When asked to describe this year's Women in Supply Chain award nominees, there was one common phrase used to describe the winners -- they all think outside the box.
Whether it's developing new initiatives to promote mentorship within the workplace, creating a software solution or serving as the backbone of all moving parts of the company, these female logistics leaders exemplify leadership, mentorship and supply chain excellence.
Their forward-thinking mindsets are shaping the future of the supply chain and logistics industry. Their impacts are strategic, adaptable and intentional.
They lead, develop, transform, integrate, innovate and support. They're launching programs, leading teams and rolling out new products.
And they do while wearing many hats and juggling several tasks.
The Women in Supply Chain award, sponsored exclusively by Let’s Talk Supply Chain podcast and Blended Pledge, celebrates the real movers and shakers of the supply chain industry. From truck drivers to CEOs, this award provides a safe space for women to support other women, for men to support their female counterparts and for women to even advocate for and support themselves.
About the award
Overall, we had close to 250 submissions. Of those applications, 225 were named winners.
Of those 250 submissions, 41 were submitted by male counterparts, nominating their boss, co-worker or associate. And, 33 women self-nominated.
The four overall winners will be in person and on stage at this year's Women in Supply Chain Forum, Nov. 18-20 in Clearwater Beach, Fla., to share their experiences, journeys, visions and more.
Many of this year's winners will also be in attendance at this year's Forum, themed "Women on the Rise: Strengthening Leadership Pipelines." Go to www.WomeninSupplyChainForum.com to register and learn more.
Congratulations to all of this year's winners. CLICK HERE to meet all of the winners.
Let's meet the four overall winners.
Rising Stars --> Joshe Ordonez, CEO, Airpals, https://airpals.co
Joshe Ordonez built Airpals for the people behind the scenes, the ones asked to “just ship this real quick” and then left juggling outdated systems, endless tracking links, and fragmented carrier accounts. Her drive to think outside the box is rooted in her journey, from weaving ancient textile techniques with Ecuadorian artisans to building an AI platform for logistics in New York. Her competitive edge is her ability to translate complex logistics pain points into seamless, human-first solutions, especially for operational workers. CLICK HERE for an exclusive interview about collective strength, the power of reinvention and what it takes to build AI products for the logistics space.
Trailblazers --> Brittany Caskey, Chief Commercial Officer, Logistics, DP World
www.dpworld.com
With two decades of experience in the logistics industry, Brittany Caskey began her career at UPS giving tours of its largest contract logistics campus in Louisville, Ky., before advancing into a sales role focused on warehousing and distribution solutions for high-tech, industrial, and retail clients. In 2016, she was promoted to lead the North America sales team, where she introduced new go-to-market strategies to penetrate untapped verticals. Her success led to a global role in 2020, where she assumed leadership of UPS’ global logistics and distribution sales and customer solutions organization. Today, she serves as chief commercial officer, logistics, for DP World, where she continues to transform the Americas region’s commercial strategy. Caskey’s cross-functional and cross-regional background is a key driver of her out-of-the-box thinking. CLICK HERE for an exclusive interview on Caskey's “outside-of-the-box” leadership, why mentorship matters and what it takes to experience the full spectrum of the supply chain.
DEI Pioneer --> Mary Casillo, SVP of Business Development, The Pallet Alliance
www.tpai.com
Mary Casillo is a powerhouse in the pallet industry who continues driving her career and her employers’ business goals forward. She never intended to be a professional within the supply chain but was "physically tackled" into the pallet industry. Since then, she has spearheaded initiatives to share the importance of well-managed national pallet management programs; stays abreast of industry trends, technological advancements, and best practices; and creates an atmosphere where everyone feels equal. CLICK HERE for an exclusive interview on sustainable pallet management, supplier diversification and the importance of DEI efforts.
Workforce Innovator --> Natasha Martinez, Head of Fleet Success, BeyondTrucks, www.beyondtrucks.com
Natasha Martinez is redefining what “workforce development” means in today’s AI era. As head of fleet success for BeyondTrucks, she helped develop the company's pilot fleet operations, led the transformation of dozens of fleets with the BeyondTrucks platform, deployed technology across fleets, and mentored clients along their transformative technology journeys. Her approach is human-centric and workforce-centric rather than technology-centric. And, her foundational work with truck drivers, dispatchers, accounting, and payroll clerks sets an example of how transformation can prioritize people, productivity, collaboration, and human capabilities. CLICK HERE for an exclusive interview on digital transformation in transportation and the importance of maintaining a diverse supply chain background.
Congratulations to all of this year's winners. CLICK HERE to meet all of the winners.
Additional standouts
Below are a couple of additional standouts (in alpha order by company name).
