Fatma is the Product Value Chain Director in Grandvision Turkey ( Atasun Optik with local company name ) with 14 years experience in the retail sector. She has joined Grandvision 4 years ago with key responsibilities of Category Management, Demand & Supply Planning, Purchasing and Logistics. She has been responsible for key business projects implementation such as Showroom Model, S&OP, Product Tracking System, Quality Management System. After graduating from Boğaziçi University Economics, she has started her career with C&A Turkey in 2006 in Category Management & Planning. She was responsible for Ladies Division and proved the category growth & profitability increase within years with many actions regarding the collection content, pricing, stock planning. She was promoted as C&A Turkey Marketing Director in 2013 with the responsibilities of Category Management, Planning, Advertising & Communication, Visual Merchandising. She has a passion about the retail industry and improving the company growth via Planning & Category Management strategies. With deep interest in continuing personal development; she has also accomplished ICF Accredited Coaching Certification Programme in 2019.

Ferry Bakker is Corporate Vice President International Supply Operations Laundry and Home Care at Henkel. He is based in Amsterdam and globally responsible for Demand and Supply Planning, Logistics Operations, Customer Service, and Supply Chain Customer Collaboration within the Laundry and Home Care Division. He has been working for Henkel since October 2015. Ferry holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration with a Major in Logistics Management (Erasmus University Rotterdam, 1996). During his career, he has worked for several companies including Gillette, P&G and KraftHeinz and lived in several countries outside the Netherlands (Belgium, USA, Switzerland). He spent most of my career in the area of International Supply Chain, but also spent several years in the area of Sales and Commercial Management as a broadening assignment. He currently lives with his wife and 2 daughters in the Netherlands.

Food Engineer graduated in 2003. Started my carrier in Unilever working in different areas of supply chain. 2 year in manufacturing where I became TPM instructor certified by JIPM in Japan. This knowledge I apply until today in order to understand the root causes of any issue and define measures to solve it. Another 6 year in supply planning and demand planning in Ice Cream business were I also got my CPIM APICS certification. The opportunity to work in different areas that were part of a typical S&OP in a company that is well-known as best in class in this process made me a true believer of the benefits of this process. In 2012, I changed to Robert Bosch to lead the supply chain for Power Tools in LA and do the S&OP implementation in the region. 2016, I moved to Germany to take the global responsibility for the Measuring Tool business units and also to implement the S&OP but in with a global scope this time. In parallel with my carrier, I made a specialization in Supply Chain Management by IBMEC University in Brazil. I also made a MBA by FDC and FGV in Brazil, each one with different approach, first more focus in preparing to lead people and second focusing more in how to implement process to manage efficiently a multinational business.

Dr Kamila Walters, after completion of A-levels at a College of Technology, joined the Jan Dlugosz University in Czestochowa (Poland), to study ‘STEM Subjects with Teacher Training’. She holds both BSc and MSc degrees in Physics, also gained from the same University. Equipped with the MSc degree, she decided to continue her career in research and Academia at the Czestochowa University of Technology (Poland), and, in 2005, successfully completed a PhD thesis, and was awarded a PhD degree in Physics, at the University of Lodz (Poland). In 2007, after moving to the UK, Dr Kamila Walters joined the University of Brighton as a Research Officer, to work on the successful completion of an Anglo-French collaborative project in the field of novel composite materials. After completion of this project, she moved to work in Industry, and, for the next 10 years, gained extensive experience working within a wide range of departments in an SME company within the FMCG sector; these departments included: operations, planning (as Planner, and, later, Planning and Reporting Manager), supply chain (as Supply Chain Manager), and finance (business intelligence – as Finance Business Partner). In June 2019, Dr Kamila Walters returned to work in Higher Education, as Lecturer in Supply Chain and Operations at the University of Brighton – in order to pass-on her industrial experience and to help to develop a new workforce, capable of taking on challenges of working within the Supply Chain.

