KENNETH B. ACKERMAN

President of The Ackerman Company

Ken Ackerman has been active in logistics and warehousing management for his entire career. Before entering the consulting field, he was chief executive of Distribution Centers, Inc., a public warehousing company which is now part of Exel Logistics USA. In 1980, Ackerman sold the company and joined the management consulting division of Coopers & Lybrand. In 1981, he formed the Ackerman Company, a management advisory service.

Ken is editor and publisher of Warehousing Forum, a monthly subscription newsletter. His newest books are Lean Warehousing and Fundamentals of Supply Chain Management, both published in 2007. His other recent publications include Auditing Warehouse Performance and Warehousing Tips. Harvard Business Review published “Making Warehousing More Efficient,” co-authored with Professor Bernard J. LaLonde. The New York Times published his bylined article “Just In Time, Right For Retail.” He is the author of numerous other articles dealing with warehousing and management.

He has the following educational and professional credentials:

• B.A., Princeton University
• M.B.A., Harvard University
• Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals - Past President
• Warehousing Education and Research Council - Founder

Ken Ackerman has provided management advisory services to companies throughout the world. These clients include manufacturers, wholesale distributors, retailers, warehousing firms, carriers and trade associations. He has provided advisory support to several consulting firms. In addition to advisory services, he has conducted training seminars on warehousing. He has served as a speaker at many conferences. His fluency in Spanish enables him to lecture and consult in that language.

In 2002, Ken Ackerman was honored by Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC) with a lifetime membership. He is the first person ever to receive similar recognition from three different organizations: CLM, IWLA and WERC. He received the Distinguished Service and Leadership Award in 1999 from International Warehouse Logistics Association and had earlier received the Distinguished Service Award from Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals. He is an honorary life member of the Ohio Warehousemen's Association and a former director of American Warehouse Association. In civic activities, he was chapter chairman for Young Presidents Organization. He is past president and founder of the Wellington School, former officer of Columbus Association for the Performing Arts and past president of Opera Columbus. In addition to logistics activities, Ken Ackerman serves as a chair in Columbus for Vistage International, the world’s leading chief executive organization.

ART VAN BODEGRAVEN

Specializing in:

• Supply Chain Integration/Strategy/Design
• Operations Productivity
• Logistics Network Design
• Third-Party Logistics
• Time-Based Manufacturing
• Process Reengineering

Project accomplishments:

• Co-directed TPG’s supply chain redesign and implementation project with a $25 billion Regional Bell Operating Company
• Led a comprehensive logistics diagnostic evaluation for the world’s largest (U.S.-based) cotton yarn spinner
• Redesigned customer support/service parts supply chain for the #1 U.S. manufacturer of lawn & garden/outdoor recreation products
• Managed a distribution center facility layout and utilization project for a $12 billion international apparel retailer
• Redesigned customer service processes for a $8 billion international pharmaceutical company
• Restored transportation (fleet) performance to profitability (from multi-million dollar losses) for a mid-sized textile company

Published articles:

Extending the consulting definition of “have bag, will travel,” Art has toured Cuba and Vietnam to assess logistics issues in those countries. His white papers on those tours include observations on culture, cuisine, and geopolitics. Art has also been published in Warehousing Forum, Modern Material Handling, Material Handling Engineering and The Journal of Business Logistics.

Industry leadership:

Art chairs TPG’s European consulting consortium, The Supply Chain Group. He is often a speaker and track chair at WERC, CLM and other industry conferences. He also co-produces Georgia Tech’s Supply Chain Short Course for TPG.

Education:

Purdue University, Bachelor of Science degree

MARK E. RICHARDS

Vice President of Associated Warehouses

Mark received his B.A. in Business Administration from Graceland College in Lamoni, IA and his M.B.A. from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

His six step process on selecting a third-party provider and creating win/win relationships has been featured in Traffic Management, Warehousing Forum, and Outsourced Logistics and presented at numerous CLM Roundtable meetings as well as annual conferences of AWA, CLM, NIT League, and the International Logistics Congress in Toronto, Canada.

Mark began his career in logistics with a multi city public warehouse company, Distribution Centers, Inc. In addition to holding a variety of operations and administrative positions at two public warehouse companies, Mark has had extensive experience with two Fortune 500 manufacturing organizations, Nabisco and Gillette.

At Nabisco, Mark held the position of Regional Director, Distribution & Customer Serv. for the Food Service Division. In this position, he was responsible for warehousing, transportation, inventory, and customer service for the 15 state Central region. Mark’s position at Gillette was National Distribution Manager for the Oral-B division. He had responsibility for warehousing, transportation, inventory allocation and control, and special packaging.

Throughout his career, Mark has been actively involved with WERC (Warehousing Education & Research Council), CLM (Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals), and AWA (American Warehouse Association) holding various national and local leadership roles including serving as President of WERC and CLM in Southern California.

For the last eight years, Mark has been with Associated Warehouses, an umbrella organization for a network of over 50 third-party providers located in North America and Europe.

David C. Swaddling

President of InsightMAS

Dave is Executive Professor at Capital University in Bexley, Ohio. In his previous consulting career, he has worked with companies as small as a few million dollars in revenue to several of the Fortune 100, including companies such as Abbott Laboratories, American Electric Power, Hewlett Packard, Battelle Memorial Institute, and Bank One. His primary consulting interest is in using Customer Knowledge to improve management decision making in business strategy, marketing, product development, and operations management.

Prior to his consulting career, Dave was first a public accountant with KPMG Peat Marwick, and then an executive in the electronic information industry, serving eleven years as CFO and senior planning officer of CompuServe.

Dave is a frequent speaker on the topic of Customer Knowledge, most recently for TEC, the Conference Board, the National Account Management Association, the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, the Institute for International Research and other industry associations. He has been a guest lecturer for graduate business school programs at The Ohio State University, Ohio University, and Franklin University. He has also published numerous articles on the subject, including recent ones for Marketing News, Selling Power, and Quality Progress. He co-authored the book, Customer Power: How to Grow Sales and Profits in a Customer-Driven Marketplace, with his partner, Dr. Charles Miller.

Dave’s undergraduate business degree is from Northwestern University and his MBA is from Ohio University. He is a member of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, a member and past officer of the Product Development and Management Association, and a Trustee of the Columbus Metropolitan Library. He is a CPA and a certified New Product Development Professional.