Supply Chain Now
Episode 301

Episode Summary

On this episode of Supply Chain Now broadcast live from the RLA Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, Scott and Greg interview Sender Shamiss with goTRG.

Episode Transcript

[00:00:05] It’s time for Supply Chain Now Radio. Broadcasting live Supply chain capital of the country, Atlanta, Georgia. Supply Chain Now Radio spotlights the best in all things supply chain the people, the technology, the best practices and the critical issues of the day. And now here are your hosts.

 

[00:00:29] A good EFT new Scott Luton here with you once again on Supply chain. Now welcome back to the show. Today, we’re not coming to you live from Atlanta G-A. We’re right here in beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada, home of the reverse Logistics Association Conference and Expo. The center of the universe for all things returns in reverse Logistics at least this week. I’m joined by my fearless co-host Greg White supply chain adj. serial supply chain tech entrepreneur and trusted advisor. Greg, how you doing?

 

[00:00:58] I’m doing great. How are you? Well, fantastic. Nobody asked you that ever, ever and asked you how you’re doing. I’m about eight and half. On a scale of one 10, that’s pretty good. Yeah, that’s better in a lot of people walking around.

 

[00:01:10] Well, we love this week. What? Yeah. And talking with some of the brightest minds in the industry so that that doesn’t get your juices going. I’m not sure what will. Let’s make sure folks know listeners podcasts where they can find us.

 

[00:01:24] Yeah. They can find us on Google podcasts. I don’t know why I’m doing them first lately, but they feel like they need some prompts. Apple podcasts, Spotify, anywhere really that you get your podcasts and YouTube. There you go.

 

[00:01:37] Good. Be sure to subscribe. You’ll miss anything. Again, we’re going to continue our interviews with some of the leading thought leaders and leading thought leaders in all things diverse, Logistics, retail and Supply chain. And looking forward to our guests here today. Yeah. So with no further ado, Synder Chamas, CEO of Go Tarji Center. How are you doing now? But how are you doing? Fantastic. And glad you’re here with us. Thank you for the woman who that so little quick sidebar.

 

[00:02:09] I mean, how are you? Wait. I want to ask you there. That’s what he see. No. Nobody ever asks how you are either. A, we all wear a hat.

 

[00:02:18] Right. And we are guests focused here at Supply chain now.

 

[00:02:21] So no one asked me how I was gonna change this. We had to change.

 

[00:02:27] As we know, we were talking with Tony Serota Center and he told us that we would be remiss and he’d give us a C for our overall rating of our programing here at our offer. We need five stars. Yes. If we didn’t get you here on the show, it’s very flattering. Were your ears burning? No.

 

[00:02:45] Did you write him a check? I’m not surprised. Tony’s amazing. We’ve had a religious group for years and years, well over a decade. Really? Masia puts together an amazing show. I agree. Truly passionate about reverse Logistics. He cares.

 

[00:02:58] And that is to a person. That is what we hear. That’s what we feel. Yeah. Here. No doubt. Because it for him it is. He’s on a mission to change how we’re versus just X and how returns and spread the good news of how companies can get better at it. Right. Yeah. All right. So we’ve heard good things about Go Tarji. Before we talk about your company and talk shop. Let’s talk more about Senator Shamas, the person. So. So where were you born or raised? Give us give us the skinny on your upbringing.

 

[00:03:28] I’m an immigrant of many countries. Okay. I was born in the Soviet Union. I was born in the 70s in a small little port city called Kaliningrad. Okay. Immigrated from the world. I then my parents immigrated, defected, whatever you want to call it, to Israel and then stayed there for like four or five years. Then from there, they came to the U.S. I think it was eighty six. Giuliani nobody wants to live in New York, in Brooklyn, pre Giuliani. That’s where I learned how to speak English.

 

[00:03:57] I think watching Thundercats on TV forget the Rolling Thunder gal I know how to say is is thunderstruck.

 

[00:04:06] I know from there we moved to Canada after about three months of being in New York. Thank God. Amazing place to grow up. Roban Toronto, Canada. Oh. Until recently. Until about a decade ago when I said enough’s enough. I cannot handle the cold. And I moved myself and the entire infrastructure of Tarji from from Canada to Miami and live in Miami.

 

[00:04:29] Nothing’s better than. That’s quite. Yes, that’s quite the true contrast for us close to the beaches possible.

 

[00:04:35] But there’s a lot of people in Miami like that that go from a very, very cold place to Miami, specifically because it’s subtropical.

 

[00:04:42] I bet you get a lot of calls during the wintertime from your old friends in Toronto.

 

[00:04:46] I get a lot of visits, actually see more people now than I did before. And that’s the irony of it. You think you move somewhere warm and people are just gonna go away, but you find funny and funny how they find you more quality time.

 

[00:05:00] All right, so switching gears from kind of personal to professional, you talked about moving go to Prague, to Miami before you became CEO of Go to Prague. Give us a sense of what you did prior to that role.

 

[00:05:12] Stayed at home a lot. No. So my career started really. And as a kid, I loved anything to do to those. You take computers apart, pre-Internet. I used to run a bunch of b.b.’s is just kind of Sheer software. China was a pretty big hub for you know, I knew a lot about technology. And then as I grew up, I spent my time kind of figuring out how to code and how to put things together. Eventually I started working on school, of course, did a lot of computer science stuff, dropped out. Couldn’t handle the the waste of time.

 

[00:05:46] I felt that was at that time. I have some regrets, but I mean, overall, I think I did well. From there, I started working.

 

[00:05:55] Just doing a lot of systems pre Y2K, Unilever and Manulife Banks, just from place to place, kind of bouncing around, doing a lot of tech stuff. It was easy to get paid, easy to manage big teams. Working with data and and lots of hardware, it was pretty rewarding.

 

[00:06:13] I like you very well rounded from the technology perspective.

 

[00:06:17] Yeah, from the technology perspective, I really am. I am. Somewhere in the 90s, I found a bunch of sellers that I did some kind of offshoot work for. There were some liquidation product. They helped him establish some online presence, helped him a little with our systems and kind of got hooked. I got intrigued. I’m like, what do you guys do? Like, well, we buy returns and resell them. And for me, it was pretty amazing at eye opening. I’m like, what are you talking about? Water returns.

 

[00:06:45] And I found reverse Logistics. And that’s where I am till this day.

 

[00:06:50] To give us a sense of when you found the industry. Give us a sense of that timeframe.

 

[00:06:54] Well, roughly, for me, it was 2001. It was in Canada. It was a lot of those small companies selling for terminal Tronox coffee shop. It was acquired later by a BestBuy. Yeah, most of these companies would buy product from them from Jacobs and the US, which was basically Wal-Mart returns. They bring the products into Canada. They do some basic low line plug and play and they’d retail them. There was nothing on the Internet. A lot of them would kind of come to our sources. Can you provide a solution that allows me to check an item?

 

[00:07:25] And I don’t think it was even called checking an item and it was simple scan and get the stuff online while it sits on my site that was stuck in it. Get the stuff online. And that was that was basically all and I think it was the pre-disposition engines and all the rest of the stuff we’ve built today.

 

[00:07:41] I founded a company called Killzone, which was primarily a software company. That was at the time of eBay. That was when eBay was super popular. It was an eBay marketplace platform. It’s familiar to similar to channel advisor. Similar to market works. Zulfi, all the big names back then did this multi-channel sales was called Keel’s who I exited kills around 2005, sold majority shares. I still have a tiny bit and they’re still operational and do their thing. And I started kind of looking at the supply chain piece of it. I was by no means a supply chain person. My entire background was technology. So looking at it from a different perspective was what was refreshing to the industry and to myself. I think it was what was unique. I eventually got into the Supply chain piece. I had established a relationship with Jenko, with Herb and my current partner in the business, Peter Kaveri, who was the V.P. of marketing for Jenko at that time with Bob, who was the CEO of of Jenko Marketplace, and they had asked if we can create some sort of solution for them, which was a plug and play drop into the buildings. That does co-located refurbishing, which we did at that time for a few of their clients think Amazon was one of them. We did some offshoot, our high end deep SKU items and it was in around 2006 we started working down this model. I did it while we were living in Canada. I established a little facility inside one of their buildings in Ohio and the rest is history.