As a Director, Administration and Supply Chain Management, Marco is responsible for all the daily operations pertaining supply chain management for the operations of “Grupo Cuinba”, a leader in leather manufacturing and trading in Mexico. His responsibilities include: production and materials requirements planning, supply chain management, financial planning and budgeting, P&L responsibility, human resource management, legal management and corporate and board relationship management. During his career, Marco has occupied several senior and directive positions, in areas such as Supply Chain Management, Administration, Finance, Project Management, Continuous Improvement and Strategic Planning. Marco received his B.S Degree in Industrial Engineering with a minor in Systems from Monterrey Tech., in Mexico, and has also three master degrees: an MBA from Thunderbird, School of Global Management, a dual degree on MSc in Information Management from Lancaster and Manchester Business School, and a Master on Tanning Processes from CIATEC, in Mexico.

Markus Mehrtens has early focused on logistics. He accomplished his retail distribution and logistics business studies at the University of Wollongong, Australia and University of Leipzig. After professional stations in Australian logistics, he has accomplished logistics projects across Europe. In various logistics consultancy and logistics project management roles for Metro AG, e.g in Valencia, Zagreb and Kiev, he has worked in warehousing and transportation considering all temperature regimes and flow types. Thereby he specialised in the entire lifecycle of contract logistics. After then being responsible for the international procurement of contract logistics at the DIY retail market leader in central and Eastern Europe he joined the MediaMarktSaturn RetailGroup. There he oversees group-wide the partnering with logistics service providers. In the corona crisis, he navigated MediaMarktSaturn RetailGroup’s logistics response.

A key contributor to one of the biggest business transformations globally, responsible for delivering the growth components of the Maersk transition to become the Global Integrator of Container Logistics. This entails defining and executing the Supply Chain Product strategy (supply chain services, 4PL, Trade Finance, Cold Chain, E-commerce, WnD and TradeLens technology (blockchain)), our M&A ambitions and being responsible for the P&L, growth and product development across the end to end supply chain for Maersk in Europe.

Petra joined DS Smith 6 years ago and in her current position, she is responsible for transport related systems and processes, control tower operation and business intelligence. With a strong logistics background gained during more than 20 years spent in transport and logistics, mainly in ops. management positions, her main target is to bring digitalization and new technologies to supply chain.

Rajesh is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor ) at the Teesside University’s Business School in the UK. Over the past 18 years, Rajesh has worked in different areas of science, business and technology across Europe, Asia and America. His primary research focuses on Business Intelligence for Industrial Automation (Industry 4.0). Before joining this role, Rajesh was the Head of Department for Technology Management and a Senior Scientist for Business Intelligence at one of the world’s renowned research institute in Germany (Fraunhofer Society). Rajesh has a BSc in Information Systems, MSc in Mechatronics and he pursued his Doctoral degree in Value Chain Engineering on a full industrial scholarship at one of the UK’s leading group ‘ Warwick Manufacturing Group’ at the University of Warwick. Rajesh has got several awards that includes 3 consecutive years of scientific excellence from Fraunhofer and the highly commendable award for the best international student of the year 2002 in Germany by the German Academic Council. Rajesh speaks 5 languages fluently including Russian and German. Rajesh has visited 55 countries for work, study and leisure.

In September 2018, I became Head of logistic at Megatech Industries. I am responsible for global logistics in the group. My main tasks are to develop supply chain, to find the optimum material flow, starting with our suppliers, continuing through our internal material flow, until delivery to our customers. And all that, at the right time, in the right quality and in the right quantity, as the logistic law writes. Standardize processes, support all our production sites and learn people to use digitalization, learn people to be responsible to yourself, to the values of the company, but also to the work itself. Megatech manufactures plastic parts for the world's best automotive brands as Volkswagen Group, BMW Group, PSA Group and other. We have about 4,000 employees in 10 manufacturing plants in Europe and one in Brazil. Using modern technologies, robotics and working on digitization, to develop sustainability and to assume social responsibility.

