2004 Pros to Know

Supply & Demand Chain Executive honors the practitioners, analysts and providers that have proven to be 2004's thought leaders.

Supply & Demand Chain Executive honors the practitioners, analysts and providers that have proven to be 2004's thought leaders.

The editorial and advisory board staff at Supply & Demand Chain Executive is impressed every year by the thought leadership and innovation displayed by the nominees that are finally accepted as the Pros to Know, and this year is no exception. With people like these leading the charge at corporations all across the world, supply and demand chains are being transformed into lean, competitive tools that challenge traditional business rules and point to the future of supply chain management.

This year we also are recognizing one particular supply chain "hero" as Practitioner of the Year -- Col. Joseph Walden of the U.S. Army -- because of his role as a pacesetter in supply chain innovation, an RFID evangelist and a professional who has taken on the challenge of helping to reform perhaps the largest and most complex supply chain in the world.

Our Pros to Know selection process is never easy, and, as always we turned first to our writers to nominate the most knowledgeable practitioners, analysts and providers they had found after their past year on the frontlines researching and writing in depth about supply chain topics. Our editorial staff and advisory board also nominated those conference speakers and analysts that made an impression on us over the past year.

As additional nomination forms came in from SDCExec.com, our editorial staff moved through a series of selection phases, keeping in mind the top elements that identified a Pro to Know, such as the candidate's fundamental participation in the development and execution of a supply and demand chain enablement initiative at a traditional brick-and-mortar company, and the candidate's breadth of supply and demand chain knowledge and experience.

We are extremely proud of this year's selection. Leading by example, 2004's Pros to Know challenge all of us to continue the fight for more efficient and more technologically advanced supply and demand chains. These individuals will assuredly lead the industry to the next level in 2004 and we, at Supply & Demand Chain Executive, will eagerly follow.

2004 Practitioner of the Year:

Col. Joseph Walden, Director, School of Command Preparation, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College


Col. Walden has more than 25 years of supply chain leadership experience, having been commissioned a Quartermaster Officer after graduating from North Carolina State University in 1978. Along the way, he served as program manager for the Army's Logistics Process Improvement Program, which researched world-class distribution processes to determine the best methods of improving the supply chain processes for the Army.

The implementation of these processes transformed the Army's and the Department of Defense's supply chain operations, resulting in $300 million in savings over a two year period on an investment of $2.5 million, a 50 percent reduction in maintenance repair cycle times, and a reduction in customer wait times from an average of over 30 days to 4.6 days at the Army's National Training Center. During this same two-year period, the innovations that Col. Walden helped put in place reduced the time required for units to prepare for training exercises in the desert significantly and reduced the time to prepare equipment for return to installations throughout the United States by more than 61 percent.

Based on this experience and Col. Walden's experience in streamlining supply chain processes to support soldiers at the training center, he was selected to establish the Army's first Theater Distribution Center in an active theater of war to support Operation Iraqi Freedom -- requiring the transformation of a 4.3-million-square-foot piece of Kuwaiti desert into a cross-docking facility to support every military unit in Iraq and Kuwait.

At present Col. Walden is pushing to increase the Army's adoption of radio frequency technologies for tracking and redistributing supplies. "My current effort is trying to convince folks that the use of passive RF tags and smaller shipping containers would improve the Army's distribution capabilities," he says. "With Wal-Mart and now the Department of Defense putting a mark on the wall for the use of smaller passive RF tags, the future ability to track supplies in the supply chain will increase. This will lead to greater collaboration between suppliers and customers, leading to improved customer support."

Col. Walden's philosophy regarding the use of technology to enable the supply chain: "I have worked in the supply chain since the days of the 80-column punch cards.
Having said that, it is technology that has enabled the dramatic improvements in supply chain operations over the past decade. Technologies such as warehouse management systems, enterprise resource planning and RFID are the difference between good and great supply chains. Technology is a must for world-class supply chains."

2004 Practitioner Pros to Know:

Tim Beauchamp, Senior Vice President, Distribution Operations, Corporate Express
With responsibilities covering everything from real estate to warehousing, from customer care to purchasing, Beauchamp's cross-functional perspective helps him to evaluate where his company can benefit from technical innovation and how change will affect others within the enterprise. Beauchamp is a strong believer in the need for continuous technological improvement. "My philosophy is that we should always be implementing something now, in six months and a year from now, and we should always be working on the next thing to improve our operations," he says. But he is a technology realist, too. "We're very careful about applying technology, understanding what it can and can't do, and making sure it's solving the right problems." As an example, he cites Corporate Express' initiative to implement pick-to-voice, a project that doubled the company's warehouse productivity and improved fulfillment accuracy to 99.9 percent.

