AMES, Iowa -- It's no secret that supply chain efficiency and sustainability can make or break a company -- particularly in the nation's still fragile economy. That's why Iowa State University's College of Business will provide area business leaders the opportunity to learn about supply chain innovation from some proven experts at its 19th Annual Voorhees Supply Chain Conference -- also sponsored by John Deere, 3M and Boeing -- on Friday, April 8.
Held this year for the first time at ISU's Reiman Gardens, the event will begin at 8:15 a.m. with Todd Everett (left), vice president of operations, Newgistics Inc. -- an Austin, Texas-based third party logistics company specializing in small parcel delivery and return services for online retailers. He'll discuss "The E-tail Revolution," which will cover emerging supply chain trends and challenges in the rapidly growing internet retail industry.
An ISU College of Business graduate with a degree in transportation and logistics, Everett joined Newgistics in 2005 after spending the previous nine years with Intel Corp., where he had responsibility for the company's outsourced transportation and logistics functions for North and South America. He is now responsible for Newgistics' logistics network strategy, including transportation and national facility operations.
Anita Norian (right), worldwide vice president of the bioscience company Kemin Industries Inc. Des Moines, will be the speaker at 9:15 a.m. Her talk will focus on the company's innovation in meeting critical supply chain challenges, which include securing growers, ensuring appropriate farming standards and optimizing production. She will also discuss how Kemin addresses other difficult challenges and uncertainties, including the weather, yield variance and competing crop uses.
Prior to joining Kemin, Norian worked with DuPont and Pioneer in various roles, which included corporate strategy, investor relations, mergers and acquisitions, product development and marketing, as well as launching the financial competitive intelligence competency. An ISU College of Business graduate with degrees in both transportation and logistics, and accounting, she began her career in public accounting with McGladrey & Pullen, where she obtained her CPA and later completed her MBA.
Bill Stoufer (left), president of ConAgra Mills -- a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Omaha, Neb., that bills itself as "the leading source for quality grain ingredients" -- will be the 10:30 a.m. speaker. He will present information about transportation innovation-only events and how supply chain innovation wins with customers.
Stoufer has worked with ConAgra Foods -- ConAgra Mills' parent company -- for more than 20 years. He began in the company's logistics group and became manager of transportation in five years. He also held various responsibilities in sales before moving into the newly created position of vice president of supply chain in 2005. An ISU College of Business graduate with a degree in transportation and logistics, he was promoted to president last October.
Following lunch, David Salentine (right) -- supply chain manager for the film division, and the lean manager for the display and graphics division of 3M Co. in St. Paul, Minn.-- will be the final speaker at 12:30 p.m. with a talk titled "Supply Chain Innovations: We Must Think Differently."
Salentine is chair-elect of the internal Supply Chain Forum at 3M -- an innovation company with $27 billion in sales and about 80,000 employees worldwide -- and has more than 25 years of manufacturing and supply chain experience with the company. He interned with 3M in 1984 and joined full-time as an inventory accountant in 1985. His other roles with 3M have included senior materials control analyst, project leader for tape flags, warehouse general supervisor and global capacity manager, among others. Salentine assumed his current position in 2008.
Advance registration for the Voorhees Supply Chain Conference is $140 and includes all materials, speaker sessions and lunch. ISU students, faculty and staff may attend free, but must register. Students and faculty from other institutions may attend at the reduced cost of $25. The registration fee for walk-up attendees is $175 on the day of the conference.
Additional information, including online registration, is
available at http://www.business.iastate.edu/events/voorhees.
The conference was established to honor the career of Iowa
State Professor Emeritus R. Dale Voorhees, who taught at the
College of Business for more than 20 years.
