Brent R. Beabout

Senior Vice President Supply Chain
Office Depot

With over 20 years of experience in leading change spanning a variety of industries and markets, Brent Beabout specializes in creating and developing cross-functional groups that provide comprehensive, data-driven solutions to an organization’s key decision makers.

Prior to joining Office Depot, Brent held the position of Vice President, Engineering at DHL Express. In that role, he had operating responsibility for industrial engineering, operations research, material handling solutions, and facility design for all hubs, gateways and stations within the US. His responsibilities included leading several teams in the design and implementation of an optimized large-scale network and associated infrastructure. He also co-developed a predictive algorithm and tool to rapidly calculate the expected routing and performance metrics for over 19,000 delivery routes per day, improving on-time delivery to end customers.

Before joining DHL, Brent was Director, Operations Engineering at Amazon.com where he was instrumental in creating and leading their engineering organization at the onset of the company’s rapid growth period. Prior to that role, he served in a variety of managerial positions within operations. He began his professional career as a naval officer while serving over a decade on nuclear-powered submarines.

Brent is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. He also holds a Master of Science degree in Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. He is a member of IIE, INFORMS, and CSCMP and has been a guest lecturer at MIT. Brent is a frequent collaborator with academia on the intersection of supply chain operations and technology.

Rick D. Blasgen

President and CEO
Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals

Rick D. Blasgen currently serves as president and chief executive officer of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) in Lombard, Illinois, USA. CSCMP was formerly known as the Council of Logistics Management (CLM).

He began his career with Nabisco, working in a regional customer service center in Chicago, Illinois. While at Nabisco, he held various logistics positions of increasing responsibility in inventory management, order processing, and transportation and distribution center operations management. He became vice president, supply chain, at Nabisco in 1998, then vice president supply chain for Kraft in 2002. From 2003 until 2005, he served as senior vice president integrated logistics at ConAgra Foods.

Throughout the past 26 years, Blasgen has devoted much of his time to furthering a number of company’s supply chain management programs and initiatives. This experience has given him a solid foundation for his role at CSCMP.

He has served as a member of CSCMP’s Board of Directors, and is a past president of the Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC). He is a past chair of the Grocery Manufacturers Association Logistics Committee and a member of Northwestern University’s Transportation Center Business Advisory Committee. He earned his degree in business administration from Governors State University.

John J. Coyle, Ph.D.

Director of Corporate Relations for the Center for Supply Chain Research and Professor Emeritus of Logistics and Supply Chain Management in the Smeal College of Business
Penn State University

John J. Coyle is currently Director of Corporate Relations for the Center for Supply Chain Research and Professor Emeritus of Logistics and Supply Chain Management in the Smeal College of Business at Penn State University. He holds a B.S. and M.S from Penn State, and earned his doctorate from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where he was a U.S. Steel Fellow. He joined the Penn State faculty in 1961, and attained the rank of Full Professor in 1967. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he has served in a number of administrative positions including: Department Head, Assistant Dean, Senior Associate Dean, Special Assistant for Strategic Planning to the University President, and Executive Director of the Center for Supply Chain Research. He also served as Penn State’s Faculty Representative to the NCAA for 30 years and to the Big Ten for ten years.

Dr. Coyle was the Editor of the Journal of Business Logistics form 1990 to 1996. He has authored or co-authored 20 books or monographs and numerous articles in professional journals. He has received 14 awards at Penn State for teaching excellence and advising. In addition, he received the Council of Logistics Management’s Distinguished Service Award in 1991; the Philadelphia Traffic Club’s Person of the Year Award in 2003; the Eccles Medal from the International Society of Logistics for his contributions to the Department of Defense and the Lion’s Paw Medal from Penn State for Distinguished Service, both in 2004. Dr. Coyle currently serves on the Boards of three logistics and supply chain service companies, the Advisory Board of the NLDC and continues to be active in teaching in the Executive Education Programs at Penn State.

Gough Grubbs

Senior Vice President, Distribution/Logistics
Stage Stores

Gough joined Stage Stores in 1996, following 23 yrs in Distribution with Foley’s (May Company) and Sanger Harris (Federated Dept Stores). His primary focus has been development of Internal Leadership Talent and External Business Relationships to support the fast-growing chain. Growing from both acquisitions and organic store openings, Stage has grown from 235 stores in 13 states in 1996 to over 800 stores covering 40 states; adding Distribution Centers in South Hill, VA and Jeffersonville, OH to the original DC in Jacksonville, TX. Future growth plans continue to target over 1,000 stores by the year 2014.

A frequent speaker on Leadership at Material Handling & Supply Chain Forums, the Vendor Compliance Federation, and the National Logistics & Distribution Conference, Gough holds a BA in Business Mgt from the University of Texas at Arlington and is a loyal University of Texas Longhorn fan.

NLDC BOARD OF ADVISORS MEMBER EMERITUS

C. John Langley, Ph.D.

Clinical Professor of Supply Chain Management
Supply Chain & Information Systems
Smeal College of Business
The Pennsylvania State University

Recognized as one of the world’s leading scholars in his field, Dr. C. John Langley has been involved in supply chain management and business logistics for more than 35 years. His current position is Clinical Professor of Supply Chain Management in the Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems at Penn State University. He supports the Department in various capacities, as well as teaches courses in Smeal’s online Master of Professional Studies in Supply Chain Management Program. In addition, he also serves as a member of the Center for Supply Chain Research’s senior leadership team as the director of development. In this capacity, Langley is responsible for exploring new opportunities for the center related to education programs, research projects and corporate sponsors.

Prior to joining Penn State, Langley was on the faculty at the University of Tennessee for 28 years, most recently as the John H. “Red” Dove Distinguished Professor of Logistics. Additionally, he was a founder of the Center for Logistics Research, Supply Chain Forum, and Office of Corporate Partnerships at the University of Tennessee. More recently, he served as The Supply Chain and Logistics Institute Professor of Supply Chain Management at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, where he was the founder of the Supply Chain Executive Forum.

Langley holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, an M.B.A., and a Ph.D. in Business Logistics from Penn State. Also, he is the co-author of three books on logistics and supply chain management. He has written numerous articles, technical reports, and presentations in these areas and has addressed countless conferences, forums, universities, groups, and industries.

He serves on the boards of directors of Averitt Express, Inc., Forward Air Corporation, and UTi Worldwide, Inc., and actively consults with both logistics user and provider firms. Langley is past president of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and has received the council’s Distinguished Service Award. In 1992, Smeal recognized him as an Outstanding Alumnus of its Business Logistics Program. He also is a member of the Program Faculty for the Kühne Logistics University in Hamburg, Germany, the Industrial and Professional Advisory Council (IPAC) at Penn State University, and currently serves as Education Advisor for NASSTRAC.