 

[00:09:24] Yes, the rest is history. Well, so let’s Greg White.

 

[00:09:28] Let’s dove in to get to Prague. Yeah. So it sounds like you co-locate with with some of the liquidation or reverse use end enterprises. Okay. So tell us a little bit about what go Tarji does today.

 

[00:09:40] So today we have 15 locations in four countries. About 2000 teammates and the largest retailers and manufacturers on the planet are our clients. We provide basically fully managed solutions and with the SAS umbrella and underneath it is the supply chain and the commerce or the e-commerce side of it. We believe in this, I guess comes from my background. The hardest piece here is always picking the side. There’s there’s your Silicon Valley commerce, e-commerce guys. There’s the SAS guys and then there’s the Supply chain guys. And I think the hard part is differentiating between those industries and understanding that each business is run differently. The problem, the big issue in our industry is that the solution that retailers or manufacturers require is a fully managed solution that encompasses all three. It requires a play. It requires the e-commerce play or e-commerce play, and it requires supply chain play. But most reverse businesses out there don’t do all three. They do one of the three on it. Most of the large enterprises are not interested in outsourcing to 1/3 P.l. And then getting another country and managing this entire relationship. They really want to build a very viable, fully managed solution. And even if they are looking for one piece of the puzzle, the hard part is is really consolidating the different the different realms and the different pieces of the industry into something viable. I call this the umbrella and I think we’ll get into a little bit a little bit later. But for us, our business model is a fully managed return solution.

 

[00:11:16] Got it. cradle-to-grave. Got it. OK. So. We you know, we talk a lot about roles in the company CEO role could be different. Right. CEO to different tech companies and the role was distinctly different in both. So tell us a little bit about what a day in the life is.

 

[00:11:37] It’s I compared to The Matrix, if you ever seen the part in The Matrix where you get shot at. I think where where Neil got shot at the first time out of that helicopter. He ducks. He cannot Dodge’s he doesn’t get shot, but he gets wounded and he falls on the floor. Every day is like that. But he fired back and fired. He said. He eventually figures it out. I have a few interesting analogies for for business.

 

[00:12:01] Once business gets to a certain size, it snowballs. So I think all of us, when it snowballs and say, wow, it’s amazing. The problem with snowballs, they come only in in in three forms. You can have a stagnant snowball, which means you’re building it on a flat surface. When you roll a snowball on a flat surface, when it gets big enough and roll it anymore stuck. You need help. You need other people. And that’s where a team is really important. If you roll it uphill when it gets big enough, guess what rolls back on wheels down, crushes you and everybody else around. Yeah. So that one’s a bad idea. And rolling it downhill is probably the best one out there. Problem with rolling downhill, you can’t really control where it goes. You can nudge it. You can pull it. But once it gets big enough, it’s control that you.

 

[00:12:43] Yeah. Love it. That’s fantastic. Also. You know, I love asking people this question if I’m if I am walking down the hall in my business, right. And and I’m somebody who needs you. You know what you guys do? What. What is the pain that I’m feeling or what? Key words or you know, or questions or comments are going through my head. Well, look, other than profanity, I mean, what what?

 

[00:13:13] Let’s get let’s look at the industry as a whole. And in 2019, approximately 400 billion dollars to research. Yeah.

 

[00:13:21] Four hundred billion dollars with $100 billion retail value worth of returns uniting the recovery. Anybody know what it is? What do you think? The industry standard recovery, nonperishable non automobile for that same four hundred.

 

[00:13:33] We heard it’s like 10 percent.

 

[00:13:35] I really love about 15 percent. Yeah. So if you look if you look at our enterprise Plug’s think we have more of this data than anybody on the planet, just simply as that we deal with. I think we do about 2.5 million items a week out of all our buildings, just ones that we touch. Never mind. Never mind what goes into the entire equals, right. Of the of the buildings that we we provide software for. But think about it like this. Going back to the number itself, 60 billion represents 15 percent recovery. That means 85 percent, 340 billion go to the trash.

 

[00:14:04] It costs $150 billion of supply chain fees to operate it to handle that $400 billion worth of returns. So really, first of all, it’s it’s a $450 billion problem and a 340 billion dollar loss, which is close to half a trillion dollars. You take that 60 billion that you’re recovering and compared to 150 billion that it cost you to touch your asking yourself why it. Right. JACKLEY And I think that’s the global 50000 macro kind of question that most retailers, manufacturers are stem cells. Of course, they’re not asking it for half a trillion dollars worth of product. They each have their own problems as they walked on that hallway where they actually ask themselves. And this is where our solution is unique. I think that’s how environmentally friendly is the process. How efficient is the return process? What data privacy challenges do they have? Why are certain products returned? They need third parties to handle them. What can they do with themselves? What happens after return returns? Accepted. Where does it go and why does it go there? That’s most of the stuff. Problem is, they ask for it in the silo. Ask one question. They ask one of those questions. One question is not enough to answer that. You have to go back up there that 50000 foot mackerels will you have to be that 50000 foot problem says $400 billion. We’re covering 60 billion. There’s 150 billion in Supply chain costs.

 

[00:15:25] Why are we touching this product to get a set of all those questions that you just read that that that and probably more of what companies are looking for when it comes to returns and in reverse Logistics of the whole that whole operation, what is there one of those questions you get more often than the others that one sticks out like a 20.

 

[00:15:44] It depends on the company. And I think I think if you’re you’re dealing with a manufacturer and it’s maybe a manufacturer manufactures some piece of technology that’s current and they’re in the news a lot. Maybe they’re more concerned about circular economy and the environment and data privacy. Maybe if you’re dealing with a big box, a massive retailer, maybe they’re more concerned about the supply chain piece, the transport piece, because that’s that’s the department that’s running the the the reverse Logistics piece of their business. It really depends on who you’re are. If you’re dealing with a clothing retailer or the primary clothing, you’re dealing with bracketing, you’re asking questions of why can I get why can’t I get this product to my supply chain back into my supply chain fast enough before the season ends. Now it’s all about who you’re dealing with. So from a lot of people don’t know about Tarji, we’ve been kind of quiet. We’ve been around for a while. We’ve been quiet. We’re fully self-funded. So we don’t go out there raising money. We operate in the black and invest all our dollars back into the business. We love this business. We are super, super passionate. We’re a collection of some of the most unique, brilliant individuals on the planet doing an amazing job, trying to trying to solve the problem of returns. And it’s not really all about the dollars and cents more about solving a problem for us.

 

[00:16:55] So all those all companies have those questions, have those issues. They may have meant different measure because of the kind of industry that they’re in or because of the level of recognition that they have as a company. Right. But I think that really goes to the theme that we’ve discovered this week is that reversed Logistics isn’t a thing. It’s not you can’t solve the problem by saying reverse Logistics UPS understand every aspect of what you’re describing there to be able to solve the reverse Logistics problem.

 

[00:17:27] So for us, this you hit the nail right on the head. I think that a lot of people view versus Logistics as one of these questions I read off to solve it like you would if you had, you know, a papercuts. You can’t put a Band-Aid on reverse Logistics. You have to look at the entire ecosystem. What does the supply chain look like?

 

[00:17:43] Let’s do you guys do at the end of the day, let your show right as to supply chain so it’s not a reverse. Logistics Sheer.