Kendra Tanner
President and CEO, Allstates WorldCargo
www.allstates-worldcargo.com
Category: Trailblazers
Kendra Tanner began her 37-year career in the transportation and logistics industry with Consolidated Freightways in 1988 and worked in various sales, operations, and management positions until 2000. She transitioned from an asset-based LTL company to a freight forwarding company, EXEL Global Logistics (aka DHL) and served as general manager, before joining Allstates WorldCargo in 2002. She has spent the last 23 years at Allstates WorldCargo, where her career growth propelled her from the VP of sales and marketing to becoming the president and CEO of the company in 2020, where she’s completed seven acquisitions, all of which produced double-digit growth and achieved full earn outs. The most recent was in June with the acquisition of Red Arrow Logistics, and in February the acquisition of Saturn Freight Systems, which doubled the geographic size of Allstates WorldCargo. In the last few years as CEO, Tanner also transformed technology, focusing on the customer experience and growth. In the past 12 months alone, she has driven a state-of-the-art WMS; a quoting and freight booking platform; an overhauled tracking system; implemented RPA and AI programs; and complete Power BI data visibility for every station. She also serves as a member and on the Board of Directors for the Airforwarders Association (AfA), an organization committed to advocating for the needs of the industry, where she supports the AirCargo Conference every year, coordinates mentorship programs, spearheads women-focused networking events, and invests in the development of the next generation of transportation leaders, often taking on a mentorship role for younger female members.
Andrea Morgan-Vandome
Chief Innovation Officer, Blue Yonder
https://blueyonder.com
Category: Trailblazers
Andrea Morgan-Vandome is chief innovation officer of Blue Yonder, where she leads product strategy, roadmap direction and acquisition strategy, go-to-market packaging and messaging, and new product introduction. She also partners with Blue Yonder’s product management team on innovation development and adoption in the market, and oversees Blue Yonder’s Supply Chain Advisory team, which is focused on driving growth, speed, and value for customers. Morgan-Vandome maintains more than 25 years of leadership experience in the enterprise software, supply chain and the retail industry. Prior to joining Blue Yonder, she served as VP, product management, portfolio and program at Nike, where she was responsible for the digital transformation across all technical products, including planning, manufacturing, supply chain, and AI. Prior to Nike, she served as chief marketing and product officer at Celect, which was acquired by Nike; and served as VP, product and design for IBM Watson, responsible for product strategy, product management, user experience/ visual design, and go-to-market approach for all Watson solutions. She has also held strategy, product management, consulting, and engineering positions at Oracle and Retek.
Morgan-Vandome is transforming the supply chain industry by developing a lifecycle-focused strategy that moves at the speed of innovation and empowers businesses to thrive in an industry experiencing unprecedented growth and facing more challenges than ever before. She took the helm of Blue Yonder’s newly formed Supply Chain Advisory, where she is driving growth, speed and measurable results for customers. She helped form the Agent Activation Advisory, which works closely with customers to develop AI agents that unlock even greater value from their Blue Yonder solutions. She was also instrumental in the development of AI agents across retail, manufacturing and logistics sectors.
Leigh Barnard
Chief Operating Officer,
Cooler Logistics
www.coolerlogistics.com
Category: Rising Stars
Leigh Barnard joined the logistics industry in 2011 as the first female floor employee at Load Delivered Logistics. She began in customer operations and eventually collaborated with leadership to create the company's first account management role, where she worked with wholesale and distributor customers, growing business by focusing on relationship development and operational excellence. After two years of mastering the operational side of logistics, Barnard’s dedication to operational excellence and relationship-building skills made her a natural choice to help establish a role focused on growing existing customer accounts. She collaborated with leadership to define the responsibilities, performance metrics, and mentoring expectations for this new position. Under this model, new operations representatives worked under account managers, gradually developing the skills needed to step into the role themselves. In 2018, Load Delivered was acquired by Capstone Logistics, and she was tapped to serve as senior manager, where she oversaw a team of six, serving the company’s small and medium-sized business partners. In 2022, the original founder of Load Delivered reached out with a new opportunity to join his latest venture, Cooler Logistics, from the ground up. Now serving as COO, Barnard draws on her extensive experience in account and people management while embracing new challenges in HR and marketing. Working closely with Cooler’s CEO, Michael Cherney, a recipient of Food Logistics’ Rock Stars of the Supply Chain award, Barnard has spent the last 18 months laying a strong foundation.
Barnard maintains a unique ability to bring the team together by asking the right questions. While being the only woman at the executive table can be daunting, she never hesitates to dig deeper into an issue and uncover the “why” behind each ask or situation. Her ability to view things from multiple perspectives allows her to guide the team in considering a broader range of viewpoints, ultimately leading to better solutions and more effective processes. She refuses to sign off on anything until it has been thoroughly vetted and thoughtfully considered, something she achieves by consistently asking the right questions at the right time.
