Dan Ariens, President & CEO - Ariens Company
Dan Ariens, great-grandson of company founder Henry Ariens, joined the company in 1983 and became president and CEO in 1998. Since that time, Arien's leadership has been defined by a set of five core values and fifteen management principles that clearly outline management expectations. His core values are simple and unwavering: be fair; be honest; respect the individual; keep our commitments; and encourage intellectual curiosity.

A strong proponent of lean manufacturing principles, Ariens has created a culture of continuous improvement that has resulted in the creation of world-class manufacturing facilities by lean standards. He was personally recognized in 2007 with the Eli Whitney Productivity Award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and is frequently tapped as a mentor by organizations promoting lean leadership. In 2012, he was inducted into the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) Hall of Fame in recognition of his ability to inspire others in their pursuit of manufacturing excellence.

Over his tenure, Ariens has led several strategic acquisitions, creating a family of brands that represent several of the most respected names in the consumer and commercial equipment markets as well as the replacement parts and accessories segment of the industry. He is also an active participant in industry issues, having served on the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute (OPEI) Board of Directors since 2000, including two terms as board chairman.

David Beddow, VP Manufacturing Operations, Crown Equipment Corporation
Dave Beddow has over 30 years of manufacturing leadership experience with 25 years in plant and operations management positions with companies such as Johnson Controls, Fleetwood Enterprises, and Wilson Sporting Goods. The past 12 years of Beddow's career have been with Crown Equipment Corporation, initially as director of manufacturing, and for the past 6 years as vice president of manufacturing operations.

Current responsibilities with Crown Equipment include overall leadership for Crown's US and Mexico operations, corporate lean / operational excellence, and manufacturing environmental, health and safety.

John Bradford, Chief Innovations Officer - Interface America's Inc.
To John Bradford, Interface's commitment to sustainability is just one more opportunity to innovate.  A 1990 mechanical engineering graduate from Auburn, Bradford currently holds several patents and has trademarked multiple processes within the textile industry.  Finding innovative ways to reduce his company's footprint on the environment is a challenge that John is well suited to meet.  He is leading Interface Americas toward becoming the first sustainable enterprise by 2020.  John was recently elected to the RBRC Board of Directors from outside of the battery and small electronics industry, Bradford brings a wealth of experience in sustainable innovation, operations and structuring organizations for industry leadership and growth. Call2Recycle® is North America's only free rechargeable battery and cell phone collection program.

Bradford came to InterfaceFLOR after a seven-year career at Milliken, ending after rebuilding the company's flagship operation after a devastating fire.  Upon coming to InterfaceFLOR, John consulted with multiple business units in the company.  John was then dispatched to City of Industry, CA, as general manager, to re-engineer the manufacturing processes at the company's broadloom operations, Bentley Prince Street.  Suffering under too many layers of process, Bradford worked to simplify operations while bringing together the manufacturing of the company's two broadloom brands, Bentley and Prince Street, together under one roof.  While in City of Industry, John worked with the California government to improve the options for industrial customers who want to use green power.  This group later became the Climate Action arm of the California government, which capped carbon emissions and operates under a cap and credit system.

Since joining Interface in 1997, John has held positions in the areas of operations, product development, R&D, and business development.  Today, as chief innovations officer,  John is responsible for the growth and excellence of the research, product development, business development, and organizational development.  He has helped pioneer interactive ways for InterfaceFLOR to ideate with customers around the challenges facing certain market segments.  This has helped increase InterfaceFLOR's innovation and speed to market over three fold in less than 10 years. 

Recent innovations developed under John's leadership include TacTiles, a no-glue installation method; Cool Blue, a backing line utilizing recycled carpet components; the industry's first technology to reclaim and recycle nylon 6,6 for the commercial market; and energy conversions throughout manufacturing facilities that include renewable energy and a partnership with the City of LaGrange to harness methane gas from the local landfill for power generation.