 

[00:17:50] The problem starts with the supply chain. If you look at that, the onset of what this industry is, it doesn’t start with the return, it starts with the purchase of the product. That’s where I from the manufacturer or the. Buy that retailer. And that starts with a contractual obligation, that contractual obligation is based on something a UPC, a product catalog, something that collection of data is key to everything that happens afterwards. So if we take an umbrella approach and this is what we’ve done this year, we’ve revamped what we call a fully managed solution. We say the catalog sits at the top. Then we say the catalog has five basically elements to it. They’re all about equal. If you look at the catalog and they’re linear, you first need a catalog. It’s the most important thing you can have. Call it a smart catalog called intelligent catalog. Call it whatever you want. And add what you called blockchain to it. I don’t care what you do with it. It’s a catalog that starts by ingesting products with pictures, descriptions, dimensions, pricing, whatever it is that encompasses an item right afterward. You need to contract piece that that fiduciary duty between the buyer and the seller. That contract piece today basically says I’m going to sell you a thousand widgets at $1 apiece.

 

[00:19:09] It doesn’t talk about the return, right? It doesn’t talk about the lifespan of the item. It doesn’t talk about the next contract. It talks about that one specific purchase. It’s more of a PR or an invoice. It’s nothing more than that. Well, it has to be intelligent. It has to have some elements that go and speak to that to that returns portion of it. If I’ll go back to the states before I continue this. Returns are about twelve percent of everything purchased. OK. But the supply chain costs represents another 8 percent. So if you take that, there’s a 20 percent augmentation on the retail price. You could pass it on to consumer. You can keep the dollars and sense as a retailer or a manufacturer. But the bottom line is that you’re blowing the process by 20 percent or the price of the item just by by not fixing this extremely complex problem. But this fixable problem. Yeah. It requires an equal system approach. The next piece of this catalog on top smart contracts is after that. Then there’s the plug in to the Web site or the or the P.O.S. system. We call this reverse. But it’s more than just the reverse. It’s an in-store app. It’s a plug in for an in-store. It could be standalone.

 

[00:20:16] It could go straight into PUAs. If you go right into a Web site, you know, you’ve seen Shopify attempt to create returns, plug. You’ve seen a.S.A.P, attempt to create them. Yeah, Manhatten, many other companies have attempted to create them. The problem is and where they’re not used is because the system that handles the catalog, the smart contracts and all the rest of the pieces of the puzzle are not cohesive Ryder different systems. They don’t speak to each other. That’s why without a fully managed solution doesn’t work. You’re solving again one piece of the problem. It’s one Band-Aid. You’re not going to solve it all. After the reverse, it’s a supply chain piece. I think you need to have a robust supply chain piece. Whether you use the three P.L.O., you’re doing it yourself. You have to be able to do things like you have to be able to do things like data, wipe sanitation. You have to be able to have that ERP functionality to know, should I touch something? Should I not? And and that is that’s not typical to a retailer. Supply chain retail supply chain chains basically bring the power forward product. That’s all it is. Forward. Bring it in. Put on a shelf. Get it out. The supply chain for four four.

 

[00:21:20] Reverse is actually much more complicated. Supply chain for a reverse is repair. It’s vendor disposition. Sanitization is inspect.

 

[00:21:29] There’s a lot of stuff really old answering all that’s right. And remanufacturing, believe it or not.

 

[00:21:35] So we are the largest refurbishes of computers outside of computer companies on the planet. We do refurb for some of the largest brands that you’ve ever heard of. So I can’t mention what someone can say about 100000 computers a month. Hundred thousand senior location. Yeah, we do about sixty thousand one hundred thousand t.v.’s a month about oh, we’re probably the largest free forward in every category on the planet. But to get good at these things, you really have to get better than the manufacturers in most cases. Think it will d.o.a. If d.o.a.’s about 1 percent dead on arrival rate for computers 1 percent you sell 100000 units. What is that? A thousand units, right?

 

[00:22:17] Would you say it’s OK to have a thousand? You tell me, does that mean math questions? And this? Yeah, I use deer and a handler is supposed to be asking me the. Yeah. If you take a thousand compute. Right. And, and they’re d.O.A. Out of 100000 thousand. So that’s OK. It’s an acceptable it’s an acceptable. One percent is one percent is acceptable.

 

[00:22:35] Half a percent is acceptable is half a percent acceptable. Refurb. What if half a percent of the hundred thousand computers that we refurbish end up with data privacy issues with someone else’s pictures or e-mails near a crowded seftel anymore?

 

[00:22:48] Right. Right now it’s not acceptable.

 

[00:22:50] And it’s a much it’s a much more difficult process and it’s much harder to solve. And even the process of supply chain that remanufacturing much harder than it is for in in a regular supply chain, it’s actually more difficult. The manufacturing process on the Sheer economies of scale.

 

[00:23:07] I mean, the numbers you describe in terms of how much the supply chain costs there is in reverse. Sheer economies of scale would tell you that no individual, regardless of size, no individual company should undertake this themselves because the cost is way too high to do that.

 

[00:23:24] I think retailers, it’s it’s very difficult. They have to learn a new skill. And I think that’s why they love the phone managed solution fully. If you do just a piece of it, if you’re just a software company, you say, I’m gonna plug this in, I’m going to give you this and you can do the supply chain itself. It doesn’t work.

 

[00:23:38] You know? I think another reason why outside partners and providers have Evros and prevalence is, is it’s difficult. What you’re describing the big picture as well as some of the nuts and bolts next is knows it takes savvy individuals willing to make decisions and willing to manage and source different channels. It is a 24/7 job. It’s a business. It is a business upon itself. And we know with with that what we’ve. Is consensus is this is just a statement, a fact that in light of this war for talent era, when it is tough enough, just peeling off one aspect of that and hire a great person to just drive that piece, there’s so much opportunity here. Why not use an out there?

 

[00:24:27] We love to see new businesses. We love to see innovation. I love to see the startups that sprung out of there. A lot of the people that work with an organization came from startups around these businesses. We’ve invested in tons of businesses, retail arbitrage businesses. We have one of the largest online B2B marketplaces, which is also among the most direct liquidation dot com. We have a ton of business that we invest in around this industry and it’s just amazing to see the ideas and concepts that people come up with.

 

[00:24:58] All right. So moving right along before we because we want to pick your brain on on kind of what you’re seeing in the bigger picture when it comes to global India in Supply chain. I don’t want to leave the Go Tarji story too soon. So what else can I finish?

 

[00:25:12] Yeah, please. Yeah, I think you’ll enjoy that. So I’ll go real fast. Yeah.

 

[00:25:15] We start with catalog. We said smart contract. Then we said that plug in into the Web site or the store. The supply chain piece we just talked about. And of course, the record murse being able to resell this product is key to all of this because the end of the day, we commerce doesn’t only mean Richelle means putting it back into that supply chain. If you’re a retailer, you want the product back on your shelf.

 

[00:25:36] One thing I can disclose, I think something happened recently. I talked about it doing the NRF. We had we had all of Wal-Mart’s IOW product go through this entire fully managed system and ended up on their shelves in two pilot stores as certified refurbished. And they have a display which I’m showing you in a picture of your audience, Gates. That’s OK. But it looks like this and it looks like a brand new oil was displayed selling iPhones. It’s selling watches. It’s selling iPods in that display. And it’s truly end to end solution because it starts at the beginning of that umbrella with that with that return and ends through the records and watches that item go from from item that’s returned. That may have issues, but ended up fully marketing item and not receiving the 15 percent, but rather receiving 80 to 90 percent on that item. Of course, this is a very high end Ryder, but there’s no reason you can’t get the same types of recoveries. Don’t hold it. We project most retailers big boxes can get to about 45 percent if they if they do the disposition incorrectly with their contracts.