Patricia Baez
SVP, People, Americas Region,
DP World
www.dpworld.com
Category: Workforce Innovator
Patricia Baez is a human capital leader with over two decades of experience in workforce strategy, organizational development, and inclusive talent innovation across the global supply chain industry. Currently serving as SVP, people for DP World's Americas Region, Baez oversees the strategic people agenda for more than 16,000 employees across ports, logistics, and economic zones throughout North and South America. Her career with DP World spans over 20 years, beginning in the Dominican Republic, where she advanced through HR leadership roles while also managing IT, sustainability, and Lean process improvement functions. She later joined DP World’s global headquarters in Dubai, where she helped shape talent and organizational strategy for Group IT and international supply chain operations, before landing at the company’s regional Americas headquarters in Charlotte, N.C.
What sets Baez apart is her ability to connect business performance with people development by creating programs that drive both talent growth and measurable operational outcomes. She is the architect behind DP World’s Lean Six Sigma Recognition Program in the Americas, which empowers employees to develop and implement efficiency-improving projects. She’s also a passionate advocate for women in logistics. Her Women in Operations framework began in the Dominican Republic by training young women from underserved communities, including an all-female orphanage, in logistics roles. Several graduates went on to participate in internships at DP World, and others have enrolled in university with the aim of building careers in supply chain. This successful framework has since been expanded to Brazil, Peru, Suriname, and Ecuador. To build the next generation of supply chain professionals, Baez also launched a graduate rotational program across the Americas, where recent university graduates are immersed in multiple facets of the business, such as operations, tech, and commercial, and mentored by senior leaders.
Baez has created an end-to-end workforce development pipeline in an industry facing a labor crisis—from training high school students to preparing future executives. What makes her efforts “worth noting” is the integration of community impact, diversity, and measurable business outcomes. Whether she’s partnering with an orphanage to train the next generation of women operators or saving her company half a million dollars through employee-led efficiency projects, Baez proves that investing in people is not just the right thing to do; it’s also a strategic advantage.
Jennie Malafarina
Co-Founder, FR8MVMNT
www.fr8mvmt.com
Category: Trailblazers
Jennie Malafarina co-founded FR8MVMT in 2024 to create opportunities, at no cost, for individuals and companies in the supply chain industry to connect locally, network and share ideas to advance the industry and their careers.
In 2025, she organized 12 monthly FR8MVMT events across the country; some took place during national industry events, off-site, where people who normally would not attend to mingle with industry power brokers and have their voices heard, offering hands-on perspectives and insights to shape the industry and advance their careers through networking opportunities. FR8MVMT events have helped women step outside their comfort zones, broaden their horizons, and meet new people to help shape their careers. Besides co-founding FR8MVMT, she launched the Women in Logistics Marketing Association (WILMA) to help women at all levels, from interns to seasoned executives, understand the industry and communicate the value of their roles and activities to the boardroom.
Before founding FR8MVMT, she primarily worked in senior-level marketing roles at supply chain technology companies, including Banyan Technologies, Transportation Insight, and Trimble Transportation. She also serves as CEO of Virago Marketing.
Linda McCahill
VP, Human Resources, Integration Group (TIG), The
www.theintegrationgroup.com
Category: Trailblazers
With more than 20 years of hands-on experience, Linda McCahill is a strategic human resources leader with deep expertise in the manufacturing, supply chain and distribution industries. She partners closely with managers and executive teams to build and refine HR frameworks that support business growth. Her areas of focus span performance management, talent acquisition, total rewards, employee development, payroll, and strategies for both retention and organizational restructuring. McCahill currently serves as VP, human resources for The Integration Group (TIG), where she leads the people side of the integration of TIG Distributing and Exodus Direct, creating a single set of policies while transforming the culture into one of fairness and opportunity. She joined TIG from OIA Global, where she led human resources for the Americas, and was instrumental in establishing a world-class HR organization from scratch, building out talent management, establishing measurement of HR performance, filling critical gaps in hiring, negotiating union contracts and in general increasing employee satisfaction. Prior to OIA, McCahill held various positions with Koch Industries and Sherwin Industries.
While McCahill has worked within well-established HR departments in Fortune 500 and privately held companies, gaining exposure to best-in-class practices, she’s also built HR functions from the ground up, particularly in family-owned and private equity-backed businesses, where she was responsible for establishing the foundational “house in order” essentials such as compliance, payroll, benefits, and employee relations. Her ability to shift from tactical execution to strategic leadership is what sets her apart.
Katie Gutierrez
IT Security Manager, Kamps, Inc.
www.kampspallets.com
Category: Trailblazers
Dr. Katie Gutierrez stands as a trailblazer in the intersection of information technology, cybersecurity, and logistics, boasting over two decades of experience. Throughout her career, Gutierrez has developed foundational IT security programs and ensured compliance with rigorous industry standards like PCI, SOC 2, FERPA, and HIPAA. For example, she spearheaded the implementation of a new Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solution across the organization, providing real-time visibility into endpoint activities, enabling more effective detection, investigation, and response to potential threats. She also organized and led the organization's penetration test, an initiative vital in identifying potential vulnerabilities that, if exploited, could severely impact the company's operations.
