Meet Your Speakers

Robert Nordman, Senior Process Improvement Analyst, Strategy and Execution Group, AmTrust Bank
Tim Patrick, Vice President, Strategy and execution Group, AmTrust Bank
Alison Dennis, Director Supply Chain Development, Burgerville
Karl Baker, Vice President Corporate Action Announcements, The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation
Bill Scotto, Director, Master Black Belt in the Business Reengineering and Quality Office, The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC)
Don Wiiken, Director, Business Reengineering and Quality, The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC)
Kurt Paquin, SVP Operations & Process Management, Cision
Tonja Summit, SVP Enterprise Planning & Strategic Initiatives, Wachovia
Keith Holiday, Director Corporate Supply Chain, Sonoco Products
Ken Marcia, Vice President Supply Chain Management & Process Innovation, Dresser-Rand Company (part of the SEA, Supplier Excellence Alliance)
John Demonica, SVP Operations, Compucredit
Dari Damazo, Director Training and Development, Operations, Compucredit
Chuck Aubrey, VP Operations and Lean Six Sigma, Anderson Packaging
Joe Ficalora, Executive Vice President, Sigma Breakthrough Technologies Inc.
Laura Mills, Black Belt, United Space Alliance
Laura Winner, Lean Sigma Deployment Leader, Johns Hopkins Medicine
Amit N. Prachand, Process Improvement Leader, Northwestern Memorial Hospital
Randall Hoeflein, Vice President, Continuous Improvement, Rockwell Automation
Jason Schulist, Director Continuous Improvement, DTE Energy
Scott Sealing, Project Lead, SCOR, Lean & Six Sigma Integration, United Space Alliance
Sherry R. Gordon, Author, Supplier Development & Performance Excellence
Michael Sklar, Continuous Improvement Manager, DTE Energy
Troy Vellinga, Vice President, Continuous Improvement, W.W. Grainger Inc.
Joe Costello, VP of Operations, Sigma Breakthrough Technologies Inc.

robert_nordman Robert Nordman
Senior Process Improvement Analyst, Strategy and Execution Group
AmTrust Bank

Robert works in the Strategy and Execution Department as Senior Process Improvement Analyst for AmTrust Bank - a $17 billion Bank headquartered in the Cleveland area. With AmTrust remaining committed to an ever increasing standard of excellence in performance and customer service, the Strategy and Execution Department functions as the link between organizational strategy and tactical projects.

Robert joined AmTrust as a Black Belt 1 1/2 years ago to develop, deploy, and coach Lean Six Sigma quality practices. He has an Industrial and Systems Engineering Degree from the University of Michigan - Dearborn, and an MBA from North Park University in Chicago, Illinois. With ten years experience in banking operations, ten years in the service/hospitality industry, and a couple years in manufacturing, his diverse background provides several perspectives for process improvement.

Tim Patrick
Vice President, Strategy and execution Group
AmTrust Bank

Tim is Vice President at AmTrust Bank managing the Strategy and Execution group. Tim is responsible for ensuring the Consumer Banks IT and Process Improvement initiatives support the AmTrust's objectives.

Tim has been with AmTrust for nearly 2 years and has managed Item Processing, Strategy & Execution and Testing. Tim received his MBA from Weatherhead School of Management and his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Prior to AmTrust, Tim spent over 13 years in management consulting focusing on managing multinational process & technology improvement programs within the manufacturing, internet, telecom & utilities industries.

alison_dennis Alison Dennis
Director Supply Chain Development
Burgerville

Alison Dennis is The Holland, Inc.’s Director of Supply Chain Management, responsible for applying the company’s sustainable values to every link within the supply chain. Key programs include sourcing and building supplier partnerships, menu development, biodiesel program and composting and recycling program.

Prior to joining The Holland in 2006, Dennis served as a business and process improvement consultant and was Purchasing Director for Oregon Health and Science University. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Bennington College.

