CSCMP Chicago is hosting our 38th Annual Seminar the same year as CSCMP celebrates it’s 60th Anniversary!  

Following last year’s theme of Leadership, Resilience, and Innovation; this year we will be diving into Finding and Filling Supply Chain Gaps.  Don’t be blindsided by Gaps in Talent, Infrastructure, Visibility and Technology – hear techniques and trends from our slate of industry speakers.

Out of town guests are very welcome to attend! Contact our board President, Chris Pride, for more information on the value of coming in the night before!  

The Lodge is expected to sell to capacity on our date so register early and lock in your accommodations. If you miss out, there are plenty of other facilities nearby.

Agenda

StartSession IDThemeSpeaker
7:30 amRegistration
8:00 amBreakfast Networking
9:00 amWelcome from the CSCMP Chicago Roundtable PresidentChris Pride, CDW
9:15 amSession 1Gain Efficiency and Safety Through Supply Chain Visibility and Location IntelligenceCami Zimmer, Chief Business Officer, Glympse
Charlie Maynard, Senior Manager of Industry Solutions, HERE Technologies
9:45 amPanel 1Gaps in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)Kristen Malek, Global Business Diversity Director, CDW
Mark Hands , Director of Supplier Diversity & Associate OMWI Director, The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Bhavin Patel, Supplier Diversity - Global Procurement, Abbott
Germaine Reece, Business Diversity Market Leader, CDW
Michael Zaura, Senior Strategic Energy Advisor, Nania Energy Advisors
Moderator: Aleah Menefee, Program Manager Lead, Supplier Diversity, CDW

10:45 amBreak
11:00 amSession 2Latest & Greatest Advances @ ProMat in 25 MinutesBrian Keiger, Director of Business Development and Marketing, Stow
Joel Thomas, Head of Intralogistics, Siemens
11:30 amPanel 2Finding and Filling Gaps in Supply Chain TalentAshley DuBois, CS Recruiting
Julia Bernhardt, Global Category Director,
Molex LLC
Hannah Perron, Arrive Logistics
Arup Varma, Research Professor, Loyola
Kevin Holtrup, Director of Business Development, Radiant Road & Rail Inc
12:30 pmLunchCSCMP PresentationMark Baxa, President, CSCMP
Cindy Mebruer, Director of Education, Engagement & Sustainability for the Talent Center of Excellence (TCE), CSCMP
1:15 pmSession 3Identifying and Closing Supply Chain Gaps Leveraging Advanced Analytics and New Data StreamsRick Davis, CEO, Demand Chain AI, Inc.
1:45 pmPanel 3Minding the Supply Chain Gap Through Real Estate: Thoughtful insight on adding nodes to your supply chain networkKris Bjorson, Executive Managing Director, JLL
Jackie Niemeyer, Business Development Manager, Miebach Consulting
Rick Rover, Chief Administrative Officer, ARMADA Solutions
2:45 pmClosing RemarksChris Pride, CDW
Amber Romando, Spartan Logistics, LLC
3:00 pmHappy Hour Networking

Session Summaries

Gain Efficiency and Safety Through Supply Chain Visibility and Location Intelligence

Keeping track of transportation assets and providing customers with reliable, accurate status information is critical in the highly competitive B2B and B2C shipment delivery market.  Additionally, it’s imperative to maintain operational efficiency and a safe working environment for your teams while making those deliveries.  Regardless of the industry or geographical area your company operates in, comprehensive and granular location intelligence combined with user-friendly execution platforms can give you the tools needed to attain these goals. 

Key Takeaways

  1. Visibility and geo-location awareness of your supply chain assets is the foundation for world-class delivery performance
  2. Private custom mapping of your facilities using advanced location services increases operational safety and enhances your ability to meet high customer expectations

 

During this conversation, Glympse and HERE Technologies will also share concrete examples, and highlight other areas and industries, where location technology can help unlock your competitive advantages.

