innovation and organizational transformation. Prior to joining TLGG, Katrin co-founded Lufthansa’s Innovation Hub, making her one of the first intrapreneurs of her generation in Germany and beyond. She understands global corporations from the inside out and knows what it really takes for them to succeed in a globalized and digitalized world.

With a proven track record of pushing boundaries, Katrin shares her humanistic and humorous perspective on corporate innovation and digital transformation, women in leadership and female empowerment as well as diversity and intercultural competence. Personable and knowledgeable, she offers key insights into how businesses can leverage globalization and digitalization to their advantage.

Biography

Dr. Keith A. Clinkscale is a recognized Lean Six Sigma Black Belt & Operational Excellence Executive known for establishing best-in-class strategic performance management programs. Keith Clinkscale demonstrates a combination of broad industry experiences, performance management acumen and a history of results-oriented management consulting to drive significant improvement and cost savings. As a seasoned Industry Executive and Management Consultant, Keith built a reputation of excellence in all areas of operations.

His skillset includes over 30 years of Executive Coaching, Training and Content Design, Process Improvement, Benchmarking, Total Quality Management, Balanced Scorecards, Business Process Re-engineering, Strategic Planning, and High Performance Teams. Keith’s experience and sensitivity to customer concerns has always enabled him to provide a high level of service, whether in industry or as a consultant. Keith has headed the Performance Management Office at Palm Tran. Keith’s team provided executive coaching, goal and target setting through benchmarking, established and reported balanced scorecards, developed department scorecards and held department directors accountable for addressing deficiencies. Dr. Clinkscale has been the champion of Performance Reporting, Management and Improvement at Palm Tran.

Keith has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Boston University and a PH.D in Strategic Leadership from Concordia College & University. He is now the Director of Strategic Planning and Performance Management for Palm Beach County and supervises all activities related to the long-term strategic plan of Palm Beach County as well as the strategic planning of over 30 county departments. Keith is responsible for assisting the Board of County Commissioners (BCC), Executive Team, Department Directors, and staff with the development of long-term goals, objectives, strategies, and actions.

Biography

Carsten is a Sustainability, ESG and Modern Slavery Expert. With extensive experience in validating and monitoring suppliers and developing and implementing policies, processes and guidelines which work in real life. 

His experience has been developed managing, mitigating, and remediating sustainability challenges in Australia, Europe, China and Asia and it includes sustainability strategy, compliance, monitoring and oversight, integrity, reporting, capacity building, training and program implementation and training.  Carsten has delivered business projects with a recent focus on supply chain improvement related to developing processes to enhance the sustainability, and in particular modern slavery performance for large Australian corporates.

He brings a practical approach to mitigation and remediation and is one of few with hands on experience remediating child labor and slavery like working conditions on site in Asia. In addition to projects delivered in Australia, Asia, Denmark and Spain, Carsten has conducted monitoring at over 300 factories in China and updated a major Australian banks response to sustainable procurement. 

Carsten recently Co-Founded the US-based Sustainability Advisory Services firm SCERTIFY whose mission it is to bring emerging technology to address unsolved supply chain ethical sourcing challenges he’s witnessed so closely over his career. Carsten is also the Author of two published books, “A Roadmap to Modern Slavery Compliance and a Sustainable Supply Chain” and “Red Flag – Your Guide to Risk Management when Buying in China” in which he shares his experience in sustainability risk mitigation. 

Biography

Ramya Venkataraman has worked over 18+ years in the areas of process and operational excellence, leveraging Lean, Six Sigma and other continuous improvement initiatives to lead, train, and support projects. Her unique adaptability to customize deployment strategies at several companies that she consulted with, has accelerated their improvements in efficiency, scalability, growth, and customer satisfaction across business domains. 

 After several years as an independent consultant for companies like Google, Cisco and Equinix, Ramya is now the director, continuous improvement at Exact Sciences, where she consults with their key operational and functional leaders to identify, orchestrate and implement Business Excellence projects which target specific improvements across process, policy, people and systems.  She also promotes organic growth of the continuous improvement culture through training and mentoring high potential candidates across the organization.

Ramya has an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and is an accomplished singer of Indian classical music.

Biography

William J. Maples, M.D. - Dr. Maples is the founder, president, and chief executive officer of the Institute for Healthcare Excellence, a national organization supporting care redesign and cultural transformation in delivery systems across the United States. 

Dr. Maples earned his undergraduate, Masters in Oncology, and medical degrees at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He completed his residency and fellowship in Medical Oncology at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine. Dr. Maples practiced Medical Oncology for 25 years at Mayo Clinic and helped lead the Mayo Clinic quality, safety, and experience journey.

He then served as Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer at Mission Health in Asheville, North Carolina where he helped Mission Health navigate cultural transformation and become a leading healthcare organization recognized for its impeccable quality and safety. Dr. Maples more recently served as Chief Medical Officer of Professional Research Consultants, Inc. Dr. Maples is an Associate Professor Emeritus of Oncology at the Mayo College of Medicine and a Clinical Professor at Brooks College of Health at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

Biography

Dennis Thankachan is the CEO and Co-Founder of Lightyear. Founded in 2019, Lightyear is a software platform that automates the enterprise telecom lifecycle - from RFP to install to renewal - and has raised over $17M in venture capital from top investors.

Dennis started his career as an Investment Banker at Goldman Sachs, and was then an Investment Professional for PointState Capital, a $10B hedge fund, where he invested in public technology companies prior to starting Lightyear. Dennis is also an active angel investor in several high-growth, early stage SaaS and marketplace companies.

Dennis holds Bachelor's degrees with honors in Computer Science and Finance from The University of Texas.

Biography

Henry has 20+ years of professional experiences as a global executive, former VC, advisor, and techentrepreneur. He is the CEO and co-founder of Chainparency, a technology startup and developer of GoTrace: a turnkey SaaS blockchain traceability solution designed for any organization regardless of size or budget.

Henry also continues to serve on the Steering Committee of the GoChain Foundation, the developer of the GoChain blockchain: a highly scalable, enterprise-grade, 100% Ethereum-compatible, and green, blockchain: protocol based on GoChain's novel 'Proof of Reputation' consensus mechanism.

He also continues to advance various GoChain blockchain-based initiatives to include the Zeromint NFT Marketplace. Previously, Mr. Ines led Shivom Ventures (now HLTH), a biotech startup and developer of an innovative clinical SaaS bioinformatics platform and genomics datahub powered by blockchain.

Mr. Ines began his career as a management consultant (ex-PW & PwC) and corporate finance advisor (ex-PwCS and M&T Bank) before spending 10 years in Silicon Valley and Asia as an early stage tech VC.

Henry is a frequent speaker on tech and enterprise blockchain solutions, serves as an advisor and mentor to tech startups, and is a routine lecturer at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

He holds an M.B.A. from Duke University Fuqua School of Business and a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the Pennsylvania State University Smeal College of Business.

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

Leading company Materials Velocity effort by driving E2E process design of overall cyber ECO-System. Introducing Industry 4.0 to the enterprise allowing the teams to leverage and exploit a connected data/process flow.

Manage creation of future standards and architectural design of the E2E physical process and integrated architecture to lead enterprise digital transformation of our factory systems, processes, technology, and people. Responsibility of BPM implementation at the enterprise level to drive operational transformation.

Biography

Steve Tracey is both the Executive Director for the Center for Supply Chain Research® (CSCR®) and a Professor of Practice for the Supply Chain and Information Systems Department within the Smeal College of Business. 

As a Professor of Practice, Tracey delivers curriculum reflecting his extensive background in both operations and finance to Smeal College of Business undergraduate and graduate students. He also connects with broad industry and public sector audiences through his teaching in Penn State Executive Programs and by representing CSCR at many industry events and conferences.  Steve sits on both the management and leadership committees for the Smeal College of Business and is a member of the Executive Committee for Strategic Procurement Transformation for the University.  

External to his university roles, Steve is a member on several boards in such diverse industries as the oil & gas sector, healthcare innovation, film, and technology.  

Biography

Mark started his career in class 8 heavy trucks with Freightliner in 1992 at their St Thomas, Ontario truck plant.  After 4 years, he joined CAMI Automotive, a joint venture automotive assembly plant with General Motors and Suzuki. In 2000, he joined Magna International’s metal forming group, Cosma International.  His career with Magna spawn 15 years and included assignments in Canada, USA and Mexico. Over that time Mark held multiple positions including continuous improvement leader, quality manager, assistant general manager and general manager.  

In 2016, Mark joined Martinrea International, a Tier 1 automotive supplier as general manager in their Shelbyville Kentucky facility.  In 2018 he moved to Director of Operations for the US facilities. In his current role, he supports multiple sites in different states, including union and non-union facilities, with a total employee headcount of more than 2500.    

Mark is a very passionate leader, who believes in, and subscribes to a servitude leadership approach.  In 2017 he started sharing his message on leadership, employee engagement and culture through conferences and contributing articles to IndustryWeek magazine.  Throughout his career, he has witnessed firsthand the power of an engaged workforce, and the resulting correlation to overall business results.  

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

James Feldman is a globally recognized business advisor, mentor, innovation Sherpa, author, speaker, and serial entrepreneur, who has guided hundreds of companies and thousands of individuals around the world towards optimum performance levels. He advises companies on building strong customer-concentric, innovative organizations that deliver transformational growth to achieve goals, overcome challenges, and think ‘inside the box’ to solve problems.

The robust result of his real-world information is that attendees become more enlightened to influence their behavior and competitive differentiation. He delivers a strong, entertaining, thought-provoking presentation that will demonstrate 'shifts’ based on a series of interrelated actions with a focus on obsessive intimacy and attendee engagement.

James delivers proven real-world strategies that target and transform challenges into opportunities! It’s about how to think, not what to think. Leveraging extensive experience developing and implementing effective strategies to drive business improvements for both non-and for-profit organizations, h

Utilizing licensed movie and television scenes attendees will be simultaneously entertained and educated.

His presentation is applicable to brand development, hospitality innovation, business transformation, leadership development, creative problem solving, new business development, B2B/B2C marketing, innovative problem solving and strategic planning.

Throughout his executive career, he founded several performance improvement companies. He has been responsible for facilitating Toyota’s launch of new products, spearheading the introduction of breakfast at McDonald’s, raising $450M for the Y-ME Breast Cancer Organization, and improving Hewlett-Packards go-to-market strategies. James’ clients have included leading organizations such as AT&T, Carnival Cruise Lines, Apple, Verizon, US Department of Defense, Hyatt, Walt Disney, Ritz Carlton, Microsoft, MGM Casinos and Resorts, MGM, Walt Disney, American Dairy Association, Cremation Association of N.A. Ford, the March of Dimes, and the American Dental Association.

A highly respected Thought Leader he is the author of several books. They include "D-A-T-I-N-G Your Customer®," "Shift Happens!®",  “Thriving on Change in Organizations” and “Celebrate Customer Service – Insider Secrets,” and has written for publications including Adweek, Advertising Age, Investors Business Daily, and Business Travel News. Named one of the Most Innovative People in the 21st Century by Incentive Magazine.

James has earned more professional certifications than almost any other speaker including Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), Certified Incentive and Travel Expert (CITE), Certified Professional of Incentive Marketing (CPIM), Certified Performance Technologist (CPT), Master Incentive Professional (MIP), Platform Certified Speaker (PCS), Certified Underwater Photography Instructor, Private Pilot, and Artisan Chocolatier.