 

[00:26:42] If they fixed or supply chain the hardest part, those EFT for the last part, the hardest part, the reconciliation fees just for them. Most of these companies, we tell us, are manufacturers have despondent systems. So the P.O.S. system may not necessarily talk. The accounting system, after a while, they go through the whole reconciliation process once a month or once a quarter. These returns can stay, you know, typical returns, about three week process turnaround just to get from store to a return center. So it’s it’s. It needs to be handled much faster. And I think a lot of the systems that we put in play, they got to play nice and sandbox. Yeah, well, the concentration is about being able to reconcilable physically virtual and financial. And I think that’s the hard part. How do you take an item cradle-to-grave and all? That’s the specific item that your return from down to the serial number of that particular item and know that this was the financial result of the entire supply chain, the Europe that touching the store, sending it from place to place and all that good stuff. I’m done with the business.

 

[00:27:42] So before we go before we go to the future, I want to just confirm something I think you just said. I think you said that as much as 180 billion dollars worth of product could be recovered and re commerce instead of the 60 that’s being about over Daryl about you know, it’s a different.

 

[00:28:03] Every every type of product, every different category. But I mean, we really we really do an amazing job. We take most of these most of these contracts over. We touch one of these fundamental solutions. The last thing we do is we do this data and we just analyze the data and see what it would look like if we were if we run it through our own supply chain or trying to change the the model that they work on. It’s more consulting from that perspective and we kind of give them an idea of what it is for us. The important thing is look at the supply chain, make sure the stuff doesn’t end up in the trash bin. Make sure that because most of them understand that that’s 60 billion that they’re currently recovering, they’re wasting way more money touching it. The worst thing that we can do is take this stuff and throw it in the garbage. Yeah. So we want them to avoid that. But we also want them to recover more money. Yep. So we’re tasked with the worst job of all.

 

[00:28:57] And that’s figuring this thing out. Right. I think that’s the hard part. Putting that thinking cap on doing the consulting. We’ve we’ve done studies with some pretty big accounting firms just to make sure we can get yet the numbers, what we need for some of the larger big boxes.

 

[00:29:10] Right. And you have to create economies of scale. Are you to be able to make money doing that in their stead? Right. That’s why we need 100000 units. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

 

[00:29:21] As you’re already touching on, one of the things I was thinking about as you kind of walk us through some of that, is your learning curve on the front end as as ABC company comes to go go to and says, hey, we need help. We need help in in bumpin this figure up of how we handle returns and then what we get back into the system and all that stuff from the 10, 15 percent to at least you said 45, 50 percent roughly for retail. Depends on the point. Say a same, 30, 30 percent. Yes. Perfect. I like that. I like going conservative, too. But I can only imagine the learning curve you have on the front end as you get to another business. You get to know where the opportunity is. You quantified a figure. So in the days of global supply chains and I know you’re working with some of the very large recognizable names, just the learning curve to go through six months, just a pilot phase 3, 6 month pilot phase to collect enough data.

 

[00:30:20] And then after that, it’s probably around the year, year and a half for implementation. So you’re talking about a two year process to get your supply chain to a place, reverse supply chain to a place where it works, but you need that support of the entire business. In most cases where we take over the entire where we were attempting to create a fully managed solution for that entire reverse ecosystem, it starts by by them coming to us in most cases and saying, listen, we understand you guys do this, we need your help in analyzing it. And they’re very pliable to looking at the entire model where if we’re approaching them, it’s a little bit different. Yeah.

 

[00:30:59] Agreed. Big commitment for both sides as they kick off that. Yeah. From the pilot and the country assessing into implementation. Okay. So let’s switch. Can we switch gears? Julia. Okay. I’ll make sure. Make sure there’s no more movement. No more math questions. So let’s move into the broader picture beyond go Tarji. Even beyond reverse Logistics as important of returns and reverse Logistics is in the modern global supply chain. When you think of business especially, you think of global end in supply chain management and where we are today and where we’re moving to what’s an issue or two that you find intriguing issue or topic or development or innovation wide open. I think what robotics, robotics?

 

[00:31:47] I’d say robotics, data management. I think machine learning data science is probably we’ve been concentrating most of our efforts in terms of future like five years down the road. We have a ton of R&D. We have a bunch of systems in different facilities that we’ve tried out a lot that we’ve created ourselves. And from my perspective, forget our business. I just view the U.S. Supply chain as is getting more and more automated every day. And the solutions that are out there are even more intriguing that the ones than the ones that we have internally for reverse. I think solving. And I’m going to come back to reverse for a sec. Solving the problem of handling merchandise, using reverse Logistics actually as is a bigger challenge than forward Logistics. Just like I explained the manufacturing process and the data privacy piece using reverse Logistics as a guideline. It’s much it’s much harder to to to receive returns, not knowing what’s coming in and handle them using automation right then it is forward Logistics simply because you don’t know what you’re getting uteri the size you don’t know it from this more one off. Exactly. You don’t know you don’t know if it’s in a package. You don’t know if it’s in a bag. Those those shoe sorters. Those conveyers. Cross belt Saunders, those autonomous locust bots that are running around. They all need to be able to handle this product. So using using reverse as as a gage for solving the problem of errors actually helps you solve the entire supply chain working backwards helps you figure it out.

 

[00:33:23] Froome least efficient to mouth.

 

[00:33:25] Yes. Well, one more thing would get your thought on along this robotics and automation. One things we talk about do a bit. At least every other episode is there’s always a fear of the bots or come in the bottom. CUMINS can take jobs, all the stuff. But what we that the technology leaders and supply chain leaders, most of them that we speak to and get their thoughts on is not if you’re an individual that’s been working the organization and you’re willing to volunteer to learn new things and move into new roles. Reeducating. Yes. Then bonder animations go open.

 

[00:34:02] We’ve replaced the facility we had in Arkansas. We’ve we’ve put in some soldiers and some automation that’s beyond orders, some pretty cool stuff. And we actually ended up with more teammates, less. We just create an opportunity to be in places you weren’t before. And it takes away a lot of the stuff that we do in this country gets kind of exported. And as we replace our antiquated 30 year old processes with automation, that allows us to bring that in. The people that need to handle that product intellectually, Maureen or white collar bases are required. So reeducating that labor pool from from the jobs they were doing before into a more kind of conducive role to touch that ancillary output that comes out of that scale or the economy of scale is important. I think the jobs do exist. I think it’s just a matter of reeducating the workforce. And going to see pre-knowledge is not going to stop, right?

 

[00:35:05] Is not going anywhere. That’s right. So, I mean, it’s just a matter of time. We have to figure a way through this. Reed was it’s important for all of us. Your question is 100 percent correct. But, you know, people are going to be around.

 

[00:35:17] So we have to teach them how to do the jobs that exist.

 

[00:35:22] All right. So how can our audience learn more about go, Tarji?

 

[00:35:27] Well, we can go to our site. Then we go. We go we got go to Yahoo! Dot com. We have the liquidation. We have a bunch of bones. But go to Yoji has pretty much everything on there, too. Yeah.

 

[00:35:40] And you are here, obviously, you’re a big sponsor of the Reverse Logistics Association. Did you present during?

 

[00:35:49] I did not. I never I never said right on Faroes. Got me doing. She did. I did it. R.F., which was the first time I ever. Big show. Yeah, NRF. I did the 20 minute presentation. It was the first time I got in front of an audience in my life. It was a couple hundred people. I was a little scary. And then this this is my number two, you know, go out.

 

[00:36:11] Thank you for being down.

 

[00:36:12] I have true passion, although this is Vegas and you get kind of tired because of the time zone. And I think the dryness here. I I I speak from the heart.

