Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference

Stan Aronow is a research director in Gartner's Supply Chain Research group, with a focus on high-tech industrial value chains. He also publishes cross-industry research in the areas of supply chain cost-to-serve, risk management and complexity management.

Ray Barger, Jr., is a Research Director working in the Gartner Supply Chain Research group, with specific focus on sourcing and procurement best practices, including supplier segmentation, supplier relationship management, supplier performance management and outsourced manufacturing. Mr. Barger also supports other cross-industry supply chain topics, including cost management and product lifecycle management, plus he has industry vertical experience in aerospace and defense (A&D) and traditional industrial supply chains.

Mike Burkett is a research vice president and chief of research for the Gartner supply chain team, drawing on more than 15 years of manufacturing experience introducing and supporting products from concept to end-of-life. Heading Gartner's cross-industry research on product life cycle supply chain strategy, he is regarded as a leading expert, having co-authored the first industry publication to define the product life cycle management market. Mr. Burkett previously managed an analyst team responsible for cross-industry supply chain process and technology research. He continues to conduct research on the extended value chain issues impacting industrial discrete manufacturing companies.

Matthew Davis is a director with Gartner's Supply Chain Research, covering supply chain strategy across industries. He is the lead analyst for supply chain segmentation, customer-focused supply chain, strategy planning and supply chain for solutions business models.

David Gosnell is President of Global Supply and Procurement for the world's leading premium drinks business – a position he has held since January 2003. David has also served on the Diageo plc Executive Committee since 2008, in recognition of his leadership role within the company. As President of Global Supply and Procurement, David is responsible for Diageo’s world class supply chain delivering to over 180 markets around the world from over 100 production facilities located in 32 counties. David leads a team of around 10,000 people globally, and has accountability for Diageo’s end to end supply chain, to include global procurement spend, manufacturing excellence, technical innovation, logistics and customer service. David joined Diageo in March 1998, initially as European Supply Chain Director. He led a team that integrated Seagram’s Global Supply into Diageo and then in 2001 headed up Guinness & European RTD Supply. David is a member of the board of Brambles Limited as a non-Executive Director. Earlier in his career, David spent 20 years with Heinz in many different roles.

Mike Griswold is a Research VP in Gartner's Consumer Value Chain team, focusing on the retail supply chain. He is responsible for assisting supply leaders in understanding and implementing demand-driven supply chain principles that improve the performance of their supply chain.

Debra Hofman brings more than 25 years of experience in the research and advisory business to her position as vice president at Gartner. Her research focuses on how to define supply chain excellence. She manages the annual Supply Chain Top 25 ranking, and she advises clients on the effective use of metrics and measures in optimizing supply chain performance. Previously, she launched and led the AMR Benchmark Analytix service, which provided company-specific supply chain performance assessments tied to the use of technology and best practices.

Simon Jacobson is responsible for Gartner's coverage of manufacturing operations. He researches and works closely with clients on current and future manufacturing strategy, alignment with supply chain IT and business process architectures, and goal alignment and metrics, as well as providing insight and best practices. He examines specific functional capabilities and supporting systems across subjects such as manufacturing execution, enterprise integration, operations intelligence and performance management, and quality management. Mr. Jacobson is frequently quoted in the press and presents often at industry events on such topics as Manufacturing 2.0, Global Quality and MES.

Jan Kohler conducts research and analysis aimed at providing insight, predictions and actionable advice to clients, with an emphasis on the consumer products industry and the food and beverage industry. The scope of her research and analysis covers supply chain strategy, demand-driven value networks across the end-to-end value chain and specific areas such as sales and operations planning, managing the supply response including planning and scheduling execution, inventory strategy, item and SKU productivity, and aligning performance metrics.

James Lisica is a Research Director in Supply Chain Research for Asia/Pacific and global logistics and supply chain.

