Lamar Chesney is a respected leader in business and procurement transformations.  He is a seasoned supply chain management, financial, strategy and operations professional with over four decades of diversified business experience as a senior executive.  He has held a variety of  C-Level executive positions during a career that spans eleven companies in eight industries, including senior executive positions with well-known entities such as Delta Air Lines, Coca-Cola Enterprises, The Coca-Cola Company, Marsh & McLennan and SunTrust Banks.  Lamar is a dynamic, systemic-minded leader with a strong track record of building highly capable organizations and leading challenging business transformations.  He has worked as a senior leader to preclude a company from economic failure, led business and organizational readiness for an entity emerging from bankruptcy and spearheaded a key operational and financial transformation in a major international conglomerate. Lamar is a Magna Cum Laude Business Graduate from the University of Tennessee.  He is an Executive-in-Residence at the Goizueta Graduate Business School at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia and is a member of the Advisory Board for The Center for Leadership Development at the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.  Lamar has been the recipient of several recognitions including most recently the 2010 Next Practices Innovator Award from The MPower Group and the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award from Ariba.

Ramsay Chu is the head of Procurement for Rio Tinto where he is supported by a team of people based at Rio Tinto sites or regional offices across the world. He is an energetic leader with many years’ experience in developing and implementing best-in-class supply chain solutions.

Ramsay joined Rio Tinto in 2012 and has played a significant role in driving change within the organisation. He is responsible for implementing sourcing strategies and executing supply agreements for the Rio Tinto Group businesses. In addition, he leads a shared services team supporting all buying, inbound logistics, working capital reduction and warehouse management operations. He is supported by a team of over 1500 people based at Rio Tinto sites across the world and regional office hubs on five continents. He is based in Salt Lake City, USA.

Randall C. Clark is a Sr. Strategic Buyer, Indirect Products & Services; Segment Owner – Operating Fluids for Volvo Group Non-Automotive Purchasing (NAP).  His role is to create the procurement strategy for MRO and Packaging products and services required by the brands of Volvo Group worldwide.  He has over 15 years of manufacturing experience focused on reducing cost, increasing revenue and streamlining operations through the procurement strategy.  Cost containment, supplier rationalization and revenue enhancement are areas that he has contributed to several industries with strategic initiatives on a global basis. He has served on Volvo Group NAP steering committees to develop the Strategic Sourcing Process and the Project Management Process.  One of his core values states that every meeting with a supplier is a negotiation.  Our job in procurement is to understand the market so we can establish a fair profit margin and mutually beneficial business relationship for both buyer and seller. Randall is a graduate of Tennessee Tech University with a B.S. degree.  He earned his MBA degree from Elon University.

A former refugee from Uganda, Derreck came to the USA in search of a new life. He is the founder of the Global Soap Project, an innovative NGO that takes partially used bars of soap from Hotels and makes brand new soap which is distributed today in over thirty four countries around the world. He earned his graduate degree from Tufts University in Law and Diplomacy at the Fletcher School. What makes Derreck's story special is its simplicity yet fraught with innovation and gumption.

American hotels throw away 800 million bars of soap each year which amounts to 2.6 million bars each day! In juxtaposition there are two million kids that die each year due to poor sanitation and hygiene. Derreck saw an opportunity in the aforementioned stats and sought to help mitigate this problem by figuring out our to recycle soap. During his powerful presentation you will learn how he came from being a refugee to building one of the most effective health conscious organizations in the world today. Each year his organization the Global Soap Project makes over a million bars of soap which they give away to vulnerable groups round the world. Derreck is a firm believer in innovation found in small ideas which conquer giant problems. He is an incredible speaker and comes to our conference with an unmatched passion for both business principles and social entrepreneurship. Oh and get ready for a surprise at the end of his speech!!

Joanna has a wealth of supply chain executive experience across consumer products, pharmaceutical and financial services businesses, especially focusing on driving cost reductions in non traditional spend areas and creating improvements across the entire supply chain. She joined Cushman & Wakefield as Executive MD and CPO in 2009 where she built a global procurement strategy and platform in collaboration with corporate, client and facilities management teams. Previously, she was SVP & CPO at AllianceBernstein for six years where she developed and implemented global strategic sourcing and supply chain management practices, including the establishment of European and Asian sourcing programs. She’s also held Executive procurement and SCM roles at Diageo, International Distillers and Vintners and Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products.

Chris Sandford is a dynamic and enthusiastic Purchasing Director with over 15 years’ experience from the automotive industry within Volvo Car Group (based in Sweden). He is highly skilled and competent in leading transformations and has proven change management skills resulting in major improvements in each business unit he has lead. His areas of expertise within Purchasing include leading key purchasing and sourcing initiatives, savings plans and general business reporting. Cost management, business analytics, supplier choice and supplier strategy, negotiations and project management are all part of his teams deliverables.

Chris has a Bachelor Degree from Edinburgh University in Business Management as well as being certified as a 6-Sigma Black Belt, PMI and recently completed a Mini MBA in Procurement.

Luz Aragon has over seventeen years of procurement experience.  Upon accepting a role with Mars, Inc. over ten years, Luz was introduced to  the complex world of indirect procurement, where she found her true passion.  She has worked for companies such as ConAgra Foods and Cargill, Inc., where she held various roles, including Director of Strategic Sourcing, being directly responsible for over $1.5B in spend.  While versed in all indirect categories, Luz's expertise is in services categories where she has delivered innovative solutions and is recognized as an industry expert in areas such as integrated facility management (IFM), professional, consulting, and trade services.
Luz  recently joined Leprino Foods in Denver, CO,  where she is actively working on building the Indirect Procurement organization from the ground up, developing best practices, and elevating the Procurement brand across the organization.