An accomplished supply chain and procurement professional with 13 years of hands-on experience and a broad catalogue of academic and vocational awards, including a PhD in Operations Management & Global Logistics, MSc in Procurement, Logistics and Supply Chain Management, an engineering degree, LLM in International and European Business Law as well as memberships of CMILT and MCIPS. Overhauls and transforms operations, delivering innovative supply chain solutions, diligent cost management and minimised risk.

Jorin Preuß is Vice President Supply Chain Management at ElringKlinger AG. He joined the EK Group in 2015. Since then globally responsible for all operational supply chain departments in above 25 locations. With teams in headquarter in Germany and regional functions in America and Asia, the corporate functions assign transparency and standards for all operations, such as business units and the board. Establish SAP standard training and reports for better control of supply chain management. Introduce and modify key responsibilities to interlink departments of sales, purchase, production, finance, and IT. Answerable for Capex planning and publication for all logistics equipment globally. He holds a Diploma degree in industrial engineering. Starting 2008 in automotive industry in charge of several logistics and supply chain strategy projects for operational relocations, lean improvements and SAP standardizations. Instrumental to marginal cost control for crossover production as necessary for relocations and optimisations.

Sydney Badger is a twelve-year fashion supply chain and retail veteran, having spent the bulk of her career between Amazon.com and Ralph Lauren. She lives between Shenzhen, China and Seattle, WA where she co-founded Public Habit in 2019. Public Habit is a fashion eCommerce business committed to making only what we sell in order to eliminate textile waste in the fashion industry. They are disrupting the fashion supply chain by flipping the traditional model, starting with customer demand and producing only what is needed. They ship straight from the source and deliver within 2-4 weeks.

Joe is a professor in supply chain management and local academic director (London) of the Master in Management programme at ESCP Europe Business School. His research focuses on strategic supply chain management and links to sustainability and the circular economy. He previously worked at Audencia Business School in Nantes France as Associate Professor and then Professor involved in the development and management of a Master of Science in Supply Chain and Purchasing. He was a Global Visiting Scholar at Virginia Commonwealth University, USA in 2014/15. Other positions include research fellow at the University of Bath School of Management in the UK researching sustainability and responsive supply chains in the automotive sector. Industrial experience includes work as a business process engineer and the implementation of environmental management systems in Unipart Group of Companies in the UK. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management and has been a member of the scientific committees of the European Operations Management Association (EurOMA) and the International Purchasing and Supply Education and Research Association (IPSERA).

Dr.-Ing. Sebastian Gottschalk studied Mechanical Engineering at the RWTH Aachen in Germany and INSA de Lyon in France. He did his PhD studies on Production Engineering and obtained an Executive MBA title of the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland). After working as leader of the business unit Production Management in industry consultancy and research at the RWTH Aachen he joined Beiersdorf AG in 2009. He took here the global responsibility for the production network development and Beiersdorf´s global production efficiency program and built and started-up the company’s biggest overseas facility in Mexico. Today Sebastian is leading Beiersdorf’s Supply Chain Transformation and global Engineering. He is responsible for the factory master planning and Capex program for the production network.

Dr. Nourredine Boubekri is currently a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of North Texas. He received his Ph.D. in Industrial and Management Systems Engineering. He received both his Master and Bachelor of Science degrees in Manufacturing Engineering. His career started at the University of Miami. There he founded the University of Miami Industrial Assessment Center in the year 2000, which is currently still funded by DOE. His experience includes his roles as Department chair /Director of Research and Innovation /Director of UNT SACSCOC reaffirmation. He directed more than thirty-five Master and Ph.D. Students and published more than 100 technical articles and journal papers in the areas of Green Manufacturing, New Product/Process Development Management, Project Management and Quality Management. His research funding exceeds five million dollars in grants and contracts. He has been an invited/Keynote speaker at a number of international conferences and symposiums.

