SIG Advisory Board

Dawn Tiura Evans, SIG’s President and Chief Executive Officer, has over 20 years leadership experience in large and small organizations, with the past 14 years focused on the sourcing and outsourcing industry. Since 1999, Dawn has been active in SIG, bringing the latest developments in sourcing and outsourcing to SIG members, as well as a trusted advisor to many of the SIG members.  Prior to joining SIG, Dawn held leadership positions as CEO of Denali Group and prior to that as a partner in a CPA firm.  Dawn is actively involved on a number of boards promoting civic, health and children’s issues in the Lake Tahoe Area. Dawn is a licensed CPA and has a BA from the University of Michigan – Dearborn and an MS in taxation from Golden Gate University.

Linda Behan is Chief Procurement Officer, Nuance Communications, Inc. Responsible for global direct and indirect Sourcing, Procurement Operations, and Travel Services for all global activities including; Advertising/Marketing, Technology, Professional Services, Human Resources, Travel, General Supplies and Services, Outsourced Services, Research and Development, MRO, and Inventory. Nuance is the leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Nuance comprises the world's largest portfolio of speech and imaging products backed by the expertise of our professional services organization and a partner network that can create solutions for businesses and organizations around the globe. In her current responsibilities, Linda is capitalizing on past change-management successes and bringing transformational leadership of the end-to-end supply chain processes; building best in class organizational capabilities, technologies, and processes while mitigating risk and maximizing the return on investment.

Carol Britton has joined Regions Financial Corporation as senior vice president, director, Procurement. In her role, Britton will report the senior executive vice president of Operations, Technology, Corporate Real Estate, and Procurement. In her new role, she is  focusing on building a best-in-class Procurement function for a Top 10 bank. Carol has more than 20 years of procurement experience and is a talented leader. Prior to joining Regions, she held progressive procurement management positions with Comerica, Incorporated, a $58 billion financial institution based in Detroit, Mich. Most recently, she served as first vice president, director of Sourcing and Procurement, and she has successfully led negotiations with organizations such as IBM, AT&T, American Express and Trammell Crow Corporation. Her prior experience includes procurement positions with a diverse range of organizations such as VDO Automotive, Talon Automotive Group and the State of Tennessee. Carol received her master’s degree in general business administration from Central Michigan University and her bachelor’s degree in materials and logistics management from Michigan State University.

Debra Bronzo joined New York Life in 2000 with the charter to assist the CPO in the development of a sourcing team that would utilize "state of the art" strategic sourcing methodologies for the procurement of services and consulting, as well as the establishment of policies for the procurement of all non-¬personnel expenses. In 2007 Debbie’s success with service procurement led her to being named Vice President of Corporate Procurement and given responsibility for all non-technology procurement and outsourcing for New York Life.  Debbie's career in strategic sourcing, contracting and procurement spans more than 20 years.  Her knowledge of sourcing methodology, supply chain management and negotiation led to positions of increasing authority with organizations that include Prodigy Communications, Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Northrop Grumman. Debbie received her Masters of Business Administration from Adelphi University and a Bachelor of Science degree in International Business from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh.

Deborah (Deb) Conroy is Sr. Director of Global Sourcing Services for NetApp. Deb joined NetApp in 2006 with the charter to design and build a global sourcing and procurement organization responsible for NetApp’s indirect spend as well as 3rd party services for resale. Prior to joining NetApp, Deb was with Sun Microsystems where she held varying roles of increasing authority during her 15 years with them, the most recent as Director of Global Sourcing. Deb brings her leadership and experience gained from 27 years in sourcing, contracting and procurement to the SIG Advisory Board.