Charles Bacharach is responsible for managing and directing the new client acquisition activities for Orbitz for Business. He manages the core sales team and oversees all new business development activities across this division. Charles has been with Orbitz for Business since 2005, where he has held a variety of sales management positions.

Prior to joining Orbitz, Charles served in a number of executive and sales management positions in the information technology industry for companies such as Gartner Group, Giga Information Group (since acquired by Forrester), Ideas International, WatchIt.com and Unisys.

Sarthak Brahma, Vice President, leads the Pricing Assurance service line. He serves our clients in decision making on outsourced spend management. Sarthak has led multiple buyer engagements including sourcing portfolio rationalization, service provier bid evaluation, and pricing and contracts benchmarking. He has also worked with leading providers to optimize their cost-based pricing mechanisms, to support their market-entry pricing strategies, and to validate alternate pricing structures.

Prior to joining Everest Group, Sarthak was a Management Consultant with Ernst & Young, engaging in revenue assurance, supply chain optimization, and market-entry strategies for telecom, manufacturing, and FMCG companies. He also worked extensively in Europe and North America as a Senior Consultant at SunTec Business Solutions, a telecom and finance billing solutions provider, to commercialize billing products within leading banks and telecom providers. He holds an MBA from Symbiosis, Pune, and a Bachelor of Engineering from R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore.

Quave Burton is a Vice President of Global Expense Management at Abercrombie & Fitch. She is responsible for supporting the global transformation of A&F’s indirect services expense, through the use of strategic sourcing practices, while driving sustained performance improvement and cost savings opportunities.  With her knowledge of and experience in procurement, supply chain and operations, and her enthusiasm for driving both client impact and bottom-line results, Quave leads efforts to develop, implement and align procurement strategies, supplier network capabilities and strengthen online sourcing process to maximize financial impact.

Phil has over 20 years of experience in the design, administration, risk and financial management, and governance and compliance of compensation and employee benefit programs for large Fortune 500 companies. Currently, in his role with Equifax, he is responsible for designing rewards programs, processes, products & services that enable and reinforce business strategies, objectives & tactics. Prior to joining Equifax in 2003, Phil worked as an employee benefits consultant for Mercer, Ernst & Young and Coopers and Lybrand. 

Phil is a CPA, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from University of Florida, and a Masters in Tax from Georgia State University.

Ken Chan is the Chief Procurement Officer of Asplundh Tree Expert Co., U.S.'s largest firm in utility clearance. With 86 years of history and operations across US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, Asplundh is a $3.5B+ private company with 35,000+ employees providing vegetation and construction services to the utility industry and municipal government.

Ken is a seasoned executive with 20 years of global consulting and industry experience. He has a proven track record of leading teams to deliver bottom-line savings and operational excellence to multibillions-dollar companies. Prior to Asplundh, Ken worked for Deloitte Consulting and PWC’s PRTM Management Consulting. His previous clients included Fortune 500 and private equites such as GE, Boeing, GM, Chrysler, Caterpillar, Motorola, Onex, TPG, Carlyle etc. As a hands-on leader with superior change management ability, excellent problem solving aptitude, and strong collaboration skills, Ken has led many successful projects such as strategic sourcing, procurement transformation, value engineering, and lean manufacturing. He has a deep understanding of conducting international business from living and working in US, Asia, and Europe. He speaks and writes fluent English and Chinese.

Ken recently spoke at ISM (Institute for Supply Management) 98th annual conference and Consero Procurement and Strategic Sourcing Forum. He was interviewed and featured by Supply Chain World magazine. He is also a member of the ISM Report On Business® Survey Committee. He holds an MBA from University of Michigan Ann Arbor with highest distinction. In addition, he earned an Electrical Engineering degree with honors from the University of Hong Kong and a Management degree with honors from the University of London.

Mike is a supply chain and procurement executive with broad based consulting experience who started his career as an Army Infantry Officer.  Now leading True Value’s Indirect Strategic Sourcing group, Mike got his start in procurement as a consultant for A.T. Kearney and later AlixPartners, where his work focused on operations and costs through strategic sourcing.  Mike started the Strategic Sourcing group at True Value in 2014 and is now covering all functions throughout the organization as his team building is nearly complete.  When not at work Mike enjoys Detroit sports and traveling.

A supply chain professional with over 28 years of experience in the Tobacco, Plastics, Food and Pharmaceutical Industries. Responsibility for $1.8 billion in spend across the RAI operating companies, includes direct, indirect and capital procurement. Directs teams in Memphis TN, Oxford NC, Santa Fe NM, as well as centralized indirect and direct groups in Winston-Salem NC.

Nicky Dilsworth-Floyd is a Senior Manager for the IT and Online procurement team at Sears Holdings with over 20 years’ experience in strategic sourcing.  Since joining Sears Holdings in 2006, Nicky has held increasing roles within the non-merchandising procurement teams across various strategic spend categories such as Supplies, Marketing, and IT & Online. 

In her current role, Nicky manages the Software and SaaS procurement team for IT and Online.  This team is responsible for sourcing and negotiating a variety of both traditional software and service license arrangements and SaaS solutions, with a spend of approximately $540MM.   

Nicky holds a BS in Business Management from National-Louis University and a Master of Project Management from Keller Graduate School of Management.  She obtained her CPSM in 2013 and PMP in 2014. 

In his role as Senior Vice President of Business Development, Lyle works with procurement organizations of all sizes and maturity levels, primarily in the United States & Canada, but has also been fortunate enough to work with procurement in the UK and Africa. He was instrumental during the startup and creation of IBISWorld’s Procurement Research Division and, like you, is happy to sit and talk about procurement’s challenges and find creative ways to be more efficient. He serves as a member of IBISWorld’s executive management team and overseas business development as well as manages the company’s partnerships with major organizations. Lyle joined IBISWorld in London back in 2010 and has held various management positions at many of their offices around the world.