Eric O'Daffer is a research director in the Gartner AMR Healthcare Supply Chain Group. Mr. O'Daffer's focus is on the end to end value chain starting at the point of care looking back. He focuses most of his time with providers and how they best manage all the components of supply chain. This involves both their internal processes as well as best practices for partnering with their suppliers and service providers to optimize the clinical effectiveness of their products and the best delivered cost possible. Increasingly, O'Daffer's research focuses on the interdependency of providers with their supply partners. Manufacturers and distributors play a vital role as well in taking costs out of supply chain in healthcare and improving quality of care. Helping pull all of this together with and for companies with a broader view than simply cost, is Mr. O'Daffers main focus.

Tim Payne is a Research Vice President in Gartner, where he is part of the Supply Chain Research group and is currently the Agenda Manager for the Supply Chain Core Research team. In this position, Mr. Payne is able to leverage more than 15 years of direct experience in supply chain management into his research. His current research areas focus on all aspects of supply chain planning, sales and operations planning, and integrated business planning - particularly from a technology perspective.

Ken Ruggles is managing vice president for Gartner's Supply Chain Research group. He leads the Industries Value Chain team covering healthcare/life sciences, consumer packaged goods, retail, high tech, industrial, process chemical, aerospace and defense. As an analyst, he assists organizations with supply chain strategy, sales and operations planning, and inventory optimization. Mr. Ruggles joined Gartner in 2004 as an analyst covering planning and the service supply chain. He moved into the delivery organization and launched AMR's Supply Chain Peer Forum and subsequently the Enterprise Supply Chain Leaders program in 2010. In these roles, he facilitated large peer forums involving supply chain executives from all industries. He also worked in a leadership partner capacity driving value for clients through coaching and application of Gartner's research. Mr. Ruggles has 27 years of experience in supply chain working in industry, business process consulting with PricewaterhouseCoopers, and implementing software with i2 Technologies for demand planning, supply planning, factory planning, and sourcing.

Steven Steutermann is the vice president of research, consumer products.

Andrew Stevens is a Research Director in the Industry Value Chain team, covering life sciences companies - pharmaceutical and biotechnology.

Dana Stiffler is a managing vice president in Gartner Research. She heads up the Supply Chain Strategy & Enablers team within Gartner Supply Chain Leaders. She also has two primary areas of content responsibility: supply chain talent and organizational issues and supply chain services strategies. Ms. Stiffler's work at AMR and then Gartner has led to direct, long-term involvement with the sourcing programs and the supply chain talent activities of global manufacturers, life sciences and CPG companies, as well as large retailers. She has been quoted in leading business publications, including the New York Times, the Financial Times, BusinessWeek, and numerous other business and technology publications.

Christian Titze is a research director with more than 21 years of professional experience in IT, supply chain management (SCM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP). Mr. Titze is part of the SCM enablers analyst team covering the IT/supply chain alignment from a technology perspective, with special attention to architecture, technology enablement and wider ERP/SAP topics. He covers a wide range of industry sectors, primarily industrial and engineering products. His regional coverage is essentially the German-speaking countries, but he also offers client and sales support across EMEA.

Noha Tohamy helps global manufacturers and retailers improve key supply chain processes spanning demand planning, sales and operations planning (S&OP), supply chain risk management, and inventory optimization. She analyzes current and future technology trends to support better supply chain performance. Ms. Tohamy has more than 20 years of experience in supply chains, working with companies to deploy continuous improvement initiatives, such as collaborative demand planning and inventory management, implementing leading-edge technologies to support supply chain planning, and using price optimization and yield management for profitable decision making.

Mike Uskert is a managing vice president in Gartner's Supply Chain Research group. He leads the cross-industry analyst team covering the plan, source, make, deliver, customer fulfillment and PLM functions. As an analyst, Mr. Uskert helps organizations with strategy definition, best practices and insights from leaders in these areas. He uses Gartner research methodologies, frameworks and maturity models to diagnose the current state and support the creation of a vision and road map for the initiative. Included in the road map process is identification of prioritized projects and action items. Mr. Uskert joined Gartner in June 2010, focusing on research and advisory assistance in supply chain strategy and planning; becoming demand-driven; supply planning and inventory management; sales and operations planning; supply chain segmentation and complexity management; collaboration; metrics and scorecards; and driving supply chain excellence.