William C. Boni, Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer, Motorola Information Protection Services
Boni has worked on information security for more than a quarter of a century, starting as a U.S. Army counterintelligence officer and a U.S. government special agent before working on security for the "Star Wars" program. In the private sector, he has been a consultant, chaired the American Society of Industrial Security and authored the book I-Way Robbery: Crime on the Internet. Boni pioneered the application of such emerging technologies as computer forensics and intrusion detection to deal with attacks on e-business systems. "The supply chain is perhaps the most obvious example of how nearly every organization now is dependent on the extended cyber-enterprise & If those outside our organization experience a breakdown, then our ability to satisfy our customers' needs could be at risk," he says.

Tammy Craddock, Founder, Jubilations
Large enterprises may push supply chain innovations, but it's the small business owners that are pulling the rest of us into the 21st century, showing that efficient supply chain processes take forethought and risk. Tammy Craddock, a former schoolteacher and stay-at-home mom, started her career as a cheesecake chef and business owner in her home in 1983. When the demand for her desserts overwhelmed her individual ability to produce them, she moved into a commercial facility and focused on customer relationship management, growing her company's reputation and repertoire to include the production of over 40 flavors and sizes of cakes. Says Craddock: "If a company is not taking its supply and demand chain seriously, then it isn't taking its customers and bottom line seriously. Supply and demand is at the heart of success and should be regarded with utmost consideration and care."

Stephen David, Chief Information Officer and Business-to-business Officer, Procter & Gamble Co.
David has spent much of his career on the boundary between business and technology. With P&G for more than 30 years in a variety of progressively senior functions, he led the deployment of the first personal computers at the company, helping to train sales and advertising staff in how to use the new technology to boost the business. His appointment to his dual position in July 2000, with responsibility for the company's Internet strategy, reflected P&G's growing emphasis on using technology to drive cost reductions and sales growth. He has been a prominent speaker at various IT conferences, and his evangelism on technology's role in transforming the way enterprises conduct their business and manage their supply and demand chains earned him recognition as CIO of the Year by Salomon Smith Barney's Technology Group in 2002.

Dr. Lisa M. Ellram, Bebbling Professor of Business, W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University
Ellram, who was named as a Dean's Council of 100 Distinguished Scholar in 2001, is a well-known and respected voice in the halls of academia. A regular presenter at Institute for Supply Management (ISM) international conferences, Ellram has also conducted seminars on various supply chain topics for numerous graduate and business schools and private companies. She has served on the board of directors of CAPS research, chaired
the Institute of Supply Management's Educational Resource Committee and is a founding member of the Procurement Sciences Institute. In addition to having published more than 50 articles in a number of journals, Ellram currently teaches supply chain design and cost management issues in the day and online MBA programs at ASU, as well as directs Ph.D. students at the university and teaches purchasing research and negotiations in the undergraduate supply chain management program.

Dr. Marshall Fisher, UPS Professor of Operations, and Information Management, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Fisher has built his career on pioneering research in logistics and supply chain coordination. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in recognition of
his contributions to the use of mathematical analysis to improve supply chain performance in companies, served as president of the Institute of Management Science, and has received numerous awards for his thought leadership and teaching. Fisher directs the Consortium for Operational Excellence in Retailing (COER), which focuses on supply chain issues for retailers, and he has been a consultant to over 60 companies during his academic career, with a number of them ranking in the Fortune 500. From 1997 through 2000 Fisher, along with co-workers, conducted a multi-year study funded by the Sloan Foundation to investigate how retailers can exploit information technology and flexible manufacturing to improve the merchandising of fashion products.

Walter George, Executive Vice President of Operation and Supply Chain, American-Italian Pasta Co.
Prior to joining AIPC in January 2001, George completed a 12-year career as vice president of supply chain for Colgate-Palmolive's pet food subsidiary, Hill's Pet Nutrition, where he was a member of the parent company's global logistics council. George began his career with Frito-Lay, and his experience ranges from plant management, inventory planning and management, sales and operations to customer service, logistics and strategic planning. George said that one of the keys to his success with AIPC's supply chain is a thorough understanding of what the company does. "We don't build a process around technology. We understand our processes so well that we identify the process improvement and the application, and then we go find the technology."

