Conference Committee

Dr. Thomas W. Speh
Thomas W. Speh is Senior Director of MBA Programs at Miami University. He also holds a part-time position with CSCMP, as Director of Strategic Initiatives. He had taught at Miami for 35 years prior to assuming his current role. He was the Director of the Warehouse Research Center at Miami University from 1986 –2000and during that time, the Center published over 14 major studies. Dr. Speh has authored numerous articles in a variety of academic and professional journals and he is a frequent speaker at logistics and supply chain conferences in the U.S. and around the globe, having spoken at conferences in over 20 different countries. Dr. Speh is a past President of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) and a past president of the Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC). In October of 2007, Dr. Speh received the Council of Supply Chain Management Professional's Distinguished Service Award, and in May, 2008 he received the Warehousing Education and Research Council's Lifetime Achievement award, only the 6th such award given by WERC in its 31 year history.

Dr. TAS Vijayaraghavan
TAS Vijayaraghavan, a academician of repute is a Master of Statistics with specialization in Statistical Quality Control and Operations Research from the Indian Statistical Institute, a Postgraduate Diploma in Statistical Quality Control & Operations Research from the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta and a Doctorate (Ph.D.) from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India. Presently Professor in the Production and Operations Management & Information Systems Area in XLRI, Jamshedpur, School of Business and Human Resources, one of the premier management institutes in India and Associate Dean (International and Corporate Programmes) and Chairperson, Centre for Logistics and Supply Chain Management, XLRI. He has worked with the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar and the Central Institute of Road Transport, Pune prior to joining XLRI, Jamshedpur. TASV has presented papers in national conferences and international conferences held in Orlando-US, Las Vegas-US, Okinawa-Japan, Beijing-China, Dubai-UAE etc. A Six-Sigma trainer for corporates and Conducted several MDPs on Statistical Methods & Six Sigma for Decision making in Supply Chain Management besides conducting them as MDPs in XLRI where more than 350 executives from many private and public sector companies have benefited.

Richard H. Thompson
Rich Thompson is an Executive Vice President and leads the global Supply Chain & Logistics Solutions consulting team for Jones Lang LaSalle. Rich is a recognized supply chain veteran with over 20 years of combined consulting and industry experience. Prior to joining Jones Lang LaSalle, Rich was a Senior Vice President and Corporate Officer with Schreiber Foods, a $4 billion global food company, and a Partner in the global supply chain consulting practice at Ernst & Young. Rich has been an active member of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) since 1989, the Warehouse Education Research Council (WERC), and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board for DC Velocity magazine. Rich was selected as one of DC Velocity's annual "Rainmakers" in 2010, recognizing his "lasting contributions to the supply chain management profession". He has served as a consultant for over 100 corporations across the world. Rich holds a Bachelor's degree in Marketing from Miami University (Ohio) and an M.B.A. degree in Finance and Marketing from The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

Kevin F. Smith
Kevin Smith is a career supply chain practitioner and the President and CEO of Sustainable Supply Chain Consulting, headquartered in Windermere, FL. In December 2008, Kevin retired as Senior Vice President and Corporate Sustainability Officer for CVS Caremark, Americans #1 pharmacy and healthcare services provider. As Corporate Sustainability Officer, he was responsible for developing and implementing a program of environmental sustainability for the entire CVS Caremark enterprise. For the eight years prior to assuming that position, Kevin was Senior Vice President of Supply Chain and Logistics for CVS/pharmacy, the retail arm of CVS Caremark. Prior to joining CVS Caremark, Kevin, a University of Massachusetts graduate, spent 27 years in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) food manufacturing arena; most notably as Vice President of Logistics and Customer Support at H.J. Heinz; and at Kraft Foods where he held numerous positions, including Director of Network Design and Implementation. Primary responsibilities at both companies included day-to-day logistics and warehousing operations, integration of multi-temperature and multi-channel businesses, physical network planning and demand planning for finished goods. Key achievements included the acquisition and implementation of state of the art automation for material handling at both manufacturing plants and distribution centers.

Prof. Balram Avittathur
Prof. Balram Avittathur is a Professor in the Operations Management Group of Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and is a faculty member of the institute since 1999. He has a doctorate degree in Management from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (Fellow, IIMB). Earlier, he graduated in Mechanical Engineering from NIT Rourkela. His doctoral thesis was in the area of Supply Chain Management, which continues to be his main research and teaching interest. Prof. Avittathur received the Fulbright Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship Award for the year 2002-2003 which enabled him to work in the area of Supply Chain Management at Auburn University, USA. He has articles on Supply Chain Management and Service Operations in international journals and magazines. He has conducted various corporate training programmes and has also served as consultant for different Indian corporate concerns.

Anshuman Neil Basu
Regional CSCMP Executive Director
Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP)
Neil Basu is a post-graduate in Operations Management from XLRI-Jamshedpur, and having worked in various areas of Supply Chain as a practitioner in his career, with companies like Philips, 3M, Sony and Tata group etc. and having more than 15 years of experience in India & the Middle East. Currently he is based out of Mumbai, India responsible for the CSCMP's Asia Pacific regional office.