Karl Baker
Vice President of Corporation Action Announcements
Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation

Karl has been with The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) for twenty years. The vast majority of that time has been spent in Corporate Actions. Karl currently oversees the announcement process for all Corporate Action events and is also responsible for DTC’s Proxy Services group.

Beyond his day-to-day responsibilities, Karl holds a Black Belt in Six Sigma and is actively involved in DTCC’s Quality Program. He is a three time winner of DTCC’s Chairman’s Award for Quality and also acts as a mentor to individuals training to become Six Sigma professionals.

Before joining DTCC, Karl spent three years at E.F. Hutton, where he worked in their Reorganization Department.

Karl holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Rutgers College, Rutgers University.

Bill Scotto
Director, Master Black Belt in the Business Reengineering and Quality Office
The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC)

Bill has been involved with quality and efficiency for over 25 years at DTCC. In 2000, he joined Business Reengineering and Quality and was instrumental in deploying the Six Sigma Methodology into the organization. As one of the original team members, he developed and set up the initial Quality infrastructure, training and governance of the program. Bill is a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt and trainer. Bill has extensive experience in business process improvement. He coordinated and mentored many cross-functional Six Sigma, Lean and Process Excellence projects throughout the organization. His most notable accomplishment was developing a Customer Service strategy by establishing the Customer Help Center (CHC) to improve overall customer satisfaction. He was honored by receiving the first Quality Chairman’s Award for Quality and Excellence.

Prior to joining DTCC, Bill was an Industrial Engineer at Beatrice. He has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics with a Minor in Industrial Engineering from Richmond College.

Don Wiiken
Director, Business Reengineering and Quality
The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC)

He is a Certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt. Don has extensive, hands-on experience improving business performance spanning new service concept to high volume production. He has experience in financial services, information services and high technology industries. Since joining DTCC, Don has led and mentored a variety of cross-functional Six Sigma, Process Excellence and Business Process Reengineering initiatives, and managed the DTCC Balanced Business Scorecard program. For example, the Customer Onboarding initiative Don led was recognized as 2007 Global Six Sigma Award winner for Best Achievement of Six Sigma in Service and Transactional Environments.

Prior to joining DTCC, Don was Division Manager of Innovation Management at AT&T Labs (formerly AT&T Bell Labs). Over his 25 years at AT&T Labs, Don was responsible for leading Business Process Reengineering, Process Excellence, New Service Planning, New Service Realization, Quality Assurance and Reliability Engineering organizations. Don led many strategic, large-scale initiatives globally and domestically with both AT&T customers and AT&T units improving value streams and expanding market share.

Don has Master’s Degrees in both Physics and Information and Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois.

kurt_paquin Kurt Paquin
SVP Operations & Process Management
Cision

Kurt Paquin joined Cision in 2002 as Vice President of Media Monitoring Operations. In his current role as Senior Vice President of Operations and Process Management, Kurt is responsible for directing and managing all of Cision print, internet, and distribution operations as well as process improvement initiative throughout the company. Prior to Cision, Mr. Paquin had responsibility for directing multiple call centers for a large, national telecommunications company. In addition, from 1990 to 1998 he was employed with Motorola and held various positions in areas such as business process reengineering, software development, manufacturing and operations. Kurt brings to Cision expertise in Quality Management, Continuous Process Improvement, and Operations Automation. Mr. Paquin is a certified Six Sigma Blackbelt, holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering Technology from Northern Illinois University, a M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and an M.B.A. from Northern Illinois University. Mr. Paquin also sits on the College of Engineering Advisory Board.

tonja_summit Tonja Summit
SVP Enterprise Planning & Strategic Initiatives
Wachovia

Tonja Summitt is Director of the Portfolio Office for Enterprise Planning and Strategic Initiatives. She provides business consultation, strategic thought leadership, program oversight and program management for enterprise-wide initiatives that will positively impact Wachovia’s EPS. She formerly served as Performance Excellence Leader, Chief Quality officer for Direct Access and as a senior leader with AT&T Communications. Tonja has been key note speaker at many Process Improvement, Business Process Improvement and JMP conferences and serves as a business process improvement subject matter expert/mentor at Wachovia. Tonja is a certified OD Consultant; PMP; Six Sigma Master Black Belt; and Certified trainer for Covey and Blanchard. She has led business process improvement initiatives for more than 20 years. While working at AT&T, her division won the prestigious Malcolm Baldridge award. Tonja received her MBA, graduating at the top of her class. Tonja is married and has two children, two grandchildren and four dogs. Tonja stays active in the community volunteering as a youth counselor and serving as Chairman of the Board for Huntersville Christian Academy.