Gutierrez collaborates with trusted security professionals to conduct comprehensive evaluations of networks, web applications and social engineering vulnerabilities. The resulting reports serve as essential tools in identifying and addressing critical weaknesses with the company's infrastructure., invaluable insights, allowing for the prioritization and remediation of high-risk issues. Gutierrez is also responsible for overseeing a robust security awareness initiative, which features interactive training modules, realistic simulated phishing exercises and targeted quizzes designed to educate employees about best practices in cybersecurity. By fostering continuous learning and vigilance, the initiative helps fortify the company's "human firewall" and promotes a culture of shared responsibility for safeguarding sensitive information and digital assets.
Kelly Marvel
Senior Human Resources Manager, Kamps Inc.
www.kampspallets.com
Category: Workforce Innovator
Kelly Marvel is a results-driven HR leader with a proven track record of empowering individuals and driving organizational success. Throughout her career, Marvel has been at the forefront of initiatives that elevate HR practices and foster professional growth, offering practical administrative support, fostering common ground, and cultivating collaborative relationships with operations teams.
Marvel’s professional journey began with an HR internship that led to a full-time role as an HR assistant at a large physical therapy company. Just over a year later, she was promoted to HR coordinator, a role in which she spent several years refining her technical and organizational skills. After that, she advanced to HR generalist, taking on responsibility for all leave administration and becoming the primary contact for employee relations and policy interpretation for 1,100 employees across 25 states. A few years later, she advanced to HR manager and eventually to HR director, where she led the HR, payroll, and talent acquisition departments for over 1.5 years. One of the standout moments in her career came during the COVID-19 pandemic, where she helped lead the organization through a complex and rapidly changing landscape, addressing a wide range of challenges, including mandatory vaccination and testing policies, managing quarantine restrictions, and processing the influx of unemployment claims. She played a key role in navigating state-specific curfews and crafting exemption letters for staff traveling during these restrictions. She also persuaded employees to return to work despite the temptation of higher supplemental weekly pay provided by many state unemployment programs. After earning her SHRM-SCP certification in September 2021, Marvel joined Kamps, Inc. as senior human resources manager, where she continues to make a concerted effort to position HR not as a barrier, but as a strategic partner in driving operational success.
For instance, Marvel helped facilitate the adoption of the Workday HRIS system at Kamps, where she developed comprehensive training materials and conducted sessions to ensure employee proficiency. This initiative streamlined operations and equipped employees with the tools needed to succeed. She also helped oversee a significant number of new employee onboarding. As a result, she introduced monthly regional office staff meetings, bridging gaps between geographically dispersed teams and fostering a culture of community and collaboration. Beyond the day-to-day HR functions, Marvel has also been a catalyst for process improvements, where she’s led the conversion of various outdated legacy forms into more efficient and accurate documents, including some fillable PDFs, greatly improving both the employee and manager experience.
Skylar Greer
Director, Account Solutions for Food & Beverage, Kenco
https://kencogroup.com
Category: Rising Stars
Skylar Greer is director of account solutions for Kenco’s food and beverage division, where she works directly with customers to manage their transportation services. She maintains over a decade of experience in the logistics industry. Prior to joining Kenco, Greer worked at another 3PL provider supporting its customers in the beverage space.
One of the core values Greer instills in her team is that food safety isn’t just a box to check. That’s why she’s played an integral role in Kenco’s efforts to change the industry’s mindset that prioritizing safety and quality increases costs. With her guidance, the company developed strategies that keep its customers as cost-neutral as possible while still delivering top-tier service and equipment.
As the only female and black woman at her level in Kenco’s transportation department, Greer stands behind authenticity and conviction. Within Kenco, she takes active steps to become a better leader for her team, participating in Kenco’s leadership cohort L.E.A.D (Leadership Essentials and Development).
Shanon Weber
Group VP, Operations & Co-Owner & Leader of Kenco Operating System, Kenco
https://kencogroup.com
Category: Trailblazers
Shanon Weber is a resourceful operations and business excellence leader with expertise in continuous improvement, strategic planning, and best-in-class results. She creates company value by realizing growth opportunities, enhancing employee engagement, and implementing improvements that accelerate transformation, increase innovation, and secure Kenco’s place as an industry leader. Since joining Kenco 23 years ago, Weber has moved the needle for Kenco operations. She started as a general manager over a multi-client facility, developing core operations expertise, team-building skills and key customer relationships. Fast forward to today, and she serves as the group VP for Kenco’s industrial chemical vertical, overseeing 20 distribution centers. She also maintains a decade of experience in the omnichannel vertical within both B2B and B2C, and has worked on some of the most highly complex projects for Kenco, including food and chemical regulated sites with some as large as 1 million square feet, 400-plus associates and 65,000 SKUs.
