Professor David Simchi-Levi, Professor of Civil and Enviromental Engineering, MIT:
Dr. Simchi-Levi holds a Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University. His research currently focuses on developing and implementing robust and efficient techniques for logistics and manufacturing systems. He has published widely in professional journals on both practical and theoretical aspects of logistics and supply chain management.

Dr. Simchi-Levi has been the principal investigator for more than five million dollars in funded academic research. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Operations Research, the flagship journal of INFORMS, the former Editor-in-Chief of Naval Research Logistics and a member of the board for several scientific journals including Management Science, Networks, Transportation Science and Telecommunication Systems, and a former Area Editor of Transportation for Operations Research. His Ph.D. students have accepted positions in leading academic institutes including Berkeley, Columbia U., U. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, U. of Michigan, Purdue U., Georgia Tech, and Virginia Tech.

Professor David Ulrich, Professor of business at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan:
Dave Ulrich is a Partner and co-founder of The RBL Group and a professor of business at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. Professionally, he studies how organizations build capabilities of speed, learning, collaboration, accountability, talent, and leadership through leveraging human capital. He has helped generate multiple award winning data bases that assess alignment between strategies, human resource practices and HR competencies.

Debra Hoffman, Vice President, Supply Chain Top 25:
Debra Hofman brings over 20 years of experience in the research and advisory business to her position as Vice President, Supply Chain Top 25. Her research focuses on supply chain excellence and the effective use of metrics and measures in optimizing performance. Previously, she launched and led AMR Research’s Benchmark Analytix Service, which provided company-specific supply chain performance assessments tied to the use of technology and best practices.

Engelbert Wimmer, Head of Manufacturing Industries Practice, PA Consulting:
Joined PA in April 2006 as a Member of PA’s Management Group in Strategies and Industries Group based in Frankfurt, being global head of Manufacturing Industries practice yet. Engelbert joined from Horvath & Partners where he was Principal, Head of Competence Center Automotive Industry. Prior to that Engelbert was with PWC for 3 years, following 2 years where he ran his own entrepreneurial company, Wimmer & Bergmann OEG.

Dr. Jeffrey Liker, Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan:
Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan and President of the Toyota Way Academy-an organization that teaches and certifies Toyota way practitioners. Dr. Liker has authored or co-authored 75 articles and book chapters and nine books. He is author of the international best-seller, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer, McGraw Hill, 2004 which speaks to the underlying philosophy and principles that drive Toyota’s quality and efficiency-obsessed culture. The companion (with David Meier) Toyota Way Fieldbook, Mcgraw Hill, 2005 details how companies can learn from the Toyota Way principles. His book with Jim Morgan, The Toyota Product Development System, Productivity Press, 2006, is the first that details the product development side of Toyota. He is doing a series of books focused on each of the 4Ps. His articles and books have won six Shingo Prizes for Research Excellence and The Toyota Way also won the 2005 Institute of Industrial Engineers Book of the Year Award and 2007 Sloan Industry Studies Book of the Year. He is a frequent keynote speaker and consultant. Recent clients include Hertz, Caterpillar, AMD, Android, Areva, Rio Tinto Mining, Tenneco Automotive, Jacksonville Naval Air Depot, US Air force Material Command, Johnson Controls, Harley Davidson, Eaton, and Fujitsu Technical Services.

John Stark, President of John Stark Associates:
Dr. John Stark, president of John Stark Associates www.johnstark.com , is an internationally recognized thought- leader and writer on the topic of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). In 2004, he published Product Lifecycle Management: Paradigm for 21st Century Product Realisation. This book is first to describe a new ‘cradle to grave’ holistic paradigm of PLM, with the primary objective being to increase product revenues and the value of the product portfolio.
In this new PLM paradigm described by John Stark, PLM is seen as an essential value-adding investment. Without it, there would soon be no products to offer customers, and no products for which to provide services.

Dr Michael Grieves, Author and International PLM Expert:
Dr. Michael Grieves splits his time between the business and academic worlds. He is the author of “Product Lifecycle Management: Driving the Next Generation of Lean Thinking” (McGraw-Hill, 2006).He founded and was Co-Director of the Product Lifecycle Management Development Consortium (PLM DC) at University of Michigan’s College of Engineering. He developed and teaches the Product Lifecycle Management Overview course, the first executive-level course on PLM at the university level. Dr Grieves lectures world-wide on PLM.

Mike James FCMA, DMS, Group Managing Director ATS:
As co-founder, Mike has developed ATS into one of the world’s largest independent solution providers. With a passion for Continuous Improvement programmes and MES standardisation initiatives, Mike has been a leading Consultant to many world-class companies guiding their strategic initiatives into Lean Six Sigma, Manufacturing Intelligence and Manufacturing Execution Systems.

Professor Richard Wilding, Director of the supply chain risk forum at Cranfield School of Management:
As Chair (Full Professor) at the Centre for Logistics & Supply Chain Management and Director of the supply chain risk forum at Cranfield School of Management U.K. Richard works with European and International companies on logistics and supply chain projects in all sectors including pharmaceutical, retail, automotive, high technology, food drink and professional services to name a few. He is a highly acclaimed presenter and regularly speaks at Industrial Conferences and has undertaken lecture tours of Europe and Asia at the invitation of local Universities & Confederations of Industry. He has published widely in the area of supply chain management and is Editorial Advisor to a number of top journals in the area. At the “Supply Chain Distinction Awards 2008″ Professor Wilding was awarded “The Distinguished Service award for thought leadership and service to Supply Chain Management”.

Thomas Brand, Managing Consultant PA Consulting:
Thomas Brand is the Managing Consultant with PA’s Strategy and Industries Group in Germany focusing on business unit strategy, performance improvement, due diligence, organisational design and making change happen with industry focus in high tech and automotive industry and a sound understanding of manufacturing and supply chain processes.

Professor Yossi Sheffi, Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Director of MIT’s Engineering Systems Division:
Dr. Yossi Sheffi is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he serves as Director of MIT’s Engineering Systems Division and the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics. He is an expert in systems optimization, risk analysis and supply chain management, which are the subjects he researches and teaches at MIT, both at the MIT School of Engineering and at the Sloan School of Management. He is the author of dozens of scientific publications and two books: a textbook on transportation networks optimization and the recently published The Resilient Enterprise: Overcoming Vulnerability for Competitive Advantage (MIT Press, October 2005). Under his leadership, the Center launched many new educational, research, and industry/government outreach programs, leading to substantial growth. He is the director of MIT’s Master of Engineering in Logistics degree which he founded and launched in 1998. In 2003 he launched the MIT-Zaragoza program, building a new logistics university in Spain based on a unique international academia, government and industry partnership. In 2008 he launched the Center for Latin-American Logistics Innovation in Bogota, Colombia, with participation of dozens of Latin-American universities and businesses.