Speakers:

  • Cami Zimmer, Chief Business Officer, Glympse
  • Charlie Maynard, Senior Manager of Industry Solutions, HERE Technologies

Gaps in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)

Supply Chains face a growing challenge to adopt ESG principles into their corporate strategy focusing on the three pillars of environment, social, and governance. Acting to lower pollution, emissions, and reduce waste is now the responsibility of the entire supply chain from the end producer to all of its suppliers. This also means having an inclusive and diverse workforce, from entry-level all the way up to the board of directors. While ESG may incur higher costs and be difficult to implement, the ones who are able to execute their ESG strategy will reap the greatest benefits in the long-term.

This panel will address the many challenges in adopting ESG principles. Our speakers will share their experiences within their organizations’ journey, as well as their insight into different topics pertaining to ESG. Some topics the discussion will cover include supplier diversity, technology and Fintech, and opposition from both internal and external sources. This conversation will help you overcome the various hurdles when trying to incorporate ESG and filling this gap in Supply Chains.

Panel Speakers:

  • Kristen Malek, Global Business Diversity Director, CDW
  • Mark Hands, Director of Supplier Diversity & Associate OMWI Director, The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
  • Germaine Reece, Business Diversity Market Leader, CDW
  • Aleah Menefee, Program Manager Lead, Supplier Diversity, CDW
  • Moderator: Michael Zaura, Senior Strategic Energy Advisor, Nania Energy Advisors

Finding and Filling Gaps in Supply Chain Talent

When it comes to gaps in the supply chain, there is usually a direct connection to a company’s most important asset… their people.

Effective supply chain management relies on technology, processes, data and analytics, and we cannot forget the people behind the scenes that drive continuous improvement and excellence. Navigating market shifts, change management and achieving growth goals is much more difficult if a company does not have the right people in the right seats on their bus.

The CSCMP is excited to bring you this dynamic discussion that will be led by CS Recruiting, a third party recruiting firm that specializes in the Supply chain and Logistics industry. They will be joined by other industry expert panelists to discuss how these talent gaps can affect your business and how to identify the skills and resources you might be missing on your team. We’ll dive into proven recruiting and retention strategies and offer guidance on how to manage your hiring strategy to position your team for the next level of success.

Panel Speakers:

  • Kevin Holtrup, Director of Business Development: Radiant Road & Rail
  • Arup Varma, Professor and Endowed Chair: Loyola
  • Hannah Perron, Recruiting Manager: Arrive Logistics
  • Julia Bernhardt, Director-Indirect Procurement: Molex
  • Ashley DuBois, Manager Client Success: CS Recruiting

Solutions Community of MHI presents:
Latest & Greatest Advances @ ProMat in 25 Minutes

MHI’s Solutions Community is presenting the Latest & Greatest products and services at ProMat this year. Every facet of warehouse operations is represented by the Solutions Community members, and we will be outlined and discussed. From robots to conveyor to components and software the full gamut of technologies will be represented. Let us bring the best of ProMat to you.

Speakers:

  • Brian Keiger, STOW
  • Joel Thomas, Seimens

Identifying and Closing Supply Chain Gaps Leveraging Advanced Analytics and New Data Streams

As the pressures to build a resilient supply chain continue to increase, organizations must define winning strategies to deliver continuous improvement even as they navigate greater risk and volatility!  In this conversation, we will discuss opportunities to close gaps in the supply chain and deliver transformation in a challenging climate, by sharing opportunities to advance capabilities by leveraging data and advanced analytics.  We will share examples of cases where organizations have created and harvested new data streams, integrated them with traditional internal data, and then leveraged advanced analytics to transform operations, provide improved visibility, and close gaps.

We will also share some unique use cases for leveraging machine vision and machine learning to automate tedious activities, and deliver improved operational flows. All of which should be considered as a part of the strategic plan to deliver a resilient supply chain!

Speaker:

  • Rick Davis, CEO, Demand Chain AI, Inc.

Minding the Supply Chain Gap Through Real Estate:
Thoughtful insight on adding nodes to your supply chain network

When it comes to gaps in the supply chain, adding another node to your supply chain network may be the optimal solution to increase customer service and reducing overall logistics costs.

CSCMP is excited to bring you this dynamic discussion led by JLL, the only real estate company to receive the esteemed SupplyChainBrain Supply Chain Partner Award. A panel of industry experts will join JLL to discuss how they have added nodes to their networks to best support their business objectives.