For instance, about 10 years ago, Weber worked on a $2.3 million automated e-commerce pick tower automation project with a leading beverage brewing provider for its New Jersey e-commerce and omni-channel facility. This supported a massive warehousing scale-up from 30,000 square feet account to a 2 million square feet, 5-site network, making it Kenco’s largest customer at the time. More recently, she led the charge for Kenco’s first AutoStore installation, a $6 million investment, gaining buy-in from Kenco’s board and the customer in 2020/21 and installing/implementing the solution in 2021/22. This technology resulted in flexible space efficiency with a 40–60% reduction in space requirements, and a 300% improvement in pick performance. Weber also played a crucial role in the development of Kenco’s Operating System (Kenco O/S) over the past 6 years, which, while under her leadership, enabled Kenco to deploy the system across all 140-plus Kenco sites as well as the company’s material handling division, transportation division, and corporate office itself. Also under Weber’s leadership, Kenco’s Net Promoter score in the industrial vertical in 2024 was 78.9 with an average rating of 9.2/10, which significantly exceeds the score considered “excellent” in the industry (greater than 35).
Lachelle Buchanan
VP, Product Marketing, Logility
www.logility.com
Category: Workforce Innovator
Lachelle Buchanan is a seasoned supply chain and product marketing leader with over 18 years of experience driving innovation at the intersection of technology, operations, and strategy. As the VP of product marketing at Logility, she leads the design, development, and validation of the company’s product messaging, value proposition, and go-to-market positioning, helping global enterprises unlock the full potential of supply chain investments. Buchanan’s expertise spans product management, integrated business planning (IBP/S&OP), and end-to-end supply chain planning, connecting cross-functional teams to solve complex problems and deliver sustainable, customer-centric solutions across industries. Throughout her career, Buchanan has played a pivotal role in launching supply chain solutions, gathering and operationalizing voice of customer insights, and aligning product innovation with real-world outcomes.
Previously, she served as director of sales and operations planning at U.S. Silica, where she led and developed a diverse team of 16 supply chain planners, network analysts, and data specialists. Under her guidance, the team achieved an $18 million increase in contribution margin, a 36% inventory reduction, and 99% in-stock service levels, while growing into a more data-driven, digitally fluent workforce. She introduced and implemented digital tools and personally led the design and development of mobile operations reporting apps, which eliminated 30 hours of manual data entry per week. Before that, she served as communication chair for people with Disabilities Network, where she helped drive initiatives focused on creating a culture of empowerment for all employees. Her role in GE’s Women’s Network, leading Lean-In Circles, reflects her commitment to advancing women in operations and leadership. She has also been an active participant in The Houston Managers Connection, serving on its Strategic Steering Committee, where she contributed to programs designed to help professionals expand leadership competencies and navigate complex business challenges.
Zera Zheng
Global Head of Business Resilience Consulting, Maersk
www.maersk.com
Category: Rising Stars
As the global head of business resilience consulting at Maersk, Zera Zheng leads initiatives that empower companies across industries to navigate an increasingly volatile world. She advises supply chain veterans and industry leaders on risk management and resilience strategies, guiding some of the world’s most complex and critical supply chains through times of unprecedented disruption.
Zheng co-developed Maersk’s Supply Chain Resilience Model, an industry-leading framework that enables companies to proactively identify risks, build agility, and future-proof their operations. Under her leadership, Maersk’s resilience consulting services have expanded globally, supporting customers across sectors from retail to manufacturing in strengthening their supply chain robustness. Building on this momentum, Zheng also spearheaded the development of the Maersk Risk Management tool, an initiative that provides customers with real-time global visibility of supply chain disruptions and shipment exposure, empowering businesses with critical insights and foresight to make informed decisions and mitigate impacts amid growing uncertainty. Zheng also played a vital role in advancing global dialogue on supply chain resilience by working with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), where she served as an expert reviewer for the UNCTAD Port Resilience Guidebook, contributing critical insights to strengthen ports' and maritime stakeholders' disruption preparedness. In addition, she represented Maersk at the UNCTAD Global Supply Chain Forum 2024, delivering a keynote intervention advocating for transparency, collaboration, and shared responsibility across sectors to build stronger, more resilient supply chains.