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2, SPSM3 is President and Chief Procurement Officer of the Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA).  He has authored most of the NLPA’s online courses and is the mastermind behind the prestigious Senior Professional in Supply Management (SPSM) family of certifications, earned in over 90 countries.

Charles is co-author of the book, “The Procurement Game Plan:  Winning Strategies and Techniques for Supply Management Professionals.”  His articles and interviews have been included in countless supply chain publications.  Charles’ clients have had their post-training success stories featured in multiple magazines, including two cover stories in Supply & Demand Chain Executive.

Charles has led the NLPA to the Pittsburgh Airport Area Chamber of Commerce’s Innovative Business of the Year Award in 2006, the Better Business Bureau of Western Pennsylvania’s Torch Award for marketplace ethics in 2011, and the Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100 award for eight consecutive years.  He was named one of Supply & Demand Chain Executive’s “Pros To Know” seven times.

Before founding Next Level Purchasing in 2000, Charles delivered great procurement results as an employee of the Kurt J. Lesker Company, US Airways, and the University of Pittsburgh.  He holds the SPSM, SPSM2 and SPSM3 Certifications and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Duquesne University.  Charles is frequently recruited to deliver educational seminars throughout the US and beyond.

Carlos D. Dones is Current Head of Global Indirect Sourcing and Procurement for Applied Materials, Inc.

Mr. Dones has over 19 years of experience in Lean Manufacturing Operation, Engineering, and Supply-Chain Management (SCM), both tactical and strategic SCM for both direct and indirect sourcing organizations. His prior experience also includes positions within the retail, agriculture, construction, logistics, and the non-profit industry.

Mr. Dones is currently the Head of Global Indirect Sourcing and Procurement for Applied Materials, Inc. Prior to his current role he led all Indirect Sourcing Categories and Commodity Management for Large bed Machining, Contract Manufacturing, Build to Print, OEM, and After Market Seals; where he was responsible for running numerous successful global teams.

Mr. Dones has his BSEET from DeVry Institute of Technology, MBA from University of Phoenix, Master in Project Management (MPM) for New Business & New Product Development from Keller Graduate School of Management Project Management Institute (PMI) Registered Education Provider and his Executive Education Institute for Managerial Leadership (IML) certification from University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business. He is also a Harvard Business School trained Vantage negotiator
 

Matthew Elliott is the Director of Resource Capacity Management for IT at Dignity Health, the fifth largest health system in the United States. In his role he is responsible for delivering to the IT organization a complete picture of the nearly 2,000 person IT organizations’ resource needs required to meet the project and operations demand, identifying gaps in capability and working with leadership to address those gaps. As part of this responsibility Matthew oversees the ‘best-in class’ Managed Service Provided (Bartech)/ Vendor Management System (Fieldglass) program, managing the identification, engagement, payment and on/off-boarding of the 400+ professional service contractors engaged by IT. In the last financial year, this program managed nearly $70M in spend and realized $2.8M in savings.

Karon joined HID Global in April 2012.   Her mission was supply chain transformation.   She has set up and led global teams in companies such as Western Digital, AMCC, Powerwave and SolFocus.   At HID, she is responsible for both direct and indirect material spend of over $500M and serves on the Global Supply Chain Steering Committee for HID’s Swedish parent company – Assa Abloy.   Karon brings over 20 years of Supply Chain experience.   The bulk of her experience has been in the High Tech industry sector working with leading edge technologies.  This required her to meet demanding challenges in sourcing not only materials but technology and service providers.  
The challenges at HID for indirect sourcing are many and varied.   Multiple global sites, growth through rapid acquisitions and cultural nuances make indirect sourcing can raise barriers which require perseverance to remove.    How does one leverage all available resources to capitalize on all areas of indirect spend.  Do you hire category managers for every category?   How do you handle regional vs global spend and gain efficiencies that drop directly to the bottom line?    Does one size fit all?  Can an Indirect Sourcing manager navigate the minefield of tsunamis that come from driving change in process, preferred suppliers and tools?  How do you start when there’s no real foundation?

Karon will address the above issues and how she gained traction in an organization that is culturally averse to change and where indirect sourcing is a new frontier.

Patrick Fogarty, CEO Americas is the leader of Charterhouse’s business across the US and has full responsibility for all aspects of the business including sales, operations, human resources, marketing, information technology and finance.  Patrick is a member of Charterhouse’s Board and reports directly to Gary Mahoney, Group CEO.

Prior to joining Charterhouse, Patrick was the global leader for Pitney Bowes Management Services’ Marketing Lifecycle Solutions (MLS) business, Customer Communications Management (CCM) solutions platform and the Commercial Sector across the US which included a diverse client base of over 450 clients and $480M in annual revenues.  These solutions leveraged predictive analytics and supply chain efficiencies to enable businesses to communicate more effectively with their customers through multi-channel marketing including print.

Prior to joining Pitney Bowes, Patrick was National Vice President, Enterprise Sales and Solutions at Williams Lea, a $2B global marketing services organization.  Patrick also held senior sales and
leadership positions at Bowne Business Solutions, R.R. Donnelley Enterprise Solutions, and Eastman Kodak.

Patrick earned a J.D. from St. John’s University and a B.A. from Fairfield University.  Patrick is a member of the New York and Connecticut state bars.

Sarika Garg is vice president of product marketing at Tradeshift, an innovative SAAS company that helps global 2000 companies to simplify their supplier interactions with a platform built for business-to-business collaboration.  Prior to this she was responsible for Ariba Business Network sell-side platform that enabled $750B spend of companies with over 1.5M sellers. Sarika has over 14+ years of experience in enterprise software and also held key roles at SAP and SuccessFactors. She has lived and worked in North America and Europe, and spent many years across Africa and India. 