Ray Hill, Chief Procurement Officer, Pitney Bowes
Hill has spearheaded the implementation of e-business solutions throughout Pitney Bowes' purchasing function since joining the company in 1995. In particular, he has led the company's efforts to work with solution providers to develop such applications as supplier management software. His team's efforts are credited with generating in excess of $500 million in savings to the company's bottom line, reducing purchasing cycle times, cutting inventory by more than $100 million and raising product quality and overall supplier serviceability. Hill believes that companies that view the supply chain as purely a back-office function, and that focus exclusively on taking money out of their supply chains through cuts in operating expenses and people, are being short-sighted. Rather, companies must be prepared to invest in their supply chains to drive greater value for customers and shareholders. "When you realize there is a lot of money in this and you can improve your bottom line, it's an easy decision," he says.

George Jackman, Director of Customer Marketing, Welch's
Over the past two years, George Jackman has had the responsibility of developing the vision and selecting the technology to rationalize and accelerate Welch's sales planning and promotional effectiveness processes. He evangelized the use of a commercial application to maximize time to benefit, oversaw the adoption process across the company, and educated employees at all levels of the company by developing or overseeing the production and delivery of training modules to explain principles and reinforce learning. He also ensured that Welch's leadership team understood and supported the changes he was implementing. The result: a transformed corporate demand forecast with complete visibility that achieved several million dollars in savings. According to Jackman, "Investing in appropriate technologies is the correct approach to preserve a responsible and flexible supply chain with maximum visibility of information at any point in that chain."

Mike Katzorke, Senior Vice President, Supply Chain Management, Cessna Aircraft Co.
As a private pilot, Mike Katzorke knows all about soaring high, and as a business process improvement and supply chain management professional with more than 20 years of leadership experience, he has applied Malcomb Baldrige criteria and Six Sigma tools to raise supply chain performance to new heights at three Fortune 100 companies. With a resume that includes positions in operations, materials, manufacturing, quality, systems and strategic supply chain management, Katzorke's career spans Sperry, Motorola and Honeywell. But it was at AlliedSignal and, most recently, Cessna Aircraft that he designed and initiated the rollout of supply chain management. Katzorke is on the board of directors for Mid-America Manufacturing Technology Center, and he is active in the Center for Advanced Purchasing Studies (CAPS) and the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME).

Peter Kelly, Executive Vice President, Global Operations Group, Agere Systems
Kelly has reinvented Agere Systems' supply chain in just under two years by transforming the advanced integrated circuit solutions provider's corporate culture into one that is focused on speed and flexibility. By applying some of the semiconductor industry's best practices, Kelly evolved Agere's internally focused supply chain into a multi-tiered collaborative model, which developed out of relationships with suppliers and customers using lean concepts across the entire supply chain. The result has been improved shipping performance and inventory turns, both of which have brought Agere Systems high levels of profitability and customer satisfaction.

John Leonti, Worldwide Print and Collateral Manager, Global Brand & Communications, Hewlett-Packard Co.
Like many large corporations, Hewlett-Packard's design and advertising agencies used to mange the sourcing and procurement of the printed marketing and sales collateral that they developed for the company, leaving millions of dollars in spend outside HP's control. Under an initiative to bring that spend back into the company, Leonti pushed to identify appropriate technology that would allow HP both to optimize its print and paper management and to better support brand consistency. Ultimately the company implemented a selection of e-business tools, including Web-based solutions from Noosh. As a result, HP has been able to reduce its costs, gain more control over brand consistency and gain greater visibility into its projects, from concept thru production thru shipment. Leonti has been sharing best practices with supply chain and procurement professionals within HP and with strategic HP partners.

Thomas Linton, Chief Procurement Officer, Agere Systems
In his role as CPO, Linton is driving Agere's supply chain transformation by implementing a strategic supply program focused on providing the company's customers with the highest levels of supply chain security through advanced supplier relationship management and collaboration. Agere has shifted from a company with all internal manufacturing to one focused on sourcing its silicon wafers from external foundries to get the industry's best process technology and a flexible financial model. Linton has established Agere's procurement center in Singapore to be aligned more closely with some of Agere's key suppliers in the Asia/Pacific region. He is also establishing e-business initiatives to connect Agere seamlessly with its suppliers to foster the multi-tiered collaborative supply chain model the company is focused on achieving.