 

[00:36:21] I love this industry more than anything. And it’s not really about dollars and cents about making a difference in something that we’re passionate about. It’s tough to be passionate about. Reverse Logistics Gates about any Logistics. This is something that that moves us. So I think as a society, again, imagine we’re spending trillions of dollars on our 20 percent waste. A lot of it ends up in the trash. And it’s not how you treat the kind of scenario. It’s about doing the right thing financially and environmentally. Yes. Yeah. This is not about let’s all get in front of a tree and hug it together. Now, this is about let’s make sure it doesn’t end up in a landfill. Destroy the air we breathe and let’s profit. Yeah. Which are both possible. Yeah. Just simply looking at the entire supply chain is the art of the possible.

 

[00:37:09] It’s there. It’s within reach. But I got Challenger Center Sheer. Industry needs to hear from people like you that not only are experts in in the wide array, but you’re passionate about it and you’re you’re genuine. That’s I’m telling you. So if you if you don’t, you’re good.

 

[00:37:27] We’ll just play them over and over and over and over and over again.

 

[00:37:31] I’ll tell you guys some personal I’ll give you a little tidbit. I agreed to this. For me, this is Life 2.0.

 

[00:37:38] About a year ago, I got diagnosed with what’s it called thyroid cancer. And I went through some pretty crazy surgery. It was a really bad case.

 

[00:37:49] And if I was like two weeks on and off, I probably wouldn’t be here. So Ferrer’s kind of running me around the country, getting me to do this.

 

[00:37:56] So this was never supposed to happen at all. I for this or anything, I probably shouldn’t have been around. So this is take two. Reroll, as they say. Yeah, that’s right.

 

[00:38:05] Oh, man. Good use of it. Yeah, you’re really great at it. Appreciate it. Birgit you are in all the conversations. I’m sure folks are. Gotch lined up for here. Spend some time on supply chain.

 

[00:38:16] Go to running away to a good vote to do it. No. Yes.

 

[00:38:19] Sit tight for one second as we kind of bring the episode to a close. Thanks so much. Sit down. Thank you. Yeah, we’ve been talking like guys. Appreciate it. We’ve been talking. Synder Shamas, CEO of Go Tarji. So much passion in this conference. A hero. Yeah. Yeah. Three days, right? Yeah. That’s been a great theme for the day. You’re right. I mean, you know, passion is not good enough because there’s been expertise and been there done that from guest after guest. Yeah. Obsession is required for success. Every guy passion is not enough.

 

[00:38:51] All right. So as much as we hate to bring this episode to a close, we must. We want to invite our audience. Come check us out wherever you know, we’re on the road. We love these conversations. Come check something person rather than go through event by event. We’re gonna encourage our audience. Go to the events tab and the webinar tab at Supply Chain Now Radio dot com. We’ve got upcoming events from Moad X to the Automotive Industry Action Group AIG to the Association for Manufacturing Excellence A.M.E.. Come check it out on the events tab for our Web site and that quick global interactive forum. Who’s the star of that show?

 

[00:39:26] You have to tell me who you are.

 

[00:39:30] Audience is the star of that show. So in March, should we are running a little different unit where we are inviting our audience? Come on. You got me right. Getcha. And we’re not presenting. We’re not. We don’t have great Sugimoto experts. We don’t yet have very good seats. That’s right. Right. Audience We’ll be bringing their thoughts. And they’ll be starring in a starring show and sharing their perspective, really leading the conversation to look for that on the webinar page of Supply Chain Now Radio dot com. With that said, on behalf of Greg White, the whole team to our audience, thanks for joining us. Find us wherever you’re podcast from. Stay tuned as we continue our live coverage of the reverse Logistics Association conference next, but right here in Las Vegas, Nevada. Thanks, everybody.

Featured Guests

Sender Shamiss is the Co-Founder and CEO of goTRG, a world-class returns management platform that helps retailers and manufacturers eliminate financial and environmental waste. He has spent his life perfecting technology in the space of e-commerce and supply chain and redefining the way the industry views distressed and returned inventory. Mr. Shamiss began selling items online in the 1990’s and saw an untapped ecosystem primed for change and set out to create reverse logistics solutions that facilitate higher margins, faster sell-through, and reduce the carbon footprint on behalf of enterprise-level retailers.

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Greg White

Principal & Host

Scott W. Luton

Founder, CEO, & Host

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Demo Perez

Host, Supply Chain Now en Espanol

Demo Perez started his career in 1997 in the industry by chance when a relative asked him for help for two just weeks putting together an operation for FedEx Express at the Colon Free Zone, an area where he was never been but accepted the challenge. Worked in all roles possible from a truck driver to currier to a sales representative, helped the brand introduction, market share growth and recognition in the Colon Free Zone, at the end of 1999 had the chance to meet and have a chat with Fred Smith ( FedEx CEO), joined another company in 2018 who took over the FedEx operations as Operations and sales manager, in 2004 accepted the challenge from his company to leave the FedEx operations and business to take over the operation and business of DHL Express, his major competitor and rival so couldn’t say no, by changing completely its operation model in the Free Zone. In 2005 started his first entrepreneurial journey by quitting his job and joining two friends to start a Freight Forwarding company. After 8 months was recruited back by his company LSP with the General Manager role with the challenge of growing the company and make it fully capable warehousing 3PL. By 2009 joined CSCMP and WERC and started his journey of learning and growing his international network and high-level learning. In 2012 for the first time joined a local association ( the Panama Maritime Chamber) and worked in the country’s first Logistics Strategy plan, joined and lead other associations ending as president of the Panama Logistics Council in 2017. By finishing his professional mission at LSP with a company that was 8 times the size it was when accepted the role as GM with so many jobs generated and several young professionals coached, having great financial results, took the decision to move forward and start his own business from scratch by the end of 2019. with a friend and colleague co-founded IPL Group a company that started as a boutique 3PL and now is gearing up for the post-Covid era by moving to the big leagues.

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Mary Kate Love

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Mary Kate Love is currently the VP of marketing at Supply Chain Now focused on brand strategy and audience + revenue growth. Mary Kate’s career is a testament to her versatility and innovative spirit: she has experience in start-ups, venture capital, and building innovation initiatives from the ground up: she previously helped lead the build-out of the Supply Chain Innovation Center at Georgia-Pacific and before that, MxD (Manufacturing times Digital): the Department of Defense’s digital manufacturing innovation center. Mary Kate has a passion for taking complicated ideas and turning them into reality: she was one of the first team members at MxD and the first team member at the Supply Chain Innovation Center at Georgia-Pacific.

Mary Kate dedicates her extra time to education and mentorship: she was one of the founding Board Members for Women Influence Chicago and led an initiative for a city-wide job shadow day for young women across Chicago tech companies and was previously on the Board of Directors at St. Laurence High School in Chicago, Young Irish Fellowship Board and the UN Committee for Women. Mary Kate is the founder of National Supply Chain Day and enjoys co-hosting podcasts at Supply Chain Now. Mary Kate is from the south side of Chicago, a mom of two baby boys, and an avid 16-inch softball player. She holds a BS in Political Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Joshua Miranda

Marketing Specialist

Joshua is a student from Institute of Technology and Higher Education of Monterrey Campus Guadalajara in Communication and Digital Media. His experience ranges from Plug and Play México, DearDoc, and Nissan México creating unique social media marketing campaigns and graphics design. Joshua helps to amplify the voice of supply chain here at Supply Chain Now by assisting in graphic design, content creation, asset logistics, and more.  In his free time he likes to read and write short stories as well as watch movies and television series.

Donna Krache

Director of Communications and Executive Producer

Donna Krache is a former CNN executive producer who has won several awards in journalism and communication, including three Peabodys.  She has 30 years’ experience in broadcast and digital journalism. She led the first production team at CNN to convert its show to a digital platform. She has authored many articles for CNN and other media outlets. She taught digital journalism at Georgia State University and Arizona State University. Krache holds a bachelor’s degree in government from the College of William and Mary and a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of New Orleans. She is a serious sports fan who loves the Braves. She is president of the Dave Krache Foundation. Named in honor of her late husband, this non-profit pays fees for kids who want to play sports but whose parents are facing economic challenges.