Ron Gregorsok is currently the Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer for Luxottica North America Indirect Procurement.  He is responsible for all indirect sourcing activities in the region, leading the Indirect Procurement teams which support the Lenscrafters, Sunglass Hut, Oakley, EyeMed, Target Optical, Sears Optical, Pearle Vision, Ilori, Optical Shops of Aspen, and Luxottica U.S. Wholesale divisions.  His teams are tasked with sourcing all  Marketing & Media, Store Design & Construction, IT & Telecom, and G&A categories.  Ron also leads the Procurement Operations team and the Supplier Diversity program for Luxottica North America.

Ron graduated from the University of Dayton in Mechanical Engineering prior to serving as an Officer in the U.S. Army, achieving the rank of Captain.  Over his career he has spent time in the fire protection, aerospace, automotive, healthcare, insurance, and retail industries.  Most recently, he spent over 11 years in Procurement leadership roles at Johnson & Johnson prior to joining Luxottica.  He is an avid aerobatic pilot and automotive enthusiast who loves spending time with his family, flying large scale radio control aircraft, and auto racing.

Brett Healy is Director of Global Procurement for Capsugel, a global innovator of dosage solutions for the healthcare industry. She joined Capsugel in 2012 and focuses on indirect procurement for the company’s manufacturing and R&D facilities around the world.  Prior to joining Capsugel, Brett held various procurement leadership roles during a 12-year career with Ingersoll Rand.  She earned an MBA from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and a BS in Business Administration/Supply Chain from Lehigh University.

David has led world-wide sourcing, procurement, and supplier management organizations for over 20 years, both in direct materials and indirect categories. 

Today David leads the Indirect Supplier Management organization at Juniper Networks, managing $1B in spend with a team in the US and India.  This organization has implemented the industry leading SaaS eProcurement system Coupa across 9000 employees in 47 countries and returned over 8% in bottom line cost savings.

He led both direct and indirect organizations at Sun Microsystems, and also was the Director of Product Marketing for eProcurement software at Sun Microsystems.  He was often externally focused with customers, press, and industry experts.  The indirect organization at Sun managed $2B in spending and encompassed 60 people spread across 13 countries.

At Kaiser Permanente, David led both the IT and Facilities Sourcing organizations, managing $3B in spend.

Sy Henderson is an up and coming Procurement Executive who has worked for leading CPG companies like Procter & Gamble, Mars Inc., and now Mondelēz International in various capacities which include designing and leading global teams, building new regional procurement organizations, and designing and implementing capability programs focused on advanced supplier relationship management and advanced sourcing strategy development.

In his current role, Sy is responsible for developing and executing strategic programs which drive productivity, business continuity, cash conversion, and innovation for Mondelez’ s $5.5B NA Biscuit Category.  He is also an active member of Mondelez’ s Global Transformation team which is focused on delivering best in class performance through global organization design, capability building, and talent development.

On a personal note, Sy enjoys international travel and community service.  A former active member of Portland’s New Generations Rotary Club,  Sy has done humanitarian work in Guatemala and most recently in Tanzania where he helped build schools in a Maasai Village through the Red Sweater Project.   He is looking to get more involved in local (NYC area) or international community service organizations so if you have any suggestions, please let him know.

Tracy Joshua joined Kellogg in 2014 as the Vice President, Procurement Indirect.  In this role, Tracy is a member of the North America leadership team and she is responsible for leading Strategic Sourcing efforts as well as procuring indirect goods and services estimated at $3Billion.      

Prior to joining Kellogg, Tracy was appointed to serve as the Chief Procurement and Logistics Officer for Detroit Public Schools (DPS) where she led and implemented turnaround strategies with a focus on strategic sourcing, supply chain, inventory management, quality, supplier relationship management and scorecard metrics aligned with State and Federal regulations. During Tracy’s leadership, the Procurement organization delivered first-time cost savings -- while under emergency management – as well as improved quality, procurement, logistics and inventory processes while increasing service delivery.  DPS was removed from high-risk status by the US Government and the State of Michigan during Tracy’s tenure prior to her start at Kellogg’s. 

Before being named to DPS, Joshua served as an Executive Director with Bristol - Myers Squibb where she led Corporate Goods and Services and Ford Motor Company where she led the Global Business and Strategy Organization launching turnaround strategies while leveraging global purchases and building strategic relationships with world class suppliers.  In addition, she led direct and indirect sourcing organizations including supplier diversity activities. 

From 1989 to 1999, she led several supply chain operations at General Motors including Purchasing (both direct and indirect), Logistics, Operations and Lean Manufacturing.  In addition, she has also led several start-up operations in Europe, China and South America that delivered global, strategic and innovative solutions.

Joshua is a graduate of Michigan State University where she completed both her bachelors and masters degrees in Supply Chain and Education, Organizational Development and Labor Relations respectively. Joshua holds a second Masters from Georgia Tech University in Industrial Engineering with an emphasis on International Supply Chains. She completed her Doctorate of Management in Executive Leadership (DMEL) degree from Walsh College.  She is also a graduate of the Executive Development Program at Thunderbird International School of Management. She received in depth training in Quality/Statistical Process Control with personal tutoring from W. Edwards Deming and completed internships studying the Toyota Production System with certifications in lean office, lean manufacturing as well as Six Sigma. As a leader, she was selected and trained by General Motors as a “Consulting Pair” diversity coach. 

While she is a proud native of Detroit, Michigan, she and her husband now reside in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Chris Kelley manages the global contingent workforce program, at Salesforce.com. Previously, Chris held program management positions at Kaiser Permanente and CVS Caremark. He is a Certified Contingent Workforce Professional (CCWP) through Staffing Industry Analysts and holds a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Bryant University.