Rusty Callier, Director of Operations – Uponor North America
Rusty Callier joined Uponor in June 2001 and currently serves as director of operations for Uponor North American. In this role, Callier is responsible for driving quality improvements, business growth, continuous improvement and improved profitability for Uponor's North American manufacturing capacity. Prior to joining Uponor, he worked in environmental management with Aveda and served as a machinery technician in the U.S. Coast Guard. He holds a B.S. in Land Use Planning from the University of Wisconsin – River Falls and an M.B.A. from the University of St. Thomas School of Business.

John Carter, President - Diaphgragm & Dosing Pump Technology, IDEX Corporation
John Carter has been with Warren Rupp, a business unit of IDEX Corporation, since 1993, in various positions including district manager, VP of manufacturing and, most recently, president.  During Carter's time as president of Warren Rupp, the company won the coveted IDEX Corporation Chairman's Award and was named 2011 Business Unit of the Year as well as the IndustryWeek Best Plants award for 2012. John has also received numerous commercial excellence and operational excellence awards over the years. Carter played a critical role in the Material Flow Optimization (MFO) project and consistently leads the team in their drive for continuous improvement, operational excellence and ensuring positive customer experiences.

In early 2013, John was promoted to the role of president of diaphragm & dosing pump technology (DDPT). With this promotion, he is currently responsible for six business units, including Warren Rupp.

Bob Cortese, Controller - CTS Automotive
Bob Cortese is a senior manufacturing leader with over twenty-five years of progressive experience with major multinational organizations including CTS Corp., Goodrich Corp., Brunswick Corp., and Federal government. Cortese's financial-based expertise is coupled with an extensive working knowledge of all aspects of a multi-site, multi-country manufacturing operation including materials, quality, procurement, design and engineering development, testing, ERP systems and system analysis. He has developed his own philosophy of lean, "Lean was designed for the individual who is not afraid to fail, not afraid to challenge the status-quo, capable of logical thought and has the ability to get the team to see his/her vision about what is possible".

Humberto Del Rio, Manager of World Class Manufacturing - Case New Holland
Humberto Del Rio is an industrial engineer whose career has been spent in the manufacturing sector, most specifically driving lean and World Class Manufacturing(WCM) initiatives. As WCM manager for CNH's Wichita, Kansas skid-steer production facility, Del Rio helped the plant improve their WCM scores, placing Wichita as the highest scoring among all CNH construction plants. Del Rio's leadership generated the most best practices for benchmarking, and exceeded the savings target of 8% over the transformation cost for CNH Wichita. He holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering.

 

Tim Dorsey, President - The Dorsey Group
Tim Dorsey has provided performance improvement initiatives to domestic and international organizations for more than 25 years. Dorsey's distinctive operational excellence strategy strives for world-class error free operations by documenting processes, identifying problem areas, implementing solutions and creating a COPQ (Cost of Poor Quality) recovery plan with a focus on sustainability through motivated, engaged employees. His approach is to train at all levels of the organization, from top executives to front-line employees, maintaining that each level is critical to overall success.

Mark Fendley, Continuous Improvement Manger / VPS Program Leader – BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC
Mark Fendley joined BMW Manufacturing in 1998 as an assembly manager for the initial X5 launch and production start. Fendley managed teams throughout X5 assemby from powertrain through trim operations until 2004. In 2004, he was selected as one of the initial Lean Six Sigma Black Belt candidates when this continuous improvement program was launched. In 2006, he assumed responsibility for managing the continuous improvement team, with responsibility for complete site training, coaching, and project initiatives for lean, six sigma, and associate involvement continuous improvement. Fendley and his team also support other BMW divisions and factories with training and coaching support. He holds a bachelor's degree in industrial management from Georgia Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Mercer University. Prior to joining BMW, Fendley worked for Pepsico / Frito-Lay in Georgia and for Ikeda Bussan / Nissan Motor Manufacturing Corp in Tennessee.

