Agenda
General Session Speakers
eOptimize your performance with high caliber speakers.
Master of Ceremonies
Steve Horton, Director of Product Portfolio Management, IDEA
Steve Horton is a seasoned entrepreneur and CEO with more than 20 years of experience in the technology, CPG, wholesale distribution and global standards industries. Horton was founder and CEO of Integrated Software Systems (ISS), a leading provider of data synchronization and supply chain solutions. Under Horton’s leadership, ISS became a pioneer in the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN) community. Horton’s vision also led to the launch of the industry’s first hosted data synchronization solution for mid-market manufacturers. In 2006 ISS’ data sync business was acquired by IDEA. Horton is active in industry associations and standards governing bodies such as GS1, 1SYNC, GDSN, GMA, NFI, and AHMA.
"Gateway to Change: Shift Ideas to Results" Panel
Speakers
Bob Gaylord, President & CEO, IDEA
Brigadier General Robert Gaylord (retired) is president and CEO of IDEA, an eCommerce business-to-business solutions provider. Previously, he was President and CEO of the Leader-to-Leader Institute in New York City. Gaylord retired from the United States Army in 2005 after a long and distinguished career culminating in his assignment as senior Public Affairs Officer, responsible for strategic communications. Gaylord is also one of the military leaders in Mission Readiness, a nonprofit, bi-partisan organization of senior retired military leaders founded in 2008 to ensure continued American security and prosperity into the 21st century by calling for smart investments in the next generation of American children.
Larry Stern, Chairman of the Board, IDEA
The IDEA Board of Directors elected Larry Stern, president and CEO of Standard Electric Supply Co. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the IDEA Chairman of the Board for 2011-2012. He previously served on the Board as the Vice Chair from 2010-2011 and Treasurer from 2008-2010. Stern has been with Standard Electric Supply Co. since 1989 and has held the position of President since 1994. He is actively involved with the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED) as a member of the Board of Directors, and he serves on the Affiliated Distributors (A-D) Electrical Division Board and SupplyFORCE Board of Directors. He also participates on several distributor advisory councils with electrical equipment manufacturers. In 1997, Stern received a national award from Electrical Wholesaling magazine as a Rising Star in the electrical distribution industry. Locally, he also serves as an officer on the Board of the Menomonee Valley Business Association and was appointed to the Menomonee Valley Business Improvement District by the Mayor of Milwaukee. Stern obtained his juris doctor from Southern Methodist University School of Law and obtained his undergraduate degree in accounting at the University of Wisconsin. He is a member of the Wisconsin Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the State Bar of Wisconsin.
Andrew White, Research VP, Gartner
Andrew White is a research vice president, and his primary research focus is master data management (MDM). He specializes in the drill-down topic of creating the “single version of the product” using MDM of product data. White has a strong background in supply chain management (SCM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) and multienterprise collaboration. His roles include Key Initiative Lead for Information Governance and MDM Programs, as well as back-up Agenda Manager for Information Management, and he also chairs the U.S. MDM Summits. White received the Gartner Thought Leadership Award in 2006 for his effort in pioneering Gartner’s research in enterprise information management that led to MDM. Prior to joining Gartner, White was in the software industry for eight years, consulting on SCM/SCP and collaboration (CPFR, CTM) solutions to CPG/retail companies. White also served on the VICS (www.vics.org) CPFR (www.cpfr.org) Advisory Committee, where he chaired the Trading Exchange Interoperability subcommittee and previously chaired the n-tier CPFR subcommittee.
Moderator:
Mike Wentz, Director of Sales and Marketing, IDEA
Mike has more than 20 years of distribution and technology experience and has expertise in a variety of industries including electrical, plumbing, HVAC, industrial, medical, electronics, lighting, safety products, fasteners and food distribution. He has helped hundreds of distributors develop technology plans to increase sales, improve customer service, and decrease operating expenses. As Director of National Accounts for Epicor (Activant Solutions), he focused on identifying and developing partnerships between Epicor and targeted industry organizations. He also co-founded an early eBusiness venture that facilitated transaction cost reduction and information flow in the construction supply chain. Mike is active with NEMA, NAED, ALA, HARDI and ASA and has worked closely with industry marketing groups such as A-D, IMARK, Johnstone Supply Group, Blue Hawk and IMCO.Panelists:
Jason Archbold, Marketing Catalog Supervisor, Border States Electric
Jason Archbold is the Marketing Supervisor overseeing the Catalog and Marketing Intelligence functions at Border States Electric. Jason’s team is responsible for the gathering, assembly and management of product content that is presented in the Border States online product catalog, print catalogs, product flyers and other marketing materials. Working with Border States Marketing Managers, Branch Managers, and other leaders, his team identifies priority products to spend time and resources on gathering images, product descriptions, product features, product attributes, and related documents. As the Marketing Catalog Supervisor, he also works directly with manufacturers to co-create content and explore methods for the future creation and exchange of catalog content. Jason has nearly 15 years of experience working in positions of marketing analytics, project management and marketing management. He currently serves as the Vice-Chair of the Product Information sub-committee whose goal is to expand the electrical UNSPSC categories with accurate definitions and attributes.
David Farahmandpour, eCommerce Manager, Leviton Manufacturing
David Farahmandpour is eCommerce Manager at Leviton Mfg Co with over 13 years’ experience in the Electrical Industry in eCommerce. His career has moved from VMI Coordinator, EDI Coordinator, e-Commerce Analyst to eCommerce Manager. His group is responsible for driving costs out of the Supply Chain, improving order cycle times, while increasing electronic Value Adds for Leviton’s customers. He is currently working on a project to develop an internal data repository for Leviton to store all of its structured and unstructured item data. David is also responsible for Leviton’s ez-Biz website, a self-service tool for the Electrical Distributor to access business to business information 24/7.