Biography

Adam Lawrence, author of the Wheel of Sustainability, is the Managing Partner of Process Improvement Partners, LLC. He has 30+ years of experience in process improvement activities, targeted at manufacturing and business processes. Having facilitated 300+ Kaizen events in multiple industries around the world, Adam aligns with leadership, engages teams, and creates sustainable results.

Adam has mastered the use of many different process improvement methodologies, allowing him to implement the best strategy for each organization’s goals and objectives. He develops sessions that are fun, engaging, and laser-focused. Adam is 100 percent committed to ensuring the team has a winning result and a fantastic experience.

Married to his wonderful wife, Peggy, for over 30 years, they have one son (Tyler, his IT department). Adam grew up in the Washington, DC area and received his BS in Industrial Engineering from Virginia Tech. He earned Lean certifications from the University of Michigan. Adam enjoys time with family and friends, loud music, traveling, the many great clients he has worked with (his extended family), and his many business adventures.

Biography

Tony is a Senior Operations Executive with over 2 decades of experience guiding global growth and transformation initiatives, realizing game-changing process improvements, cost efficiencies, and securing a meaningful competitive edge within the Healthcare, Pharmaceutical and High-Tech industries. He is currently President, Director, Board of Directors of the Association of Business Process Management Professionals and Partner, Omicron Partners, a strategy and operations advisory firm.

Biography

Summer is a results-oriented leader with a passion for developing a highly motivated team aligned towards achieving a shared vision of the future.  Deeply committed to facilitating strategy alignment among leaders, Summer has a proven track record of successfully partnering with executives to guide organizational choices around structure, process, and delivery models to enable business growth and drive higher levels of productivity.  

Summer has more than 20 years of progressive experience and knowledge in Business and Process Transformation, Change Management, Communications, Strategy Alignment and Organizational Design.  She brings years of business experience from managing her own businesses including a publication and as a Coldwell Banker Partner. She draws upon her early career in Human Resources and years of living internationally to tackle the challenges of a high growth, multi-national organization in an era of unprecedented change.

Biography

Andy Tilstra is an innovation guru and facilitator at Creativity Effect. To date he has facilitated more than 100 design thinking projects for healthcare, higher education, government, and private business. Currently Andy is consulting with Florida’s Orange County to develop a county wide innovation program. He is also co-developing an extensive Design Thinking training for nurses for Atlantic Health Systems in the Northeastern USA. Andy graduated from the University of Chicago with a Master of Social Sciences degree focused on anthropology.

Biography

Avinash Misra is the CEO and Co-founder of Skan.  Avinash is a serial entrepreneur with a proven record of taking ventures from seed to liquidity. He has built successful ventures in the enterprise digital transformation space and his last venture was acquired by Genpact (NYSE : G). Avinash’s insight for Skan took seed in large scale Business Process Transformation projects which he has led over the last decade.

Biography

Jennifer is a fierce advocate for connecting things, concepts and people, seen and unseen, that positively move the patient experience forward. Before joining The Institute for Healthcare Excellence in 2016,  her obsession with the voice of the patient and family helped several health systems in Minnesota achieve and sustain remarkable patient experience performance. Jennifer also worked to help organizations generate revenue, inspire engagement and drive positivechange.

Jennifer, often described as a social chemist, believes that kindness and thoughtfulness is a key ingredient for creating meaningful relationships while still being focused on generating growth and loyalty for the organization. Her ability to lead, inspire, manage and mentor employees, providers and community made her a perfect fit for Chief Experience Officer at the Institute for Healthcare Excellence.   While Jennifer takes great pride in her work, her true north remains her family, friends and relationships she develops. A graduate of the College of St. Benedict, she holds a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies/Communications.

Biography

Nicole Scheffler is a Tech Diva dedicated to sparking success by leading engineering teams and serving women in technology with the Tech Diva Success collection. She has a track record leading engineering teams at a Fortune 100 company where she witnesses the fast past of digital acceleration post covid as well as the need for diversity.

Nicole also speaks often on proven success principles to help define your aspirations, goals, and building diverse cultures. Applying more than 16 years’ experience in a fast-paced technology career, the wisdom featured in her best-selling “Pillars of Success” book with Jack Canfield, and hundreds of hours interviewing women in tech on her podcasts, Nicole provides a clear success framework for building diverse cultures and empowering women. Her courses, content, and speaking, help tech divas fires burn brighter while her leadership drives customer success for Enterprise customers.

Biography

Howard is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Winning Digital Customers: The Antidote to Irrelevance which was recently listed by Forbes as “One of the ten most important business books of 2021.”

Biography

Gerard Ibarra, PhD, is an author, speaker, consultant, and serial entrepreneur. His book, “Good Decisions, Better Outcomes,” guides individuals and business owners to make more efficient and effective decisions.

Dr. Ibarra helps businesses faced with multiple tough decisions, made more difficult by competing departments, to agree and converge on one that is for the benefit of the overall company. He uses his framework which is a five-step process that is repeatable, reliable, and consistent, to help businesses with their decision-making process.

Dr. Ibarra has over thirty years of management and leadership experience. He’s held multiple positions from Director to Executive Vice President and CEO. His skill sets are in industrial and systems engineering, logistics and operations management.

He has completed and implemented numerous operational plans, performed various analyses, and conducted multiple feasibility, tradeoff, and marketing studies that ultimately led to improving processes, reducing costs, gaining market share, and increasing company awareness. He was also co-founder of three SaaS companies of which one was sold.

Lastly, Dr. Ibarra received his PhD in Logistics Systems Engineering from Southern Methodist University (SMU). He has taught graduate courses in logistics at SMU, and supply chain management at the University of Dallas.

Biography

Alan is a Proven leader and entrepreneur who has a wide range of business experience in large and small companies. He has over 30 years of experience applying technology to solve real-world business problems.

Alan comes to Nividous from Freedom Mortgage where he ended his tenure as the senior Vice President, Office of CIO. While there, he built a global technology team that delivered award-winning results that helped to grow business revenue dramatically while reducing staffing requirements through automation and process optimization.

A focus on process centric thinking to drive innovation and strong sponsorship from the executive team allowed for these impressive results to be delivered in under four years. The hybrid team concept which combined onshore and offshore resources and was largely responsible for the success at Freedom Mortgage is now serving as the model for growth and expansion of Nividous in the United States.

Biography

Paul has over 30 years of product management and software development experience assisting a diverse group of public and private companies in the implementation and continued use of software solutions for their strategic business activities. He is an expert in the areas of business intelligence, business metrics and dashboards, organizational communication strategy,  employee accountability and engagement.

Paul believes that for organizations to create and sustain a culture of high-performance, they must focus the necessary time and energy to identify the metrics that truly move the needle forward, a process that connects activities with performance to demonstrate accountability for business actions and a strategy to consistently communicate across the organization so everyone is driving in the right direction.

Organizations Paul has worked with many companies including Pfizer, Genentech, Homestead Hospital, Caliber Home Loans, Blue Sky Farms, Alcon, Nutrien, Revlon, and Zoetis. He lives in Atlanta with his wife Julie.

Biography

Chris Dykstra, Benefits Realization Program Manager for the Product Effectiveness/Value Realization (PE) organization at the Veteran's Health Administration, has more than 12 years of healthcare experience in end-to-end revenue cycle management, clinical and business program management, and evaluating technologies such as practice management systems and electronic health records, with a specialized focus in access to care.

In the private sector, Chris implemented universal resource scheduling and the first centralized contact center at The GWU Medical Faculty Associates. Within Product Effectiveness/Value Realization, Chris evaluates clinical and business processes, workflows, technologies, and data to quantify the level of benefits that have been realized to determine if any gaps exist in the current state of operations or associated measurements. Through business process redesign and optimization, Chris maximizes the opportunities to gain additional benefits while minimizing risks to patient care and future benefits.

Chris has presented optimized business practices and health care models at national and global healthcare conferences, including GE Centricity Live 2017 and HIMSS21.

Biography

A former Research Director at leading IT industry analysis firm Gartner, Mark has an extensive background in enterprise architecture, business process management and change management, having held executive positions with a number of technology companies.

Mark has authored or co-authored four books on business and process management, including “Thrive! How to Succeed in the Age of the Customer” and “In Search of BPM Excellence” and  “People Centric Process Management.  Widely respected for his knowledge and views on business change, he is the creator of “Next Practice” and has variously been described as a ”BPM Guru”, a “Thought Leader” and a “Master of Mindset”. 

Mark is passionate about the people aspects of change, he has spent much of the last ten years travelling the world, learning, teaching and researching the cultural aspects of change and how executives perceive business and process improvement In this capacity he has literally taught hundreds of people and been fortunate to interview and interact with many CEO’s .

Biography

Cliff Tironi is Executive Vice President - Strategic Accounts. Thinaer is an IoT platform that integrates actionable data from highly-calibrated sensors and real-time employee and client feedback to give their clients unparalleled insight into their operations, predictive analytics to see the future, and consultative business process redesign to get improved results. (https://thinaer.io/)

Prior to working with Thinaer, Cliff was the Manager of Performance Analytics at the Fox School of Business at Temple University.  At Fox, Cliff was the chief architect and co-creator of RoadMap™, a Microsoft-supported tool for students to visualize their progress on competencies across courses. 

Cliff understands the challenges of harnessing never-ending data—and the need to leverage it in imaginative yet impactful ways.  He regularly conducts data visualizations workshops to business professionals across all industries, coaching others to embrace a humanized mindset as a means to making data more relatable and, most importantly, actionable. 

Fluent in Spanish, Cliff earned his M.B.A. from Arcadia University and his B.S. in Marketing from Siena College. 

Biography

Anil leads the Process & Enterprise Transformation Consulting business for Wipro’s application services. He carries a global responsibility across all industries. Anil also leads the new age SaaS  business for Wipro in NA. Anil, brings in deep advisory & consulting experience in Manufacturing, Consumer, Energy & Financial Services industries.

In his current role, he is responsible for making our clients successful with consulting and advisory on - Reducing the value gap across  Customer experience, technology, Operations, and  ROI; helping clients with building new business architecture, M&A Divestitures,  digitization, and simplification of business processes , etc., to help improve the experience, efficiency, and the dollar productivity of their business. Anil serves on Advisory Panel for CT Bauer School of business at University of Houston, for their customer experience program.

He has been speaker in several forums like Oracle Open World / Collaborate etc. He was recognized as Deputy CTO by Oracle under their Fusion Architecture Program. He also led Migration and Integration SIG for Oracle user groups for over 12 years.

Biography

Tony Johnson was formerly the Customer Experience Officer for Aramark where he led the team who developed and delivered their customer experience training. He is focused on the end to end guest experience, ensuring that every detail creates emotionally engaging experiences –bringing together execution, service, and ease.

Tony is the author of 3 books and a 20 year leader in the retail, restaurant, and hospitality spaces. Tony understands not only the strategy behind great CX and customer journeys, but also the core behaviors and leadership techniques it takes to deliver on those brand promises. Tony is a member of the National Speakers Association and Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP).

Biography

Biography

I help organizations increase their influence by using a patented solution that helps organizations of all sizes rationalize and market their associative environmental and socio-economic impact in REAL-TIME. Yes, REAL-TIME.

I am a high-powered executive with innovative storytelling and turnaround management techniques. I have held several executive leadership positions in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors.