Donna Massari, Vice President, Supply Chain, Reichhold
When Massari joined Reichhold two years ago, she began working to transform the chemical company's purchasing and logistics departments on a global basis, integrating these two functions into the operations and commercial organizations. The initiative made purchasing and logistics an integral part of the supply chain team, along with operations and sales, making high-level strategic decisions that affect how Reichhold does business. Speaking of the importance of supply chain in today's environment, Massari says: "With customers demanding more in terms of higher delivery expectations, quality and service, and product innovations, those companies that integrate the total supply chain and the functions that support the [supply chain] will win in the global marketplace. Taking supply/demand chains seriously is critical to surviving in the global marketplace today."

Russell A. Miles, Sourcing Strategy and Systems Manager, Thomson Inc.
Miles has led key global initiatives within Thomson Strategic Sourcing, including selection and implementation of an online sourcing/reverse auction application, the development of a Web-based contract archive and development of a standard bid package. As Thomson's e-sourcing and sourcing process improvement guru, he has raised awareness of the benefits of e-sourcing within the organization, challenged his colleagues' assumptions about the sourcing process and personally assisted many buyers through their first online sourcing events. His goal: teach people within Sourcing how to fish for themselves rather than hand out fishes. Miles continues to drive sourcing initiatives at Thomson, with an eye toward process improvement and the ultimate goal of a complete -- and affordable -- online sourcing process workflow with integrated tools. A realist, he says, "Companies need to get their own house in order before they can plug into the utopian vision of a fully connected e-supply chain."

Robert W. Moffat, Jr., Senior Vice President, Integrated Supply Chain, IBM
Not long ago, IBM had about 30 different supply chains; essentially each part of the business had its own. When, in January 2002, Big Blue set up the Integrated Supply Chain under Moffat, the company consolidated its operations into one supply chain. The group is credited with saving IBM more than $7 billion in 2003, making 96 percent of the company's purchasing "hands-free," driving inventories to the lowest levels in 20 years, and taking nearly 2 days out of the cash collection cycle. In the process, the reforms have raised supply chain's profile within the company: Moffat has addressed the board of directors regarding the ISC, and the supply chain was a discussion point in the company's annual report last year. "Being in the supply chain is actually pretty cool now," Moffat says.

James L. Polak, Director, General Purchasing, PPG Industries
Polak, who began his career at PPG in 1974, had a vision for a global database of spend information for the company. He led the initial investigation into a purchasing data-warehouse project that would eventually lead to dramatic savings for the global supplier of coatings, glass, fiberglass and chemicals. In order to ensure executive and employee buy-in, Polak created the capital justification documents and presented the project for approval to PPG's Executive Committee, he evangelized the need for the addition of technology to others within the company, and he personally taught spend analysis training sessions to buyers globally. Polak says that companies should focus on their supply chains because "by focusing on taking costs out of the total supply and demand chains in any corporation, you can grow the bottom line faster than by increasing revenue to accomplish the same bottom-line result."

Helmut F. Porkert, Chief Procurement Officer, ChevronTexaco Corp.
Porkert leads ChevronTexaco's global procurement, strategic sourcing, supplier management and integration activities, as well as supply chain management activities, for all of the company's worldwide operations. He also is responsible for supporting all the company's operating units in delivering cost reductions for operating and capital expenses. In his previous role as CPO of Chevron (prior to the Texaco merger), he was credited with realizing major savings on Chevron's $10 billion to 15 billion annual spend, and under his leadership, ChevronTexaco has worked to leverage its global buying power and has put in place procurement and supply chain processes that have supported corporate drives for operational excellence and produced major savings for the company. But Porkert has also said that ChevronTexaco's efforts to better compile its spend data have helped the company to improve its spend with diversity suppliers. Porkert sits on the board of trustees for the Center for Advanced Purchasing Studies, and he has been a member of the board of directors at the National Minority Supplier Development Council.

Steve Rogers, Director, Worldwide Purchases Mastery, Procter & Gamble
Rogers, a member of ISM, the American Management Association and the Supply Chain Council, has been honored by P&G with the Phoenix Award for his contributions to the Purchases area. He began his career at P&G some 30 years ago and has since worked in every business unit with both the direct and indirect spend areas, delivering over $1 billion in hard savings to the company. He has been credited with four major transitions at the company, beginning with the institution of an Internet-based sourcing strategy methodology in the mid-1990s, which prepared the company to use e-tools when they finally appeared on the scene. He also collaborated with P&G's Treasury group to implement a risk management organization, redefined the company's supplier relationship management methodology and led the effort to change P&G's contract management process. Rogers told S&DCExecutive that by the time this article appears in print he will have retired from P&G to try his hand as a professor, writing and speaking on supply chain and procurement issues.