Keith Holiday
Director Corporate Supply Chain
Sonoco Products

Director, Corporate Supply Chain at Sonoco Products Company leading the end to end process capability improvement work with a target of becoming a top quartile supply chain performer in the packaging industry Prior to joining Sonoco, was the Director of Supply Chain Transformation and Six Sigma Champion- Global Operations for DuPont, leading the application of six sigma across DuPont Operations and to business processes, specifically the end to the end supply chain.

Previous to this assignment, Keith was Corporate Champion for Business Process Improvement, Global Six Sigma Champion for DuPont Engineering Polymers, and One of the original DuPont Champions. He also functioned as part of DuPont’s Six Sigma Champion Network and Design for Six Sigma corporate team leader.

Keith has a Manufacturing/ engineering background with 30 years DuPont experience and overall 34 years in manufacturing with assignments at sites across the US and global experience leading business process improvement.

Ken Marcia
Vice President Supply Chain Management & Process Innovation,
Dresser-Rand Company (part of the SEA Supplier Excellence Alliance)

Ken Marcia holds the position as Vice President, Supply Chain Management & Process Innovation Worldwide, with Dresser-Rand Company. Prior to joining Dresser-Rand, Mr. Marcia held executive leadership positions within United Technologies Corporation. From March 1999 to December 2005, Mr. Marcia served as Director Supplier Development for United Technologies Corporation including its divisions; Carrier Corporation, Pratt & Whitney, Hamilton Sundstrand, Sikorsky, Otis, UTC Power, and UTC Fire & Security. Prior to this assignment Mr. Marcia held the following positions within the Hamilton Sundstrand division: Vice President of Purchasing, Director of Operations, Commercial Aircraft Products General Manager, Director of Environmental Control Systems, Quality Engineering Manager, and Chief of Manufacturing Engineering.

Mr. Marcia has spoken at numerous industry forums on Supply Chain and Lean including Purchasing Magazine’s CPO Summit, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) annual conference, the Connecticut Shingo Prize Conference, Supplier Excellence Alliance symposiums, and Business VoiceAmerica.

Mr. Marcia graduated cum laude with a BS in Mathematics from the University of Hartford. Additionally, he has twice been elected Board President of the Supplier Excellence Alliance (www.seaonline.org), and served on the Board of the National Minority Supplier Development Council.

john_demonica John Demonica
SVP Operations
Compucredit

John has 25 years of Collection, Customer Service and Project Management experience in Consumer and Commercial credit including:

3 years as Senior VP of Operations for CompuCredit; Atlanta, GA
Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Commercial Billing and Inquiry – Xerox Capital Services (a joint venture with GE), St Petersburg, FL.
Six Sigma Black Belt – GE Consumer Finance; Tampa, FL and Leeds, UK
Site Leader at two GE Consumer Finance facilities; Home Depot Credit Services (Customer Service), Atlanta, GA and JCPenney Credit Services (Collections), Portland, OR

dari_damazo Dari Damazo
Director Training and Development, Operations
Compucredit

Dari has 13 years of Training and Management experience and 7 years of experience in Call Center Operations including:

7 years in Training & Development with CompuCredit; Atlanta, GA where she and her team are responsible for CompuCredit’s Voice of the Customer process as well as supporting the training, documentation, and quality functions for internal customers and external vendors
5 Years as a Recruiting Manager and Trainer with Hall Kinion; Raleigh, NC

chuck_aubrey Chuck Aubrey
VP Operations and Lean Six Sigma
Anderson Packaging

Chuck Aubrey is currently Vice President of Lean Six Sigma and Process Management and is a Master Black Belt at Anderson Pharmaceutical Packaging a subsidiary of Fortune 500 AmerisourceBergen Corporation. He was formerly President and is now Chairman of the Asia Pacific Quality Organization and their Representative to the World Alliance for Quality. In addition, Charles is an Academician in the International Academy for Quality.