I have successfully and not so successfully at times started, managed several small businesses in the U.S. I am known for my keen business sense and ability to develop a rapport with people quickly. This authentic leadership and management style has enabled me to help organizations achieve discover new value and success.

My functional experience spans management consulting, law, marketing, branding, finance, operations, market expansion planning, strategic alliance formation, supplier diversity, diversity & inclusion, equity analytics, and vendor brand extension analysis.

I am an empowering and authentic leader who firmly believes in inclusiveness, fairness & equality.

Biography

Partner & Director of Simulation and Process Improvement, Specialties: Process improvement implementations and Analysis through simulation. Lean transition planning, executive management, automation system design, system analytics, data collection and visualization.

Biography

Allyn Bailey was a transformation leader within the Global Talent Acquisition organization at Intel.  As part of a specialized team she is focused on keeping Intel’s Talent Acquisition process on the leading edge of recruitment techniques, technology advancements and customer experience. She designs, delivers and measures strategic programs focused on making talent experience a key differentiator for Intel.  Allyn combines her expertise in UX research, HR technologies, organizational development and solutions design to generate standout experiences for hiring managers, candidates and recruiting teams, because she firmly believes that these experiences create behaviors, impact outcomes and make Intel an employer of choice.

Biography

After successfully expanding our offerings in NYC, I was dispatched to the Pacific Rim, where I led our trainings in Japan and Australia. Currently, I am a Principal Consultant for Agile Transformations, where most of my work is with the Fortune 500. Additionally, I am a contributor and editor of the Scrum@Scale Guide and a fellow in our program for people who want to become Scrum and S@S Trainers .

Certifications: SM & PO, S@S. Scrum@Scale Trainer, scruminc Licensed Agile Coach & Licensed Agile Coach Trainer.

Specialities: Facilitation, Training Agile Coaches and Trainers, Scaling Scrum from Teams through the Executive Suite, Using Scrum beyond IT, for example, in Sales & Marketing, Procurement, and Operations.

Biography

Emon Abtahi is a Senior Solution Engineer at MANTA, focusing on helping clients understand and enhance their data pipelines with automated data lineage. Before MANTA, he spent seven years in data consulting, providing solutions to clients’ challenges with their data environments. He has worked with a wide variety of industries and departments, allowing him to see how unique each organization’s data environment can be. Emon received his Master of Science in Information Systems & Operations Management and his Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Florida

Biography

Matt Spears is a process management professional with a passion for uncovering and simplifying business processes. Based out of Atlanta, Georgia, he works with Nintex clients in North America, helping them generate more customer value through documenting, managing, and improving their business processes utilizing Nintex Promapp®.

Biography

John Armstrong started his career in the tech industry in 2016, providing customer support for the predecessor to Nintex RPA. He became part of Nintex's presales team in early 2019 through Nintex's acquisition of what is now known as Nintex RPA. Previously, he managed a front-line team in the theme park industry for over 6 years. Upon joining Nintex, John began to fully understand what it meant to improve the way people work, through process excellence, optimization, and automation.

Biography

Biography

Consulting Partner & Solution Architecture with 20+ years of extensive background in Consulting and Technology Transformation leadership. Leader in Digital Business Application Division with specialties in Consulting, Advisory and Technology delivery for Customer Value Chain transformation including Quote-to-Cash/XaaS models/Subscription led digital initiatives.

Biography

Ray Brand is the Sr. Performance Improvement Engineer at Barnes-Jewish Hospital aligned to its multiple service lines (NeuroSciences, Therapy Services, Pt Placement) and various strategic initiatives (Readmissions Prevention, Patient Progression and Volume Growth) of the BJC Health System.  Maturing BJC’s development and implementation of its Operating System and creating an execution culture are the primary objectives for his current statement of work at BJC. Ray specializes in various methods of creating emotional attachment (Humble Inquiry, Unleashing Talent, 10x, etc) for front line staff and leaders in order to drive step function change in KPI Performance.

In addition to his current responsibilities, Ray is leading a performance improvement collaborative, THE IMPETUS GROUP, on the BJC Academic Medical Campus which aligns PI efforts across St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.  This grassroots approach to strengthening PI skillsets is intended to increase the adoption of change rate across the entire medical center.

Prior to joining the BJC Health System, Ray spent 11 years in the Aerospace manufacturing sector as a lean facilitator/enterprise process integrator.  He earned his B.S in Accountancy from Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville and an M.B.A. from Webster University – St. Louis.

Biography

As Senior Vice-President of Competitive Solutions, Inc., Seth has over 25 years of experience assisting adiverse group of public and private companies as well as local governments in the development and deployment of strategic business processes throughout their organizations. He is an expert in the areas of business metrics and dashboards, organizational communication strategy, and employee accountability and engagement.

Seth is a popular speaker at Operational Excellence, Human Resource, and Quality Conferences. He believes organizations today must create and sustain a culture with three non-negotiable attributes. Those attributes are: collective accountability across the company, a documented communication strategy and key business metrics to drive focus and urgency at all levels.

Organizations Seth has worked with recently include Bristol Meyers Squibb, 3M, Pfizer, Genentech, DeKalb County, (GA), BioMarin, Goodwill Industries, Revlon, City of Charlotte and Zoetis. He lives in Atlanta with his wife Ann and their three children, two sons (out in the workforce) and one daughter in college.

Biography

Marty Jacknis is President of Opportunity Maximizers and has been described as the “Ultimate Opportunity Maximizer.” He is nationally recognized as an expert professional speaker, educator, consultant, executive coach, and innovator in the field of management, marketing and sales.

Marty has helped Fortune 500 companies as well as start-up firms maximize their sales and marketing efforts through the application of unique strategies, tactics and execution techniques designed to enhance their business generation processes and sales channels. For additional information, please visit https://opportunitymaximizers.com/

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

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

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

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

Nuray Gurtekin Sen is leading the Business Excellence and Operational Transformation function under Siemens’ Financial Services unit for the Americas Region. Before this role she took Global Process, Quality and Strategic Programs PMO function lead role more than 7 years in Siemens Corporate Technology Research in Digitalization and Automation.

Nuray possess 20 years of progressive experience and knowledge in Business and Process Transformation, Continuous Improvement, Change Management, Operational Excellence, Program Management, and Quality Management fields. She has gained broad expertise in production, service, project, and R&D businesses worldwide in life science, smart infrastructure, digital industries, energy management, and gas and sectors.

Just before her current role, Nuray took Global Process, Quality and Strategic Programs PMO function lead role more than 7 years in Siemens AG Corporate Technology Research in Digitalization & Automation in HQ Germany including all regions in China, India, Russia, Austria and Romania. Nuray managed several end-to-end enterprise level global process design, tool and system integration projects.

In her capacity as business excellence executive, she adapted business operating models for project management, technology research, SW development, service excellence and lean manufacturing best practices across the regions in Europe, Asia and US. Bringing process and organizational change experience, Nuray led business transformation and change management programs. Additionally she has planned and executed post-merger integration (PMI) and carve-in projects successfully for the Siemens Healthcare units in US, Germany, China and India. Currently Nuray is acting as internal consultant for Siemens global senior executives on process design and improvement, change management, business transformation programs.

Since 2014, she has been acting as Program Manager for multi-year strategic growth and Operational Excellence program resulted in significant impact to grow in US along with process performance, productivity and cost improvements. 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

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

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

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

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

Thank you for viewing my profile.

After proudly serving my country as a U.S. Army Noncommissioned Officer in peacetime and combat operations, I merged into a successful business career where, from the C-Suite to the office and production floor, I have enjoyed employing Operational Excellence tooled approaches to weave Business Transformation and Systems Integration into the fabric of Fortune companies, within heavily regulated business models and in diverse public and private organizations.

Industries and functional business groups will vary but results remain the consistent outcome. Evolving organizations need agile and objective thought leaders who can seamlessly shift from the strategic 10,000 foot level to tactical details at the ground level. This is especially vital in changing times when leaders must continue to be effective as we see more hybrid WFH/OnSite models.

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.

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

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

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

Dr. Keith A. Clinkscale is a recognized Lean Six Sigma Black Belt & Operational Excellence Executive known for establishing best-in-class strategic performance management programs. Keith Clinkscale demonstrates a combination of broad industry experiences, performance management acumen and a history of results-oriented management consulting to drive significant improvement and cost savings. As a seasoned Industry Executive and Management Consultant, Keith built a reputation of excellence in all areas of operations.

His skillset includes over 30 years of Executive Coaching, Training and Content Design, Process Improvement, Benchmarking, Total Quality Management, Balanced Scorecards, Business Process Re-engineering, Strategic Planning, and High Performance Teams. Keith’s experience and sensitivity to customer concerns has always enabled him to provide a high level of service, whether in industry or as a consultant. Keith has headed the Performance Management Office at Palm Tran. Keith’s team provided executive coaching, goal and target setting through benchmarking, established and reported balanced scorecards, developed department scorecards and held department directors accountable for addressing deficiencies. Dr. Clinkscale has been the champion of Performance Reporting, Management and Improvement at Palm Tran.

Keith has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Boston University and a PH.D in Strategic Leadership from Concordia College & University. He is now the Director of Strategic Planning and Performance Management for Palm Beach County and supervises all activities related to the long-term strategic plan of Palm Beach County as well as the strategic planning of over 30 county departments. Keith is responsible for assisting the Board of County Commissioners (BCC), Executive Team, Department Directors, and staff with the development of long-term goals, objectives, strategies, and actions.

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

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

Helen is an experienced and passionate healthcare innovator and futurist with expertise in partnering with c-suite executives and peers supporting team development. She excels in strategic planning supporting global governance programs while 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 and stealth mode health IT companies to successful next steps. Helen has achieved HIMSS fellow status and 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 the School of Public Health supporting cybersecurity. Helen currently serves in several senior advisory roles including 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., Board Member at Large and HIMSS National Liaison for the State of New York and past Chair, Health 2.0 Boston. Helen has secured service and career awards including recognition by Health 2.0 as a “Ten Year Industry Leader”, named four consecutive years, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, as “Most Powerful Women in Healthcare IT” by Health Data Management and named in 2018 and 2019 on Becker’s prestigious “Women to Know in Healthcare IT” listing. She publishes and lectures extensively and regularly presents and authors on healthcare technology. She holds academic appointments, 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 is a career coach, mentor and passionate about supporting the environment. She volunteers her time for several philanthropic organizations including the Alzheimer’s Association. In her spare time, Helen cultivates organizations interested in positioning product development and go to market strategies for innovative products supporting healthcare. Helen is Chief Strategy Officer for MedicaSoft based in Arlington, Va.

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

Anu George is Chief Quality and Transformation 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In today’s day and age every organization seems to be in a constant state of change. Navigating these small and large transformations can be daunting, especially when many transformation efforts take longer, cost more and even fail. Companies grapple with being “reactive or ready” for change.

There are many types of transformations that a business must go through including digital, organizational culture, customer experience, operational, distribution, growth, sustainability, risk management, and much more. Many experts will try and argue that each one of these changes requires you to tackle them in fundamentally different ways. But, is that really true?

Throughout her career, Alina Aronova has successfully supported, led and sustained an array of business transformations in diverse functional areas, industries, and organizations. Each transformation brought its own unique needs, obstacles, challenges, and constraints. Yet, at the same time they all required innovation, adaptation and rethinking how the organization operated.