Robert A. Rudzki, Senior Vice President, Materials Management and Chief Procurement Officer, NAFTA Region, Bayer Corporate and Business Services
Rudzki, formerly a financial and procurement officer at Bethlehem Steel, currently oversees logistics and procurement activities in the NAFTA region for Bayer and sits on the Bayer Group's Global Procurement Management Committee. His team's strategic sourcing efforts have produced more than $200 million in cost reductions for the NAFTA region since 2001. An active user of e-sourcing tools, in 2003 alone the company conducted 25 desktop and five optimization/online auctions. In addition to providing services to internal clients, as of January 2003 the company's North American procurement organization has marketed such services as Procurement Skill Assessment, Strategic Sourcing & Negotiation Management process training and consulting, and e-Procurement and Professional Services consulting to external clients, winning business with two major U.S.-based clients. Rudzki is a frequent speaker at professional conferences and associations, including the Manufacturers Alliance, the Conference Board and Institute for Supply Management (ISM).

Mark Russell, Director of Transportation, The Dial Corporation
Russell, an active member of the Food Shippers Association and a contributing participant in the Logistics Roundtable of the Grocery Manufacturers of America, has led the adoption and integration of an enterprise-wide, Web-based transportation management system at Dial -- the largest IT project in 20 years for the company's transportation department. The system, which has been implemented at 41 locations, is realizing savings of as much as 12 to 15 percent for certain high-volume lanes. Additionally, Russell has been able to rationalize Dial's physical distribution network and participate in cross-functional logistics initiatives with key customers. "Technology is necessary to support virtually all aspects of a company's supply chain," comments Russell. "However, the human side of identifying opportunities, improving processes and monitoring performance is critical to the success of any technology rollout."

Abdallah F. Shanti, Vice President, Procurement, Information Technology & CIO, American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc.
In an industry better known for buyer-supplier tension, Shanti has taken a collaborative approach to working with AAM's strategic suppliers. His view is that by helping suppliers boost their productivity and by involving them in product design and other decisions, American Axle can eliminate cost in its supply chain up front. He also emphasizes the global nature of the business these days: "I work with our suppliers to make sure that they understand that AAM is not competing just against other axle manufacturers in North America. We're competing globally against axle manufacturers from around the world." Finally, he firmly believes in building his IT and procurement strategies based on a solid understanding of his company's business. "You've got to understand the business inside and out," he says. "That way you can develop strategies that help the business."

Greg Tennyson, Vice President, Corporate Procurement & Travel, Oracle Corp.
Tennyson was recognized by his company for having implemented a B2B e-business solution that drove a $4 million to $6 million reduction in Oracle's purchase-to-pay transaction expense, split strategic and tactical responsibilities and increased annual cost savings two-fold. He has contributed to numerous ISM articles, was invited to participate in Oracle's North American Sales/Consulting Organization due to his contributions to the company's B2B e-business suite of products, and regularly meets with Fortune 500 companies to share best practices, benchmark successes and understand the upcoming opportunities in the B2B e-commerce space. Says Tennyson, "B2B e-business tools, if implemented successfully and actively supported by executive management, will have a more profound effect on the profitability of an organization than ... a sales or other cost-of-goods-sold initiative."

Practitioner Pros to Know Highlighted
Innovation Between Competitors: The Tradeplace Team


A few years ago, with the Internet boom in full swing, Europe's major appliance manufacturers and consumer electronics manufacturers were happily pursuing their separate initiatives to use e-business technologies to electronically connect with their retailer and distributor customers. Like their counterparts in the United States and elsewhere, these companies were counting on the Internet and other new technologies to help them automate processes within and beyond their four walls as a way of improving customer service while reducing costs.

Five of those manufacturers -- including Germany's BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH (BSH), Electrolux Home Product Europe, the European division of Benton Harbor, Mich.-based Whirlpool, Italy's Merloni Elettrodomestici and Holland's Philips Consumer Electronics -- together represent more than $65 billion in worldwide sales and employ almost 370,000 people around the globe.

But despite their own enormity, in the highly fragmented, $33 billion European market for "white goods" -- home appliances of all sorts -- these five manufacturers had to deal with literally tens of thousands of smaller chains and individual retailers. "In Europe, we have 100,000 retailers, and even the top 20 retailers represent less than 40 percent of the market," explained the e-business leader at one of the five companies.

This fragmentation presented a major challenge for each of the manufacturers as they set about their sell-side e-business initiatives: how to link with their thousands of retail customers in a way that would be affordable not only for themselves but also for the retailers, many of which were mom-and-pop operations with just a few outlets.