Married with 4 boys aged 18, 7, 5, and 3 Angelo has a busy and rewarding home life and he has added to this by becoming a school governor at his son’s primary school. As the global merger of Dorma and Kaba in the access solutions and security industry into Dormakaba starts to come to a close, change management and structural development are still important parts of his role as Vice President of Supply chain in the region UK/Ire and Benelux. With role responsibility across HSQE, Logistics, Assembly and Fabrication, Supply chain coordination and administration, Manufacturing engineering, order processing, permutations, Fleet, Facilities management and Procurement, Angelo finds his biggest challenge remains effective and productive time management but face to face interaction with people and fostering collaboration to drive strategy into performance remain his priority.

Andreas has started his career as legacy system developer in banking IT, quickly developing into process and information flow topics. At Kotányi he concepted the central business intelligence solution and created approx. 1000 reports and analysis. With the implementation of SCM in 2008 he changed department to create effective supply chain control tools and lead internal projects. In 2013 he became Director Supply Chain Management. He is now in lead of customer service, logistics, supply chain operations, S&OP and business intelligence. Main responsibilities are reduction of lost sales, increasing goods availability, capacity management and enabling high operational stock.

Dr. Justin Goldston is a Professor of Project and Supply Chain Management at Penn State University. He is also an industry veteran where he has worked with organizations around the world such as Intel, Siemens, and Blue Buffalo on business performance improvement, organizational change, and enterprise-wide digital transformation initiatives. Dr. Goldston is the author of multiple peer-reviewed journal articles on supply chain management and innovative technologies, of Critical Success Factors in ERP Implementations, and is a five-time TEDx speaker where he discussed emerging technologies such as blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. Dr. Goldston has also led and assisted in the development of Supply Chain Management and Business Analytics programs at Georgetown University, Texas A&M University, North Carolina Wesleyan College, and has evaluated programs for the Department of Higher Education while serving on the Management Advisory Board at various higher education institutions.

Arun Samuga is Chief Technology Officer of Elemica a global SaaS-based Supply Chain Network software solution. He joined Elemica in 2009 through a merger with Rubber Network. Promoted to CTO in 2018, Arun leads Elemica’s global development organization and is responsible for the continued development of new software products and solutions. Arun has more than 20 years of relevant global industry experience in the Software and IT Services market. Prior to Elemica, Arun worked for RubberNetwork as the Director of Supply Chain Implementation and as a Supply Chain Project Manager. He was also a Senior Integration Consultant and Integration Technical Lead. Arun is a member of the Forbes Tech Council and Supply Chain Insights Network of Networks. He has been awarded a Provider Pros to Know award several times from Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine. He also has achieved 3 US patents for messaging technologies over the Digital Supply Network. He frequently writes articles for industry and trade journals. Arun is an MBA graduate from Georgia State University with a graduate degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology.

Jeanette Barlow is the VP of Offering Management and Strategy for IBM Sterling. She and her team bring to market AI-powered solutions that help today’s professionals build smarter, predictive and more transparent supply chains. Their industry-leading solutions deepen supply chain visibility, deliver seamless Omni-channel order management and fulfilment, optimize supplier data exchange and drive B2B operational efficiencies. Jeanette has a long history bringing industry firsts to market with Lotus, and later with IBM. She is a graduate of the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Uwe has more than 25 years of experience in the manufacturing environment and with industrial software and automation products. He spent 5 years as an application engineer with Schiess a major manufacturer of heavy machine tool builder before he started to be involved of developing the first Industrial PC's and the use of pc equipment to control and optimize palletize systems. Prior to Incuity and Wonderware, Uwe has built up the sales area for an engineering company and sold automation solution to all kinds of manufacturing segments. After running his own business Uwe joined Wonderware in 1994 as regional sale manager in the west part of Germany. 1995 he moved to the headquarter in the US to develop the OEM program. In this timeframe, Uwe gained also international experience in Asia. Since 1997 he was leading the sales organization of the German operation including the ERP and Maintenance sales which came through Wonderware in 1999. January 2001 he took over the position as managing director in Scandinavia where he was building up the new entity which was created in April 2001 with a clear focus on adding value to their customers business. In 2003 Uwe became the additional responsibility of the German operation as Managing Director. April 2005 he accepted the position as Director Business Development and Marketing EMEA where he was responsible for extending the established markets and grow new emergency market segments or area. Together with his Marketing manager, he developed the marketing strategies for Wonderware in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. His primary goal was to grow significant the business in EMEA as well as identifying new potential business segments. Since Jan 2014 Uwe was also appointed to the Chairman of the EMEA board of Mesa International a non-profitable association focusing since more than 20 years on Manufacturing. Uwe Kueppers is married and has a son and a daughter.