Expect the panel to dive into the network strategy rational to add real estate, site selection techniques, including workforce analytics and tax structures/economic incentives trends, as well as how to best structure deals in the tightest industrial real estate market in U.S. history.  

Speakers:

  • Kris Bjorson, JLL, Executive Managing Director
  • Jackie Niemeyer, Miebach Consulting, Business Development Manager
  • Rick Rover, ARMADA Solutions, Chief Administrative Officer

Speaker Bios

Please visit again as we add more speaker bios to our website.

SpeakerBio
Mark-Baxa
Mark Baxa
President & CEO,
CSCMP
Mark has a 37 year career to date with the majority of that time in supply chain. Specific experiences include sales, customer service, logistics, distribution, global trade, procurement, sustainability, supplier diversity, training, and supply chain strategy leadership. Additional experience includes 20 years with the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), www.cscmp.org, and a member of the executive Board of Directors serving as Chairman of the Board - Elect.
He also serves as co-lead for the St Louis University Center of Supply Chain Excellence Global Supply Chain Certificate Programs and am an adjunct professional instructor and facilitated supply chain policy development at the US Federal level, teach executive courses at the university level and speak at select conferences. Mark is responsible for CSCMP’s vision and strategic plan.
Julia-Bernhardt
Julia Bernhardt
Global Category Director,
Molex LLC
Julia Bernhardt is Global Category Director, Indirect Procurement at Molex LLC. Her career spans roles at Audi AG, Navistar and the University of Chicago. As VP of Membership for the CSCMP Chicago Roundtable, she has focussed on building relationships with supply chain programs at local universities and founded an annual case study competition. Participation has included faculty and students at IIT, Purdue, UIC -Chicago, DePaul and Michigan State University.
Bjorson,-Kris
Kris Bjorson, SIOR
Executive Managing Director, Industrial Services,
JLL

Kris Bjorson, as an Executive Managing Director for Industrial Occupier Services in the Midwest and National Head of JLL’s Retail Industrial Task Force. He is also a member on both Global Industrial and Retail Boards for JLL. With a focus on maximizing business results for corporations, he co-founded the Supply Chain & Logistics Solutions practice which integrates supply chain strategy through industrial real estate implementation. His leadership skills and unparalleled knowledge of the real estate, logistics and retail industries continues to be valuable assets in exceeding clients’ expectations.

Over his 29-year career, Kris has completed over $14 billion of industrial real estate transactions. At JLL, he has been recognized as the #1 global industrial services professional and “Champion of Excellence,” the most prestigious honor awarded for consistently achieving high quality service ratings from clients and team members. Kris served for the first 13 years with The Staubach Company in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Chicago where he led the Midwest Industrial Services business and founded the Logistics Practice Group. Kris is a regular speaker at global real estate, logistics and retail industry events and contributor on thought leadership articles.
Davis-Rick-headshot
Rick Davis
Demand Chain AI
Rick Davis has over 30 years of experience in the CPG industry. He spent most of his career at the Kellogg Company and served in numerous Vice President level roles leading multiple functions both regionally and globally. He formed the Global Data Office and implemented enterprise data governance while serving on the Executive Leadership Committee for GS1 – US.

Across these roles he has been responsible for leading numerous functions including Distribution & Logistics, Planning (Trade, Sales, Demand, Supply), Integrated Business Planning, Analytics, Sales Technology, Enterprise Data Strategy including MDM and Data Governance, and Reverse Logistics.

Since retiring from Kellogg he has worked with multiple large CPG organizations as an independent consultant focusing primarily in the areas of End-to-End Planning, Enterprise Data Strategy and Governance, Advanced Analytics, and Digital Transformation.
Ashley-Dubois-Profile-Pic
Ashley DuBois
CS Recruiting
Ashley DuBois joined CS Recruiting in 2018 after moving from Austin to Chicago. With an undergraduate degree in Spanish Language Education and a Master’s in Human Relations, Ashley's diverse background was a welcome addition to the CS Recruiting team. She has held roles as both a Recruiter and Account Manager and currently serves as the Manager of Client Success where she leads the Business Development and Account Management teams. Ashley is passionate about building genuine connections, understanding client and candidate needs, and finding matches that are a strong mutual fit.