Thus was born the idea for Tradeplace, a joint service venture formed in 2001 initially by three of the manufacturers -- BSH, Electrolux Home Product and Whirlpool Europe -- and later joined by Merloni (in May 2002) and Philips (September 2002).

One aim of the initiative was to create an umbrella for the companies' existing portals that, at first, would provide retailers with a single point of entry, accessed through a Web browser, to the manufacturers' systems. The retailers could then search for product information and availability and place orders with any of the manufacturers without having to log into different systems. In addition, the ultimate goal of Tradeplace was the standardization of XML message types, which enables both sides of the supply chain to reduce the upfront investment to a minimum.

The vision then called for moving the retailers to system-to-system integration through the Tradeplace Message Hub, set up with technology and services from Seattle-based integration solution provider Hubspan, to communicate electronically with the manufacturers. In this second phase, the hub would receive messages and requests from one partner, reformat and translate the data as necessary, depending on the intended destination, and then send the data to the appropriate addressee. Theoretically, the hub would be able to handle data formats ranging from traditional electronic data interchange (EDI) to the latest XML, or even data from Web forms for retailers with just a PC and Internet access.

The attraction of this ultimate vision was that all the participants would be able to use their existing information technology infrastructure to communicate with the hub, eliminating the need for investments in costly point-to-point integration with multiple partners while providing convenient access for the retailers to all the manufacturers through one portal.

Since its launch in seven European countries in 2001, more than 8,000 users have registered with Tradeplace to use the browser-based solution, and the hub, which is available in multiple languages and has expanded to encompass retailers in 14 countries. At present, four large trading partners have established system-to-system connections with the hub via XML, with about 20 more in development.

Each of the following supply and demand chain leaders played a major role in envisioning and creating Tradeplace. They realized that, as much as competition is healthy for a business to keep current and innovative, providing the best possible service to your customers is even more so. One member of the team summed up their collaborative strategic initiative by saying: "We have an obligation to our trading partners to assure rapid and easy access to information."

Frederic Marie, e-Business Director, Electrolux Home, Products Europe

Gustavo Minacci, Director, Strategy Deployment & Innovation, Whirlpool Europe

Michael Steinborn, Corporate Head of CRM and e-Commerce, BSH Bosch and Siemens Hausgerate GmbH

Karel van der Horst, CRM & e-Business Director, Philips Consumer Electronics

Mauro Viacava, Chief Information Officer, Merloni Elettrodomestici

Read more about the Tradeplace team and their accomplishments in the article "From Competition to Consensus," in the August/September 2003 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine.

Analyst Pros to Know:

An "Analyst Pro to Know" works for a firm that conducts research and offers advice regarding technologies to other companies that are enabling their supply and demand chains or that are offering technology to enable supply and demand chains. These analysts demonstrate thought leadership for the various supply and demand chain sectors.

Steve Banker, Supply Chain Practice Service Director, ARC Advisory Group
This former Penn State University professor is currently directing ARC's Supply Chain & Logistics research, and his concentration is on technology adoption and its impact on organizations' culture and business practices. He regularly writes reports and studies that tackle trends in the industry, and he also gives speeches at such forums as the Council of Logistics Management and the Material Handling Institute of America.

Adam J. Fein, Ph.D., President, Pembroke Consulting
Fein has written countless articles, books and reports that educate wholesale distribution, manufacturing and B2B technology companies. Additionally, he is in the process of conducting supply chain research for the U.S. Census Bureau. Fein has numerous academic accolades to his credit, including having been Doctoral Fellow, American Marketing Association Doctoral Consortium, University of Colorado (1996), among others.

Adrian Gonzalez, Director of the Logistics Executive Council, ARC Advisory Group
In addition to leading ARC's Logistics Executive Council, which is a medium for collaboration, benchmarking and best-practices research, he has served as a guest lecturer at Northeastern University for its Supply Chain Management Certificate Program and Executive MBA program. Gonzalez is also a member of the Council of Logistics Management and has completed coursework in Six Sigma and New Product Introduction.

Bill Michels, CEO, ADR International
An expert in developing solutions when working with volatile commodities, Michels has developed new theories, practices and tools for supply chain transformation, and he has delivered change processes to global multinationals that lead to increased profitability, enhanced staff competence and sustainable cost improvements.