Jesper has delivered organizational footprint and technology strategies within Element design and Mould Manufacturing - establishing Engineering centres in LEGO manufacturing sites in Mexico and Denmark. Responsibilities include delivering innovation to support product development and leading engineering on manufacturing sites. During his work, Jesper has a profound focus on how IoT can support his visions and enable the future – a true IoT-technology evangelist. Jesper has worked for LEGO in several roles. 1) Responsibility for R&D in Packaging and Processing (Decorations and Assembly) product line. 2) Responsibilities for product development execution for LEGO DUPLO, LEGO Games, LEGO Technic, LEGO Hero Factory - leading development teams through design, sourcing and marketing process from concept to finished product. 3) establishing logistics strategy, delivered turn around results in increasing differentiated services and reducing costs by e.g. outsourcing, consolidating sites and redefining logistic service offering.

Electronic Engineer graduated from the University of Palermo, 39 years old. 13 years of experience in Manufacturing in 3 different multinational companies. Several positions covered (Quality SPC, Lean Coordinator, Production Manager, Plant Manager, Industrial Director, Lean and Quality Director) and since 2016 partnership with Pavia University in Lean Production training course. Leading change and people common denominator in each role, combined with a profound belief in lean principles and continuous improvement mindset. In 2016 participation to Master Class in Japan opened my eyes and helped me to better understand the deep meaning of lean manufacturing. Challenging targets always achievable if we inspire the team with a common vision and we communicate a clear strategy to them: well-defined indicators translated to all levels of the organization and people empowering is a key point for success. “Take care of your people and they’ll take care of your customers and business”: it is a note sentence in which I strongly believe.

Christian studied Materials Handling at the University of Applied Science at Erfurt, graduating with a degree in engineering (2002) and later completed a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree program at the University of Wales, UK (2012). Currently he is enrolled in a Master of Science degree program in Information Technology at the Indiana University Bloomington, USA. From 2003 till 2018 Christian held several leadership roles in Operations, Lean and Supply Chain Management for Grammer, ITW, TRW, Faurecia and Federal Mogul in Europe, Asia and the US. During this time, he was responsible for the setup of two manufacturing plants in Asia as well as more than 15 restructuring projects across the globe. Beside his operational responsibilities Christian was also jointly responsible with the conceptual design and roll out of the Production System for Federal Mogul as well as for TRW. His most challenging project was the setup of a new Just in Time plant in South Korea (2009). “At this time, I was fairly young (29) and put in charge in a culture where it is all about seniority and hierarchical levels. I have done many mistakes, have learned a lot and was successful in the end because of a great team and an inspirational leader”. Christian has a deep technical understanding and a high level of expertise in Production and Supply Chain with modern methods and standards. This expertise he is passing over in form of his lecturing assignments in International Production, Digital Strategies and Lean Management at two technical universities in Germany. Currently, Christian is working for STAEDTLER, a traditional German FMCG manufacturer, where he is responsible for the lean transformation along with the digital agenda for the manufacturing network.

David Streit is an experienced sales professional with special expertise in project- and sales management. Located in Siegen, north of Frankfurt, he spent the last 8 years in leading sales positions serving OEM´s and Endusers in several industries. As an Industry Account Manager at Rockwell Automation, the world’s largest company focused on Industrial Automation, Control and Information Solutions for the manufacturing industry, he is responsible for key customers in the Life Sciences Industry in Germany. David is focused on supporting manufacturers on their journey of digital transformation, developing the right strategy and a reliable implementation planning. Together with his wide network of experts in automation, he sees himself as a travel guide on the ongoing, exciting journey of digitalization in the manufacturing industry.