Greg Flickinger, V.P. Manufacturing and Corporate Engineering – Snyder's Lance, Inc.
Greg Flickinger has a very strong technical foundation paired with extensive experience in leading organizations through transformational change. Flickinger has worked for Snyder's- Lance for four years, focusing on transitioning the culture from a traditional structure to a high performance structure centered upon TEE (Total Employee Engagement). One of the key vehicles driving the change has been the implementation of TPM tools and methodologies. Under Flickinger's leadership, the Charlotte manufacturing site achieved an 11% reduction in total manufacturing cost through people and process without any significant capital projects. Along with exceptional business performance, the site also drove safety and quality performance to historical levels. More recently, the Columbus manufacturing site has replicated the engagement framework to drive an even more impressive performance turn around.

Prior to Snyder's-Lance, Flickinger worked for General Mills in strategic technology development, R&D product development and plant operations management. Over his years at General Mills, he had responsibility for the national launch of 11 products from concept to full production and reducing their cost per case by 12%, becoming the lowest cost producer in the division.

Flickinger has multiple invention records, 4 patent applications and 3 granted patents for food production processes and technologies. He holds a Masters and Ph. D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois.

Rick Foreman, Director of Lean Development – Federal Heath Sign Company
Rick Foreman has over 32 years of Gemba engagement experience, with progressive leadership roles in the aerospace, telecom, sign and medical industries. This in-depth knowledge of engagement and hands-on implementation of lean methodology has resulted in developing a strong expertise in organizational and cultural change. During these years, Foreman has assisted numerous teams and developed leaders to embrace lean behaviors, beyond the use of tools only. Within the past six years at Federal Heath, he has led the successful development and implementation of lean thinking across multiple locations in manufacturing and office environments. During this period, two of the Texas facilities received recognition for continuous improvement from TMAC, while overall realizing significant, positive business results. He holds a BA in management ethics, a MAM in business management, and 30 years of coaching, mentoring and teaching.

Will Franks, President - ICON Business Associates
Will Franks has been at the leading edge of various continuous improvement and lean manufacturing methodologies for many years, specializing in value creation for many companies. Beginning as a design and manufacturing engineer with Xerox Corporation, he participated in one of Xerox's first teams based on Japanese "Quality Circles." This experience continued at Ciba Corning with "TQM" and "JIT," widely recognized as an early version of lean manufacturing. Beginning in 1995, Franks facilitated the spread of Kaizen to hundreds of US companies by leading "Kaizen Blitz" workshops in cities across the country and speaking at various conferences.

Franks has held manufacturing operations positions such as VP of manufacturing for Pfizer, VP of operations for PLC Medical, and VP of production for the Reliable Automatic Sprinkler Company. In 1997, Franks began ICON Business Associates, a lean manufacturing consulting business. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from UMass Dartmouth.

John Frehse, Chief Strategic Officer and Managing Partner - Core Practice
John Frehse speaks around the world on a variety of best practices in the labor management field. Frehse's experience covers a wide array of strategic issues - from analytical resource deployment modeling to implementation planning and execution. Specific tactical problems include scheduling and shift management to increasing employee satisfaction, health, morale and performance.

Frehse also has authored numerous white papers and articles including the "11 Keys to Strategic Scheduling." His strategy papers have been awarded the Leading Idea of the Week by Booz Allen twice. In December of 2011, John's article entitled "The Overtime Lie" was included in the HAalso in INDUSTRYWEEK

Mark Hardesty, General Manager FMS Operations, Advanced Technology Services
Mark Hardesty is a certified maintenance and reliability professional with over 43 years of factory maintenance and leadership experience. He is a founding member of the Advanced Technology Services (ATS) team that began inside of Caterpillar in 1985. During his career at ATS, Mark has held positions from technical support manager, to site and area operations manager to director of operations to his current position as general manager of factory services with an emphasis on heavy equipment market.