ADR International, a global consulting firm, specializes in strategic sourcing, purchasing and supplier management. ADR clients achieve sustainable long-term value through our:
* understanding of sourcing, purchasing and supplier management
* world-class change management expertise
* skills transfer to improve the capabilities of purchasing personnel
* hands-on implementation to deliver savings and transformation. www.adrna.com

Navi Radjou, Vice President, Enterprise Applications, Forrester Research
Radjou has advised manufacturers around the world on issues related to product development, supply chain and customer service, and he is a frequent speaker to senior executive groups. In addition to expanding Forrester's research to new areas, Radjou is credited with introducing the term "Adaptive Supply Networks" to describe the new linear "sense-and-respond" business networks.

Craig Schiff, CEO and President, BPM Partners
Schiff is a frequent writer and expert speaker on the topic of business performance management and was recently chosen as the conference chair for DCI's Performance Management Conference. He and his company regularly conduct surveys on business performance management and educate according to their findings.

Provider Pros to Know:

A "Provider Pro to Know" works for a company that offers technology other enterprises use to enable their supply and demand chains. The following receipients have demonstrated outstanding thought leadership, influencing the way corporations do business.

Jay Baitler, Senior Vice President, Staples Contract Division, Staples Inc.
A major proponent of using e-procurement as a way of strengthening the buyer-supplier relationship.

Staples Contract, a division of Staples, Inc., provides office supply solutions to medium- and large-sized organizations. The business works collaboratively with its customers enabling procurement professionals to efficiently manage procurement programs with lowest total delivered cost. With 2002 sales of $11.6 billion, Staples, Inc. is committed to make buying office products easy. Please visit www.StaplesContract.com .

Bob Belshaw, Chief Operating Officer, INSIGHT Inc.
Frequent evangelizer on the role of information systems and decision support technology in supply chain management and optimization.

INSIGHT, Inc., a top international provider of supply chain planning solutions for the world's foremost companies, uses a proprietary optimization engine to gain competitive advantage for clients. Over 40% of Fortune Magazine's Top 50 and 70% of Business Week's most profitable corporations use solutions from INSIGHT. Clients select from a powerful network of planning and scheduling solutions, including design of global supply chains, transportation procurement, supply chain hardening, and inventory analysis within PowerChain" Inventory from Optiant. www.insight-mss.com

Jim Booth, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President, Fogbreak Software
Pioneer in applying lead-time profiling techniques to help manufacturers reduce lead times, improve flexibility and reduce supply chain risk.

Dennis P. Buckley, Vice President of Operations, DSSI LLC
Worked with Walsh College in the Detroit area to establish the school's procurement curriculum.

Charles W. Chase Jr., Global Strategist for Analytics, SAS
Past president of the International Association of Business Forecasting. Regular speaker at such universities as MIT, Texas A&M and University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Greg Cronin, President and CEO, TrenStar Inc.
Thought-leader in warehouse management space, helping to bring the term "supply chain event management" into the SCM lexicon.

Jamie Duke, Chief Operating Officer, SciQuest
Strong advocate of aligning supply chain technologies with an overall supply chain strategy that addresses process and organization imperatives.

Carrie Ericson, Vice President, A.T. Kearney Procurement Solutions
Frequent author and speaker on the importance of sourcing and procurement within enterprises.

Craig Federighi, Chief Technology Officer, Ariba Inc.
Advocates taking a holistic view of a company's spending habits and addressing the full cycle of spending from planning to payment.

Tom Glassanos, President/CEO, Xign Corp.
Helped pioneer the concept of outsourced buyer-side settlement automation as an alternative to electronic invoice presentment and payment (EIPP) solutions.

Brent Habig, Executive Vice President of Sales and Consulting, Verticalnet
Long-time advocate of leveraging an enterprise's spend data. Has written on approaches to dealing with the "data deluge" in the supply chain world.

Larry W. Hall, President and CEO, Prosero
Regular speaker and writer on supply and demand topics, addressing procurement, sourcing, compliance and procurement outsourcing issues, among others.

Keith Hausmann, Vice President of Sourcing and Category Management, ICG Commerce
Frequent speaker at industry forums on such topics as aggregation/consortiums and e-procurement success criteria.

David James Horne, CEO, XPORTA
Educates companies on the value of global sourcing as a key strategy for gross margin improvement. Coined term "supplier relationship management (SRM)."

L. George Klaus, CEO, Epicor Software Corp.
Strong advocate for the development of solutions tailored to meet the requirements of mid-market supply and demand chains.

Jim Lawton, Vice President of Marketing, Optiant
Graduate of MIT's Leaders for Manufacturing program. Frequent speaker at industry conferences on supply chain design and inventory optimization.

