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ChainLink Research's Team includes some of the worlds leading experts in Supply Chain Management, advanced business models, research methodologies – and diverse perspectives.
Ann Grackin - Chief Executive Officer
For more than two decades, Ann Grackin has been on the frontlines of the Supply Chain Management technology and eCommerce frontier, leading global strategy and technology implementations in the high technology, semiconductor, automotive, textile, and apparel industries. Ms. Grackin has served in many capacities in this dynamic environment and worked on global supply chains strategies for some of the leading Fortune 500 firms, with assignments in Asia and Europe and the North America.
As a partner and cofounder of ChainLink Research, Ms. Grackin is responsible for leading the firms Supply Chain strategy. She comes to this position with a parallax view from seeing all angles of the supply chain problem-as an end-user implementer in a global fortune 100 firm, a technologist, a global consultant, an executive in a Supply Chain software firm, a columnist in the leading Supply Chain magazines, and one of the leading analysts in Supply Chain!
Her biography sets the stage for leading the charge at ChainLink's Research:
- Before coming to ChainLink Research, Ms. Grackin served as the Vice President of Supply Chain Strategy at AMR Research.
- Prior to ChainLink, Ms. Grackin was vice president of sales and marketing at Verilytics. She led sales and product management to meet the needs of clients in financial services and supply chain operations.
- Before joining Verilytics, Ms. Grackin served as executive vice president at Avicon, a Massachusetts based strategy and IT consulting firm. She co-founded the firm to help companies Web-enable their supply chains.
- Previously, Ms. Grackin was a Foundation Partner at Benchmarking Partners and led the Supply Chain practice. She worked with the leading technology providers to help create product and industry strategies for their Supply Chain products as well as leading end-user firms, creating supply chain technology visions.
- At Digital Equipment Corporation, Ms. Grackin led information technology organizations and projects throughout the world in Supply Chain, Logistics and Manufacturing including the first global implementation of i2 Technologies advanced planning software, as well as some of the leading packages in use today.
Ms. Grackin, a popular speaker and respected writer on supply chain management best practices and technology, is a graduate of the Harvard School of Executive Management and the Sloan School of Strategic Planning.
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Bill McBeath - Chief Research Officer
Bill McBeath leads ChainLink's research efforts, as well as the procurement, strategic sourcing, design collaboration, and online marketplaces practices. With more than 20 years of experience in a variety of roles as a business and technology researcher and consultant, high tech executive, and software architect, Mr. McBeath is recognized as a leading expert in extended-enterprise business models.
Before co-founding ChainLink Research, Mr. McBeath was Managing Director of Emerging Technologies at Benchmarking Partners/Surgency, where he formulated and executed successful go-to-market strategies for dozens of startups and established firms. His accomplishments provide a strong foundation for ChainLink's services:
- Research - Deep primary research, analysis, and publication of groundbreaking, frequently quoted papers on business-to-business integration, extended-enterprise business models, e-procurement best practices, online marketplaces, and supply chain optimization.
- Strategy - Conducted numerous CEO-team workshops on go-to-market strategies, positioning, partnerships, pricing, and organization strategies.
- ROI Models - Developed a number of different return-on-investment models to calculate ROI in areas as diverse as outsourced global strategic sourcing, design collaboration, e-procurement, and pricing automation.
- Technology Architecture - Leveraged more than 15 years as a software engineer to create 3-year IT roadmaps for F500 companies and architecture strategies for software and Internet firms.
Prior to joining Surgency, Mr. McBeath served as Director of Server Engineering at NEC Computer Systems, responsible for all server hardware and software development. Previously as Director of Networking, Performance and Systems Integration, Mr. McBeath grew NEC's communications and options business from nothing to over $75M within four years.
Earlier in his career, Mr. McBeath was the lead architect of Data General's CommServer multi-protocol messaging switch, as well as Wang's network architecture (WSN). He was a principal designer and developer of a wide variety of advanced software including a distributed OS communications system, SNA Mainframe emulator, virtual machine monitor, and numerous others.
Mr. McBeath is a popular speaker, having delivered keynote addresses and led panel discussions at various industry conferences. In addition to undergraduate work at Hampshire College, Mr. McBeath has completed graduate level studies in Digital Network Technologies at MIT and Microprogramming and Emulation at Northeastern University.
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Carla Reed - Global Logistics and Distribution
Carla Reed heads ChainLink's Global Logistics and Distribution practice. Ms. Reed brings to ChainLink deep hands-on experience particularly in the design and management of warehouses and distribution networks. Before joining ChainLink, Ms. Reed founded New Creed, a business process and enabling technology consulting group which focuses on e-business in the global supply chain and provides leadership to client staffed teams, linking evolving technologies and concepts to global business issues in existing and emerging markets.