Jon Kesman is the Global Procurement Director for Professional Services and Labour within the Global Procurement Organization at RELX Group.  In this role, Jon is responsible for developing and delivering category and spend management strategies across the categories of Consulting, HR and Legal Services, Contingent Labour, and Independent Contractors.  These strategies focus on delivering cost savings, visibility and insight, risk mitigation, process efficiencies and compliance to regulations and laws governing the management of non-employee resources.

Jon holds a B.A. in Purchasing and Operations Management from Michigan State University and resides in suburban Detroit.

Christian Lanng is the CEO, Co-founder and Chairman of Tradeshift, a platform for all business interactions. Tradeshift helps companies run more efficiently, creating new value from old processes like invoicing, payments and workflow.

Christian has been an entrepreneur since he was 19, his first company involved first generation mobile browsers and e-commerce solutions. He then co-founded EasyTrade, built and designed for the Danish Government, as the world's first open-source peer-to-peer platform for trade.

Christian then served as Head of Division for the IT-infrastructure Division for the Danish Government, managing projects within open data and open source, health-care and supply chain. Christian was instrumental in launching PEPPOL the European Unions, open infrastructure for cross-border e-business.

Christian is the recipient of several industry awards; Techcrunch award for most innovative business start-up, Top 100 Talent under 30 in Denmark, the Danish IT & Finance Industry’s award for Innovation. Christian holds a B.A in Sociology from Aalborg Universitet. Christian currently serves as young advisor to the VP of the European Union Neelie Kroes.

Rudy Lim offers a unique set of strategic sourcing and corporate procurement experience from several successful public companies like PACCAR, CB Richard Ellis, Flow International, and TRANE. Now at Colliers International, Rudy heads the ground-up development of Colliers' global corporate procurement infrastructure, provide stewardship to optimize vendors' service delivery and reduce total cost footprint in various operating spend categories. Rudy has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Washington and a Masters in Business Administration froM U.C. Berkeley.

Erik Manuevo is the Vice President of Solutions at Upwork (formerly Elance-oDesk), the world’s largest online workplace, where he leads client success and service delivery for our enterprise customers. Prior to joining Upwork, he was the Head of Products for predictive analytics startup Aviso, Inc. (formerly Gnana, Inc.), and previously founded and led the Product Intelligence and Operations function at Salesforce.com. He has also held a variety of leadership roles across finance, strategy and sales operations and served as a Board Director for Hyphen, an Asian-American media non-profit organization.

Erik holds a Bachelor of Science from Saint Mary’s College.

Nancy Murray has worked in the strategic sourcing and procurement field for over 15 years. She started her career in financial services supporting the global travel team in the RFP process for a global agency. With that success, she and her team sourced other travel categories including ground transportation, airlines and hotels with savings of $12.5M.  In 2011, Nancy accepted the position of Vice President, Strategic Sourcing & Procurement at IMG encompassing the procurement and operational management of the global travel and expense management programs as well as supporting Corporate Services, IT/ Telecom and HR categories. To date IMG has realized upward of $15M in savings. Nancy is currently an “empty-nester” living in New Jersey with her husband, David and dog, Baxter.

Barry Norton is a Director of Strategic Sourcing at Equifax. He is responsible for supporting the global spend optimization efforts with 3rd party vendors, specifically focusing in Human Resources, Legal, and Marketing spend categories while driving sustained performance improvement and cost savings opportunities.  With his knowledge of and experience in procurement, sourcing, supply chain and operations, coupled with his enthusiasm for driving both client impact and quantifying bottom-line results, Barry leads efforts to develop, implement and align procurement/sourcing strategies, supplier network capabilities and strengthen online sourcing process to maximize financial impact.

Mariela is a Group Director at Albertson’s /Safeway one of the largest food and drug retailers in North America. She leads the Indirect Strategic Sourcing Department as well as the Corporate Merchandising Sourcing Solutions team. She is a sourcing professional with over 20-years of experience in the Retail Industry and has worked in other corporations such as Target and Guess? Mexico.

She has served on several non-profit boards and today she is the Treasurer of the Education Fund of her local elementary. Some of the prior boards she served on are: the National Society of Hispanic MBA’s, the Bay Area Latino Network, a network of Corporations’ Affinity Boards, and  the Hispanic Advisory Board of Big Brothers Big Sisters

Mariela Oetinger was born and raised in Mexico. She holds a BA in Textile Design and an MBA in Finance from Philadelphia University. She is the mother of beautiful nine year old Maria and four year old Rebecca. Her hobbies include traveling, reading, volunteering and enjoying life.

Stephen is a respected leader in procurement and process improvement.  As part of Anthem’s Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) strategic sourcing team, he focuses on developing and managing the category strategies for strategic sourcing and growing relationships into trusted partnerships. In the past year, He has worked on projects related to finance & accounting, facilities management, print/document services, claims administration, and operational improvement. In addition, He founded the procurement process center of excellence and leads the operational efficiency team investigating our current operating model for continuous improvements.  Stephen earned his master’s degree in Supply Chain Management at the University of San Diego, graduating at the top of his class.  He also holds two undergraduate degrees in Finance and Logistics & Supply chain management from the University of Maryland.  In his spare time, he teaches graduate level business courses as an Adjunct Professor for Brandman University.

As Vice President, Strategy and Market Development, Gabe Perez draws on his experience in sales, implementation and solutions consulting to develop go-to-market strategies across Coupa's solutions portfolio. He is also responsible for emerging market development and analyst relations, evangelizing for Coupa across the globe.
Gabe has deep knowledge of Coupa’s products and the customer consideration process, and he combines the two to speak directly, authentically and compellingly to their needs and concerns as they make what for many is a bold decision—purchasing cloud software from a relative newcomer to the enterprise space. He is a futuristic thinker willing to challenge the status quo, and skilled at emboldening others to do the same. He is good at rooting out the hidden assumptions and unstated fears that prevent organizations from moving forward with positive change.
Gabe is well positioned to help people see the bigger picture of how Software-as-a-Service is changing the way companies do business and how Coupa fits into that picture. It is not simply a replacement for current software. Like many software upstarts, it helps companies address areas of inefficiency that legacy software has left untouched.
Gabe has been at Coupa for more than 5 years. He has held a many roles, from being a project manager to running our presales team globally, prior to that he worked at Ariba where he participated in many global rollouts of their software.