Looking back at all her success, Alina asked herself “Why was I able to be an effective change agent in different industries with different challenges?” Through this questioning she uncovered her unique methods of defining, organizing and leading prosperous transformations. In this session Alina will share with you her experiences in vastly different industries, stories of her success and failures; insights on how she tackles change; and the competitive advantage that is at the heart of all her transformations.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dr. Kirchmer is an experienced practitioner and thought leader in the field of Digital Transformation and Business Process Management (BPM). He co-founded BPM-D, a consulting company focusing on digital process transformation, operational excellence and customer experience by leveraging the discipline of BPM. Before he was Managing Director and Global Lead of BPM at Accenture, and CEO of the Americas and Japan of IDS Scheer, known for its ARIS Process Software. 

Dr. Kirchmer has led numerous transformation and process improvement initiatives and has worked with hundreds of clients in technology, financial, health, consumer goods and manufacturing industries. He has published 11 books and over 150 articles. He is affiliated faculty at the University of Pennsylvania and  received a research and teaching fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anu is an experienced and passionate change agent.  She has expertise in partnering with c-suite executives and peers to drive the successful execution of strategic and transformational programs, building lasting collaborations, delighting customers and establishing best practice solution portfolios for Quality-boosting initiatives.

Throughout her career she has served in four Fortune Healthcare companies and non-for profit organizations such as WEDI (Work group for EDI) where she chaired the workgroup for Healthcare Policy guidance. Her contributions towards setting up best practices for interoperability and harmonization of Healthcare Information were published in the 2013 WEDI Report.

Anu is an active contributor and champion of leading industry best practices such as developing the rule book for the ICD 10 Testing programs. She was the one of the leading members of the ”ICD-10 Testing collaborative” that promoted sharing quality best practices amongst major healthcare payers including UnitedHealth Care and Blue Shield of California. In 2019, Anu delivered a compelling presentation at BTOES 2019 on driving innovation in the cultural transformation for rapidly changing organizations. This presentation showcased the transformational work that she has led at Molina Healthcare Inc.

Most recently, she has been invited by Amazon as their Principal of Operational Excellence to establish global best practices and build a culture of operational excellence for Human Resources of their Devices business.

Anu holds a Baccalaureate in Science, a Masters in Organic Chemistry and has obtained Management credentials in Healthcare Administration from the Wharton School of business. She is also a Certified LEAN Six Sigma Master Black Belt.

She is devoted to the cause of elevating the career goals of young women through coaching and mentoring.

Her Hobbies include travel, study of period architecture and water sports.

Biography

Former Head of Digital CoE at Broadridge Financial and eBay Enterprise Global Program Management Office         

Randy Bradley, joined Broadridge Financial in 2015 to lead its digital transformation by defining a multi-year roadmap, implementing new practices and championing Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) practices and cultural change management program. Randy helped lead the development of Broadridge's new Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) capabilities, helped design Product-Management-led practices, and accelerated its cloud adoption with AWS.        

Randy is a pro-active and results-oriented executive with proven record of success leading large complex global businesses in the design and execution of enterprise Digital and Business Agility transformations leveraging cloud based strategies. Proven ability to inspire and lead global teams to deliver on enterprise change management initiatives across Financial Services,   eCommerce, Media, industry verticals.

Biography

Padmini Nidumolu is the Co-founder of Lean In Agile for women in Lean and Agile spaces to amplify the voices of women and celebrate the journeys of thought leaders. She is an Enterprise Agile Coach and an Agile community leader. She is a two times TEDx speaker and a frequent speaker at various Agile, Lean, operational excellence and business transformation conferences. She is a certified Business Agility Strategist and a certified trainer in several Agile and Scaled Agile courses. She is also a passionate STEM coach for several school teams and a huge proponent of women in STEM.

Biography

Leila Rao is an enterprise consultant optimizing the ability of organizations to discover, deliver and realize value iteratively. She integrates Lean values, gained from her experiences applying Lean in the healthcare industry, with Agile principles drawn from Agile transformation expertise, to facilitate sustainable organizational change outcomes. She is now applying the same experiences to increase the value and visibility of women  through self-empowerment and structural realignment as the co-founder of Lean In Agile.             

Biography

By Way of Introduction; Bilal J Muhammed is a Senior Level Global Technology Professional, Multifaceted Subject Matter Expert (SME) and Lecturer on IT Innovation, Transformation and Business Process Improvement.

Raised in Newark, New Jersey; Bilal joined the United States Navy, earning the Classification as a Data Systems Technician Petty Officer (DS3-NSW) in Combat Systems & Aircraft Carrier Communications Systems. Further complimented in the field of Computer Science from Howard University, and certifications as a LEAN/Six Sigma Black Belt, AGILE Scrum Master/Coach, PMP/PMI and ITIL v3 Service Manager as well as industry certifications from Cisco, NORTEL, Wellfleet, BayNetworks and other leaders in the Business & Technology space.

Beyond Business and Technology; Mr. Muhammed has letters in Post Graduate studies from Al-AzharUniversity (Egypt) in Theology, which has served him in his past role as a Chaplain for the Department of Corrections and his local community. And is a member of several International Interfaith Dialogue Counsels and Community Grassroots Programs.

Bilal currently is Vice President, ISRM at Wells Fargo Bank, with a focus on Global Products & Solutions Information Security Adherence Methodology Policy & Processes. He is also a member of IT Industry Forums; IEEE, IT4IT, ITSM, an active STEM Mentor/Facilitator and Past & Present Board Member of the Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA) and the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE).

Biography

Erich Heneke is currently Director of Business Integrity and Continuity in Mayo Clinic’sSupply Chain Management (SCM). His financial emphasis is in Enterprise & Supplier Risk Management, Audit/Controls and Financial Planning & Analysis. Erich has workedin Mayo SCM for 11 years, focusing his efforts on sound SCM controls, fraudprevention/detection, accuracy of balance sheet accounting and other controls relatedwork, including Mayo’s voluntary Sox compliance.

During his time at Mayo, Erich and his team have completed several projects addressingproper controls with Supply Chain, including: development of an award-winning creditcard risk scoring platform, completion of a segregation of duties project mappingemployees’ accesses across multiple applications, detection of several types ofoverpayments to vendors – including detection, collection and prevention of futureleakage, automated management of pharmaceutical pricing and several other initiatives.

Biography

Ray Brand is the Sr. Performance Improvement Engineer at Barnes-Jewish Hospital aligned to its multiple service lines (NeuroSciences, Therapy Services, Pt Placement) and various strategic initiatives (Readmissions Prevention, Patient Progression and Volume Growth) of the BJC Health System.  Maturing BJC’s development and implementation of its Operating System and creating an execution culture are the primary objectives for his current statement of work at BJC. Ray specializes in various methods of creating emotional attachment (Humble Inquiry, Unleashing Talent, 10x, etc) for front line staff and leaders in order to drive step function change in KPI Performance.

In addition to his current responsibilities, Ray is leading a performance improvement collaborative, THE IMPETUS GROUP, on the BJC Academic Medical Campus which aligns PI efforts across St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.  This grassroots approach to strengthening PI skillsets is intended to increase the adoption of change rate across the entire medical center.

Prior to joining the BJC Health System, Ray spent 11 years in the Aerospace manufacturing sector as a lean facilitator/enterprise process integrator.  He earned his B.S in Accountancy from Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville and an M.B.A. from Webster University – St. Louis.

Biography

Biography

Caroline Whalen is a Senior Business Transformation consultant at IBM in their Global Business Services. Ms. Whalen is the North America Program Lead for IBM's Transformational Leadership Development Program. Her accomplishments in this role include doubling the number of NA TLDP clients over the past year as well as redefining program opportunity management and recruitment processes. Ms. Whalen has professional experience and formal training in SAP, Microsoft Project, Advanced Excel, Lean, Agile, and more. Caroline started her career with IBM in their Enterprise Applications division working on SAP implementations. Within EA, she was responsible for Customer Master configuration and data testing. Caroline also held the role of Test Lead on the largest IBM SAP project in North America. Since transferring out of SAP, she has been working on management consulting engagements, specifically related to Lean and process improvement. Most recently, Caroline served as the site lead for a Lean implementation project at a headquarter location of a Fortune 500 insurance company. 

Biography

Upon graduation from Boston University in 1991, Dan moved to Florida and participated in the Disneyland Paris Management Trainee Program. In January of 1992, three months before the opening of Disneyland Paris, he was transferred to France, where he remained for five years in various management roles. He and his wife Valerie, who was also with Disneyland Paris, were married in France and spent five years there before moving back to Orlando in 1997.

Since that time they have raised three children – Jullian, Margot and Tristan. Dan has held various management and executive operations roles at the Walt Disney World Resort, both in the theme parks and resort hotels, and was the sixth executive to hold the position of Vice President, Magic Kingdom since the park opened in 1971. He earned his MBA in 2001 at the Crummer School of Business at Rollins College.

Dan puts great value on spending time in the operation and frequently spent time in the park, assisting cast members and interacting with guests. He believes that building relationships is critical for leadership success, and his approachability in the workplace is a testament to his people-first philosophy.

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.

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

Randy Clark is PowerSteering’s Director of Six Sigma, a Black-belt trained member of the American Society of Quality, and a three-year examiner for the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award.

Biography

James is the Strategy Practice Leader with Cicero Group. Prior to joining Cicero Group, he co-founded and served as CFO of the successful energy startup, Innovari, Inc. He also served for five years as Director of Corporate Initiatives Group at General Electric Corporation’s global headquarters working with all major business units to improve performance and efficiency. Prior to joining General Electric, James led numerous strategy and operations engagements for Fortune 100 companies as a Senior Engagement Manager at McKinsey and Company. Other prior experience includes roles at AT&T and Citibank.

Career Highlights:

• Chief Financial Officer and Co-Founder, Innovari, Inc.
• Director, General Electric Corporation
• Senior Engagement Manager, McKinsey & Company
• University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, MBA

Biography

Jason provides a wealth of knowledge in developing sales and business development strategies for Cicero Group's largest clients. His expertise also includes process improvement, supply chain management, customer analytics and lifecycle management, risk management among others. Prior to joining Cicero Group, Jason served as the Director of Business Development at Steelcase and then sPower as well as the Vice President of Pacific Pure Energy Capital.

Career Highlights:

• Vice President, Pacific Pure Energy Capital
• Director of Business Development and Operations, sPower
• Director of Business Development, Steelcase
• University of Utah, MBA

Biography

Catherine has extensive experience in the public and social sectors in program design, implementation, and evaluation. Most recently at the George W. Bush Institute, Catherine was responsible for the development and execution of national and international programs, including Presidential Leadership Scholars. Additionally, she lead the design and implementation of robust measurement and evaluation strategies across the Institute and, previously for the US Department of Education.

Career Highlights:

• Chief of Staff, Office of the State Superintendent of Education, Washington, DC
• Deputy Assistant Secretary at the US Department of Education
• Vanderbilt University, BS & PhD; University of Texas, M.Ed.

Biography

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

Since 1991 he has led the offices of CSI in becoming one of the nation’s most recognized Business Transformation consulting firms, personally working with such organizations as Michelin, Genentech, Pfizer, Lockheed Martin, the Department of Defense, and many others.