Prior to establishing New Creed, Ms. Reed was Director, Logistics Solutions for Sterling Commerce, responsible for market development of global logistics solutions and e-business strategies with emphasis on order-fulfillment and supply chain integration. Her varied background includes, Director of Strategic Initiatives for Tompkins Associates, Global Accounts Director for ENCOMPASS, a supply chain collaboration software and services company; General Manager, Sales and Marketing for Premier Freight, Johannesburg, South Africa; and various sales and marketing positions in the international freight management area.
Ms. Reed is a prolific writer and speaker, and has published articles on a variety of subjects, including benchmarking, collaborative work environments, logistics information systems, electronic commerce and integrated logistics solutions. Published works include the executive primer, "Contents Under Pressure", which provides ten collaboration principles for coping with the pressures of a team environment, a subject she has frequently spoken on. Ms. Reed has performed speaking engagements both in the USA and around the world, notably Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile and Puerto Rico.
Ms. Reed is an active member of the Council for Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) and served on the Roundtable Advisory Committee from 1996 - 2001, responsible for the Roundtables in Southern Africa, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico City.
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Robert Bruce - Retail Supply Chain Management
As the leader and driving force behind the transformation of Wal-Mart's supply chain during the 80's and 90's, Robert Bruce brings unrivaled experience and knowledge to ChainLink's retail team. Mr. Bruce is a 25-year veteran and industry leading authority on retail demand and supply integration, optimization and collaboration. Best known as Wal-Mart's Vice-President for Corporate Supply Chain Strategies and Inventory Management and Replenishment for Wal-Mart Stores and SuperCenters, Mr. Bruce helped design and implement Wal-Mart's inventory management, forecasting and supply chain business strategy, recognized as a model worldwide. Through this model, Mr. Bruce defined Wal-Mart’s present business strategies, demand-supply chain opportunities, process integration, optimization and collaborative applications including Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment (CPFR) by working with leaders in the retailer/CPG industry segment, thereby laying the foundation and migration path to total supply chain collaboration.
Before joining ChainLink, Mr. Bruce founded Value Chain Collaboration Associates Inc. (“VCC Associates, Inc.”), to further the understanding, implementation and adoptions of key transformational strategies and initiatives with industry leading executive teams in retailing and manufacturing. Prior to founding VCC Associates, Inc., Mr. Bruce served as Partner focused on retail/CPG industry segment at Surgency, Inc., now known as Benchmarking Partners. There he contributed to Surgency’s cross industry knowledge capital and methodology, defining key applications for business multi-tier collaboration internally and externally within organizations, manufacturers and their suppliers, to enhance the total customer/consumer-based value proposition.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Bruce led a variety of initiatives in marketing, store operations, buying, replenishment and distribution for a subsidiary of Target Stores, primarily focused on designing, implementing, and managing centralized basic replenishment and fashion apparel programs.
Mr. Bruce also served as the original Chairman of the VICS Subcommittee as part of the Dynamic Information Sharing/Merchants Issues Committee, setting an industry standard for CPFR. In this role, he drove industry definition and guidelines for CPFR, standards and enabling technology that were the basis for the VICS/CPFR guidelines.
Mr. Bruce often speaks and writes on emerging best practices in demand planning, forecasting and integrated collaborative value chains. He also was chosen as an outside expert advisor to Alan Greenspan and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on Inventory Management. He is a member of the Northwest Arkansas Council of Logistics Management and was asked to join the Board of Directors of the Supply Chain Management Research Center at the University of Arkansas prior to retiring from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. He has been selected and referenced in Marquis’s Who’s Who in America since 1994.
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Lonnie Childs - High Tech Supply Chain Management
Lonnie Childs brings 25 years of experience in Operations and Supply Chain management in a variety of manufacturing industries including electronics, defense, machining, and start-up operations. During his 10 year tenure at Dell Computer Corporation from 1991-2001, he served as Director of Demand/Supply Planning and Director of Portables Supply Chain Management for Americas Operations and held responsibility for designing, implementing, and managing many of Dell’s leading edge processes for demand/supply planning and supply chain management while the company engaged in explosive growth. Mr. Childs sponsored and actively engaged in the project management to implement demand planning, supply planning and shop floor control systems which were instrumental to Dell’s operational excellence. He also managed the successful transition of Portables manufacturing from the US to Dell’s Asian operations which resulted in significant cost savings. Since retiring from Dell in 2001, Mr. Childs has provided independent management consulting services to manufacturing companies.
Mr. Childs professional associations include serving as President, Director of Education, and Instructor for the Austin chapter of the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS).
Mr. Childs holds a Bachelors degree from the University of Texas at Austin and has done graduate work in Business Administration at St. Edward’s University.
