Speakers
Dr. Fariborz Ghadar
William A. Schreyer Professor of Global Management, Policies and Planning and Founding Director, Center for Global Business Studies for Penn State and Senior Advisor and Distinguished Scholar at The Center for Strategic and International Studies
Dr. Fariborz Ghadar is a leading authority on future business trends, global economic assessment, petroleum industry, international finance and banking, and global corporate strategy and implementation. Earlier in his career he served as an investment banker at the International Finance Corporation (World Bank), President of the Export Promotion Center of Iran, a Vice Ministerial position in the Shah of Iran’s government, as well as research coordinator of the Harvard Multinational Enterprise Project.
He serves as a consultant to a score of major corporations, governments, and government agencies and regularly conducts programs for executives of major multinational corporations here and abroad. His past clients include Accenture, Aramco, AT&T, BASF, CalPERS, Chevron, Cisco, CEMEX, Dow, Ericsson, GE, UBS, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and the World Bank among many others. He also teaches in the executive education programs at Dartmouth, Duke, Carnegie Mellon, and Harvard Business School.
He is the recipient of the 2004, 2005 and 2006 Weyerhaeuser Educator of the Year Award, CIO Magazine’s Global Leaders Award, and BusinessWeek named him one of the top 10 Star’s of Finance. He was named as one of the top 10 thought leaders and practitioners of strategy coaching in the new book, Profiles in Coaching: The 2005 Art and Practice of Leadership Coaching: 50 Top Executive Coaches Reveal Their Secrets.
Dr. Ghadar is the author of twelve books on global economic topics, including the 2005 release of Global Tectonics: What Every Business Needs to Know, Financing Growth in Developing Economies, The Evolution of OPEC Strategy, The Petroleum Industry in Oil-Importing Nations, New Information Technology and Its Impact on Global Business Management, as well as numerous articles.
Dr. Ghadar is frequently quoted in such internationally circulated publications, most recently in the July/August 2012 issue of the Harvard Business Review, and in others, such as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and the Christian Science Monitor. He has been a featured speaker and interviewee on the major television networks as well as the business broadcasts of CNN, CNBC, and Nightly Business Report. And he has testified before the U.S. House Subcommittee on the Middle East, South Asia as well as the oil industry. He received his BA and MS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and his MBA and Doctorate from the Harvard Business School.
THE CENTER FOR GLOBAL BUSINESS STUDIES
Global business grows at more than twice the rate of domestic business. Spawned by this growth are international business issues that embody various regions and disciplines. The Center for Global Business Studies specializes in researching emerging multifunctional business issues that shape the global environment. Its mission is to construct a coherent global perspective in business management, research, and education. Through its research and education programs, the Center links corporations to share their knowledge of the most recent business practices.
Greg Miller
SVP & CFO, U. S. Automotive Parts Group (“NAPA”) of the Genuine Parts Company
Greg Miller is Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the U.S. Automotive Parts Group (“NAPA”), the largest business segment for the Genuine Parts Company. In this role, Greg has responsibility for finance & accounting, information technology and strategy development.
Greg joined Genuine Parts Company in 2011 after more than 25 years of global experience in financial and operational leadership with large publicly traded companies — revenues of $275 million to $13 billion.
Prior to NAPA Automotive Parts Group, he was the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Hill-Rom Holdings, a global medical device company, as well as for Hillenbrand Industries, a public holding company that Greg helped transform into two publicly traded companies via a separation mechanism.
Prior to Hillenbrand and Hill-Rom, he held variety of financial and operational leadership roles with NewellRubbermaid, including Group Vice President of the Juvenile Products and Picture Frame Groups. In addition, Greg spent eight years in public accounting primarily with Deloitte & Touche, where his focus was on emerging businesses and mergers and acquisitions.
Greg attended the University of Chicago Graduate Business School to complete the Chicago Management Institute Program. He is a CPA with a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from University of Northern Iowa.
Ron White
Memory Expert and Memory Trainer
Ron White is considered by knowledgeable sources to be the nation’s #1 Memory Expert and one of the tops in the world. He is a two time national memory champion, winning the USA Memory Championship in 2009 and 2010. During these competitions, Ron set two national memory records. He memorized a 167-digit number in 5 minutes and he memorized the order of a deck of shuffled cards in only 1 minute and 27 seconds. Ron is equally famous for his amazing ability to remember the names of people in a large group after only a brief introductory handshake.
