Phil Abraham
RONAstar Chief Strategy Officer
Philip Abraham is one of the world’s leading Virtual Supply Chain Strategists and a pioneer in the fields of 4th Party, 5th Party and Zero Party Logistics. The National Council of Logistics Management has referred to him as one of the top “gurus” in leading edge logistics processes. Mr. Abraham spent 16 years in K-Mart’s corporate logistics and distribution division, where he developed a high-level logistics-modeling tool, later renamed Manugistics, that was rolled out nationwide to all of Kmart’s distribution centers. Soon after Wal-Mart recruited him to bring in his same supply chain strategy to their system to great success. In 1999, Mr. Abraham was brought on board at General Motors to study the organization and develop a virtual logistics/supply chain processes. The end was Covisint, established in 2000 by a consortium of organizations General Motors, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, and headed by Mr. Abraham. In 2002, he applied his virtualization process to government – Wayne County, MI, the fifth largest County in the Country – where he was able to quickly streamline all operations. At the request of General Motors, he formed The Abraham Group to assist suppliers by designing and implementing a custom, collaborative process model that will result in minimizing supply chain expenses by avoiding cost-laden traditional logistics techniques. When not revolutionizing the supply chain Mr. Abraham is an Adjunct Professor at Eastern Michigan University.
Don Hempson
Don Hempson was President and CEO of SubmitOrder Inc., a $320MM private equity investment built to provide information technology, distribution, and customer response services for market leading retailers and manufacturers. Prior to SubmitOrder, he was Vice President of Supply Chain Management for HomeLife Furniture Corporation, a spin-off of Sears. Earlier, he was Director, International Supply Chain Management for Case New Holland. Don is also a highly decorated Captain in the Navy. In his last assignment, he was Chief Executive Officer of the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Services (DRMS), where he turned around a $710MM global marketing and distribution business that employed 4,000 at 200 stores in 20 countries. DRMS sold idle assets from retail stores, industrial plants, hospitals, restaurants, schools, hotels, wholesale distributors, transportation providers, and residential/office properties. Don has an MBA from the Wharton, a BIE degree from Georgia Tech, and completed the Senior Executive Program at the Kellogg School at Northwestern University.
Kevin Reddy
Principle at Booze & Co and Practice Leader at Accenture with an emphasis on Private, hybrid cloud & DC infrastructure services virtualization, standardization, & automation.
Ryan Scott
As the co-founder of NetCreations, Mr. Scott is widely considered the father of opt-in email marketing, setting most of the standards in use today and paving the way for laws banning unsolicited commercial email. After he and his partner took the company public and sold it in 2001, Mr. Scott founded community impact firm Causecast to bring sophisticated technology to volunteer and giving programs. With a particular concern for environmental degradation and social injustice, Mr. Scott currently holds investments in numerous information technology and environmental service companies that address these issues, including Signum Biosciences, Sierra Nevada Solar, Cool Earth Solar, T1ME, Mahalo, and Tesla Motors. A sought-after speaker and presenter on topics including corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship and employee engagement, Ryan also serves as an active member of the Keiretsu Forum, the President’s Council of Planned Parenthood, the Long Now Foundation, and the Methuselah Foundation, among others. Ryan’s commitment to community engagement around social change led him to form the Impact and Education sections of the Huffington Post with Arianna
Huffington.
Dr. John Sviokla
For the past 25 years, Dr. Sviokla has been pursing one simple question: How can executives create value with technology. Currently the Business Leader, Strategy & Innovation for PwC’s US advisory practice, he serves on the Advisory Leadership Group and Global Thought Leadership Council. He maintains a wide range of clients and writes often on innovation, strategy & leadership. Until November 2010, Dr. Sviokla was vice chairman of Diamond Management & Technology Consultants, Inc. (NASDAQ: DTPI) Prior to joining Diamond, Dr. Sviokla researched and taught at the Harvard Business School for 12 years in Marketing, MIS, and Decision Sciences. His extensive writings have appeared in books and journals including the Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Fast Company, and the Wall Street Journal. His seminal articles in the Harvard Business Review, “Managing in the Marketspace” and “Exploiting the Virtual Value Chain,” were among the first harbingers of the growth of the Internet world. He is a frequent speaker at executive forums worldwide including Harvard, MIT, the London Business School, and Oxford. He received his B.A., M.B.A., and D.B.A. from Harvard.
Emmett T. Vaughn
Mr. Vaughn brings over 20 years experience in designing and developing the strategic template for business diversity. He is currently the Director of Diverse Supplier Inclusion Strategies for Exelon, the nation’s largest Nuclear/Electric Utility Company. As the Managing Partner for Eminent Consulting, a diversity consulting firm, he developed and implemented programs for Fortune 1000 corporations. The firm’s portfolio included: Smokey Robinson’s SFGL Foods, East Coast Foods, United Armored Car Services, RL Enterprises, Onyx Venture Capital, Kinko’s Inc. and Moore Business Forms Inc. As the Director of National Business Diversity Relations at Albertsons, Inc., he was charged with building strategic direction in diversity sourcing as well as corporate marketing/branding strategies that capitalize on inclusion of minority owned businesses in retail products. Other experiences include working as a senior consultant for RGMA Management Consultants of Chicago, where he worked on vendor development projects, supply chain diversification, and integration of operational & marketing strategies. At RR Donnelley & Sons, he designed and launched an industry-leading supplier diversity program. Emmett earned an MBA from The Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.