Arushi Bhardwaj
Senior Solutions Analyst, Penske Logistics, LLC
www.penskelogistics.com
Category: Rising Stars
Arushi Bhardwaj brings a rare combination of technical expertise, global perspective, and grounded innovation to the evolving world of supply chain technology. With over 11 years of experience working across markets in five continents, she serves as senior solutions analyst for Penske Logistics’ freight management team, where she leads and supports TMS implementations and customer launches, helping customers gain visibility, streamline operations, and scale effectively. Her journey into the supply chain world started unexpectedly. After earning her degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering, she joined Caterpillar as a support analyst, solving issues across 45-plus facilities and 2,500-plus suppliers. She developed into a skilled techno-functional expert, leading major TMS upgrades, building API and EDI integrations, and presenting fleet optimization models that reduced manual effort and improved visibility. She later joined Blue Yonder., where after just a month into her new role, Bhardwaj went to Australia to design and implement Blue Yonder’s Intelligent Fulfillment and Transport Visibility solutions for the country’s largest supermarket chain, which operates 995 stores, as part of an $80 million program. Following that success, she went on to lead a $212 million global TMS rollout for a major eyecare company, building a custom parcel solution from scratch. For a Fortune 50 FMCG client, she identified $5 million in savings potential in Japan. At PepsiCo, she worked on dedicated fleet optimization in Egypt, projecting $100,000 in annual cost savings.
Over the past year, Bhardwaj has served as the IT solutions lead on a large-scale TMS implementation for a global leader in the health, nutrition, and beauty space. The project involves onboarding multiple business units, each with unique ERP systems, integration APIs, distribution networks, and business rules. To date, she has implemented four business units, representing a combined freight spend of $52 million. In parallel, Bhardwa is also playing a key role in Penske’s enterprise-wide initiative to digitize LTL transportation processes. The project involves designing and implementing a scalable solution that connects Penske’s diverse customer base to a broad network of LTL carriers. Her responsibilities span solution architecture, complex API mapping, and test coordination with third-party carriers.
Shawntell Kroese
Managing Partner,
Russell-Kroese Partners
www.russellkroese.com
Category: Trailblazers
Shawntell Kroese is a results-driven commercial leader and general manager with over two decades of experience leading transformation, growth, and innovation across the transportation, logistics, and energy sectors. Known for her unique blend of analytical acumen and emotional intelligence, she has led cross-functional teams, managed a $1.3 billion P&L, and played pivotal roles in company integrations, business development, and strategic operations. Kroese currently serves as managing partner at Russell-Kroese Partners, where she leads strategic initiatives for clients across the transportation, logistics, and energy sectors. In this role, she partners with organizations to drive growth, operational transformation, and commercial innovation. In addition, she is a sustainability executive for Werner Enterprises, where she helps lead the strategy for reducing their carbon footprint and works closely with customers to help them achieve Scope 3 emission reduction goals. She also serves as a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Prior to this, she was AVP of sustainability and sales operations at Werner Enterprises, where she played a key role in advancing ESG initiatives, leading corporate reporting, and managing national sales operations. Kroese also spent nearly 24 years at Union Pacific Railroad, where she was instrumental in transforming the company’s commercial strategy. She was involved in a company-wide effort to improve the customer experience at UP, led the successful merger of all commercial subsidiaries and helped launch Loup Logistics, where she served as VP, spearheading the merger of four Union Pacific subsidiaries into a unified brand and strategy, managing multibillion-dollar portfolios and championing customer experience enhancements. After her distinguished railroading career, Kroese transitioned into academia, becoming a professor at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where she brought her real-world experience into the classroom, teaching both undergraduate and graduate supply chain courses in the College of Business. She’s now stepped into entrepreneurship as the managing partner of her own consulting firm, advising clients across industries while creating new opportunities to teach, mentor, and influence the future of supply chain leadership at the highest levels.
Megan Rudolph
Regional Senior Director of Parcel Operations, Saddle Creek Logistics Services
https://www.sclogistics.com
Category: Trailblazers
Megan Rudolph is regional senior director, parcel operations, at Saddle Creek Logistics Services, where she leads the company’s parcel strategy and parcel operations nationwide. Working with cross-functional groups across the company, she has helped to build and grow Saddle Creek’s parcel program, which now handles approximately 50 million parcel shipments annually. Rudolph maintains nearly 15 years of experience in parcel supply chain solutions, e-commerce distribution strategy, data analytics and strategic partnerships. She joined Saddle Creek as senior director, parcel operations in 2020, and assumed direction of the parcel team in 2022, developing the department through hypergrowth. She advanced to regional senior director in 2024. Previously, she held sales and solutions roles at Transportation Insight, DHL eCommerce and UPS, focusing on client success, custom solutions, data strategy and revenue management.
Rudolph has been instrumental in building out optionality and visibility for the company’s parcel program, developing a department road map to ensure the team prioritizes the right initiatives to support both corporate and client goals. She works closely with teams across the organization, including operations, sales and information systems; and over the past three years, has expanded the program, increasing the number of fulfillment clients that utilize Saddle Creek’s parcel services by 20% with just a 9% increase in headcount.