Biography

Jennifer Hurst leads Nielsen’s Performance Excellence team which comprises Business Process Improvement, Program and Change Management, Performance Metrics, and Learning in support of Global Technology & Operations. In this role, Jennifer partners closely with Nielsen’s global leadership team to drive a unified focus on critical priorities with a consistent approach to drive operational and organizational excellence. Over the past year, her team’s portfolio of projects has delivered nearly $50M USD in impact to Nielsen - either by growing revenue or reducing costs.

Before joining Business Process Improvement, Jennifer led operational and technology teams for Telecommunications and Online products in addition to serving as Organizational Strategy Leader for Nielsen Engineering. Prior to working in market research, Jennifer spent nearly 10 years consulting in Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing, designing solutions for numerous Fortune 100 companies; mentored new consultants and led teams in a client leadership role. She started and ran her own consulting practice which ultimately folded into a start-up (ShareTracker LLC) and was later acquired by Telephia then Nielsen. Jennifer holds two patents for research methodologies to monitor telecommunication service subscriber activity.

Jennifer graduated from Florida State University with undergraduate degrees in Accounting and Entrepreneurship; she completed a graduate program at Georgia State University, earning a Master of Science in Computer Information Systems.

When not at work, Jennifer is busy keeping up with the activities of her 3 children (Tucker, age 15; Sophia & Webster, age 12), in addition to enjoying photography, wine tasting, cooking, Florida State University Football & University of Kentucky Basketball – all with Thomas, her husband of 23 years. She resides in Tampa.

Biography

As EVP and COO of Aflac U.S. and president of Aflac Group, Virgil is responsible for the day-to-day operating activities, performance goals and strategic initiatives of company headquarters in Columbus, Georgia, and Aflac Group in Columbia, South Carolina. He also oversees the customer experience with a team of 3,400 professionals.

He first joined the company in 2004 in the Policy Service department and earned promotions to positions of increasing responsibility including second vice president of Client Services, Policy Service and the Customer Service Center, and vice president of Client Services, Customer Assurance and Aflac’s Transformation Office. In 2015, Virgil was promoted to senior vice president of Internal Operations and later named chief administrative officer, head of Aflac Group. He was promoted to his current position in January 2018 and is responsible for the strategic leadership and overall direction of operations at Aflac Group as well as operations for Aflac U.S. of increasing responsibility. Virgil served as a U.S. Marine and is a veteran of Operation Desert Storm. He holds a master’s degree in business management from Wesleyan College and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Georgia College. He also holds Six Sigma/PMP certifications from Villanova University.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Palmetto Health Foundation, the Board of Trustees for Claflin University, the South Carolina State Chamber Board, the 2017 Group Insurance Executive Council, the Palmetto Business Forum and the Columbia Urban League. He is a former board member for the American Red Cross and the United Way Board of Trustees.

Biography

Matt Retterer is a Senior Strategy Consultant within IBM. He solves business challenges primarily within a clients IT and technology space. Mr. Retterer’s career began in IBM’s Federal practice in Washington D.C. where he worked as a financial analyst on massive IT implementations and helped build IBM’s book of business. He transitioned from a successful Federal implementation stint to strategy consulting with a focus on Agile, Cloud, and Lean. Matt Retterer has advised clients on Cloud implementation, operation model restructuring, cost reduction strategy, and more. Most recently, Matt guided a Fortune 500 client through a multi-site Lean implementation. Within the Transformational Leadership Development Program™ , Matt has focused on growing the program across IBM and increasing the diversity of thought and experience. In 2018, he scaled out TLDP within North America by introducing the program to IBM’s federal practice and setting up the initial structure. Future growth is focused in expanding TLDP to China, Japan, Canada, and India. Currently, he lives in New York City.

Biography

Zack Adams is a Senior Advisory Consultant within IBM’s Global Automation Group. Zack’s primary focus is Transformation Strategy through Process Automation. His responsibilities include: assessing client as-is processes, leading client workshops, recommending appropriate automation technologies, developing to-be processes, creating detailed business cases, managing automation deployments, and educating other consultants on IBM Automation methodologies and best practices. Mr. Adams is the lead of TLDP’s Automation Hub.

Mr. Adams joined IBM as a graduate hire in the Oracle space but then moved to the Transformational Leadership Development Program & Automation group after successful engagements with multiple Fortune 500 companies. Since joining the automation group, Zack has led global automation rollouts for both internal IBM and commercial accounts. He also leads candidate process identification whorkshops globally. Mr. Adams resides in Columbia, SC.

Biography

With more than three years experience in the field of innovation and design, Kyle has been a part of leading over 100 design thinking projects for healthcare professionals and university students and faculty. He has taught design thinking courses both nationally and internationally to people of all ages.

Kyle is currently working with Dr. Karen Tilstra, to develop an innovation program at a well known Orlando company, Pioneers International.

Kyle received his B.A. in Business from Rollins College in Orlando. He is also a former four year collegiate basketball player and is currently active in leading basketball camps for a national youth organization.

Biography

Dr. Karen Tilstra, Ph.D., believes everyone is creative with leadership potential. She thinks the world would be happier if everyone embraced this truth. Until that happens, she wants to help anyone who’s interested develop their inner wellspring of creativity.

Karen co-founded the award-winning AdventHealth Innovation Lab (priorly knows as FHIL), co-created the Orlando Magic’s Innovation Lab, and helped launch the San Diego State U Idea Lab. She co-designed one of the nation’s first undergraduate degrees in Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship at Rollins College.

Karen has designed innovation labs and developed design thinking teams at Santa Clara University, Pioneers International Institute, Seminole County Health Department, and Orange County. Over the last ten years, Karen and her team have facilitated over 610 Design Thinking projects for healthcare, government, universities, and Fortune 100 companies. Karen and her team have earned three innovation awards.

Karen has presented both nationally and internationally and has taught at the university level in both the US and Asia. She currently serves as an adjunct professor at AdventHealth University, and a visiting professor for Rollins College.

Karen holds a Ph.D. in Innovation and is a licensed Educational Psychologist. She holds an MA in Counseling Psychology and a BS in Journalism. She currently serves as the Executive Fellow for Innovation at the University of Santa Clara.

Biography

Aruna Ranganathan is the Director of Analytics and Automation at Mastercard. She has business and technical knowledge in many verticals including Financial, Manufacturing, Health Care and Insurance Industries obtained through 15 years in consulting and 4+ years at Mastercard. She is currently focusing on Intelligent Automation, Data Analytics and strategic deployment of services in Mastercard’s global shared services center. She has previously worked in Data Warehouse and Big Data technologies delivering medium to large implementation of business process and systems changes.

Biography

Roger Watson is the lead architect for jTask Pulse SaaS.

He is also the lead instructor for jTask Certified Change Management Professional (CCMP) Training course delivered to individuals and organizations. jTask is a Qualified Educational Provider (QEP) for the Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP).

His team leads the adoption, deployment, and support of jTask Pulse SaaS to US and Global companies. jTask Pulse SaaS accelerates Stakeholder Analysis, Change Impact Assessment and User mapping to Training & System Security, which reduces costs, increases the quality of the Change Management deliverables, and accelerates an organization’s business transformation.

He began his career in banking at Lazard Brothers and Citibank. Roger is a founder of jTask, Inc. based in Palo Alto, CA.

jTask, Inc., specializes in Change Management Consultancy, Software, and Training.

Biography

Biography

David O’Toole has 20+ years taking a pragmatic approach to simplifying the complex.  Whether it is process management, applying technology, or changing behaviors, finding the practical approach has proven to demystify the traditional formal nature of all three specialties and delivered the results. Ultimately the focus is Making Change Stick and realizing the full value of a company’s most valuable asset – their people.

David’s career spans years of combined management experience, leading organizations through startup, change, revitalization, and turnaround.  He is an accomplished executive with mastery in a broad range of business competencies including Supply Chain Management, Information Technology, Project Management, Process Management, Change Management, and Business Transformation.

Outside of WWT, David enjoys actively participating in local organizations focused on strengthening the St. Louis Supply Chain community, both in academia and industry.

Biography

Mark McGregor is Head of Strategy at Signavio. A former Research Director at leading IT industry analysis firm Gartner, McGregor has an extensive background in enterprise architecture, business process management and change management, having held executive positions with a number of technology companies. Widely respected for his knowledge and views on business change, he is the creator of “Next Practice” and has variously been described as a “BPM Guru”, a “Thought Leader” and a “Master of Mindset”.

Biography

James Feldman is a globally recognized business advisor, mentor, innovation Sherpa, author, speaker, and serial entrepreneur, who has guided hundreds of companies and thousands of individuals around the world towards optimum performance levels. He advises companies on building strong customer-concentric, innovative organizations that deliver transformational growth to achieve goals, overcome challenges, and think ‘inside the box’ to solve problems.

The robust result of his real-world information is that attendees become more enlightened to influence their behavior and competitive differentiation. He delivers a strong, entertaining, thought-provoking presentation that will demonstrate 'shifts’ based on a series of interrelated actions with a focus on obsessive intimacy and attendee engagement.

James delivers proven real-world strategies that target and transform challenges into opportunities! It’s about how to think, not what to think. Leveraging extensive experience developing and implementing effective strategies to drive business improvements for both non-and for-profit organizations, h

Utilizing licensed movie and television scenes attendees will be simultaneously entertained and educated.

His presentation is applicable to brand development, hospitality innovation, business transformation, leadership development, creative problem solving, new business development, B2B/B2C marketing, innovative problem solving and strategic planning.

Throughout his executive career, he founded several performance improvement companies. He has been responsible for facilitating Toyota’s launch of new products, spearheading the introduction of breakfast at McDonald’s, raising $450M for the Y-ME Breast Cancer Organization, and improving Hewlett-Packards go-to-market strategies. James’ clients have included leading organizations such as AT&T, Carnival Cruise Lines, Apple, Verizon, US Department of Defense, Hyatt, Walt Disney, Ritz Carlton, Microsoft, MGM Casinos and Resorts, MGM, Walt Disney, American Dairy Association, Cremation Association of N.A. Ford, the March of Dimes, and the American Dental Association.

A highly respected Thought Leader he is the author of several books. They include "D-A-T-I-N-G Your Customer®," "Shift Happens!®",  “Thriving on Change in Organizations” and “Celebrate Customer Service – Insider Secrets,” and has written for publications including Adweek, Advertising Age, Investors Business Daily, and Business Travel News. Named one of the Most Innovative People in the 21st Century by Incentive Magazine.

James has earned more professional certifications than almost any other speaker including Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), Certified Incentive and Travel Expert (CITE), Certified Professional of Incentive Marketing (CPIM), Certified Performance Technologist (CPT), Master Incentive Professional (MIP), Platform Certified Speaker (PCS), Certified Underwater Photography Instructor, Private Pilot, and Artisan Chocolatier.

Biography

Jennifer  is the Consumer Client Services operations executive for Bank of America, responsible for providing an integrated client experience for Preferred, Retail and Small Business clients across card and deposit products through our Consumer contact centers. She also manages numerous service optimization initiatives. Her team consists of more than 8,000 client service representatives, including bank and vendor employees, across the United States.

Jenn began her career with Fleet Bank and has held various leadership positions in Client Service, Sales, Operations, Vendor Management, Product Development, Revenue and Pricing, Marketing, and Quality. She played a critical leadership role in repatriating 4,000 international client service representative roles, and in managing the FleetBoston and MBNA transitions.

Jenn served as executive chairman for the Card Management Development Program, which was focused on developing top talent, and she is an executive sponsor for military hiring. She has a proven track record for developing up-and-coming leaders, fostering diversity and inclusion, collaborating across the enterprise, and delivering strong employee engagement results. Jenn also served as a spokesperson for several Bank of America financial literacy programs.