With CS Recruiting, Ashley works with small to medium-sized businesses, as well as Fortune 50 companies to help them identify the right talent for their organizational needs. Clients have included Third Party Logistics providers (3PL’s), Asset Based providers, Shippers (Manufacturers and Distributors) and Vendors to the industry (transportation technology/fleet solutions). CS Recruiting’s team of dedicated recruiters have experience filling positions of all levels including C Level and Executive positions, Management roles, and Independent Contributor seats.
Mark Hands headshot
Mark Hands
Director of Supplier Diversity & Associate OMWI Director at The
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
As Director of Supplier Diversity, Mark helps our Business Units source quality diverse, small minority and women-owned business enterprises to meet the Bank’s operational needs and collaborate with key advocacy groups to provide technical assistance to diverse suppliers.
As Associate OMWI Director, he supports the Bank’s OMWI Director in assessing and strengthening the diversty policies and practices through alignment with the Federal Reserve System’s OMWI Council’s annual high priority initiatives (HPIs).
Kevin-Holtrup
Kevin Holtrup
Director of Business Development,
Radiant Road & Rail Inc

Young Executive Committee, TIA
Kevin Holtrup joined Radiant Road & Rail in 2015 as the Director of Business Development after spending over 7 years at Echo Global Logistics as a Business Development Representative. He has over 14 years of experience selling supply chain solutions and leading sales teams. His deep knowledge of the supply chain industry allows him to create individualized solutions to his customer’s needs while also training and mentoring sales teams to help them provide the best value to their customers.

Knowledge and Specialties Include: OTR TL (Dry & Refrigerated), Intermodal (Dry and Refrigerated), LTL, Drayage, Warehousing, Sales Management
Brian Keiger headshot
Brian Keiger
Director of Business Development & Marketing,
Stow Robotics
Currently Director of Business Development and Marketing for stow Robotics, part of the stow Group, Keiger has 33 years of experience in engineering and sales. During that time, he has acquired extensive knowledge in Order Fulfillment and Supply Chain Logistics including Mobile Robotics, Conveyor Systems, Storage Systems, WMS/WCS/WES, and Picking Robotics.

In addition to his role at stow Robotics, Mr. Keiger is very active in MHI, North America’s leading Material Handling organization. Here, he currently serves as Chairman of the Mobile Automation Group and is actively involved in MHI’s Solutions Community and The Robotics Group as well. Further, Keiger holds a seat on the Industry Advisory Panel for the National Center of Supply Chain Technology Education (NCSCTE) and also serves on the Systems Engineering and Engineering Management (SEEM) Advisory Board at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Keiger is very engaged in the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) and Queen City Robotics Alliance, helping today’s youth prepare for a future in automation.

In addition to these ancillary roles, Keiger also serves as a part-time thought leader for Global Consulting giant, Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG). Finally, Keiger is engaged with the ANSI B56.5 Safety Standard Committee, the ANSI/RIA R15.08 Robot Standards committee and is a member of the ASTM F45 Safety Standard Group, three of North America’s leading institutes in overseeing material handling industry standards and conformity.

Keiger received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC.
Kristin Malek Director Business Diversity | CDW
Kristin Malek
Director Business Diversity,
CDW
Lead Global Business Diversity efforts across all business segments at CDW - Responsible for multi-Billion Dollar Diverse Supplier Spend - Architect of CDW's intelligent; diverse, secure supply chain. Responsible for diverse supply chain mentorship, development, & coaching.

Core competencies include:
Talent Acquisition | Change Management | Leadership Development | Business Transformation | Strategic Planning | Fiscal Responsibility | Diversity & Inclusion SME
Charlie Maynard, Senior Manager of Industry Solutions, HERE Technologies
Charlie Maynard
Senior Manager of Industry Solutions,
HERE Technologies
Charlie is a Sr. Manager of Industry Solutions at HERE, focusing on developing and implementing a go-to-market strategy in the Transportation & Logistics space for the Americas market. This entails close collaboration with teams across the company including Sales, Product Development, Marketing Intelligence, Professional Services, BSAs, PAMs, and others. A fundamental driver of this work is understanding customer and market needs for location services and applications, to influence a pull-driven product strategy through the optimal sales channels.