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Laura Faught – Vice President, Government Practice
Laura Faught brings to ChainLink a distinguished track record of over 20 years of transformational leadership supported by leading edge information technology management. Her credentials include serving as the Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense/Logistics Systems Management from 2001 to 2003. In this role she was responsible for policy and oversight of all Department of Defense Logistics IT systems, which taken together make up the department’s $80+ billion supply chain.
Ms. Faught has experience in all facets of global supply chain optimization including business reengineering, workforce alignment, COTS implementation, and enterprise change management. She has also managed supply chain solutions workforces in Global 200 organizations.
Prior to ChainLink, Ms. Faught served as Vice President – Solution Delivery/Customer Community at LRN Inc. Ms. Faught played a key role in developing and executing LRN’s approach to its customer lifecycle management process. In addition, Ms. Faught has held executive positions at Qwest Cyber Solutions, SAP, and American Software.
Ms. Faught holds a BS in Business/Operations Management and an MS in Management Information Systems (no thesis) from Auburn University.
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John Boyne - Vice President, CPG and Healthcare
John Boyne specializes in identifying and implementing best practices to drive revenue enhancements, cost efficiencies, and services effectiveness for ChainLink’s clients. His background with companies such as CSC Consulting, IBM, Ralston-Purina, and Union Pacific Railroad includes 25 years of executive business operations leadership, award-winning information systems management, and C-level strategic consulting with the G5000. Mr. Boyne works with teams that range from CEOs to plant floor resources in high tech, consumer packaged goods, process and discrete manufacturing, utilities and health care, both nationally and internationally.
Mr. Boyne brings to consulting his real-world business experience of P&L responsibility for bottom-line performance, customer satisfaction, and business growth. In his educational, military, business, and consulting responsibilities, he has managed multicultural divisions, multi-site research teams and data centers, leading diverse workforces in the creation of high-performing self-managing teams that deliver positive customer and business results. He is known for introducing innovative methodologies to accelerate value for his clients.
For software solution providers, Mr. Boyne has created and led demand creation and sales acceleration programs, acting as an adviser on business-value consultative selling and providing on-site deal support when requested.
Boyne holds an M.A. in 17th Century and Restoration Literature (with a minor in Latin) and a B.S. in Education from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, IL. He studied organization design and development at Washington University in Saint Louis and earned a German Proficiency Degree from the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio of Monterey, CA. In addition, he completed a Logistics Management Program at Michigan State University and 200-plus hours of professional training in participative management, self-managing teams, project management, change management, and organizational development throughout his career.
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Kate Vitasek - Supply Chain Performance Management
Kate Vitasek is a leader in ChainLink's Supply Chain Performance Management practice. Ms. Vitasek has been helping companies with their Supply Chain Strategies and performance improvement efforts since 1994. She previously founded Supply Chain Visions, a supply chain consulting firm, and is a well-recognized authority on metrics management and implementation. Ms. Vitasek is a published author and is a frequent speaker at industry groups and universities on the topic of Supply Chain Management. She has been actively involved in the Council of Logistics Management as a Track Chair for CLM conferences and is currently on the CLM Executive Committee.
Ms. Vitasek brings a unique blend of consulting, practitioner and general management experience. She has worked for P&G, Accenture's Logistics Strategy Practice, Microsoft and Modus Media International, a global 3PL. This blend of skills ensures that solutions are both practical and cost effective.
Ms. Vitasek began her career in supply chain management with Accenture's Logistics Strategy practice where she helped a variety of companies solve their supply chain management problems. Ms. Vitasek began focusing her efforts in the high tech industry by developing a fulfillment strategy for Microsoft in 1994. Her strategy recommended consolidating individual Marketing Operations groups to manage their 22 marketing programs and led to a decrease in number of suppliers from over 450 to less than 100. Ms. Vitasek went on to join Microsoft as an employee where she led a cross-functional 22-member team to design and implement a worldwide after market fulfillment solution for their $9 billion corporate licensing program. Her work led to improve service levels from up to 2 months to 10 days worldwide and improved worldwide product availability from 17% to 95%.
Ms. Vitasek then joined Modus Media International where she most recently was Vice President and General Manager, Microsoft Global Account Team. Modus Media is the largest global provider of outsourced supply chain management services to the high technology industry and was recently recognized in Business Week's Top 20 privately held high tech companies. Ms. Vitasek joined Modus Media to lead their "Best Practices" efforts where she provided thought leadership in key business areas, including creating a "Catalog of Best Practices" to help facilitate the recognition and move towards best practices. She designed the company's business measurement process that helps departments "Validate the Value Add" that Modus Media provides to its customers. Ms. Vitasek has also held the positions of Director of Marketing, Director of Supply Chain Design, and Vice President of Operations Services.
Ms. Vitasek graduated summa cum laude from the University of Tennessee with an MBA in logistics.
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