Pamela B. Howze, SPHR, Training and Development Manager, Siemens Energy
BS Western Carolina University 1984
MS Troy State University 1986
Senior Professional in Human Resources, SPHR 2007
Doctoral Program at NC State: 2009-Present, Adult Education and Leadership, Research Area of Interest:  Apprenticeship and Career Technical Education

• Served as a Commissioned Officer in the US Army and SC National Guard 1984-1992
• Production and Loss Prevention Manager, Michelin Tire Corporation Manufacturing Division, Anderson, SC 1987-1990
• North and South Carolina Community College Systems 1990- 2008
• North Carolina Customized Training Program, Regional Trainer, NCCCS 2008-2010
• Training and Development Manger, Siemens Energy, Charlotte, 2010-Present

Certifications:
Achieve Global
Development Dimensions International
NC Manufacturing Certification
Zodiak: The Business of Manufacturing
NC Community College System Train the Trainer
Saddle Island Institute Master Certificate in Manufacturing
Senior Professional in Human Resources
Six Sigma Green Belt

Advisory Board, Industry Workforce Needs Council of the Association for Career and Technical Education
Advisory Board, MeckEd
Advisory Board, North Carolina State University Workforce and Human Resource Education
Advisory Board, Energy Academy, Olympic High School
Curriculum Advisory Board, Cleveland Community College Industrial Management Technologies

 

Poul Jeppesen, President and CEO - SKF USA Inc.
Poul Jeppesen was named president of SKF Americas in 2012 with an overall responsibility for USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. A native of Aalborg Denmark, Jeppesen started his professional career in 1980 as a sales engineer for an SKF authorized distributor. He joined SKF Denmark in 1982 and moved to the USA in 1991, where he has established permanent residence.

During his thirty-year career with SKF, Jeppesen has held several management positions in the areas of sales, marketing, product management and manufacturing. Prior to the appointment of President & CEO of SKF USA Inc. in 2010, Jeppesen served as President of SKF Actuation Systems, a global business unit with seven manufacturing and design operations in Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, China, Taiwan and the USA.

Jeppesen's educational background is in mechanical engineering with study in business administration, marketing and finance. He also attended executive courses at the Darden Business School in Virginia and the SKF Global Business Consortium course with the London Business School. He currently holds an Executive Six Sigma Green Belt certificate.

Hal Johnson, President & CEO, Upstate SC Alliance
Hal Johnson was appointed to the position of president/CEO for the Upstate SC Alliance in February 2005.  This organization and position works not only on the regional level but works on the local level to market the Upstate South Carolina Region to companies for a new business location.

Prior to joining the Upstate SC Alliance, Johnson's career included manufacturing and sales positions for Milliken and Company and Tietex Corporation; executive director of the Orangeburg County Development Commission, and project manager with the South Carolina Department of Commerce.

He's been named a "Knowledge Economist" by the South Carolina Research Authority and 2003 "Economic Developer of the Year" by the National Rural Economic Developers Association.

William Jones, V.P. Operations, East Asia, IDEX Corporation
Bill Jones has extensive operations and supply chain experience having spent the last 25 years in operational roles at Warren Rupp, most recently as the VP of operations and supply chain.  Jones has been instrumental in Warren Rupp's success by implementing mix model lean, material flow optimization and strategic supply chain initiatives.  Jones joined the Warren Rupp team in 1987. He has held numerous titles and elevated levels of responsibility, from senior buyer to materials director to VP operations and supply chain.  Bill's drive for continuous improvement is evident in all job functions.  Bill was the lead for the successful Material Flow Optimization (MFO) project at Warren Rupp.

Jones was recently promoted to the VP of operations for the IDEX Technology Services (ITS) facility in Suzhou, China.  In this new role he is responsible for strategic direction for ITS and working with multiple IDEX business unit teams on supporting market growth in Asia.

Jill Jusko, Senior Editor and IW Best Plants Awards Coordinator, IndustryWeek
Senior Editor Jill Jusko covers strategies and best practices in manufacturing workforce and operations leadership. She provides information about workforce compensation strategies, education and training, employee engagement and retention, and teamwork. Her coverage of operations excellence spotlights companies that have achieved world-class results in quality, productivity, cost and other benchmarks by implementing the latest continuous improvement and lean/Six Sigma strategies.