He formerly held Vice Presidential positions at Sears Roebuck & Co., American Express Corp., Banc One Corp. and Bank America. Charles worked as Vice President Consulting for ten years, the majority of the time with Dr. Juran at the Juran Institute. He is a former President and Chairman of the American Society for Quality and is also a Fellow of ASQ. He was a Senior Examiner for the Baldrige National Quality Program for four years and is a retired Captain from the United States Navy.

Chuck is the 2006 recipient of Harrington/Ishikawa Medal for his extensive contributions of quality education and implementation in Asia. In addition he received the Shanghai Magnolia Quality Contribution Award in 2007 for significantly assisting the development of quality in China. He is an Honorary Member of the Argentine Quality Association and the Philippine Society for Quality.

He has written two books, Quality Management in Services and Teamwork-Involving Employees in Quality and Productivity. He has also written chapters in six other books, most notably in Dr. Juran’s Quality Management Handbook. His books have been published in Spanish, Italian and Arabic. He has published over 100 articles and papers that have been translated into a variety of languages.

Joe Ficalora
Executive Vice President,
Sigma Breakthrough Technologies Inc.

Joe Ficalora joined SBTI in 1998 as a Master Consultant and in May of 2002 assumed the position of Executive Vice President at SBTI. In this role Mr. Ficalora is responsible for the methodologies, content and technical approaches used by SBTI. He is the developer and designer of number one Rated Master Black Belt program in the country.

Mr. Ficalora has over 20 years industrial experience in Project Management, Engineering, Manufacturing and Quality. He has averaged 6 Million dollar returns per Black Belt Class project. He has led Six Sigma deployments in Operations and Engineering for several clients, including Executive and Champion rollout sessions. He was also the Engineering Supervisor for the development and initial production of Allied Signal’s Ring Laser Gyro product line. His work at AlliedSignal earned him a technical achievement award. His team’s efforts increased delivery rate by 400%.

Mr. Ficalora has worked and is certified as a Black Belt and Master Black Belt. He has consulted to clients in the industries of medical devices, beverage, health care and food packaging, electronics, metal, glass and plastics manufacturing. He has mentored, designed and taught workshops to Executives, Champions, Master Black Belts, Black Belts, and Green Belts in Design for Six Sigma, Six Sigma in Manufacturing, and Transactional Business projects worldwide. Mr. Ficalora is a top-rated and sought after instructor and speaker in these areas.

Mr. Ficalora also holds seven patents in lasers and optical devices including development of the first kind of Fiber Optic Rate Gyro for Mercer Engineering Research Center. He is an active member in IEEE and ASQ. Mr. Ficalora holds a Master’s in Electrical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology and a Bachelors of Science in Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Laura Mills
Black Belt
United Space Alliance

Laura Mills is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt from the Logistics & Material Organization at United Space Alliance, LLC and has held positions in a variety of areas such as Purchasing, Logistics, Finance and Manufacturing at companies including USBI / United Technologies, and Pratt & Whitney. She holds accreditations from the Institute for Supply Management, Inc. as a Certified Purchasing Manager and is a member of the Project Management Institute. Laura has a Bachelors Degree in Professional Administration from Barry University and is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Project Management from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.

laura_winner Laura Winner
Lean Sigma Deployment Leader
Johns Hopkins Medicine

Laura Winner is the Lean Sigma Deployment Leader for the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System. Laura earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from The Johns Hopkins University, followed by an MBA in the Business of Medicine program at The Johns Hopkins University School of Professional Studies. She is a Lean Sigma Master Black Belt and serves as faculty for the Lean Sigma Prescription for Healthcare course offered through the Johns Hopkins Office of Continuing Medical Education. She holds a joint appointment with the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and has over ten years of clinical nursing experience at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Emergency Nursing and Cardiology