Denis is an accomplished leader with an impressive history of advancing innovative solutions, including autonomous aerial vehicles, mobile robots, and robot piece picking applications into global warehouse operations. He currently serves as Director of Business Development - Europe for Locus Robotics, leading strategic and operational initiatives aimed at increasing Locus's European portfolio. Before joining Locus, Denis led the Global Robotics Acceleration Program at DHL. In this role, he scouted, tested, advised, and deployed the latest automation and warehouse technologies across diverse industries in over 30 countries. Denis's rich international business background, extensive warehouse experience, and passion for innovation allow him to quickly strengthen Locus's European presence while also expanding existing customer programs. Denis holds a Master of Business Engineering from Steinbeis University of Berlin.

Josh Brazil joined Ocean Insights in 2018, leading structural and organizational changes as the company began expanding rapidly into the SaaS Logistics Supply Chain Visibility market. He is the Chief Operations Officer and oversees the company’s ongoing operations and procedures. He is directly responsible for the Marketing, Sales Operations and Customer Success departments. He is also responsible for driving the company to achieve sales, profitability, cash flow and business goals and objectives. He works closely with the management team to develop the company’s strategy and implement plans for the operational infrastructure of policies, processes, systems and staff. Having nurtured a career in Sales, Management, Marketing and Business Development, Josh has also served as Chief Operating Officer at FleetMon.com – a leading SaaS provider for AIS global vessel data, bringing the company to focus on becoming a data provider for integrated software systems in the logistics industry. A native of the Bay Area California, he presently resides in Rostock, Germany. Josh has a Master’s Degree in International Economics from the University of Birmingham, UK and a BA in Economics from San Jose State University, California

Amir Rashad has spent a decade as a physical commodity trader in the forestry industry between Europe, North Africa and Asia. During this time he also published market reports and presented market outlooks at conferences.     Today Amir leads Centersource Technologies (www.centersource.io), a supply-chain automation and collaboration platform that is automating global trade and logistics. The multilingual platform automates processes between producers, forwarders and buyers, and offers modules for Export/Import, Logistics, Documentation, Compliance, Analytics and almost 100 smart tools. The company is supported by leading figures in the forestry, logistics, finance, technology and analytics industries.

I like considering myself a Millennial with almost 20 years of experience. Italian, “friulano”, engineer. I spend a huge portion of my career in operations, starting from operator in assembly to factory director in Electrolux Porcia. In Electrolux Porcia factory we introduced in 2015 an innovative platform of resource management. This experience was fundamental to make the good knowledge owned by few excellent managers available to the whole organisation. In the last 2 years I’ve been leading digital transformation in Operations Europe for Electrolux. Together with my digital team we are connecting the 15 factories in Europe towards new digital experiences. We are either piloting and adopting new technologies and enabling people in becoming more familiar with them.

Prof. Dr Dimitris Kiritsis is Faculty Member at the Institute of Mechanical Engineering of the School of Engineering of EPFL, Switzerland, where he is leading a research group on ICT for Sustainable Manufacturing. He serves also as Director of the Doctoral Program of EPFL on Robotics, Control and Intelligent Systems (EDRS). His research interests are Closed-Loop Lifecycle Management, IoT, Semantic Technologies and Data Analytics for Engineering Applications. He served also as Guest Professor at the IMS Center of the University of Cincinnati, and Invited Professor at the University of Technology of Compiègne, the University of Technology of Belfort-Montbéliard and at ParisTech ENSAM Paris. Prof. Kiritsis is actively involved in EU research programs in the area of Factories of the Future and Enabling ICT for Sustainable Manufacturing. He has more than 220 publications. From September 2013 to September 2019 Dimitris was Chair of IFIP WG5.7 – Advanced Production Management Systems. From 2013 to 2017 he was a member of the Advisory Group of the European Council on Leadership on Enabling Industrial Technologies – AG LEIT-NMBP. He is also founding fellow member of the International Society for Engineering Asset Management (ISEAM), of various international scientific communities in his area of interests including EFFRA and among the initiators of the IOF (Industrial Ontologies Foundry).