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Vicki White

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Vicki has a long history of rising to challenges and keeping things up and running. First, she supported her family’s multi-million dollar business as controller for 12 years, beginning at the age of 17. Then, she worked as an office manager and controller for a wholesale food broker. But her biggest feat? Serving as the chief executive officer of her household, while her entrepreneur husband travelled the world extensively. She fed, nurtured, chaperoned, and chauffeured three daughters all while running a newsletter publishing business and remaining active in her community as a Stephen’s Minister, Sunday school teacher, school volunteer, licensed realtor and POA Board president (a title she holds to this day). A force to be reckoned with in the office, you might think twice before you meet Vicki on the tennis court! When she’s not keeping the books balanced at Supply Chain Now or playing tennis matches, you can find Vicki spending time with her husband Greg, her 4 fur babies, gardening, cleaning (yes, she loves to clean!) and learning new things.

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Ben Harris

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Ben Harris is the Director of Supply Chain Ecosystem Expansion for the Metro Atlanta Chamber. Ben comes to the Metro Atlanta Chamber after serving as Senior Manager, Market Development for Manhattan Associates. There, Ben was responsible for developing Manhattan’s sales pipeline and overall Americas supply chain marketing strategy. Ben oversaw market positioning, messaging and campaign execution to build awareness and drive new pipeline growth. Prior to joining Manhattan, Ben spent four years with the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Center of Innovation for Logistics where he played a key role in establishing the Center as a go-to industry resource for information, support, partnership building, and investment development. Additionally, he became a key SME for all logistics and supply chain-focused projects. Ben began his career at Page International, Inc. where he drove continuous improvement in complex global supply chain operations for a wide variety of businesses and Fortune 500 companies. An APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP), Ben holds an Executive Master’s degree in Business Administration (EMBA) and bachelor’s degree in International Business (BBA) from the Terry College at the University of Georgia.

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Page Siplon

Host, The Freight Insider

Prior to joining TeamOne Logistics, Page Siplon served as the Executive Director of the Georgia Center of Innovation for Logistics, the State’s leading consulting resource for fueling logistics industry growth and global competitiveness. For over a decade, he directly assisted hundreds of companies to overcome challenges and capitalize on opportunities related to the movement of freight. During this time, Siplon was also appointed to concurrently serve the State of Georgia as Director of the larger Centers of Innovation Program, in which he provided executive leadership and vision for all six strategic industry-focused Centers. As a frequently requested keynote speaker, Siplon is called upon to address a range of audiences on unique aspects of technology, workforce, and logistics. This often includes topics of global and domestic logistics trends, supply chain visibility, collaboration, and strategic planning. He has also been quoted as an industry expert in publications such as Forbes, Journal of Commerce, Fortune, NPR, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, American Express, DC Velocity, Area Development Magazine, Site Selection Magazine, Inbound Logistics, Modern Material Handling, and is frequently a live special guest on SiriusXM’s Road Dog Radio Show. Siplon is an active industry participant, recognized by DC Velocity Magazine as a “2012 Logistics Rainmaker” which annually identifies the top-ten logistics professionals in the Nation; and named a “Pro to Know” by Supply & Demand Executive Magazine in 2014. Siplon was also selected by Georgia Trend Magazine as one of the “Top 100 Most Influential Georgians” for 2013, 2014, and 2015. He also serves various industry leadership roles at both the State and Federal level. Governor Nathan Deal nominated Siplon to represent Georgia on a National Supply Chain Competitiveness Advisory Committee, where he was appointed to a two-year term by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and was then appointed to serve as its vice-chairman. At the State level, he was selected by then-Governor Sonny Perdue to serve as lead consultant on the Commission for New Georgia’s Freight and Logistics Task Force. In this effort, Siplon led a Private Sector Advisory Committee with invited executives from a range of private sector stakeholders including UPS, Coca-Cola, The Home Depot, Delta Airlines, Georgia Pacific, CSX, and Norfolk Southern. Siplon honorably served a combined 12 years in the United States Marine Corps and the United States Air Force. During this time, he led the integration of encryption techniques and deployed cryptographic devices for tactically secure voice and data platforms in critical ground-to-air communication systems. This service included support for all branches of the Department of Defense, multiple federal security agencies, and aiding NASA with multiple Space Shuttle launches. Originally from New York, Siplon received both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering with a focus on digital signal processing from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He earned an associate’s degree in advanced electronic systems from the Air Force College and completed multiple military leadership academies in both the Marines and Air Force. Siplon currently lives in Cumming, Georgia (north of Atlanta), with his wife Jan, and two children Thomas (19) and Lily (15).

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Kristi Porter

Host, Logistics with Purpose

Kristi Porter is VP of Sales and Marketing at Vector Global Logistics, a company that is changing the world through supply chain. In her role, she oversees all marketing efforts and supports the sales team in doing what they do best. In addition to this role, she is the Chief Do-Gooder at Signify, which assists nonprofits and social impact companies through copywriting and marketing strategy consulting. She has almost 20 years of professional experience, and loves every opportunity to help people do more good.

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Sofia Rivas Herrera

Host, Supply Chain Now en Espanol

Sofia Rivas Herrera is a Mexican Industrial Engineer from Tecnologico de Monterrey class 2019. Upon graduation, she earned a scholarship to study MIT’s Graduate Certificate in Logistics and Supply Chain Management and graduated as one of the Top 3 performers of her class in 2020. She also has a multicultural background due to her international academic experiences at Singapore Management University and Kühne Logistics University in Hamburg. Sofia self-identifies as a Supply Chain enthusiast & ambassador sharing her passion for the field in her daily life.

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Katherine Hintz

Sales and Marketing Coordinator

Katherine is a marketing professional and MBA candidate who strives to unite her love of people with a passion for positive experiences. Having a diverse background, which includes nonprofit work with digital marketing and start-ups, she serves as a leader who helps people live their most creative lives by cultivating community, order, collaboration, and respect. With equal parts creativity and analytics, she brings a unique skill set which fosters refining, problem solving, and connecting organizations with their true vision. In her free time, you can usually find her looking for her cup of coffee, playing with her puppy Charlie, and dreaming of her next road trip.

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Kim Winter

Host, Supply Chain Now

The founder of Logistics Executive Group, Kim Winter delivers 40 years of executive leadership experience spanning Executive Search & Recruitment, Leadership Development, Executive Coaching, Corporate Advisory, Motivational Speaking, Trade Facilitation and across the Supply Chain, Logistics, 3PL, E-commerce, Life Science, Cold Chain, FMCG, Retail, Maritime, Defence, Aviation, Resources, and Industrial sectors. Operating from the company’s global offices, he is a regular contributor of thought leadership to industry and media, is a professional Master of Ceremonies, and is frequently invited to chair international events.

He is a Board member of over a dozen companies throughout APAC, India, and the Middle East, a New Zealand citizen, he holds formal resident status in Australia and the UAE, and is the Australia & New Zealand representative for the UAE Government-owned Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZA), the Middle East’s largest Economic Free Zone.

A triathlete and ex-professional rugby player, Kim is a qualified (IECL Sydney) executive coach and the Founder / Chairman of the successful not for profit humanitarian organization, Oasis Africa (www. oasisafrica.org.au), which has provided freedom from poverty through education to over 8000 mainly orphaned children in East Africa’s slums. Kim holds an MBA and BA from Massey & Victoria Universities (NZ).