Ken Rasmussen works as the Director of Professional Services at BROWZ. Ken has worked with BROWZ for 5 years and has implemented contractor qualification programs for numerous Fortune 500 companies in an effort to mitigate risk and improve company supply chain objectives.

Ken has extensive experience working with diverse industries including: mining, manufacturing, energy and utilities, construction, and transportation. His 20 + years’ experience in the technology and service provider industry gives him a deep understanding of how to best service a diverse set of clients with the highest level of service.

Daeon Richardson is Senior Vice President, Global Procurement at Northern Trust Corporation. She is a global procurement Executive with over 20 years of experience. A strategic visionary with progressive experience delivering results in global sourcing, marketing and consumer research; and entreprenuership. She has a proven track record of leading teams to deliver bottom-line results, building procurement capabilities and operational excellence to multibillion-dollar companies. Prior to Northern Trust, Daeon worked for Procter and Gamble, The Clorox Company and Kraft Foods/Mondelez International. As a strong strategic leader she has designed world class, processes, methodologies and capabilities, and led many successful procurement transformation and continuous improvement programs. She is also co-founder and co-owner of All Things Protein, LLC.

Daeon was recently a featured speaker a Michigan State University’s Alumni LENS. Her work was recognized and shortlisted in 2014 at the Supply Management Awards in London, England for Best People Development. She has also won many other Functional Excellence and Cost Savings Awards. She holds a BA in Materials and Logistics/Supply Chain Management from Michigan State University, Eli Broad College of Business; with a minor in Spanish language, history and culture. She also holds certifications from - Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia - Denia, Spain for Spanish language, The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Professionals - MCIPS, Toastmasters - CTM and a license in Associate Ministry, with missionary experience in Africa.

Joseph Richardson is an International Supply Chain Management Executive with demonstrated leadership in designing, developing and implementing effective sourcing, supply chain and procurement strategies (direct and indirect) that address global business issues.  His international experience, with a variety of companies, helped him to recognize the political, cultural and technical challenges that affect relationships, internally, externally and internationally. He is a visionary who integrates theory and practice in creating and executing innovative approaches and methods to accomplish complex business objectives.   He is considered an International Subject Matter Expert (SME) in Supply Chain and Organizational Behavior.  Joseph has received numerous awards for his professional services.

John is a Supply Chain executive with over 20 years of experience in the Healthcare industry, including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, nutritionals, and consumer health segments.  He is currently Director of Procurement Sustainability at Johnson & Johnson, where he leads supply chain transparency, supplier sustainability, and risk management teams, including the end-to-end Conflict Minerals compliance process.

Prior to his current position, John was a Category Leader in the Global Procurement group, a role that he helped design as part of J&J’s transformation to an enterprise-wide Category management structure.  In this capacity, he worked across J&J operating companies to devise and execute procurement strategies for key components and raw materials that resulted in consistently high quality, value, and innovation from world-class suppliers, including a focus on a diverse supply base.

Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, John held various leadership roles with Bristol-Myers Squibb in the areas of Procurement, Strategic Sourcing, technology transfer, and R&D.

John earned undergraduate degrees in Metallurgical Engineering and in Mathematics from Colorado School of Mines, his M.S. Metallurgy from the University of Utah, and his MBA from the Rutgers Executive Program.

Dr. Marc Ruzicka received his PhD in “Supply Chain Management” from Arizona State University where he published the seminal research on the strategic use of Electronic Reverse Auctions and other E-Procurement Tools.

After years of designing and optimizing robust, global Supply Chains with corporations that have included Ford Motor Company and General Dynamics, Marc is now focusing on elevating the strategic effectiveness of the Indirect Procurement categories at Farmers Insurance.  Current, global initiatives include driving the performance of Contingent Workforce Management (CWM) through people, processes, and technology to mitigate risk and provide cost-effective/flexible talent levels to meet Farmers’ future business needs. Marc has earned the Certified Purchasing Manager (C.P.M.) certification, the Certification in Production & Inventory Management (CPIM), and is a practicing Yellow Belt.  He received a Bachelor of Arts from Michigan State University, majoring in Materials & Logistics Management, and an MBA from the University of Notre Dame.
 
In his free time, Marc volunteers to provide solutions to the Supply Chain challenges of non-profit organizations.

Phil Sampona currently works at FMC Corporation with his office located at its headquarters in Philadelphia, PA. 
Phil’s current title is the Global Category Senior Manager of Professional Services.  Within this role he is responsible for managing indirect spend categories on a global basis which includes (but is not limited to) advertising, marketing, travel, fleet, HR, real estate, facilities, communications, IT, translation services, market research, and consulting (across all corporate functions and business units).

Prior to FMC, Phil worked for Teva Pharmaceuticals, Dechert LLP, and Bristol-Myers Squibb in a variety of global procurement roles.

Phil is a graduate of Wilkes University where he received both his Bachelor’s in Business Management and his MBA in Operations Management. Phil completed the Global Leadership Executive Education Program at The Wharton School of Business and the Six Sigma Green Belt Program at Villanova University. Phil is also a Certified Professional in Supply Management (CPSM) through the Institute of Supply Management and a Global Travel Professional (GTP) through the Global Business Travel Association.  Phil is also a prior Board Member and Chair of the New Jersey Business Travel Association (NJBTA) and currently sits as an Advisory Board Member for ProcureCon events.