Hayder is a 20 year veteran in the eCommerce and retail space having started out as a solutions architect with Amazon and for the past 10 years had held various technical and sales roles within IBM's Commerce and Sterling business units. He is currently the Omni Channel sales leader for IBM Sterling in Europe

For the last 14 years through marketing, commerce, order management and supply chain solutions, David has helped clients capture the opportunities and overcome the challenges offered by digital reinvention. His experience spans a variety of industry sectors including Retail, Consumer Products, Distribution, Telco, Manufacturing and Financial Services in Europe and South East Asia. Having joined IBM from Sterling Commerce, David has led Watson Commerce & Supply Chain sales in Europe and Asia since 2011.

He is an experienced, results-oriented executive in the IT industry with leadership experience in multiple business areas such as multicultural team management, business transformation, organizational and people development, sales strategy and execution, building high-performance sales teams, partner management, operations, marketing. Has experience in industries such as Aerospace and Retail. More globally, he is passionate about how Data and Technology can change our lives.

Dr Patrick McLaughlin is a Chartered Engineer and Eur Ing. He is a Fellow of both the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Institution of Engineering and Technology, as well as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He has an MSc in Industrial Engineering and Production Management and a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA), both from Cranfield. In a career that spans manufacturing engineer, manager and director, he has worked in both multinational and SME businesses. His experiences with a range of manufacturing processes and working for a number of different companies allied to experience in several industries has provided him with a strong background in managing manufacturing operations, including managing growth, downturn, restructuring and relocation of manufacturing facilities. He has worked at director level in manufacturing operations for over twenty years, and has been responsible for several plant-wide operations excellence implementations. He has experience of implementing and managing change programmes to improve manufacturing performance in automotive, capital goods, industrial equipment and consumer durables. This experience includes responsibility for integrating the design and development of new products into a lean operations environment and developing a continuous improvement culture to facilitate performance gains in lean implementations. He is currently working as Course Director of the Operations Excellence MSc at Cranfield University in the UK. His areas of interest are in Developing Manufacturing Strategy for Competitive Advantage, Creating an Innovation Capability in Operations Businesses, and Strategic Development of Smart Manufacturing/Industry 4 to provide Competitive Advantage.

I am the Production Unit / Operations Manager for DES (Drug Eluting Stents) Production Unit in Boston Scientific, Galway, Ireland. I lead an organisation of over 620 employees focused on delivering high quality medical devices, supporting annual revenue of $1.5bn with annual operations budget of $180m. Our success is based on a culture of high performance, enabling our teams achieve their goals focused on a common purpose. With over 15 years’ experience, my background in Operational Excellence has enabled me build systems that deliver high customer value through a culture of engagement and excellence. I have an B.Eng. in Industrial Engineering through NUIG, Galway (Ireland) and a MSc in Lean Enterprise through University of Buckingham, UK. In the 15 years of my profession career I have learned, implemented and tested methods of delivering Operational Excellence / Lean in multiple production areas and sites. From 2013 to 2016, I lead the Operational Excellence team of 15 employees in Boston Scientific, Galway in which we developed the sites Operational Excellence strategy in conjunction with the site Leadership Team. The strategy focused on delivering excellent systems based on a Culture of Engagement. In 2015, the People Engagement program commenced using a Rapid Mass Engagement approach. This program enabled the site improve Engagement levels year on year, outstripping benchmark organisations while the site grew from 2500 employees in 2015 to over 4,200 employees today. In the past 4 years I moved into direct Operations Management where I led teams and Production areas from 400 employees to over 600. My background in Operational Excellence and Culture development allowed me to introduce new systems in these areas and truly test both these systems and my ability to lead and own the results “Business and human endeavours are systems… we tend to focus on snapshots of isolated parts of the system. And wonder why our deepest problems never get solved” (Peter Senge)