Amit N. Pranchand
Process Improvement Leader
Northwestern Memorial Hospital

Amit leads process improvement initiatives at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) that significantly impact the hospital’s strategic plan. His most recent projects include guiding the improvements of the NMH campus wide medical emergency response process and facilitating improvements that help position the hospital to most effectively manage the growing number of patient visits to the emergency department. Prior to joining NMH, Prachand spent seven years leading process improvement efforts globally in the printing industry and six years in the automotive industry in multiple assignments focused on quality, safety, ergonomics and process improvements. Prachand is a Senior Member of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and an ASQ-certified Manager of Quality/Operational Excellence. He earned a master’s degree from Vanderbilt University and undergraduate degree from Northwestern University

randall_hoeflein Randall Hoeflein
Vice President, Continuous Improvement
Rockwell Automation

Randall Hoeflein joined Rockwell Automation to assume the role of vice president, Continuous Improvement in February 2007. In this role, Hoeflein provides global leadership and strategic direction for the company’s continuous improvement efforts in quality, customer satisfaction and Lean Six Sigma. Hoeflein has extensive experience in quality management across a wide variety of industries. Prior to joining Rockwell Automation, he served as vice president of Quality for Honeywell Transportation Systems, a $4.5 billion global division of Honeywell, International, Inc. Hoeflein set the strategic direction and led the efforts of a 500+ member team to achieve customer satisfaction and minimize warranty costs through improvements in reliability, plant and supplier quality, and contract management. From 2000 – 2005, Hoeflein served as vice president of Quality for Marconi, a $2.9 billion telecommunications company later acquired by Ericsson. As a member of the senior leadership team, he helped engineer a company turnaround, taking the company from the brink of bankruptcy to being re-listed and profitable. Hoeflein also spent time in quality leadership roles with other noteworthy companies, including Millipore Microelectronics and Otis Elevator Company (a division of United Technologies). An experienced quality practitioner, Hoeflein is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Certified Quality Auditor, Certified Quality Manager and Certified TQM instructor. He holds a MBA from the University of New Haven, West Haven, Conn., USA, and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Va., USA.

jason_schulist Jason Schulist
Director Continuous Improvement
DTE Energy

Jason Schulist currently serves as Director of Continuous Improvement at DTE Energy, where he oversees deployment of DTE’s Lean Six Sigma continuous improvement methods. He is the co-creator of DTE’s Sustainable Lean Sigma (ppd) discipline.

Prior to joining DTE, Jason worked 13 years at General Motors and 2 years at School-Pak applying lean, six sigma, and organizational learning methods to various business challenges. Jason’s degrees include a BS from Marquette University and a MS in Electrical Engineering and an MBA from MIT. He is also certified as a Lean Sigma Black Belt from DTE.

Scott Sealing
Project Lead, SCOR, Lean & Six Sigma Integration
United Space Alliance

Scott is the Enterprise Project Leader for Supply Chain Management for United Space Alliance at the Johnson and Kennedy Space Centers. He has 26 years’ experience in aerospace and defense, primarily NASA Space Shuttle Contracts.

In his current role, Sealing leads Enterprise and product-line supply chain definition for identification of improvement opportunities. He established a Company level Supply Chain Management Team to analyze USA’s supply chains utilizing the SCOR model. He continuers to refine that process and is leading a pilot project extending the SCOR model methodology to major suppliers.

Prior to joining USA in 1998, Sealing held positions in Logistics, Procurement, and Business Management at Lockheed. He has supported operations at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility, NM, Johnson Space Center, TX, Ames Research Center, CA and, the Kennedy Space Center, FL.