Jill also coordinates IndustryWeek's Best Plants Awards Program, which annually salutes the leading manufacturing facilities in North America.

Jill has also served as the editorial project director for the IW/MPI Census of Manufacturers. She received her bachelor's degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University.

Eric Lail, Vice President Continuous Improvement - Transportation Insight
Eric Lail has been trained by Toyota and Shingijutsu and is one of only 200 Shingo Prize examiners in the world. Lail has led lean journeys for companies ranging from $5 million to $8 billion in sales and has conducted more than 400 kaizen events in dozens of companies throughout North America.

Renae Ledford, Process Engineer and Continuous Improvement Leader - Valdese Weavers, Inc.
With over twenty-five years in the textile industry, Ledford has held key positions such as plant industrial engineer, plant manager and account manager at various companies including Alba-Waldensian and GoldToeMoretz. Ledford holds a master black belt and has helped Valdese Weavers increase efficiencies across all areas of the company, decrease lead times and improve customer service.

Subra Manivannan (Mani), Manager – Global Continuous Improvement Lean Production Systems - Franklin Electric
Subra Manivannan (Mani) has extensive knowledge in continuous improvement, lean manufacturing, material cost reduction and supply chain management. He holds a Six Sigma Black Belt, a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, and a Master of Engineering in Manufacturing Systems. Prior to joining Franklin Electric, Mani worked for Ford Motor Company, Rolls Royce (Aerospace) and Accuride.

Rick Marquardt, senior vice president, NCR Global Operations
He is responsible for sales and operations planning, sourcing, supply chain operations, fulfillment and NCR's five internal manufacturing facilities.

Prior to this role, Marquardt served as vice president of Global Manufacturing for NCR where he was responsible for in-sourcing the company's manufacturing operations and opening up two new plants—one in Columbus, GA to service North America and the other in Manaus, Brazil to service Latin America.

Prior to this role, Marquardt was vice president of Global Operations for NCR's Financial Industry Business Unit, responsible for all aspects of operations including manufacturing, procurement, SIOP, and customer fulfillment. He joined NCR in 2006.

Marquardt also worked for Motorola Corporation, where he held increasingly responsible operations and manufacturing positions, including a four-year assignment in Taiwan and a one-year assignment in Mexico, managing operations with an excess of $1B spend annually.

His assignments have included vice president of Asia Manufacturing Operations, Motorola Connected Home Division; Vice president Mexico Manufacturing Operations, Motorola Connected Home Division; Vice president Global Operations, NCR Financial Solutions Business; Vice president Global Manufacturing, NCR.

Sam MacPherson, President - Lean Leadership Academy
Sam MacPherson is a former chief of training for the Elite United States Army Special Forces (The Green Berets) and a vice president of operations. MacPherson has dedicated over twenty-five years to developing organizational leadership and lean transformation leaders. He was introduced to the Toyota Production System and the Shingo method in the mid-1980's, while serving as project leader for Dr. Shigeo Shingo.

MacPherson led operational excellence as a plant manager for Crown Cork and Seal's plastics operations and has led successful lean transformations in operations and engineering as director of lean operations and quality systems; division director of operations, and executive in the marine industry. He retired from active military service in 2004 and private sector daily operational leadership in 2007 to devote full time to his lean advancement partnership with North Carolina State University and guiding organizations in developing organizational lean leadership and transform their current operating system to the Toyota Management System through the Lean Leadership Academy.

MacPherson holds a B.S. in Management, Univ. of Alabama; M.S., in Strategic Military Operations from the US Army's prestigious School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) program, US Army Command and General Staff College.