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Adrian Purtill

Host, Logistics with Purpose

Adrian Purtill serves as Business Development Manager at Vector Global Logistics, where he consults with importers and exporters in various industries to match their specific shipping requirements with the most effective supply chain solutions. Vector Global Logistics is an asset-free, multi-modal logistics company that provides exceptional sea freight, air freight, truck, rail, general logistic services and consulting for our clients. Our highly trained and professional team is committed to providing creative and effective solutions, always exceeding our customer’s expectations and fostering long-term relationships. With more than 20+ years of experience in both strategy consulting and logistics, Vector Global Logistics is your best choice to proactively minimize costs while having an exceptional service level.

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Kevin Brown

Host, Logistics with Purpose

Kevin Brown is the Director of Business Development for Vector Global Logistics.  He has a dedicated interest in Major Account Management, Enterprise Sales, and Corporate Leadership. He offers 25 years of exceptional experience and superior performance in the sales of Logistics, Supply Chain, and Transportation Management. Kevin is a dynamic, high-impact, sales executive and corporate leader who has consistently exceeded corporate goals. He effectively coordinates multiple resources to solution sell large complex opportunities while focusing on corporate level contacts across the enterprise. His specialties include targeting and securing key accounts by analyzing customer’s current business processes and developing solutions to meet their corporate goals. Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn.

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Jose Miguel Irarrazaval

Host, Logistics with Purpose

Jose Manuel Irarrazaval es parte del equipo de Vector Global Logistics Chile. José Manuel es un gerente experimentado con experiencia en finanzas corporativas, fusiones y adquisiciones, financiamiento y reestructuración, inversión directa y financiera, tanto en Chile como en el exterior. José Manuel tiene su MBA de la Universidad de Pennsylvania- The Wharton School. Conéctese con Jose Manuel en LinkedIn.

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Nick Roemer

Host, Logistics with Purpose

Nick Roemer has had a very diverse and extensive career within design and sales over the last 15 years stretching from China, Dubai, Germany, Holland, UK, and the USA. In the last 5 years, Nick has developed a hawk's eye for sustainable tech and the human-centric marketing and sales procedures that come with it. With his far-reaching and strong network within the logistics industry, Nick has been able to open new avenues and routes to market within major industries in the USA and the UAE. Nick lives by the ethos, “Give more than you take." His professional mission is to make the logistics industry leaner, cleaner and greener.

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Allison Giddens

Host, Logistics with Purpose

Allison Krache Giddens has been with Win-Tech, a veteran-owned small business and aerospace precision machine shop, for 15 years, recently buying the company from her mentor and Win-Tech’s Founder, Dennis Winslow. She and her business partner, John Hudson now serve as Co-Presidents, leading the 33-year old company through the pandemic.

She holds undergraduate degrees in psychology and criminal justice from the University of Georgia, a Masters in Conflict Management from Kennesaw State University, a Masters in Manufacturing from Georgia Institute of Technology, and a Certificate of Finance from the University of Georgia. She also holds certificates in Google Analytics, event planning, and Cybersecurity Risk Management from Harvard online. Allison founded the Georgia Chapter of Women in Manufacturing and currently serves as Treasurer. She serves on the Chattahoochee Technical College Foundation Board as its Secretary, the liveSAFE Resources Board of Directors as Resource Development Co-Chair, and on the Leadership Cobb Alumni Association Board as Membership Chair and is also a member of Cobb Executive Women. She is on the Board for the Cobb Chamber of Commerce’s Northwest Area Councils. Allison runs The Dave Krache Foundation, a non-profit that helps pay sports fees for local kids in need.

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Billy Taylor

Host of Dial P for Procurement

Billy Taylor is a Proven Business Excellence Practitioner and Leadership Guru with over 25 years leading operations for a Fortune 500 company, Goodyear. He is also the CEO of LinkedXL (Excellence), a Business Operating Systems Architecting Firm dedicated to implementing sustainable operating systems that drive sustainable results. Taylor’s achievements in the industry have made him a Next Generational Lean pacesetter with significant contributions.

An American business executive, Taylor has made a name for himself as an innovative and energetic industry professional with an indispensable passion for his craft of operational excellence. His journey started many years ago and has worked with renowned corporations such as The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (GT) leading multi-site operations. With over 3 decades of service leading North America operations, he is experienced in a deeply rooted process driven approach in customer service, process integrity for sustainability.

A disciple of continuous improvement, Taylor’s love for people inspires commitment to helping others achieve their full potential. He is a dynamic speaker and hosts "The Winning Link," a popular podcast centered on business and leadership excellence with the #1 rated Supply Chain Now Network. As a leadership guru, Taylor has earned several invitations to universities, international conferences, global publications, and the U.S. Army to demonstrate how to achieve and sustain effective results through cultural acceptance and employee ownership. Leveraging the wisdom of his business acumen, strong influence as a speaker and podcaster Taylor is set to release "The Winning Link" book under McGraw Hill publishing in 2022. The book is a how-to manual to help readers understand the management of business interactions while teaching them how to Deine, Align, and Execute Winning in Business.

A servant leader, Taylor, was named by The National Diversity Council as one of the Top 100 Diversity Officers in the country in 2021. He features among Oklahoma's Most Admired CEOs and maintains key leadership roles with the Executive Advisory Board for The Shingo Institute "The Nobel Prize of Operations" and The Association of Manufacturing Excellence (AME); two world-leading organizations for operational excellence, business development, and cultural learning.  He is also an Independent Director for the M-D Building Products Board, a proud American manufacturer of quality products since 1920.

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Lori Sofian

Marketing Coordinator

Lori is currently completing a degree in marketing with an emphasis in digital marketing at the University of Georgia. When she’s not supporting the marketing efforts at Supply Chain Now, you can find her at music festivals – or working toward her dream goal of a fashion career. Lori is involved in many extracurricular activities and appreciates all the learning experiences UGA has brought her.

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Chantel King

Social Media Manager

My name is Chantel King and I am the Social Media Specialist at Supply Chain Now. My job is to make sure our audience is engaged and educated on the abundant amount of information the supply chain industry has to offer.

Social Media and Communications has been my niche ever since I graduated from college at The Academy of Art University in San Francisco. No, I am not a West Coast girl. I was born and raised in New Jersey, but my travel experience goes way beyond the garden state. My true passion is in creating editorial and graphic content that influences others to be great in whatever industry they are in. I’ve done this by working with lifestyle, financial, and editorial companies by providing resources to enhance their businesses.

Another passion of mine is trying new things. Whether it’s food, an activity, or a sport. I would like to say that I am an adventurous Taurus that never shies away from a new quest or challenge.

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Trisha Cordes

Administrative Assistant

Trisha is new to the supply chain industry – but not to podcasting. She’s an experienced podcast manager and virtual assistant who also happens to have 20 years of experience as an elementary school teacher. It’s safe to say, she’s passionate about helping people, and she lives out that passion every day with the Supply Chain Now team, contributing to scheduling and podcast production.

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Clay Phillips

Business Development Manager

Clay is passionate about two things: supply chain and the marketing that goes into it. Recently graduated with a degree in marketing at the University of Georgia, Clay got his start as a journalism major and inaugural member of the Owl’s football team at Kennesaw State University – but quickly saw tremendous opportunity in the Terry College of Business. He’s already putting his education to great use at Supply Chain Now, assisting with everything from sales and brand strategy to media production. Clay has contributed to initiatives such as our leap into video production, the guest blog series, and boosting social media presence, and after nearly two years in Supply Chain Now’s Marketing Department, Clay now heads up partnership and sales initiatives with the help of the rest of the Supply Chain Now sales team.