Jenn earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics and Business Administration from Ursinus College, and is Six Sigma Green Belt certified. She actively supports several nonprofit associations, and manages fundraising and tournament activities for a number of community organizations. She is also an active volunteer and a member of the advisory board for Alorica, Inc.

She resides in Jamison, Pennsylvania, with her husband and two children.

Biography

Biography

Jacques Hamel CD is the Chief Digital Transformation Officer of Trisotech and an experienced executive with over 30 years of experience in leadership and business development. A retired Armoured Master Warrant Officer, he transitioned to business in 1998 developing his first start-up called Artifact Software Inc. a multimedia software developer based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He launched ModSim World Canada in 2008 with his partners CAE and Lockheed Martin to name but a few. For close to two decades, Jacques has been a driving force in learning, modeling and simulation in Canada. He has held senior positions with local business partners of both Caterpillar and Emerson in Canada. With Trisotech, he supports the Customer Success, Communications and Marketing teams.

Biography

Nash has been with Verizon for 15+ years. As Executive Director, he leads the charge in implementing advanced technologies and immersing them into the enterprise, driving significant benefits to the business and strengthen revenue, profit, and competitive advantage. Currently, Nash focuses on Digital Transformation to modernize network system, network service fulfillment, improve productivity, and implement leading-edge mobile commerce solutions. His expertise includes 5G Network Architecture/Planning for Fixed Mobile Connectivity (FMC), Intelligent Edge Networks (IEN), SDN/NFV services, New Metro Networks, Enterprise UX, AI/Machine Learning, Chatbots, Conversational UIs, Network system rationalization, Mobile Application Development, and Cloud Migration/Deployment.

Biography

Rob is the VP- Business Process at ProMach. He is responsible for developing and driving ProMach’s best practice approaches and KPIs for customer service, operational improvements and excellence, and margin growth. Rob’s experience spans 11 industries within 8 companies to include Sony, PepsiCo, Allegheny Technologies Inc., GE, Johnson Controls Intl., Global Container Terminals, and REV Group. In addition, Rob serves as the Chairman of the Board for Parkview Community Federal Credit Union and Committee Member for the Aviation Maintenance Program at Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics.

Rob has an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh and is a graduate of MIT’s Advance Certificate in Executive Leadership Program. Rob’s background is in Operations, Engineering, and Operational Excellence. In addition, Rob is a veteran of the United States Air Force. 

Rob has published breakthrough concepts through the American Society for Quality and is currently in the process of publishing his first book.

Biography

Anirudha Joshi (AJ) is the Center & Experience Transformation lead at Verizon supporting Global Enterprise Network business. This entails developing transformative solutions for Verizon's Network Engineers and Provisioners across the globe to deliver best in class Network experience. AJ, joined Verizon in Y2000, has handled responsibilities of varying complexity in Voice, VoIP, Advanced Technology to Digital Media business.  AJ leads the delivery of several large programs including the transformative initiative to introduce VoIP in Verizon's backbone network eventually delivering FiOS Digital Voice as the premium voice product on Verizon's FiOS network. AJ has the reputation of partnering with the business and totally solving complex business problems using biz-tech acumen. He believes in building strong teams that share similar passion and deliver with same sense of accountability. 

Biography

Following a 13-year stint at IU Health where he last served as an administrative director of Perioperative Services, Brian Barrick joined Eskenazi Health in November of 2016 as director of Operational Excellence and Strategy. In his role at Eskenazi Health, Brian is responsible for driving and sustaining continuous improvement for the health system.

Brian completed his bachelor’s degree in organizational management and his master’s degree in health care administration at Ashford University in Minneapolis. Brian is currently pursuing a PhD in Industrial Organizational Psychology.  Brian studied under Lean Sensei, who coached him on facilitation, use of lean methods and tools that are among the most powerful and effective ways to affect culture and manage change in organizations.

Brian started his career as an IT professional in the education industry.  A friend who worked in human resources suggested he consider a job in healthcare IT.  Once hired, Brian assisted IU Health in transitioning their medical records to an electronic medical records system.

While at IU Health, Barrick held positions in system information services, patient support services, continuous improvement and administration at IU Health Methodist Hospital, University Hospital and Riley Hospital for Children. Brian credits leadership at IU Health for believing in him and providing the opportunity to tackle new challenges on a regular basis. He’s thrilled to be afforded those same opportunities and more at Eskenazi Health.

Brian values hard work, integrity and a commitment to excellence. He sees reminders every day that Eskenazi Health’s mission embodies those values that are important to him.

Brian believes his greatest contribution during his tenure at Eskenazi Health will be developing a fully functioning team of improvement leaders that can work directly with frontline team members in daily problem solving. Brian believes the sustainability of the department and the program provide the biggest long-term value to the organization.

In his spare time, Brian likes to stay active and spend time outdoors. He relaxes by playing music at home and with others. Brian and his wife Gina have two children: son Gibson, 11, who loves animals and video games, and daughter Charlie, 7, who loves to sing and dance. The family has three dogs including a recently adopted Beagle, Rex, who loves to howl while walking the neighborhood.

Biography

Biography

Steve Willoughby has more than a decade of business process management experience. Since 2001, Steve has been focusing on lean/process improvement, process management, business analysis and Enterprise Architecture Initiatives. He holds a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Business Management from the University of Findlay, and a Masters of Business in Operational Excellence from The Ohio State University. 

Mr. Willoughby has leveraged his practical experience with BPM tools and techniques to support successful project implementation with a variety of clients, including some Fortune 500 companies, in Healthcare, retail, finance, automotive, government and telecommunication industries.

Biography

Packing an impressive 20+ years experience as an strategy execution practitioner, Carolyn gets to the heart of your strategy.  

Carolyn’s early career was formed in Deloitte’s Programme Leadership Group, where she worked with leading manufacturing companies on compliance issues, with utility companies during industry transformation, and with local, national and international public sector organisations facing up to the digital transformation.

More recently, as a certified Hoshin trainer and P3O practitioner, Carolyn has developed a  passion for the value of strategy execution to manage and deliver change.  Carolyn’s role within i-nexus is to advise client senior executives on the establishment of appropriate strategy execution capabilities that align goals, programs and KPIs. Recent clients include Nestlé, Pratt & Whitney, Axalta, Société Générale, Transat, Eroski and Westinghouse.

Biography

Todd is a highly experienced Operational Excellence and Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with over 21 years of consulting experience. Mr. Weston serves as the National Director of Business Process Improvement for Centric and is a part of the Process Excellence (PEX) leadership team. Prior to joining Centric, Todd was the president and founder of Westech Consulting Group based out of Lafayette, Indiana. Over his career Todd has had the pleasure of leading dozens of COE projects for large and medium organizations. He has extensive experience in  Manufacturing (automotive, food production, construction materials, and aerospace, rubber and plastic), financial services, insurance and healthcare. He has led every aspect of process improvement from assessment, planning, implementation, auditing, control procedures, crisis management, and more.

Todd believes that every engagement should instill passion in every associate that is a part of the process. He works very hard to break down the tools into hands-on experiential learning elements so that the lessons will be retained for a lifetime.  

Biography

Angie Burris is the Director of Customer Experience at GCI, a telecommunication provider in Alaska.  GCI provides communication technology to some of the most remote and challenging locations in North America.  Angie is responsible for leading cross functional teams in transformation projects.  Following her participation in the 2018 launch of a billing system overhaul, she is focused on opportunities to improve the collaboration between IT and business stakeholders. 

Angie attended the University of Alaska Anchorage and holds a bachelor degree in Business Administration with a focus in Economics.

When she’s not at work, you’ll find Angie enjoying all of the outdoor fun that Alaska has to offer.  For the last 10 years Angie has volunteered as a downhill ski coach with the Alyeska Mighty Mites youth ski racing program.

Biography

Cedro Toro has been empowering companies like Consumer Reports, IM Flash, Baptist Health, Venture, and others to achieve breakthrough results for over 20 years. Cedro is the founder and CEO of KPI Fire, the leading software platform for companies engaged in Strategic Planning, Lean Six Sigma, and Operational Excellence. Cedro holds a degree in Electrical Engineering, MBA, and is a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and Project Management Professional.

 "Engage your people! They are the key to your success." - Cedro Toro

Biography

Darren Rehrer has over twenty-five years of experience managing people, processes and technology to deliver effective, bottom-line transformations across multiple industries.  Through his consulting and industry career, he has experience

• Managing business process management/improvement, business and IT strategy development, system/application development, performance management and project management
• Leading large-scale transformations linking business process improvements to technology solutions and organizational change

Biography

Tony Mauro is Director of Consulting Services for erwin, Inc. and an expert in enterprise architecture and business process analysis. Tony began his career working for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics and then Northrop Grumman on advanced technology development activities spanning multiple levels of system, software, and process engineering. After a decade in the aeronautics industry, he moved to enterprise architecture and business process modeling company Casewise, where he served as a senior consultant and Business Process and Enterprise Architecture practice leader, working across numerous industries to help companies implement their transformation strategies and initiatives. When he’s not helping erwin customers build data-driven enterprises, he enjoys spending time with his family, traveling and home-remodeling projects.

Biography

Anaysha Parker is a Senior Business Transformation Consultant with IBM Services, Public Service. Specializing in federal clients, she has delivered quality-tested solutions to civilian, defense, and homeland security clients as a test engineer, requirements analyst, data analyst, and release manager.  She focuses on resolving mission-critical challenges which support citizen safety and access to government services. Anaysha is an Enterprise Design Thinking advocate and an IC-Agile Certified Practitioner. Most recently, she was a Test Lead in a transformational Agile environment, leading Agile practices to generate quality-tested products at the end of each sprint, which improved the speed of delivery in the first five Beta Releases of an application.  

Anaysha joined IBM in 2016 as an Application Development consultant in Washington, DC.  She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology from North Carolina A&T State University and was recently nominated into the IBM Transformational Leadership Development Program (TLDP) as an inaugural member of the Public Service TLDP franchise.

Biography

Jon attended Kansas State University majoring in business finance and walked on the football
team. He was twice selected as a First Team Academic All American. He was a second-round
draft pick to the New York Jets where he played three seasons. He then played two seasons for
the Detroit Lions before joining the Kansas City Chiefs for his final five seasons. Jon retired from
the NFL in 2012 and received the Ed Block Courage Award. This award is presented annually to
one player from each NFL team who, in the eyes of his own teammates is a source of
inspiration and courage.

Jon also completed NFL sponsored business management and entrepreneurship programs at Harvard Business School, Wharton Business School and the executive education in public speaking and digital communication program from the University of Southern California. Jon has been actively involved as President of the Jon McGraw Foundation which supports various charitable causes. He is now a principle partner at Vision Pursue, a performance mindset training and technology company. 

Biography

Southard Jones is Celonis’ VP, Product Marketing. Prior to Celonis, Southard held various executive product and marketing roles at enterprise software companies in the Business Intelligence, Analytics, and Data Science market, including Domino Data Lab, Birst, Right 90, and Siebel Analytics. He started his career as a mechanical engineer at Raytheon and at PRTM (a subsidiary of PwC) as a business process analyst. Southard holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA and MEM from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management and McCormick School of Engineering.