Pete Selleck, chairman and president, Michelin North America
Pete Selleck is a 30-year veteran of Michelin. During his career, he has held numerous high-level management positions, including manger of quality control and tire assembly operations, plant manager, VP of Michelin Tire Manufacturing in the U.S. and Canada, COO of Michelin Americas Small Tire operations, and  President of worldwide Truck Tires. Today, as chairman and president of Michelin North America, Mr. Selleck is responsible for the coordination of all operations of the Michelin Group in North America that consists of 18 major manufacturing facilities and about 22,000 employees.

Mike Stuedemann, Engagement Manager - Savigent Software
Mike Stuedemann uses his 15+ years of software development and information technology experience to lead a number of developers and technologists in implementing Savigent's manufacturing automation and operations software. 

Prior to joining Savigent, Stuedemann worked for:  Medtronic in a number of IT leadership roles; Data Recognition Corporation as a business analyst; and for Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) as a staff consultant.  He holds undergraduate degrees in International Management and Japanese from Gustavus Adolphus College and an MBA from the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management.

Bob Melvin, V.P. Engineering - Teledyne Benthos, Inc. 
Melvin received a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maine. He holds three patents in the area of signal processing. Teledyne Benthos is comprised of four companies, each with their own engineering departments. Teledyne Benthos, Teledyne TapTone, and Webb Research are on Cape Cod while Teledyne Gavia is in Iceland. Melvin is responsible for overseeing engineering at all companies and maintaining their Knowledge Based Product Development process and knowledge library. Bob considers himself a practical engineer, always looking for ways to improve himself and the company.

Keith Mobley, Principal - Life Cycle Engineering, Inc.
Keith Mobley is recognized and acknowledged as one of the premier authorities in the fields of corporate, value-stream and plant performance optimization. His forty-five years of experience includes twenty-five years of direct engineering and management experience culminating as executive VP and COO. Applying lessons learned, he has dedicated the past twenty years to helping clients worldwide achieve and sustain best-in-class performance.

Mobley has written more than twenty books and hundreds of articles on management best practices, continuous improvement, workforce development and change management, as well as the technical skills required to achieve and sustain best practices in all functional groups within a corporation.

Missy Moore, Senior Director Information Management - RAI Services Co.
Missy Moore currently serves the product and supply business pillars of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co, American Snuff Co., Santa Fe Tobacco Co and Niconovum. Moore's client business units include all manufacturing sites, R&D, leaf, supply chain and procurement. In this role she provides strategic and tactical project and support leadership for the enterprise business application suite under her supervision which includes MES and a large portion of SAP.

Moore started her career at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co in 1988 as a process engineer working in high speed discreet manufacturing areas as well as batch material distributed control systems. Across her tenure at RJRT, she has worked in all of their manufacturing sites in either a production engineering or management capacity and served as the director of the controls and systems engineering group prior to moving to her current role in 2008. She holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University and has her NC PE license in control systems.

Amit Mukerji, Executive Manager Quality - ABB Inc.
Amit Mukerji has many years of industrial experience within the electrical industry. His expertise is a result of having had a global exposure, working in the U.S.A, U.K., India, China, Germany, Japan, Canada, and Mexico. Mukerji has successfully implemented greenfield projects/factories, turned around under-performing organizations and executed factory re-locations and outsourcing. His strengths are in leading innovation and creativity, delivering market-beating products and services.

Mukerji has served in many senior management, R&D, engineering, quality/continuous improvement, and manufacturing operations roles with ABB Inc., Siemens, General Electric Company and other companies.

Erik Nistad, Director, Enterprise Business Services, Integrated Supply Chain, Mondelēz International
Erik Nistad is an information systems professional with 30+ years of systems development, support and management experiences across manufacturing, product development and retail. Working with global and regional teams, Nistad's key remit is to define and deliver standard processes and tools across Mondelēz International's global supply chain. Prior roles include director of IS service delivery MTI, supporting and splitting Kraft's global manufacturing systems operations. Nistad was the IS lead at Kraft Foods for the North American SAP implementation across 54 manufacturing facilities.