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Amanda Luton

Vice President, Production

Amanda is a production and marketing veteran and entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience across a variety of industries and organizations including Von Maur, Anthropologie, AmericasMart Atlanta, and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Amanda currently manages, produces, and develops modern digital content for Supply Chain Now and their clients. Amanda has previously served as the VP of Information Systems and Webmaster on the Board of Directors for APICS Savannah, and founded and managed her own successful digital marketing firm, Magnolia Marketing Group. When she’s not leading the Supply Chain Now production team, you can find Amanda in the kitchen, reading, listening to podcasts, or enjoying time with family.

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Constantine Limberakis

Host

Constantine Limberakis is a thought leader in the area of procurement and supply management. He has over 20 years of international experience, playing strategic roles in a wide spectrum of organizations related to analyst advisory, consulting, product marketing, product development, and market research.Throughout his career, he's been passionate about engaging global business leaders and the broader analyst and technology community with strategic content, speaking engagements, podcasts, research, webinars, and industry articles.Constantine holds a BA in History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an MBA in Finance & Marketing / Masters in Public & International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh.

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Mary Kate Soliva

Host, Veteran Voices

Mary Kate Soliva is a veteran of the US Army and cofounder of the Guam Human Rights Initiative. She is currently in the Doctor of Criminal Justice program at Saint Leo University. She is passionate about combating human trafficking and has spent the last decade conducting training for military personnel and the local community.

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Kelly Barner

Host of Dial P for Procurement

Kelly is the Owner and Managing Director of Buyers Meeting Point and MyPurchasingCenter. She has been in procurement since 2003, starting as a practitioner and then as the Associate Director of Consulting at Emptoris. She has covered procurement news, events, publications, solutions, trends, and relevant economics at Buyers Meeting Point since 2009. Kelly is also the General Manager at Art of Procurement and Business Survey Chair for the ISM-New York Report on Business. Kelly has her MBA from Babson College as well as an MS in Library and Information Science from Simmons College and she has co-authored three books: ‘Supply Market Intelligence for Procurement Professionals’, ‘Procurement at a Crossroads’, and ‘Finance Unleashed’.

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Enrique Alvarez

Host of Logistics with Purpose and Supply Chain Now en Español

Enrique serves as Managing Director at Vector Global Logistics and believes we all have a personal responsibility to change the world. He is hard working, relationship minded and pro-active. Enrique trusts that the key to logistics is having a good and responsible team that truly partners with the clients and does whatever is necessary to see them succeed. He is a proud sponsor of Vector’s unique results-based work environment and before venturing into logistics he worked for the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). During his time at BCG, he worked in different industries such as Telecommunications, Energy, Industrial Goods, Building Materials, and Private Banking. His main focus was always on the operations, sales, and supply chain processes, with case focus on, logistics, growth strategy, and cost reduction. Prior to joining BCG, Enrique worked for Grupo Vitro, a Mexican glass manufacturer, for five years holding different positions from sales and logistics manager to supply chain project leader in charge of five warehouses in Colombia.

He has an MBA from The Wharton School of Business and a BS, in Mechanical Engineer from the Technologico de Monterrey in Mexico. Enrique’s passions are soccer and the ocean, and he also enjoys traveling, getting to know new people, and spending time with his wife and two kids, Emma and Enrique.

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Kevin L. Jackson

Host of Digital Transformers

Kevin L. Jackson is a globally recognized Thought Leader, Industry Influencer and Founder/Author of the award winning “Cloud Musings” blog.  He has also been recognized as a “Top 5G Influencer” (Onalytica 2019, Radar 2020), a “Top 50 Global Digital Transformation Thought Leader” (Thinkers 360 2019) and provides strategic consulting and integrated social media services to AT&T, Intel, Broadcom, Ericsson and other leading companies. Mr. Jackson’s commercial experience includes Vice President J.P. Morgan Chase, Worldwide Sales Executive for IBM and SAIC (Engility) Director Cloud Solutions. He has served on teams that have supported digital transformation projects for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the US Intelligence Community.  Kevin’s formal education includes a MS Computer Engineering from Naval Postgraduate School; MA National Security & Strategic Studies from Naval War College; and a BS Aerospace Engineering from the United States Naval Academy. Internationally recognizable firms that have sponsored articles authored by him include CiscoMicrosoft, Citrix and IBM.  Books include “Click to Transform” (Leaders Press, 2020), “Architecting Cloud Computing Solutions” (Packt, 2018), and “Practical Cloud Security: A Cross Industry View” (Taylor & Francis, 2016). He also delivers online training through Tulane UniversityO’Reilly MediaLinkedIn Learning, and Pluralsight.  Mr. Jackson retired from the U.S. Navy in 1994, earning specialties in Space Systems EngineeringCarrier Onboard Delivery Logistics and carrier-based Airborne Early Warning and Control. While active, he also served with the National Reconnaissance Office, Operational Support Office, providing tactical support to Navy and Marine Corps forces worldwide.

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Tyler Ward

Director of Sales

Tyler Ward serves as Supply Chain Now's Director of Sales. Born and raised in Mid-Atlantic, Tyler is a proud graduate of Shippensburg University where he earned his degree in Communications. After college, he made his way to the beautiful state of Oregon, where he now lives with his wife and daughter.

With over a decade of experience in sales, Tyler has a proven track record of exceeding targets and leading high-performing teams. He credits his success to his ability to communicate effectively with customers and team members alike, as well as his strategic thinking and problem-solving skills.

When he's not closing deals, you can find Tyler on the links or cheering on his favorite football and basketball teams. He also enjoys spending time with his family, playing pick-up basketball, and traveling back to Ocean City, Maryland, his favorite place!

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Chris Barnes

Principal, Supply Chain Now
Host of Supply Chain is Boring

Talk about world-class: Chris is one of the few professionals in the world to hold CPIM-F, CLTD-F and CSCP-F designations from ASCM/APICS. He’s also the APICS coach – and our resident Supply Chain Doctor. When he’s not hosting programs with Supply Chain Now, he’s sharing supply chain knowledge on the APICS Coach Youtube channel or serving as a professional education instructor for the Georgia Tech Supply Chain & Logistic Institute’s Supply Chain Management (SCM) program and University of Tennessee-Chattanooga Center for Professional Education courses.

Chris earned a BS in Industrial Engineering from Bradley University, an MBA with emphasis in Industrial Psychology from the University of West Florida, and is a Doctoral in Supply Chain Management candidate.

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Greg White

Principal & CMO, Supply Chain Now
Host of Supply Chain Now and TECHquila Sunrise

When rapid-growth technology companies, venture capital and private equity firms are looking for advisory, they call Greg – a founder, board director, advisor and catalyst of disruptive B2B technology and supply chain. An insightful visionary, Greg guides founders, investors and leadership teams in creating breakthroughs to gain market exposure and momentum – increasing overall company esteem and valuation.

Greg is a founder himself, creating Blue Ridge Solutions, a Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader in cloud-native supply chain applications, and bringing to market Curo, a field service management solution. He has also held leadership roles with Servigistics (PTC) and E3 Corporation (JDA/Blue Yonder). As a principal and host at Supply Chain Now, Greg helps guide the company’s strategic direction, hosts industry leader discussions, community livestreams, and all in addition to executive producing and hosting his original YouTube channel and podcast, TEChquila Sunrise.

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Scott W. Luton

Founder, CEO, & Host

As the founder and CEO of Supply Chain Now, you might say Scott is the voice of supply chain – but he’s too much of a team player to ever claim such a title. One thing’s for sure: he’s a tried and true supply chain expert. With over 15 years of experience in the end-to-end supply chain, Scott’s insights have appeared in major publications including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and CNN. He has also been named a top industry influencer by Thinkers360, ISCEA and more.

From 2009-2011, Scott was president of APICS Atlanta, and he continues to lead initiatives that support both the local business community and global industry. A United States Air Force Veteran, Scott has also regularly led efforts to give back to his fellow veteran community since his departure from active duty in 2002.

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