Biography

Ananth has over 20 years of experience in the BPO industry, with proven track record in managing profitable business across multiple verticals. With strong experience across multiple facets in Healthcare (Payer, Provider, PBMs, Intermediaries and Medical Device manufacturers / distributors), Ananth leads Digital Operations business for Provider Health Systems unit at Cognizant.

Proven experience in managing multi-geography, multi service line portfolio with strong customer relationship management, enabling process transformation in large scale engagements through process improvements, global skill-matching, technology point solutions and automation resulting in strong value. 

Ananth holds an Executive Certification in International Management from the Garvin School of Management - Thunderbird University, AZ, Master in Computer Applications and BS in Mathematics

Biography

Energetic Consulting Executive with twenty plus years experience in business solution consulting, application sales and implementation, both on-premise and SaaS infrastructures. Proficient in creating and executing strategies that create exceptional client experiences and drive client/company value.

Expertise in client needs analysis with a consultative approach to software/services sales. Successful in building domestic, global and channel partner relationships, partner sales teams and programs ensuing competitive advantage.

Adept at assisting clients in identifying critical gaps in Strategy, Continuous Improvement and Business Transformation deployments/programs. Resourceful in implementing strategies, processes and change required to correct gap diversion(s).

Biography

John joined Ellie Mae in 2017 as senior vice president and Chief Information Officer. In this role he is responsible for all aspects of the company’s internal information technology and systems, and partners with business units for the planning and implementation of enterprise IT systems to align with Ellie Mae’s technology vision and business strategy in support of business operations.John has over 20 years in the IT industry. Prior to joining the company, he was senior vice president of IT at Hitachi Data Systems, where he helped drive the transformation from a hardware-selling company to enable growth in cloud-based software and solutions. Before Hitachi Data Systems, John held roles at Symantec, JDS Uniphase, KPMG Consulting, and British Nuclear Fuels plc. John holds a BS in Information Systems from Staffordshire University in England.

Biography

Priya leads global operations for Trust and Safety across Google. In her role, Priya works with all product teams across Google to fight spam, abuse and fraud and deliver a safe user experience. In her time at Google, Priya has streamlined global operations across multiple teams and partnered with product, operations, finance and legal teams to drive transformations. She leads the Googlewide deployment of “gLean” a program to coach Googlers about adopting lean within Google’s highly dynamic and fast paced environment.

Prior to Google, Priya  spent 10 years in management consulting at Bain where she advised healthcare, technology and consumer goods companies on global growth strategies and operations improvement. Before her career in consulting, Priya worked for GlaxoSmithKline and focused on global manufacturing and with Unilever on marketing and supply chain. In addition, Priya was a public accountant with Ernst & Young. Priya holds an MBA from Wharton and is also a Chartered Accountant.

Biography

Graves began his career with Toyota in 1987 and progressed through a series of positions in production at Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky (TMMK) responsible for assuring overall quality within all production shops.

In 1997, he was assigned to TMMK’s operations development group where he trained Toyota Production System (TPS) know-how to team members from all levels of the organization and coordinated internal TPS activities. During his 15 years at TMMK, Graves supported multiple production launches and all-new model introductions.

From 2003-14, he served as manager for TEMA’s operations management development division, working closely with Toyota’s North American plants and suppliers to help streamline processes and strengthen TPS activities. In this role, he supported internal & external continuous improvement projects and training workshops.

Prior to joining Toyota, Graves worked at the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Louisville, Kentucky where he was an auditor for the white collar crime unit.

He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Operational Management from Western Kentucky University (1981) in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Originally from Columbia, Kentucky, Graves still owns and maintains a family farm.

Biography

Julio Urrutia has been in the technology industry for more than 15 years, now as Head of Operational Excellence and CISO at Ricoh Latin America. Julio holds a Degree in Strategic Marketing Management, a Master's Degree in IT Service Management, a Master's Degree in Business Analysis plus multiple Industry Certifications.

In his current position, Julio is in charge of many critical corporate initiatives. Working in a Global environment and with an extend knowledge of Latin American cultures, markets & economies. Lead and manage major expertise area programs and company-wide critical projects; responsible for the creation of methodologies and standards, measurement criteria and leading-edge initiatives to improve productivity, efficiency and organizational excellence. He is an active-global public speaker and takes part in consultations.

Julio credits his success to great passion for what he does and constant learning. Manage the full range of design and development efforts from concept to implementation; communicate at all levels and hold negotiations with large-scale vendors; maintaining expertise on industry, products and technology trends through research and training. Manage and optimize working relationships; with great expertise in creating, developing and leading high-performance teams, facilitate innovation, and promote openness to and participation in change. Also accountable for creating and controlling organizational budget to accomplish desired results. 

Fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese, and is able to communicate in French, Julio is in progress to obtain a Certificate of Professional Development in Strategy at Wharton - University of Pennsylvania.

Biography

David Seth Feierstein joined NCR Corporation in February 2016 leading the newly formed Transformation Office and Zero-Based Budgeting initiative.  From August 2013 to January 2016 David was the Global Head of Zero Based Budgeting, CAPEX and Working Capital at Kraft Heinz and was instrumental in the Kraft integration and Heinz transformation delivering over $550 million in SG&A cost savings during his tenure.  From July 2011 to August 2013 David worked at Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, the private equity arm of Goldman Sachs and from July 2007 to July 2011 at J.P. Morgan’s Investment Bank in the Mergers & Acquisitions and Natural Resources groups.  David continues to serve as an advisor to multiple companies including those owned by Berkshire Hathaway, Blackstone and other large private equity funds on the topic of Zero-Based Budgeting. David currently lives in Atlanta.

Biography

Gary has worked for The O.C. Tanner Company for 29 years. His current assignment is Executive Vice President, Supply Chain & Production.

Prior to working in his current roll Gary has held an impressively diverse set of jobs with the O.C. Tanner Company, including Manager of Market Research, Manufacturing Change Facilitator (where he was instrumental in moving the operation from “batch” to lean, resulting in their receiving the Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing), Vice President of Manufacturing, Marketing Vice President of Award Development, and Vice President of Research and Professional Services.

Gary serves on the Executive Advisory Board for the Shingo Institute, and is a Shingo Examiner. In 2015 he was inducted into the AME (Association for Manufacturing Excellence) Hall of Fame. His experience with Lean Enterprise sends him around the globe helping others improve their operations. 

Gary holds an MBA and a Bachelor’s Degree in Statistics from Brigham Young University. He recharges his batteries by snowboarding, playing basketball, hiking, watching his 16-year old daughter play soccer, and being with his six (soon to be seven) grandchildren.

Biography

Biography

Mishu Rahman is a Senior Advisor at the White House Office of Management and Budget, which serves the President in budgeting and overseeing the implementation of his strategy and vision across the Executive Branch.  Mishu oversees investment and performance of multiple federal agencies (e.g. Healthcare, Commerce, Treasury) and collectively manages a $80B/year portfolio. Through data-driven and risk-based quarterly strategic reviews, he partners with each Agency C-Suite to improve execution and operating discipline of government programs to save taxpayer money and align investments with the President's Management Agenda and associated corporate strategies. Moreover, he leads enterprise-wide strategy initiatives to promote innovation to deliver faster and cost-effective services to citizens and businesses with the aim of world-class experience, provide direction in the use of Internet of Things (IoT),  open up government data estimated to be worth billions and to develop the critical human capital.  Prior to joining the Executive Office of the President, Mishu served various C-level advisory roles in strategic planning, corporate policy & governance, data analytics, procurement, enterprise risk, and operation management.

Biography

On July 14th, 2014, Al Faber was named President and CEO of the Baldrige Foundation.

The Mission of the Baldrige Foundation is to ensure the long-term financial growth and viability of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, and to support organizational performance excellence in the United States and throughout the world.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Al served as President & CEO of The Partnership for Excellence (TPE), the premier Baldrige-based state program for the promotion of performance excellence in all sectors of the economy. TPE is a volunteer-driven, 501(c)3 non-profit member organization headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, promoting the interests of performance excellence throughout Ohio, Indiana, and West Virginia. TPE has served more than 324 organizations that represent more than 1.7 million jobs at 1,769 work locations with revenues in excess of $139.2 billion dollars and more than 226.4 million customers. TPE Examiners have donated more than $34.6 million dollars in services to these high-performing organizations.

Prior to that, Al served in federal & state government culminating in executive positions and leading more than 11,500 employees, with 65 major facilities, a 250 million dollar operating budget and real property exceeding 2.1 billion dollars. He has provided executive leadership, establishing policies, priorities and oversight of federal budgets, operations and training, personnel, logistical operations and infrastructure management to include numerous construction programs. He is driven to create winning organizational results with a deep sense of commitment to public service.

Biography

Ted Iverson is a Lean Expert with McKinsey & Company, in Seattle, Washington. He has a wide range of operational excellence and Lean transformation experience beginning in the late 80’s, as an internal business transformation leader first in aerospace, followed by medical equipment, and later farm equipment and food processing. He now assists large organizations to develop meaningful change and multi-generational improvement trends within multiple industries. His past clients include Shingo Prize recipients and other industry leaders.

Ted holds a B.S. in Manufacturing Engineering from Weber State University in Ogden, Utah USA. He served a Baldrige examiner previously and for the past 23 years as an examiner for the Shingo Prize. He resides in eastern Oregon.

Biography

Biography

Bernard Borowski is a Vice President, Deputy Head of Global Process Excellence & Lean at Sanofi, based in NJ. Bernard is a Business Process Excellence executive with 20 years of global experience and functional expertise in finance. He led cross-functional initiatives that required reengineering processes, coordination of system overhauls and managed financial services operations. Bernard was certified as a Lean-Six-Sigma Master-Black-Belt in 2003 while on the prestigious GE Corporate Audit Staff.

Prior to joining Sanofi, Bernard served as Principal, at the Boston Consulting Group in New York; Executive Director in the Finance Strategy, Operations and Technology group at Morgan Stanley in New York where he led regulatory readiness and efficiency programs. Prior to that, he held leadership roles in Quality and Financial Operations at GE for 12 years in the United States and in France, in the consumer and commercial lending businesses of GE Capital and at GE Treasury. Bernard also held Financial and Operational Auditing roles at Arthur Andersen in Paris, France and Tel-Aviv, Israel, and at Bestfoods (Unilever) in the United Kingdom.

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

Alex Jones is a Lean Transformation Leader at Intel.  He is responsible for driving organizational and process changes that increase quality, decrease cost, and accelerate time to market across Intel's product development value streams.  Jones joined Intel in 1997 as an Industrial Engineer and has held a variety of positions in manufacturing, technology development, strategic planning, platform architecture, and lean leadership.  He holds a bachelor's degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the University of Oregon. 

Biography

Biography

Anil Nair is an operational excellence executive, with expertise and experience in delivering robust and sustainable results for a balanced scorecard across the supply chain. He has over 20 years of rich and progressive leadership experience in Lean Six Sigma program design, development & deployment, Operations Management, New Venture implementation, and integrative operating system design & development covering QMS/EMS/SMS/CSR elements, deployment, certification & maintenance to ISO 9001, 14001, 18001, R2 & 26000 standards, across diverse industries, including engineering & construction, aviation, printing, education, and distribution and logistics.