Sealing holds a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from Western Illinois University

sherry_gordon Sherry R. Gordon
Author
Supplier Development & Performance Excellence

Sherry Gordon is President of Value Chain Group, a supply management and performance excellence consultancy. She is a pioneer in enterprise measurement and process improvement techniques. After the acquisition of her company, Valuedge, she was Vice President, Supplier Performance at Emptoris, a leading provider of enterprise supply management software solutions. Valuedge’s supplier evaluation software became part of Emptoris’ software suite. Before founding Valuedge, where she was President, and CEO, she ran the New England Suppliers Institute (NESI), a non-profit organization focused on improving customer-supplier business relationships and on using lean enterprise practices to improve supplier performance. Sherry has worked for manufacturing and distribution companies and management consulting firms and has expertise and experience in applying performance improvement methodologies such as Lean and Six Sigma to the supply chain.

Sherry is a book author (Supplier Evaluation and Performance Excellence) and frequent speaker on enterprise performance improvement, business excellence and supply chain topics and has also chaired several major conferences. Ms. Gordon has a B.A. from University of Michigan, an M.A. from Columbia University, and an MBA from Simmons Graduate School of Management.

Michael Sklar
Continuous Improvement Manager
DTE Energy

Michael Sklar is a certified Lean Sigma Blackbelt from DTE Energy, where he currently serves as a Continuous Improvement Manager. He has used Lean and Six Sigma methods to improve performance for manufacturing, service, and public sector organization for over 20 years. During his 9 years with the US EPA, he worked on programs that eliminated millions of tons of air pollution, including Reformulated Gasoline, the Regional Ozone Transport Rule, Tier 2 vehicle/fuel standards, and the 2004 and 2007 heavy-duty diesel standards.

Mike is the co-creator of DTE’s Sustainable Lean Sigma (ppd) discipline. His degrees include an MS from the University of Michigan and a BSE from Princeton.

troy_vellinga Troy Vellinga
Vice President, Continuous Improvement
W.W. Grainger Inc.

Troy K. Vellinga was named Vice President, Continuous Improvement in August 2007. In this role he is responsible for development and execution of customer-focused performance management strategies and plans across all Grainger business units.

Mr. Vellinga joined Grainger in 1991 and has served the company in increasingly responsible roles in Branch Operations, Supply Chain and Quality Development. Prior to his current role, he served as Vice President, Customer Service Support, responsible for process, systems and other operations support services and functions for Grainger’s U.S. branch network.

He graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies. He also holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Mr. Vellinga is actively involved with quality and process improvement organizations outside Grainger. He has served three terms as an examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and currently serves as a Judge for the Lincoln Award for Excellence / The Lincoln Foundation for Performance Excellence.

joe_costello Joseph M. Costello
Vice President of Operations
Sigma Breakthrough Technologies Inc.

Mr. Costello joined Sigma Breakthrough Technologies Inc. in September 2002. As Vice President of Operations he currently heads the integration of Lean and Six Sigma training, technical development and project deployment through SBTI’s consulting staff.

Since joining SBTI Joe has developed and launched SBTI’s fastest growing product offering, Lean Leader™, a Lean curriculum that focuses on design and deployment methodologies that have dramatically improved operational and transactional processes worldwide. Lean Leader™ is now the chosen Lean deployment practice for many global, fortune 500 companies including: Tyco International, Osram Sylvania, Ecolab, Celanese Chemical, Ashland Specialty Chemical, BASF and others.

Prior to joining SBTI, Joe held the position of Engineering Manager and was the lead engineer for the prototype design operations at Kelsey Hayes’ automotive brake systems in Jackson, MI. Joe designed the manufacturing process of the brake systems for such automotive product launches as Chrysler’s Prowler and Viper production lines. Joe’s operational re-design case studies have been featured in several lean implementation “How To” publications. Joe has also authored several technical publications in manufacturing journals and contributed one of his case studies to a newly published text on Lean Manufacturing.

Joe is an accomplished public speaker with recent engagements at Lean Sigma quality conferences ranging from Healthcare to Project Management.

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