Ron Schlader, Vice President of Operations and Quality, Crescent Electric Supply
Ron Schlader has been working for Crescent Electric Supply since he was a fresh college graduate. He has since worked his way up to become Vice President of Operations and Quality. Schlader spearheaded the initiative for ISO9000 certification in the mid-90’s and now oversees purchasing, inventory management, auditing, SPA processing, product database management, traffic, and efforts to improve efficiencies through data synchro¬nization and operational initiatives with vendor partners. Schlader is heavily involved with NAED and served as the Chairman of the IDEA Board of Directors in 2008.
Peter Vient, Data Sync Coordinator, OSRAM SYLVANIA
Peter Vient has been employed by OSRAM SYLVANIA INC for the past 17 years and currently is in the Business Development group. He started in the Information Department and is now responsible for synchronizing accurate data for all the Sales Channels within SYLVANIA. Peter is also the Sales Operations EDI advocate and handles NAFTA reporting for the company as well. Accurate and complete data has become a mission for Peter ever since he was responsible for the printing of the paper catalog and he will not rest until everyone in SYLVANIA realizes how important data integrity is to our bottom line.
Phoenix Companies: How to Be the First to Bounce Back
Tim Sanders, New York Times best-selling author and former CSO of Yahoo!
Tim Sanders was at ground zero during the dotcom crash, as Yahoo!’s Chief Solutions Officer. He saw some companies and individuals rise up from the ashes and others wither and fail. The difference, he learned, lies in confidence, trust in team and belief in mission. He should know; these practices catapulted him from sales executive at Mark Cuban’s broadcast.com to Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo! in less than four years. A best selling author, leadership coach, and former Yahoo! executive, Sanders is one of today’s most prominent advocates for building business success through sharing your knowledge, network and compassion with your business partners.
Richard Buzun Award Panel and Presentation
Moderator:
Mike Wentz, Director of Sales and Marketing, IDEA
See bio above.
Panelists:
George Droder, Vice President of Customer Service, ERICO International
George Droder has over 20 years of experience in business management and technology. He is currently the Vice President of Customer Service at ERICO International, responsible for global Customer Service operations, Technical Support, Commercial Support and Customer Relationship Management. He actively participates in IDEA as a previous Chair and current Research Analyst for International B2B/e-Commerce. His previous career experience includes being a Managing Partner at numerous Tier 1 consulting firms focused on management consulting, e-business strategy development, and operations/supply chain optimization.
Kyle Johnson, Corporate Marketing Manager, Viking Electric Supply
Kyle Johnson, a 27 year veteran of the electrical distribution industry, has held managerial positions in operations, sales and marketing over the course of his career. Currently, he is the Corporate Marketing Manager for Viking Electric Supply, headquartered in Minneapolis, MN. Viking Electric Supply is an operating company of Sonepar USA, the largest electrical distribution entity in North America.
Mark Richards, eCommerce Director, Leviton Manufacturing
Mark Richards currently holds the position of eCommerce Director at Leviton Mfg Co. Through the years, Mark has played a vital role in expanding the department from a single service in EDI to a full suite of services that include VMI, A B2B on-line portal, Data Sync, Customer Compliancy and Paperless services. His recent projects include a website redesign, a fax to EDI proposal and a strategy for enabling the quick publication of item attributes. The goal of his department is to continually make it easier to send and receive data by eliminating costly transactions through automation.Ron Schlader, Vice President of Operations and Quality, Crescent Electric Supply
See bio above.
"Building a Cross-Generational Workplace" Panel
Moderator:
Dennis Griess , Senior Managing Consultant, IBM Human Capital Management
Dennis Griess is a Senior Managing Consultant in the IBM Human Capital Management consulting practice and a leader in the Knowledge and Collaboration team in the Public Sector. Focused on transforming business and realizing sustained business results using social business platforms, he has over 25 years' experience providing solutions to improve individual and team productivity including integrated portals and document, content, and workflow management. His extensive experience includes developing communities of practice and applying associated collaboration tools, business process reengineering, integrated portals for commercial and public sector environments. Mr. Griess currently leads consulting and delivery engagements in the public sector. His specializations include preserving critical knowledge, collaborative portal design, user adoption and sustaining practices, standards, governance, taxonomy and portal integration.
Panelists:
Barry Carden, VP and CIO, Mayer Electric Supply
Barry Carden has over 26 years’ experience in the Electrical Distribution Industry in Information Technology. His career has moved from computer operator, developer, business analyst to VP & CIO. He has led three successful ERP upgrades, hardware conversions, virtualization projects, cloud based solutions, disaster recovery projects, ecommerce projects and numerous business process improvements. Barry’s team is responsible for all Information Technology projects at Mayer Electric including ERP, ecommerce, web offerings, Business Analytics and telecommunications. As CIO he helps develop and implement not only IT related strategic plans but also companywide strategic plans as a member of Mayer’s Senior Leadership Strategic Team. He is a MIS graduate of University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB). He currently serves on the UAB ITS Advisory Board, United Way VAT, and the IDEA Standards Committee.
Rebecca Jacoby, Senior Training Manager, Eaton Corp.
Becky Jacoby has over 17 years of electrical industry experience in Customer Service, Technical Support, Sales, Product Line, and Training positions. She also worked in the financial services industry as a Senior Business Training Manager for PNC Bank and in 2011, returned to Eaton as a Senior Training Manager, supporting the Americas Region in the Electrical Sector. Her team is responsible for product, process, sales and systems training for Eaton employees and channel partners. From instructor-led and virtual classrooms to online games and twitter videos, her team is continuously exploring educational services that maximize blended learning methodologies and styles.