Anil is currently Sr. Director of Global Quality, Lean, EHS, and Corporate Social Responsibility for Ingram Micro (NYSE:IM), a Fortune 100 company, recognized as world’s largest wholesale technology distributor and a global leader in IT supply-chain, mobile device lifecycle services and logistics solutions with $46B in revenue and operating in almost 40 countries. In this role, he leads global deployment and overall program management of Quality & Lean Operating System, Safety Management System, and Corporate Social Responsibility program.

Prior to this, he served as Sr. Director of Purchasing and Process Excellence at Career Education Corporation (NASDAQ:CECO), a $2B education company based in Hoffman Estates, IL, from 2009 to 2013. He led the transformation of Procure-to-Pay operations involving multiple programs and channels at 80 campuses and corporate office nationwide. This included deployment of PeopleSoft Financial e-Procurement workflows, P-card program design & deployment, ensuring SOX regulatory compliance for financial transactions, and leveraging economics of scale and process improvements.

Anil lives in Chicago, IL with his son, and enjoys swimming, golf and traveling across the globe. He also enjoys volunteering as a Math tutor whenever he gets the opportunity. 

Biography

Zac is the Senior Director of Business Excellence and Customer Insights for eBay Marketplaces. In this capacity, he is responsible for the operating effectiveness of the Global Customer Experience organization which includes customer service, policy and risk management, billing and payments, and operations support service functions. His team’s mission is to create consistently excellent and efficient experiences that result in loyal customers.

Zac has 20 years of global leadership experience spanning military/government, operations/manufacturing, and technology industries. He joined eBay in 2010 from the world’s largest drilling services company where he led global operations responsible for 5500 employees and the profitability, productivity, safety, and asset management of a $1.2B business.  Prior to that, Zac served in a variety of leadership roles in operations; finance; strategy; and mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures.

Zac earned a B.A. from New Mexico State University and an M.A. from the University of Phoenix. He holds certifications in Project Management, Strategic Change Management, Six Sigma Black Belt, and Lean.  He is also the General Manager for eBay in Austin, Texas where he lives with his wife and three sons.

Biography

Kevin Goldsmith oversees the development and IT teams at Avvo. Prior to joining Avvo, Kevin was the VP of Engineering at Spotify, the popular digital music service, where he led a team of 175 engineers for the company’s mobile, desktop and web platforms. He also served as the Director of Engineering for Adobe Systems for nearly a decade. Kevin has been an industry forerunner in the areas of GPGPU for commercial applications, leading development teams for both Adobe and Microsoft’s Virtual Worlds (later social computing).

Kevin speaks around the world, on topics ranging from product development to how culture affects work productivity and morale. He earned degrees in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University.

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

Ted is Director of Operational Excellence for Global Shared Services at The Coca-Cola Company.  He is responsible for deploying Operational Excellence across the Finance, Human Resources, Data Management, Accounts Payable, Workplace Services, Creative Business Solutions and User Experience lines of business, involving greater than 1300 employees in 7 main hub locations globally.  The Operational Excellence program utilizes Lean, Six Sigma, Program Management, Business Process Management and Human Centered Design concepts and internally created methods to drive value for the business.

Ted has been with The Coca-Cola Company leading implementations of OE in Shared Services, Information Technology, Human Resources, Supply Chain and Franchise Bottling partners for 10 years.  Prior to The Coca-Cola Company, Ted worked in the Automotive Industry with Ford Motor Company and Tier I suppliers in product development.  In total Ted has been working as a continuous improvement professional for over 20 years.

Biography

Angel R. García is an engineer and process improvement executive with over 20 years of experience in Global Operational Excellence Programs, Global Supply Chain Management and Commercial Operations. Currently Angel holds the position of Global Continuous Improvement Leader at Catalent Pharma Solutions.

Before joining Catalent in 2016, Angel was the Vice President of Operational Excellence for Univision Communications Inc. where he developed and executed the first OpEx Program at the number one Hispanic Media Broadcasting Network in the United States.

In addition, Angel has held several leadership positions in Medical Devices Manufacturing, Technical Service, Global Sourcing, and Six Sigma within Covidien, Tyco Healthcare, Medtronic Diabetes and several business of the GE Company. He holds certifications in Lean Six Sigma as a Black Belt and Master Black Belt and he is a certified Project Management Professional

Biography

Mark Proffitt helps leaders solve seemingly unsolveable problems so they reliably deliver 10x more desired results with less risk using readily available resources by using Predictive Innovation^® .

He is a non-stop thinker, researcher, and author of Predictive Innovation^® a first principles based system of thinking.

Silicon Valley veteran with over 30 years experience creating new technologies including working with Apple, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Visa, & Nintendo.

At age 12 saved money from mowing lawns & shoveling snow to buy a personal computer & teach himself to program. Began college at 14 & by 16 was programming professionally with a start up that developed the first software to apply Edward Deming's work in a US automotive factory by General Motors.

Dropped out of a PhD in Physics at the University of Michigan when recruited by Apple Computer to make something insanely great leading to the creation of the Agile Methodology.

While working to build the first online crowd funding & peer-to-peer digital media platform, suffered a brain injury requiring him to relearn how to think and in the process discovered how to teach average people how to think like a genius.

Currently enjoys living as a digital nomad with a passion for creating makerspaces to give everyone access to tools and a community to create global abundance.

NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Programmed the first statistical process control system used in a US automotive factory.
• Contributed to creating Agile while at Apple Computer.
• Integrated the first use of world wide web technology at Hewlett Packard in 1994.
• Designed and led team to develop QuadraMed’s ClaimStar for Windows, which contributed to the companies stock increasing 500% in 3 years.
• Designed & developed the Virtual Reality Engine used by Spectrum HoloByte on games like Top Gun & Falcon 4.
• Oversaw technology for the first global dual TV & Internet video broadcast, reaching 1 billion viewers.
• Taught Predictive Innovation® on 4 continents including classes at MIT & University of Surabaya Indonesia.
• Written 2 books edited 7 others, produced a comedy DVD teaching calculus, appeared in a TV commercial with rock star Alice Cooper, & played soccer with a baby elephant

Biography

Jeff Hastie is the Global Director – Lean Enterprise at Bose Corporation. His responsibilities include leading Lean and Six Sigma programs in Manufacturing and Global Supply Chain, Sales and Marketing, Product Development, Research and Corporate Administration including IS, HR, Finance and Legal. 

Jeff started his career at Bose in 2001 as a senior Quality Engineer and Six Sigma Black Belt. He worked with Finance to quantify the cost of poor quality and over the next 4 years he led improvement Teams across Manufacturing to bring more value to the company. In 2005, he initiated and led the formal deployment of Lean Six Sigma at Bose Corporation. In 2007, Jeff developed and implemented a strategy to pilot and then expand the Bose Production System (the Toyota Production System) across Bose Manufacturing Plants and Distribution Centers. Today Lean Enterprise is a strategic imperative enabling the success of Bose Corporation business improvement strategies worldwide. 

Prior to Bose, Jeff was employed at Wyman-Gordon Company, producers of technically advanced structural and engine components for the Aerospace Industry. During his 18 years at Wyman-Gordon, he held a variety of leadership roles in Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Operations, Quality Assurance and Continuous Improvement.

Jeff has over 35 years of manufacturing and Continuous Improvement experience in the Wood Products, Metal Working, Aerospace Forging and Consumer Electronics Industries. He has spent the last 19 years dedicated to leading Lean & Six Sigma programs to accelerate business value. 

Jeff hold a Bachelor of Science Degree in Wood Products Engineering from the State University of New York and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business Administration from Syracuse University. He is a Certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt.

Biography

Daymond is the Engineering Excellence Coach, New Product Development at Ingersoll Rand. He is the senior coach for about 40% of Ingersoll-Rand business, coaching executives down to project managers. 

He is retired US Army Officer, former enlisted Air Force Staff Sargent with over 30 years’ experience in business development, healthcare, logistics, and information technology include roles in senior leadership, company startups, profit and not for profit hospitals along with extensive experience in trauma and critical care programs. Daymond is a decorated soldier with an extensive military career in both active duty and reserves. He is a senior member of ASQ (American Society for Quality) and a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP).  Daymond holds a Master Black Belt and Lean Master Certification from the George Group/Accenture, among other Continuous Improvement certifications. 

Daymond has proven success as a leader in civilian and military environments. His experience includes healthcare delivery, management, logistics, operations, process redesign, and resource management. Additionally he has proven success in strategic development, program development, marketing, product line management, information technology management. Daymond works at both enterprise and frontline staff levels in developing best practice solutions including strategic process redesign utilizing Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma methodology. 

As part of the Lean deployment at the US Army, he was assigned for 2 years to the US Army Medical Command assigned including the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command (NARMC) based at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. D. C.  He is led the deployment at NARMC…Encompassing 21 states...supporting two medical centers, four community hospitals, four other MEDDACs, dozens of health clinics, which provides medical mobilization/demobilization support to seven power projection platforms. Daymond also led the Team Leader for the NARMC, US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine (CHPPM), and the Army Medical Action Plan Access to Care for Warriors in Transition (AMAP) teams. As Founder and CEO of the International Society for Six Sigma Certifications, he and his team grew the consulting and training company 100% year over year for 7 years, developing a franchising system leveraging standard work and Training within Industry (TWI).  He expanded from one location to 9 states, 3 continents, offering over 200 courses while assisting companies to save millions of dollars in productive costs. Daymond has an Associate of Science degree from Elizabethtown Community College/University of Kentucky, Elizabethtown, KY, a Bachelor of Science from Barry University, and a Master of Business Administration degree in Technology Management from the University of Phoenix.  

Biography

Since 2010 Dave Margil has served as the Lean deployment leader for Bose Corporate Information Systems (CIS). He is responsible for developing the Lean Enterprise Vision and deployment roadmap in CIS and for driving Lean Six Sigma practices throughout the IT function. He leads value stream improvement activities, contributes to the internal Lean Six Sigma curriculum development, and delivers training and coaching to employees throughout Bose Corporation.

Prior to this role, Dave spent several years as a Business Engagement Manager and as a Project Manager in the Bose Online Commerce Group. Before joining Bose he co-founded and spent several years as the VP of Product Development for a Cambridge, MA-based computer game company.

Dave is a Bose certified Master Black Belt and has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Massachusetts.

Biography

A 25 year professional in the field of continuous improvement - lean six sigma

with 14 years specifically in the EMS industry.

Experience and responsibilities are focused towards leading and driving enterprise-level initiatives. Addressing supply chain challenges and striving for excellence in this area provides our organization a competitive advantage.

Biography

Ezra Eckhardt is the VP/COO and a principle at Wave Form Systems, a premier provider of regional mobile medical services.  Additionally, Ezra is an accredited investor serving on several private company boards of directors and small business advisory councils.

Prior to his current role, Ezra was a senior executive in the financial services space serving as president and chief operating officer of Sterling Bank, chief operating officer of Sterling Financial Corporation, and executive vice president of operations and Umpqua bank.  His prior experience includes general management, operations, leadership and continuous improvement work at Microsoft, Honeywell and the U.S. Army.

Ezra is currently the chairman of the finance committee and member of the board of directors for the Spokane International Airport and sits on the board of directors for Gonzaga Preparatory School.  Ezra has also served as adjunct professor at the Gonzaga University Graduate School of Business, appointed advisory roles for local and national elected officials, numerous chamber boards and committees, and the local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity.

He is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He also has earned a master’s degree in business administration from Gonzaga University and has advanced training in applied statistics from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Ezra has an established background in operational excellence and continuous improvement.

Biography