Neil Schloss is the Sourcing Manager for Indirect Procurement at Perdue Farms Inc. supporting IT and Marketing sourcing requirements. He holds a BSIE from University of Buffalo and MBA from New York Institute of Technology.    He has held leadership roles for Direct and Indirect procurement areas for more than 30 years in a variety of verticals.  They would include heavy industrial organizations like Carrier Air Conditioning, Black & Decker – Kwikset Div., Financial, Insurance and most recently CPG - food processing.  He has extensive experience with e-Procurement deployment and effective Procurement engagement within early project creation.  He enjoys golf, racquetball and family while living in Scottsdale, AZ

Nate Seibel joined Energizer Holdings in 2014 as Global Director – Procurement Finance.  In Mid 2014 Nate took on responsibility for Indirect Procurement for Managed Services.   Today he has responsibility for global Indirect Managed Services, BPO Supplier Management, and Procurement Systems & Governance within the Global Procurement Center of Expertise.   Key responsibilities include oversight of all 3rd Party sourced solutions, internal stakeholder relationships, and procurement processes and metrics.

Prior to Energizer, Nate spent 13 years at The Boeing Company in a variety of leadership roles in Procurement, Internal audit, International Contracts, and Finance Operations.  He also spent 3 years at Express Scripts leading teams in Government Finance and Integration Program Management.

Nate earned his B.S in Business Management from the Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana, and an MBA with focus in Operations and International Finance from Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis.

Ted joined PRO Unlimited in 2011 as the SVP of Product Development. Responsible for all aspects of PRO Wand, a SaaS-based Vendor Management System (VMS) solution, Ted and his team transformed Wand to address next-generation contingent workforce management requirements. Prior to coming to PRO, Ted spent 10 years leading product development for SaaS/Cloud companies in the PPM, eDiscovery, payments, and HCM domains and 15 years before that building innovative, online products for financial services leaders such as Charles Schwab, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo.

Michael Shaw is the Founder and CEO of the American Council of Sourcing and Procurement Executives (ACSPE), which also serves more than 500 Chief Procurement Officers and SVPs Supply Chain. Prior to ACSPE Michael founded The Sourcing Source, a procurement industry analyst and executive advisory firm where he has worked with more than 250 Global 2000 organizations ranging from $250 million to $20 Billion in annual revenues providing guidance and insights for selecting procurement technology and services partners.  While at TSS he was instrumental in developing the TSS proprietary Subject Matter Expert (SME) database covers more than 2000 categories and has identified more than 700 subject matter experts providing the largest network of Sourcing Category Subject Matter Expertise in the world. Mr. Shaw has spoken at and chaired numerous industry conferences and was voted one of Supply and Demand Chain Magazine’s “Pros to Know” for 2014.

Darren is VP of Operations & Development and oversees the software development team as well as the Data Optimization Services group within SpendHQ.  Darren has deep experience in leading large scale procurement spend analytics implementations for clients that ranging in annual spend volumes of $100MM - $20B.   Darren’s clients currently use a myriad of ERP, P2P, and T&E systems that include SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle, Ariba, Coupa, Lawson, and many others. 

Darren is a 20-year veteran of software product design and development and is a nationally recognized expert in AGILE development methodology which is employed at SpendHQ.  Prior to working for Insight Sourcing Group & SpendHQ, Darren was a Vice President at procurement software pioneer, Procuri, which was later acquired by Ariba.

BA. in English, MS. in Management Information Systems, University of Central Florida

Jay Sklar is currently the Chief Procurement Officer for HUB International Limited, a leading global insurance brokerage headquartered in Chicago that provides property and casualty, life and health, employee benefits, investment and risk management products and services through offices located in the US and Canada.  In his role, he is responsible for implementing a progressive procurement program across a historically decentralized organization that has grown rapidly via acquisitions.

Jay brings 20 years of experience in procurement, strategic sourcing, supplier diversity, and real estate.  Most recently, he was Vice President of Procurement and Real Estate for Orbitz Worldwide.  Prior to that, Jay held various procurement-related roles at Aon, BankOne (now JPMorgan Chase), Waste Management, and A.T.Kearney.

Jay earned a Bachelor of Arts, with Departmental Honors, in Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences and Political Science from Northwestern University, and a Masters of Business Administration in Management & Strategy, Real Estate, and Technology & E-Commerce from Kellogg / Northwestern University.

Barbara joined Xerox Corporation in 2012 and is currently responsible for leading their North America Contingent Labor program and Canada purchasing operations, covering more than $900M in external supplier spend. During the past year, Barbara has successfully led enterprise sourcing initiatives for contract labor Managed Service Providers (MSP) and Vendor Management System (VMS) tools. Barbara began her career at Eastman Kodak Company, holding a variety of assignments over a 30 year period in the areas of systems engineering, information technology, North American operations, and global procurement.  Most recently, Barbara managed $1.5B in annual indirect purchases for Kodak, and was responsible for supplier productivity, contract management, process compliance, and e-business initiatives on a global scale. Barbara holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Yasuo Sonoda has focused on designing procurement analytics for the past five years, while working as a senior manager, managing travel and corporate card programs (T&E and Procurement Cards) at Verisign. Prior to that, he has spent 8 years with United Airlines with positions including Customer Service Rep, Gate Coordinator and in his last 4 years with United, Yasuo worked at West Region Sales.  In the 2 years following his time at United, Yasuo served as a Vice President of Corporate Operations at an American Express affiliate agency.  Yasuo has served as Global Travel Manager aka "Travel Guru” at three companies, worked as a principle consultant at Sonoda Management Travel Solutions, a company that assisted corporations enhance/build their travel infrastructure.