Susan Nutson, SVP Human Resources, Saint-Gobain North America 
Susan Nutson is a human resources executive in the manufacturing industry.  Before joining Saint-Gobain in 2012, Susan Nutson had been vice president of global human resources at Atkore International.   Before joining Atkore in 2010, Nutson served as HR director, global operations at Carrier Corporation at United Technologies, where she provided strategy and governance for compensation and benefit planning, performance management, talent development, labor negotiations and workforce inclusivity.  Prior to Carrier, she was vice president human resources, North America at Tower Automotive, with responsibility for compensation strategy, wage and benefit planning, recruitment and retention, as well as policy development/implementation and labor strategy.

Nutson started her career at General Motors Corporation and later spent much of her tenure at Ford Motor Company, holding diverse positions of increasing responsibility in organizational development, labor relations, talent development and acquisition, human resources business operations and international service operations.

Brett Petrie, Leader of Global Distribution and Logistics - Life Technologies
Prior to his current role at Life Technologies, Brett Petrie served as the site leader of the Austin manufacturing site (2011 INDUSTRYWEEK Best Plants Winner). There, he led the transformation of the small but successful start-up Biotech operation into one of Life Technologies largest and most successful manufacturing sites. In addition, he has been leading the implementation of high performance work teams across the company worldwide. Prior to Life Technologies, Petrie served in numerous roles in manufacturing, quality assurance and engineering with several medical diagnostic companies. He specializes in site transformation using lean manufacturing, Six Sigma disciplines and high performance work teams.

Susan Pretulak, Executive Director - readySC
As the vice president of economic development and workforce competitiveness for the SC Technical College System, Susan Pretulak is responsible for the oversight of both nationally recognized programs – readySC™ and the Apprenticeship Carolina™.

readySC™ is the System's flagship training and recruiting program helping thousands of South Carolinians each year find new and better jobs. The program's customized services are an attractive incentive to businesses interested in relocating to or expanding in the state. readySC™ consistently earns South Carolina a top-five national ranking of states with the best workforce training programs.

Launched in 2007, Apprenticeship Carolina™ makes certain all employers in South Carolina have access to the information and technical assistance they need to create demand-driven registered apprenticeship programs. Since its launch, the number of registered apprenticeship programs in the state has more than tripled as have the total number of active apprentices.

Art Smalley, President - Art of Lean, Inc. Art Smalley has over two decades experience with the Toyota Production System and leadership development. Smalley was one of the few Americans to ever work for Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan. He learned TPS principles first hand at Kamigo Engine Plant which was founded under Taiichi Ohno and to this day remains the preeminent model for many aspects of the Toyota Production System.

In addition, Smalley worked with Russ Scaffede as director of improvement on a highly successful lean turnaround of Donnelly Corporation in the 1990′s. He also worked for several years at the international consulting firm of McKinsey and Company along as serving as a senior instructor at the Lean Enterprise Institute.

Smalley has published three books to date on a variety of topics including JIT scheduling methods, A3 Thinking, and Kaizen Methods. Two of these works have won Shingo Prizes for Research.

Eddie Smith, Manager of Operations - Case New Holland
Eddie Smith is an experienced manufacturing professional, a catalyst to improving the bottom line of several mid- to large-size manufacturing companies including Michelin Tire, Titan Wheel International, AmeriForge Group, and Metaldyne. One of his largest project accomplishments, completed at CNH, contributed over $490,000 savings. He holds a B.S. in Business and a Master's Degree in Engineering Management. Smith is also a Certified Quality Engineer and Auditor in the American Society for Quality.

John Southcott, Co CEO, Brock Solutions
John Southcott's business experience encompasses twenty-five plus years in executive management and independent business consulting. His executive management experience includes over twenty years with Deloitte Consulting, where he held a variety of leadership roles including ERP practice leader in Canada, Americas manufacturing industry practice director, and global managing director of strategic partnerships and alliances. As co-CEO at Brock Solutions, Southcott works with Brock's largest customers as a strategic advisor and executive sponsor.