Ron has made presentations and provided insights to his memory training techniques to companies and organizations throughout the United States and in locations all over the world, including Singapore, Spain, Australia, Panama, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, South Africa, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Canada, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico and Belgium. He has appeared on Good Morning America, the Martha Stewart Show, FOX and Friends, the CBS Evening News, CBS Early Show, FOX, and NBC. His story has appeared in publications across the country including the New York Post and Dallas Morning News. Ron was the subject of interest in a 2011 episode of National Geographic Channel’s Brain Games and he appeared in a season one episode on the History Channel’s Stan Lee’s SUPERHUMANS to display his super memory capabilities.
Ron has been a guest on over 200 radio programs and has authored over 12 CD albums and books on improving your memory. In all of his appearances, Ron’s desire is for his audience to see him as being no different then anyone, but that improving your memory to an exceptional level can be achieved through proper training techniques.
Ron joined the U.S. Navy as a reservist after September 11th and completed a tour of duty in Afghanistan during 2007.
Dee Biggs
Director, Customer Logistics, Welch Foods, Inc.
Dee is currently responsible for customer logistics at Welch’s, and has been responsible for corporate purchasing, customer satisfaction (order to cash), inventory management, public warehousing and transportation. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, is a past President of the Western New York and Baltimore/ Washington Roundtables of CSCMP, and was Vice President of the New York State Food Processors.
Dee was the conference chairman of the 2010 Annual Global Conference for CSCMP. He was the Chairman of the Logistics Committee for the Grocery Manufacturer’s of America for eight years, and was a member of the joint industry Best Practice Committee on Continuous Replenishment. He is on the Editorial Advisory Board at Food Logistics magazine and is a frequent presenter to a variety of groups, including CSCMP, Grocery Manufacturers of America and the Food Marketing Institute.
Dee is also on the Board of Directors of Acton-Boxborough, MA Youth Basketball, and coaches fifth grade boys travel basketball each season. He was an infantry officer in Vietnam and holds a B.S. in civil engineering from the Virginia Military Institute and an MBA from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Jerry Bowyer
Chairman, Bowyer Media
Jerry Bowyer has compiled an impressive record as a leading thinker in finance and economics. He worked as an auditor and a tax consultant with Arthur Anderson, Federated Investors, and consulted in various privatization efforts for Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. He founded the influential economic think tank, the Allegheny Institute, and has lectured extensively at universities, businesses and civic groups.
He has been a member of three investment committees, among which is Benchmark Financial, Pittsburgh’s largest financial services firm. Jerry is a regular commentator on Fox Business News and Fox News and is a Forbes.com columnist. He was formerly a CNBC Contributor, has guest-hosted “The Kudlow Report”, and has written for CNBC.com, National Review Online, The Wall Street Journal as well as many other publications. He is the author of The Bush Boom and more recently The Free Market Capitalist’s Survival Guide, published by Harper Collins. Jerry is the Chairman of Bowyer Media, which produces the television program Pennsylvania Newsmakers and various programs on 1360 am (WMNY) Pittsburgh’s Business Talk Radio.
Jerry consulted extensively with the Bush White House on matters pertaining to the recent economic crisis. He has been quoted in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes Magazine, The International Herald Tribune and various local newspapers. He has been a contributing editor of National Review Online, The New York Sun and Townhall Magazine. Jerry has hosted daily radio and TV programs and was one of the founding members of WQED’s On-Q Friday Roundtable. He has guest hosted the Bill Bennett radio program as well as radio programs in Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles.
Jerry is the former host of WorldView, a nationally syndicated Sunday-morning political talk show created on the model of Meet The Press. On WorldView, Jerry interviewed distinguished guests including the Vice President, Treasury Secretary, HUD Secretary, former Secretary of Sate Condoleezza Rice, former Presidential Advisor Carl Rove, former Attorney General Edwin Meese and publisher Steve Forbes.
Jerry has taught social ethics at Ottawa Theological Hall, public policy at Saint Vincent’s College, and guest lectured at Carnegie Mellon’s graduate Heinz School of Public Policy. In 1997 Jerry gave the commencement address at his alma mater, Robert Morris University. He was the youngest speaker in the history of the school. The school received more requests for transcripts of Jerry’s speech than at any other time in its 120-year history.
In private life, Jerry is a Lay Eucharistic Minister in the Episcopal Church and lives in Pennsylvania with his wife, Susan, and the youngest five of their seven children.