Recently, Rudolph leveraged changes in the carrier market to renegotiate contracts, resulting in significant savings, and over the past year, added additional parcel providers to further diversify the carrier mix. Under Rudolph’s direction, the parcel team recently implemented real-time tracking, which monitors Saddle Creek’s ability to deliver on customer experience.
Nermine Nabil Saad
Application Services Manager,
Tecsys Inc.
www.tecsys.com
Category: Trailblazers
Nermine Saad is a seasoned supply chain transformation leader with nearly 20 years of global experience spanning logistics, operations, demand planning, supplier performance and enterprise software implementation. She currently serves as application services manager for Tecsys, where she leads large-scale digital transformation initiatives for supply chain organizations across North America, and drives system integration projects that optimize end-to-end processes and elevate supply chain practitioner outcomes.
After launching her career in Egypt, Saad moved to Canada in 2010, where she restarted her career from scratch, working full-time while pursuing graduate studies in supply chain at McGill University. Her journey of reinvention culminated in a standout performance at the APICS Global Case Competition, where her team placed third globally. At Aldo Group, she led global demand planning efforts that significantly reduced forecast error, enhancing responsiveness and operational agility. At Bombardier Business Aircrafts, she played a key role in supplier performance and BOM forecasting for flagship programs such as the G7500 and G6500. Today, she directs full-cycle system rollouts that span supply chain execution, inventory management, warehouse operations, and more. Her work has helped large organizations modernize processes, integrate business systems, and unlock operational visibility. Beyond project delivery, Saad has introduced key innovations to Tecsys’ internal operations, developed a suite of process documentation tools that now underpin hiring, onboarding and training, and standardized knowledge sharing across teams to elevate the consistency and quality of service delivery.
Ruth Rojas
Platinum Application Specialist, Tecsys Inc.
www.tecsys.com
Category: Workforce Innovator
Ruth Rojas is a supply chain professional with more than 15 years of experience across logistics, software implementation, customer service, and warehouse operations. She’s worked across multiple industries and operational contexts, from automotive manufacturing and trading companies to highly regulated distribution environments. Over the last several years, she has played a leading role in implementing WMS for complex distribution and healthcare supply chain networks, often serving as the bridge between frontline operational teams and sophisticated supply chain technologies. Today, she serves as platinum application specialist for Tecsys, where she oversees operational assessments, solution design, training, quality assurance, and go-live support. One standout project involved implementing a WMS at a large distribution network in the healthcare industry where processes were fragmented and inefficiencies widespread. She spent time understanding operations on the ground, then guided the organization through a complete system reconfiguration that ultimately improved productivity, compliance, and order fulfillment rates. During the pandemic, she supported customers who were deeply concerned about transitioning to remote project work and achieving optimal operations without impacting their supply chain needs. Rojas guided them through those projects, helping them achieve success in a time of massive disruption.
Leilani Arendell
Chief Logistics Officer, TransPak
www.transpak.com
Category: Trailblazers
A seasoned supply chain expert with 30-plus years’ experience, Leilani Arendell’s broad experience in domestic and international transportation augments her in-depth understanding of industry trends, government regulations and process efficiency. Arendell launched TransPak’s logistics operation in 1998, and since then, has driven double-digit revenue growth each year. In addition, she manages TransPak’s warehousing operation. By earning a CCSF certification, she enabled multiple unique solutions for TransPak’s importers and exporters for their freight, general pick-and-pack operations and warehouse fulfillment. She travels to more than a dozen countries each year to understand the ever-changing demands of the supply chain. She’s also certified as a specialist in customs export and import procedures, and a specialist in TSA Air Cargo Screening and Training for physical, x-ray technology ETD systems.
Some of Arendell’s greatest opportunities came from doing things differently, whether it’s building freight solutions inside a crating company, proactively helping customers lower their overall spend to build long-term partnerships or the willingness to rethink the obvious that opens new doors. She sees her chief logistics officer role at TransPak as much larger than simply moving freight from Point A to Point B. By connecting the dots across global trade practices, freight forwarding, crating, and compliance, Arendell doesn’t just deliver shipments; she delivers smarter strategies that help customers thrive in an increasingly complicated world.
Katie Fowler
President & Founder, Unchained Value LLC
https://unchainedvalue.com
Category: Workforce Innovator
Katie Fowler is president and founder of Unchained Value, LLC, where she leads and facilitates complex transformations with a distinct focus on cultural change management. With over 15 years of experience in international operations, transformation and supply chain, she brings a deep understanding of what it takes to make a team, organization, and company both successful and agile.
Fowler possesses an extraordinary depth of expertise in supply chain management, organizational transformation, and change leadership. She weaves in experimental and practical instruction to her everyday practice to empower others. She will openly discuss concepts, approaches and problem solving, guiding you to solutions instead of pushing a single agenda. She’s been known to unite a room full of adversarial, cross-functional senior managers to identify and problem-solve together.