Pam Lopker, President and Chairman, QAD Inc.
Thought-leading pioneer in the development of solutions for manufacturing. Named a "Hero of U.S. Manufacturing" by Fortune.

Jack Mason, Ph.D., President, Co-founder, EnergyWindow Inc.
Helped pioneer the application of e-solutions to the procurement of energy services.

John Pulling, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Provia Software
Advocates helping companies lower the total cost of ownership of their supply chain and B2B software by better educating enterprises in how to automate their processes.

Jay Reddy, Founder and President, MindFlow Technologies
Helped pioneer the merger of optimization technology with strategic sourcing tools.

Jim Rogers, Vice President of B2B Integration Services, Global eXchange Services
Leading advocate of automating B2B interactions and integrating business processes to move inter-enterprise collaboration beyond the data level.

Alexander Saldanha, Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder, Softface
Pioneer in applying natural-language processing to automate the aggregation and cleansing of spend data.

Tuomas Sandholm, Founder, Chairman, Chief Technology Officer, CombineNet
Pioneer in applying combinatorial science to facilitate better sourcing and procurement decisions.

Steve Savignano, CEO, Ketera Technologies
Leading advocate of the "on demand" model of spend management, promoting software as a service.

Mac Schuessler, Vice President Global Corporate Purchasing Solutions, American Express
Early advocate of using e-procurement systems to streamline the front end of the procurement process.

Bob Shecterle, Vice President of Enterprise Supplier Relationship Management Strategy, PeopleSoft Inc.
Frequent speaker on supply chain management topics, promoting the value of supplier relationship management to the market at large.

Jai Shekhawat, CEO and Co-founder, Fieldglass Inc.
Evangelizes the use of technology to help companies improve the process for procuring and managing services, such as contract labor.

Sanjiv Sidhu, Founder, Chairman of the Board and CEO, i2 Technologies
Pioneer in applying information resources to make better supply and demand chain decisions.

Tracy Stephens, President and CEO, Resources Connection -- Supply Chain Management Practice
Created the Houston Area Supply Chain Leaders Forum for executive level supply chain management professionals.

Resources Connection Supply Chain Management Practice solely focuses on supply chain and procurement projects. We help companies achieve their supply chain management objectives by providing skilled professionals and customized solutions. Resources Connection is an international professional services firm that provides experienced accounting and finance, HR, IT, internal audit and supply chain management professionals to clients on a project basis. We serve 1,200+ clients with 1,600+ employees through more than 60 offices in the U.S. and abroad. www.resourcessupplychain.com

Rajiv Uppal, President, CEO and Founder, NextLinx Corp.
Helped develop automated export compliance system, an online database of U.S. export/import and international trade regulations and global trade software.

Charlie Villasenor, President and CEO, TransProcure Corp.
Pioneer in introducing e-procurement to Asia, and recognized as the purchasing practitioner of the year in the Philippines.

Paul Vragel, President, 4aBetterBusiness Inc.
Strong advocate for the application of process-based management to improve enterprise results and competitive advantage.

Jeffrey Wincel, Principal, LSC Consulting Group
Author of "Lean Supply Chain Management: A Strategic Procurement Handbook" (Productvitiy Press), linking "lean manufacturing" techniques with supply chain management.

Supply Chain Up-and-comers:

The Pros to Know are seasoned veterans with years of experience and thought leadership tucked neatly into their belts as they stand on the frontlines of the corporate, academic and public-sector worlds. However, no one starts at the top, and the two practitioners cited below stood out among the nominations that we received for what they have achieved in their relatively short careers. Supply & Demand Chain Executive will continue to follow and report on the rise of these and other "leaders to be."

Romain Coirault, U.S. Supply Chain Analyst, Great Brands of Europe
Coirault is a 2001 Georgia Tech graduate, and he is currently responsible for Great Brand's West Coast import operations, including supplier management and network analysis. As a key member of the food conglomerate's U.S. Freight Costs Reduction Team, Coriault says he has enabled the company to reduce ongoing analyst labor costs by over $10,000 per year.

Alexander Trifunac, Supply Chain Analyst, Great Brands of Europe
With two years of experience in domestic and international supply chain forecasting, Trifunac is responsible for developing a production planning tool for Great Brand's complex international supply chain that is expected to reduce inventory costs by $5 million during 2004.

Editor's Note: If you know of a Pros to Know candidate, we encourage you to nominate them for 2005 by e-mailing Andrew Reese, editor of Supply & Demand Chain Executive, at [email protected].

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