Mark Stratton, General Manager - Cat Reman Remanufacturing & Components Division, Caterpillar Inc.
Mark Stratton provides leadership to the Caterpillar's Remanufacturing business, one of the world's largest, processing more than two million units and recycling more than 100 million pounds of remanufactured products each year.  Stratton has responsibility for the production operations of 12 facilities located in the U.S., Mexico, and Europe and oversees the technical and product teams that manage the Cat Reman product line and those of external clients.  His commercial team manages Cat Reman sales in the Americas and Europe, sets strategic product direction, and provides core management services globally.

Prior to his current position, Stratton was facility manager in a series of Caterpillar focused facilities that include Danville, Kentucky; Prentiss, Mississippi; Corinth, Mississippi; and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.

Mark first began his Caterpillar career in 1988 in the Large Engine Center located in Lafayette, Indiana. During his time there, he held a number of assignments with increasing responsibility in operations and technical services, eventually becoming their technical services manager with a lead role in their facility modernization, automation, and capacity expansion.

Mike Stuedemann, Engagement Manager - Savigent Software
Mike Stuedemann uses his 15+ years of software development and information technology experience to lead a number of developers and technologists in implementing Savigent's manufacturing automation and operations software. 

Prior to joining Savigent, Stuedemann worked for:  Medtronic in a number of IT leadership roles; Data Recognition Corporation as a business analyst; and for Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) as a staff consultant.  He holds undergraduate degrees in International Management and Japanese from Gustavus Adolphus College and an MBA from the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management.

Rob Temple, Plant Manager - The Harris Products Group
Rob Temple has been a driving force in The Harris Products Group's Mason, Ohio plant's cross functional team-based continuous improvement efforts. These efforts have led to significant safety and environmental awareness programs, first pass yield gains, streamline manufacturing processes, and most importantly employee involvement. In 2011, Temple's plant received the EHS Chairman's Award from The Lincoln Electric Company for the outstanding results and processes developed. Temple also was the recipient of the Harris Products Group President's Award for outstanding overall achievements in 2011.

Temple joined the company in 1998 as a design engineer to manage the design and deployment of custom production lines for the aluminum and brazing operations. Over the past fourteen years, he has taken on several key positions with increased responsibilities such as production manager and process manager, before becoming plant manager in 2007. He been involved in the execution of several plant layouts, plant moves as well as company acquisitions.

Michael Thelen, CI Training Manager - Wells Enterprises, Inc
For fifteen years, Mike Thelen has journeyed down a lean path. Starting with cellular design and now/next/kanban, growing to flow and value streams, he strives to see, and show others, the forest and the trees. Guiding lean systems (utilizing policy deployment and greenbelt training) and showing respect for people, he has led improvements from front-line supervision to organizational lean leadership.

In addition to training and guiding all levels of an organization, Thelen also works with local educational and civic organizations to share the concepts and theories of continuous improvement to a broader audience. He founded the Aberdeen Lean Forum in 2007 and the Siouxland Lean Consortium in 2011, in addition to his role as continuous improvement training manager for Wells Enterprises, makers of Blue Bunny ice cream.

Patrick Varekamp, Senior Technical Staff Member – Microelectronics Division, IBM
Patrick Varekamp has 17 years of experience in the research, development and manufacturing of semiconductor chips, including more than 35 papers in peer reviewed literature and 24 patents. Varekamp is an expert in physics and chemistry at the atomic level, semiconductor process technology, and database-driven web site programming. His first exposure to lean was 8 years ago, as part of a team that transformed the logistics operations in a fully automated $3B state of the art semiconductor fabricator in East Fishkill, NY. Since that time Varekamp has applied lean methods to a variety of factory processes at IBM, including tool alarm handling, scrap wafer analysis, and scrap prevention. For the past two years, in addition to his day job, he has been acting as a lean coach to the upper level managers and executives in the advanced microelectronics solutions team located in Fishkill NY, Burlington VT, and Bromont Quebec.