John P. Burke
Chief Executive Officer, Armada
John oversees and provides executive leadership for all Armada operating organizations. He is a twenty-five year veteran in the food industry and is a visionary in creating and executing innovative supply chain solutions for national restaurant brands. John joined Armada in 1992, co-founded Hub One Logistics in 1996, and founded LXP in 2006. Under his leadership, Armada has become the largest fully integrated logistics provider to the foodservice industry with operations and offices around the country and annual sales of approximately $2 billion. Current clients range from Fortune 500 restaurant brands to smaller, innovative restaurant concepts. Armada’s business model is founded on a deep rooted commitment of extraordinary service to its clients by providing outsourced logistics solutions that create smaller, smarter networks. Prior to joining Armada, John worked for L’Air Liquide, a multinational company that supplies industrial gases to various industries including food and foodservice. He holds a B.S. in Business from Penn State University and an M.B.A. in Economics from Carnegie Mellon University. John is a member of the Pennsylvania State Workforce Investment Board, the Pennsylvania Business Council Policy Roundtable and serves on the McDonald’s Supplier Advisory Council.
Alan J. Dabbiere
Chairman, AirWatch
Alan Dabbiere is the chairman of AirWatch, a leader in enterprise-wide mobile device and WLAN management solutions, having joined the company in 2006.
In 1990, Dabbiere founded Manhattan Associates (NASDAQ:MANH), the world’s leading supply-chain execution software company, and he served as president and CEO from 1990 through the end of 1999. Following the company’s successful initial public offering in 1998, Dabbiere was Manhattan Associates’ chairman of the board of directors through 2003. Today, Manhattan Associates is a global company with over 1200 customers, 2000 employees and more than $337 million in revenue.
In 2001 and 2002, FORTUNE magazine included Manhattan Associates in their annual list of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. with the rank of 23 and 71 respectively. In 2005, Cape Horn Strategies honored Manhattan Associates as one of only three public software companies—Microsoft and Kronos were the other two companies cited—with 15 years of consecutive profitability and growth.
Dabbiere currently serves on the executive leadership committee for the Washington, D.C. chapter of Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), on the Foundation Board for Inova Health Systems, on the Advisory Board of Georgia Tech’s College of Computing and on the board of directors for TAG.
Dabbiere received both his bachelor’s degree in chemistry and his MBA from Indiana University.
John A. Kolar
Chief Executive Officer, Organic Logistics
Now CEO of Organic Logistics, the Distribution and Supply Chain subsidiary responsible for supporting phenomenal growth brand Organic Valley, John began his management career shortly after college at a time when distribution technology was in its infancy. His 13 years with the nation’s largest food service distributor saw industry and the marketplace transition into the information age; a change which forever redefined competitive advantage. Solidly postured on a foundation of principles, he defined business practices and set expectations for achievement while setting new standards for performance and cost containment. Lured by the challenge of complexity and relentless expectation, he transitioned to the print and postal logistics platform, a manufacturing-driven environment ready for change at a time when double-digit growth was the standard. Leveraging the potent balance of technique, talent, and technology, John led success in his company and industry, defining and meeting the escalating needs of a high demand, service and information hungry marketplace. In 2008 John decided to return to his roots and his passion – cold chain distribution and supply chain management – bringing over two decades of innovation and continuous improvement with him to CROPP Cooperative where he continues to pace accomplishment with growth, coordinating a complex and time critical national network which is now in its 25th consecutive year of double digit growth. In the course of his 26 year career, John has established a strong record of leading growth, delivering value, integrating technology, and promoting wholesome, sustainable accomplishment in the demanding and changing world of supply chain management.
John holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management, serves as a Board Member of his local APICS Chapter, and is actively involved in numerous industry, community, and educational organizations.
Kyle P. Lynch
Director, Transportation, The Clorox Company
Kyle P. Lynch is Director, Transportation at the Clorox Company where he has overall responsibility for all inbound/outbound United States transportation. Lynch joined Clorox in 2005 as the Senior Procurement Manager of Plastic Packaging and in 2007 was a project manager for the company’s Hub 1 initiative that transformed the Home Care products supply chain. In 2008, Lynch was promoted to Strategic Project Manager where he led the cost savings program for the Cleaning and International Divisions.
Prior to joining Clorox, Lynch spent 6.5 years at Deloitte Consulting where he focused on supply chain projects across various industries. He previously held a variety of management positions including new product development at NCR and owner/president of small trucking company.
A resident of the Atlanta area for most of his life, Lynch holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Boston University and a MBA ’98 from Emory University where he was a Robert W. Woodruff Fellow.