Charlie has 30+ years of experience in the supply chain space, primarily in a strategy and operations management consulting role, and also in customer-facing roles with various software platform providers, most recently as a Customer Success Director with Blue Yonder. His areas of functional expertise include Transportation & Logistics, Manufacturing, and most aspects of supply chain planning and execution. Industry experience includes T&L, Manufacturing, Retail, B2B, Pharma/Medical Devices, Industrial Equipment, CPG/FMCG, Utilities, and Construction. Graduate of the University of California-Berkeley with a BA in Economics.
Cindy-Mebruer_Headshot_0922
Cindy Mebruer, Director of Education, Engagement & Sustainability for the Talent Center of Excellence (TCE),
CSCMP
Cindy Mebruer has spent almost the entirety of her professional career within an supply chain/academic setting, focusing on professional/student development, customized training, executive education, optimization consulting in SCM/Operations/Leadership, and event/conference execution.

At present, Cindy’s primary focus is to continue to build and execute the Training to Jobs Initiative (T2J). The T2J program looks to grow the future of supply chain employment by providing customized training to those who have been underserved, underutilized, and overlooked while simultaneously fulfilling the immediate employment needs of our partner companies. These unique training opportunities will include: internships, real-time project work, job placement, mentoring support, and more.
Aleah Menefee headshot
Aleah Menefee ,
Program Manager Lead, Supplier Diversity, CDW
Program Manager with over 10 years of experience, combining economic development, project management, and community relations know-how to spearhead organization objectives.

Expertise in developing fruitful relationships that drive program mission, and proactively implementing target strategies to improve business processes and skilled in leading and collaborating with cross-functional teams to maximize project outcomes. Demonstrated communication, organizational, and interpersonal skills that proved crucial to drive economic development and sustainable project performances.
Jackie Niemeyer
Jackie Niemeyer
Business Development Manager,
Miebach Consulting
Jackie Niemeyer is a Business Development Manager for Miebach Consulting, certified in Lean Six Sigma.  For the majority of her career, Jackie has focused on guiding leading global supply chains to optimize the design of their facilities and achieve operational excellence.

Her career achievements have included being a production supervisor focused on continuous improvement and line efficiency, crisis ramp-up management, labor & productivity management initiatives, material flow improvements, automation assessments, and holistic facility design in both brownfield and greenfield environments. She primarily supports clients within the consumer goods, pharmaceutical, and fashion industries.
Bhavin Patel_Headshot
Bhavin Patel
Supplier Diversity - Global Procurement, Abbott
Bhavin Patel is Supplier diversity professional with over 10 years of experience in supply chain operations, procurement, and supplier diversity in the healthcare and technology industries. He enjoys using his supply chain experience and relationship management skills to drive economic inclusion and social impact for small and diverse suppliers. Currently his primary responsibilities include internal and external reporting of Abbott’s diverse spend, introducing diverse suppliers into Abbott supply chain, and helping expand the scope of Abbott’s supplier diversity program outside of North America. He enjoys supporting and collaborating with procurement professionals and business stakeholders to include small and diverse suppliers to address critical business needs.
Hannah-Perron
Hannah Perron
Arrive Logistics
Hannah Perron is a logistics and talent acquisition professional based in Chicago, IL. Her experience in the logistics industry started at a young age helping out at her family's trucking business in Campbellsport, Wisconsin. After graduating from DePaul University in 2014, she took a job at Command Transportation as a Carrier Sales broker. She found her passion for talent acquisition working as a full desk recruiter at both Command and Echo Global Logistics. In 2019 she joined the nation's fastest growing 3PL in history, Arrive Logistics and currently oversees sales hiring as Recruiting Manager. When she's not hiring the best talent, Hannah enjoys traveling, Chicago's music scene and spending time with family & friends.
Germaine Reese headshot
Germaine Reece
Business Diversity Market Leader, CDW
Customer-focused leader with Supplier Diversity, Finance, and Engineering experience across various industries. Success to Germaine includes helping others reach their potential and that is one reason why he is a passionate advocate for small and diverse businesses.