Renee Rasmussen-Spear
General Manager, UNFI
www.unfi.com
Category: Trailblazers
Renee Rasmussen-Spear has served as the general manager for UNFI since 2018, where she owns the entire Green Bay, Wis., operation with an operating budget of $25 million, over $670 million in sales and over 120 associates. Under her leadership, the Green Bay facility continues to operate under 4% operation expense. She also operates one of the company’s safest distribution centers, with offshore infrastructure regulator under 3 and lost time injury under 1.6. Retail credits consist of short on loads is -.03% on a plan of -.06% of sales; mispicks are -.01% on a plan of -.05%; and operations out of stocks are -.05% on a plan of -.40%. Warehouse and retail damage is -.04% vs. plan of -.06%, exceeding year-over-year damage by .01% as well. And, associate turnover is currently 34% favorable to last year at this time, coming in at 26.8% on a goal of 61.2%.
Rasmussen-Spear’s career began with Supervalu, Pleasant Prairie, Wis., in 1991, and moved over to UNFI upon the acquisition. Over her 34-plus-years-career, Rasmussen-Spear has held various positions of increased responsibility in logistics, transportation, warehousing and more.
Taiz Cardona
Senior Learning Partner, UNFI
www.unfi.com
Category: Workforce Innovator
Taiz Cardona is a senior learning partner on UNFI’s learning and development team at UNFI. She joined UNFI in June 2021 as one of the first three supervisors hired for the startup of both the dry and perishable buildings in Allentown, Pa., where she was responsible for selection, loading, staffing, and supporting the training department. Currently, she’s working on creating/designing daily task sheets to better align supervisors’ responsibilities and drive efficiencies and operational optimization. In the past 12 months, Cardona has made significant impacts to the organization, including the Bill of Lading process, where through a series of learnings and training events, she worked to help save the organization an estimated $80 million. She also participated in the inaugural Change Trailblazer program, where she leveraged her knowledge, skills, leadership, and training abilities to ensure every member of the team grasped the intricacies of the transition through her comprehensive presentation.
Cardona got her start in distribution and supply chain in April 2016, working as a warehouse clerk dropping orders, balancing selection work, and ensuring volume distribution. Within 3 months of her first role, she was selected to be in the inaugural Supervisor Development program and was quickly promoted to supervisor. During this time, she began running her distribution center’s training department and oversaw 15 local trainers for selection and all material handling and equipment requirements and certifications.
Kalene Lee
National Transportation Manager, UNFI
www.unfi.com
Category: Rising Stars
Kalene Lee is a results-driven supply chain leader with over 16 years of experience improving operations and leading teams in the consumer packaged goods and retail industries. At UNFI Canada, she serves as manager, national transportation analytics and reporting, where she supports teams across the country with data-driven insights to improve delivery performance, reduce costs, and solve logistics challenges. Lee has helped implement national systems like Roadnet and Peoplenet, automated processes to drive savings, and partnered across departments to align efforts and deliver results. She’s also led Lean Six Sigma projects, mentored large teams, and worked to create more efficient and engaged workplaces.
One of her greatest achievements entail the GE/GC transportation improvement project, where she evaluates and improves processes to improve customer on-time delivery and bottom-line results, resulting in $300,000 in unbudgeted savings. Another accomplishment was the GW freight cost review, where she worked with the U.S. freight team to reroute and review GW freight, resulting in a 3% reduction of cost of total inhouse trucking fleet.
Saxon McBride
Director, Operations, Zero Down Supply Chain Solutions
www.zdscs.com
Category: Rising Stars
Saxon McBride joined Zero Down Supply Chain Solutions straight out of high school, balancing full-time work with college courses while gaining hands-on experience in logistics tech. Now as director of operations, she pioneers automation solutions that transform back-office operations. Over the past year, she led the development of robotic process automation (RPA) bots to streamline and automate filing claims, loading carrier agreements, invoice validation, and contract uploads. She also overhauled the parcel claims process, a previously manual and inconsistent workflow that is now standardized and automated, and launched the company’s Negotiations Module, a tool that equips shippers with the ability to manage and renegotiate carrier agreements more strategically.
Congratulations to all of this year's winners. CLICK HERE to meet all of the winners.
This series would not be possible without the collaboration and partnership between Food Logistics, Supply & Demand Chain Executive and the Women in Supply Chain Forum with Let's Talk Supply Chain and Blended Pledge. This partnership celebrates the transformative impact women leaders have on the supply chain industry, driving innovation, resilience, and inclusivity. These awards shine a spotlight on trailblazers who are breaking barriers and shaping the future of supply chain management. And the Forum fosters meaningful conversations, networking, and collaboration to empower the next generation of leaders. By recognizing and amplifying these achievements, this initiative inspires progress across the industry. Join us in celebrating these extraordinary women and championing diversity—nominate a leader, attend the forum, and be part of this powerful movement shaping the future of supply chains.
