Donald Frieson

Dial P for Procurement host Kelly Barner recently displayed her expertise in supplier diversity in writing Empowering Supplier Diversity Managers to Succeed in all Economies for Supplier.io’s company Supplier Diversity Blog. Check out the entire article here.    

Growth is exciting. New customers, acquisitions, expanding operations, and fresh opportunities can create tremendous momentum for a business. But growth also has a way of revealing weaknesses that were much easier to overlook when an organization was smaller. That’s one of the lessons HTL co-founder & CEO Onu Okebie has learned while building the organization, which is a growing transportation and logistics business. At the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) International Conference 2026 in Milwaukee, Supply Chain Now Founder and CEO Scott Luton reconnected with Okebie to discuss leadership, operational excellence, the freight market, and the importance of preparing for an increasingly unpredictable future. Okebie previously joined Luton and AME CEO Kimberlee Humphrey on Supply Chain Now, where they explored his entrepreneurial journey and HTL’s growth. This latest conversation picked up where they left off, with several important developments underway. Growth Has a Way of Exposing Weaknesses One of Okebie’s biggest priorities has been strengthening HTL’s organizational foundation for its next stage of growth. That includes bringing aboard Jeff Thomas as Chief Operating Officer to develop the people, processes, and operational discipline needed to support a larger business. For Okebie, scaling successfully requires more than expanding revenue or completing acquisitions.…