Over Germaine’s long professional career working for Fortune 500 companies, he has excelled at solving problems and finding solutions where others thought none existed.
Rick-Rover
Rick Rover
Chief Administrative Officer,
ARMADA Solutions
Rick is the Chief Administrative Officer for ARMADA Supply Chain Solutions. Rick is a visionary leader possessing strong technical and interpersonal skills that provide the basis for building and managing teams that produce results. His background includes 26 years of experience developing and managing distribution networks and processes for big companies and startups alike. Rick has proven achievements in the following:

• Creating Enterprise Value: At Berlin Packaging, helped create a successful, highly accretive monetization event for private equity owners and other stakeholders by driving revenue, expanding margins, and managing cash.
• Driving Operational Excellence: A track record of driving revenue growth, cost per unit reduction, and enhanced customer experience. Orchestrated a $15M EBITDA turnaround while enabling revenue growth and improving service as SVP of Operations at Streamlite.
• Building Teams: Develop teams that exceed revenue and cost goals while managing them through high growth and culture changes. As VP of Operations at DHL eCommerce, he re-organized and re-energized a team that drove safety up 24% and costs down 10% while maintaining service.
• Managing Growth: Grew two different zero-revenue startups to profitable entities with revenues in the hundreds of millions. As a founder and SVP of Operations for Streamlite, Rick grew the company from nothing to 180 customers, $200M revenue, and solid profitability.
Joel Thomas  headshsot
Joel Thomas
Head of Intralogistics, Siemens
Joel Thomas has worked in the material handling/ intralogistics area for the past 13 years primarily in sales management. He spent his time working for various automation companies and an integrator. Currently he is the Head of Intralogistics a focus industry at Siemens driving the digital transformation in the industry, combing end to end solutions of software and hardware. He is responsible for leading the vertical, work closely with trade associations who serve the intralogistics industry and foster programs at Siemens to educate the next generation of engineers, programmers, software developers and plant operations personnel who will manage the warehouses of the future.

The most important role is working to bring awareness to the younger generation, working in partnership with MHI for student days, student tours, DEI initiative as well as serving on the board for the material handling education foundation.
Arup-Varma
Arup Varma, PhD
Quinlan School of Business,
Loyola University
Arup Varma (PhD, Rutgers University) is Distinguished University Research Professor and the Frank W Considine Chair in Applied Ethics at the Quinlan School of Business, Loyola University Chicago (USA). Dr. Varma’s research interests include performance appraisal, expatriate adjustment, and HRM issues in India. He has published over 100 articles in leading refereed journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, the Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, and the Journal of International Management.
Mike Zaura
Michael Zaura
Senior Strategic Energy Advisor, Nania Energy Advisors
Senior sales executive with over 20 years of sales and business development experience creating strong revenue streams and new markets. Michael has covered various industries including financial, packaging, logistics, and now Energy.

Michael earned his Certified Energy Manager (CEM) designation in 2021 and then his Renewable Energy Professional (REP) designation later that year. He specializes in lowering Energy costs for manufacturing and industrial facilities and helping organizations develop sustainability plans and execute them.
Cami-Zimmer headshot
Cami Zimmer
Chief Business Officer,
Glympse
Cami Zimmer is the Chief Business Officer at Glympse, the pioneer of real-time location-sharing technology. Before joining Glympse, Cami spent 2 decades leading technology companies in boosting brand awareness and initiating profitable business development and marketing operations.

She sits on many association boards, including the Location Based Marketing Association (LBMA) as well as numerous local sporting associations. In 2018, she was awarded the Women of IoT/M2M award by Connected World. In 2020, she was recognized by the Twin Cities Magazine as a Notable Women in Technology, and in 2022, she was presented with a top Women in Business Award by the Twin Cities Business Journal.

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Membership TypeRegistration Fee
Member$249
Non-Member$399
Young Professional Member$149
Student Member$59