Yasuo’s LinkedIn profile contains over 1,500 connections including many finance and HR executives, recruiters and travel buyers and suppliers, and also includes recommendation from all four CFOs of the companies he was the travel buyer for. He is an active networker and a blogger of travel management and on his spare time, he plays drums and loves posting food pictures on facebook.

Joe Stephens is currently Senior Director, Enterprise Sourcing & Supplier Management at PPL Corporation.  He has over 29 years experience in the supply chain profession in the medical; aerospace; automotive; nuclear, utilities and generation; fire, flow control and security industries with extensive knowledge in global strategic sourcing and supplier management, category management, logistics/materials management, supplier quality management, project management and Lean/Six Sigma methodologies.

Joe’s career started in the US Air Force in Medical Materials Management where he held progressive positions at several hospitals and clinics, including a 3-year assignment in the United Kingdom.  After serving in the Air Force, he continued his supply chain experience in Procurement, Category Management and Supplier Quality Management for cable/harness assembly components in the aerospace and automotive industries with Goodrich Aerospace, Packard-Hughes Interconnect and Delphi Automotive.  At Westinghouse Electric Company, Joe led category teams with accountability and responsibility to plan, organize and control strategic and tactical activities surrounding the global acquisition of materials and services for Nuclear Fuel components with suppliers in the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Czech Republic, Croatia and South Korea.  At Tyco International, Joe was the Global Category Director for multiple Indirect spend categories as well as the project leader for Tyco’s working capital/account payable and contract novation/divestiture teams.

Joe, a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt, holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Technology from Southern Illinois University and was awarded the Lifetime Certificate as a Certified Purchasing Manager (C.P.M.) by the Institute for Supply Management.

Paul Stephenson joined VF in 2013 as Manager, Global IT Procurement & Contract Services. He is responsible for leading Global Procurement efforts within IT Professional Services and Supplier Relationship Management.

Prior to VF, Stephenson spent over 3 years at Aleris International in a variety of leadership roles within Indirect, CapEx and International Procurement. He was a key member of the cross-functional team that constructed Aleris’ new aerospace aluminum plate rolling mill in Zhenjiang, China, in 2012.

Stephenson earned Aleris’ Chairman’s Award for his efforts in bringing the company’s Richmond, VA facility back on-line, after an extended hiatus in production. He also led the Procurement team in the Ashville Coil Coating Expansion, the largest organic growth initiative within the North American Business Unit.

Most recently, Stephenson was promoted to the Senior Manager, Global IT Procurement & Contracts position, and added Supplier Relationship Management to his responsibilities.

Stephenson earned his BSAS in Mechanical Engineering Technology from Youngstown State University, with honors, and his Juris Doctorate in Law from The University of Akron in Akron, OH.

Joe is an executive with extensive experience managing supply management programs in execution of firm wide strategic sourcing initiatives.  He has proven success in delivering Total Cost of Ownership savings utilizing 7-step sourcing methodologies, demand management and contract compliance. Highly effective at developing vendor management programs driving increased customer satisfaction and supplier risk mitigation. His consultancy experience has focused on developing solutions for procurement outsourcing engagements for clients in consumer package goods,  manufacturing, financial services, contract manufacturing and IT. Currently, he  manages  indirect spend  across multiple procurement categories for Cisco’s Global Sales Operations business functions. In this role he builds relationships with executive and tactical leadership gathering critical business requirements and demand signals to provide recommended procurement strategy. He also delivers business function plans to stakeholders, category management and service delivery including spend analysis, sourcing strategy, planning and execution in the delivery  of year over year procurement optimization.

Christian Widmann is currently the Director of Indirect Commodities at Manitowoc Cranes where he is responsible for all crane locations in North America along with some global responsibilities. Christian's experience expands over 20 plus years covering both direct and indirect procurement. Christian's career includes working in a variety of industries which include higher education, luxury food and beverage, heavy construction equipment, manufacturing, government, consumer goods, and business process outsourcing. In recent years, Christian's main focus has been on indirect procurement, implementation of SAP, and assisting with manufacturing operations.  Christian's indirect experience includes facilities, operations, marketing, CAPEX,  MRO, utilities, human resources, corporate services, professional services, travel, transportation, 3PL, outsourcing services, consultants, telecommunications, BPO, P2P and IT. Christian holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Business Management for the University of Phoenix.

Scott Wilkerson is the Vice President, Enterprise Sourcing of McKesson. Mr. Wilkerson is leading the enterprise-wide sourcing transformation for all non-technology expenditures.

Mr. Wilkerson joined McKesson in 2014 after serving as Director, Global Strategic Sourcing for The Clorox Company, where he  oversaw sourcing responsibility for all indirect spend and much of direct, and led the innovation sourcing program, which focused on partnering with executive leadership and R&D to accelerate new product innovation. Prior to Clorox, Mr. Wilkerson was Senior Director of Strategic Sourcing at Gap, Inc. and held senior sourcing roles with Commerce One and numerous operations and sourcing roles with Kaiser Permanente.

Named a “Pro to Know” by Supply & Demand Chain Executive and a top-10 finalist for the Procurement Leaders Global Awards’ “Procurement Leader” category, Mr. Wilkerson holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley.

Alpar Kamber is a Managing Partner with Denali Group and the Founder and CEO of Denali Sourcing Services, a next generation sourcing services provider that enables procurement organizations to influence more spend and execute more effectively and efficiently. Prior to joining Denali, Alpar held management positions at Ariba, FreeMarkets, Diamond Technology Partners and E&Y. Alpar leads Denali Group clients in building scalable sourcing programs and operationalize their procurement function that drive consistency, repeatable outcomes, and bottom line value across the organization. Alpar’s expertise is in organizational design, change management, and global program execution. Alpar holds an MBA from Tepper Business School of Carnegie Mellon University.