Ross Docksey is Chairman Emeritus of the Corporate and Securities Group of Sonnenschein, a national law firm of 700 attorneys in 14 offices across the United States and in Brussels, and of the Global Technology and Outsourcing Group of Lex Mundi, an association of 160 leading law firms with offices in more than 100 countries. He has a B.S in Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point (1973) and J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School (1981). In addition to serving on SIG's Advisory Council, Ross is a member of the board of directors of four for-profit and three not-for-profit corporations. His legal practice focuses on information technology, information services and business process outsourcing, technology contracting, the formation of joint ventures and strategic alliances, and on mergers and acquisitions. HRO Today Magazine and by FAO Today Magazine named Ross to their annual lists of Superstars of Outsourcing, and Lawdragon Magazine named him to its nationwide list of 500 leading lawyers. Ross is ranked by Chambers in Band 1 in both Technology and IT Outsourcing and Business Process Outsourcing. He has served as outside counsel to Sears Roebuck, Allstate Insurance, Dean Witter-Discover, Sara Lee, Molex, Accenture, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Affiliated Computer Services, Aon Consulting, and other leading customers and providers in connection with some of their largest, most complex, and most innovative outsourcing contracts. Representative transactions include the outsourcing by BP Amoco to PricewaterhouseCoopers of its upstream oil and gas finance and accounting function, the outsourcing by AT&T to Aon Consulting of its HR function, and the outsourcing by Motorola to ACS, on a global basis, of its HR function. Ross advised Sears Roebuck in connection with the formation of Advantis, a joint venture between Sears and IBM that became the foundation for the IBM Global Network, and he represented a leading IT service provider in connection with a strategic alliance with GE Capital. He has represented both customers and service providers in connection with the negotiation of contracts to develop complex custom computer software applications including software used by stock transfer agents for the maintenance of security holder records and for processing share transfer instructions and software used to operate a cross border electronic futures market.

Carrie Ericson has over 15 years of experience in operations, procurement and supply chain management. She is a Vice President with A.T. Kearney Procurement Solutions, working with clients to develop and implement Procurement Transformation initiatives. She was recognized as a Pro to Know by Supply & Demand Chain Executive Magazine in 2004 for her innovation in the Spend Management arena. She was a founder of one of the original cross-industry consortium offerings (Leveraged Sourcing Networks) as well as a founder of one of the early auction technology companies (eBreviate). Her clients have included HP, Disney, Cisco , E*Trade, Safeway, Sears, and BankAmerica. Carrie has her MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Economics from UC Santa Barbara. She has written and spoken extensively on the topics of Strategic Sourcing, Spend Management and Procurement Transformation in such forums as iSource Magazine, Automotive Sourcing Magazine, Purchasing Magazine, Conference Board, Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, Line56, ProcureCon, Supplier Selection & Management Report, Assoc. for Builders & Contractors, About.com, Sourcing Interest Group, Optimize Magazine, and Supply Chain Management Review. Carrie lives in the San Francisco area with her husband and three children.

Danny Ertel is a founding partner of Vantage Partners and a leading authority on negotiation and relationship management. He leads Vantage’s Outsourcing practice and focuses on helping buyers and providers launch, manage (and when necessary, remediate) outsourcing relationships. In addition, Danny is also Chairman of Janeeva, Inc., a provider of software tools for Outsourcing Relationship Management, and he chairs the Governance Chapter of the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals. Danny has written four books, two of them winners of the CPR Legal Program book award, including his latest, The Point of the Deal: How to Negotiate When Yes is Not Enough (with Mark Gordon) (HBSP 2007).  Prior to co-founding Vantage, Danny was a partner at Conflict Management, Inc., a senior researcher at the Harvard Negotiation Project, an attorney with Debevoise & Plimpton, and a clerk to the Hon. Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the US Supreme Court.  Danny is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

Michele Flynn, President of Expense Management Solutions, is an industry visionary.  With more than 25 years of real estate and corporate administrative experience, she leads a team of professionals who have "been there, done that," accentuating her belief that if you advise a company on how to run an operation, you need to know how to run that operation. Michele brings to each engagement deep expertise in leveraging process and technology to reduce expenses and align corporate services to meet the changing needs of business units. Before Expense Management Solutions, Michele held executive positions with Fortune 500 companies, international banks and public accounting firms in real estate, investment management, administrative services and contract administration.

Frenchie Green Frenchie is an experienced sourcing leader responsible for driving tactical sourcing and sourcing best practices globally at Microsoft Corporation.  With experience across a number of industry, verticals, Green was successful at leading the transformation and change management efforts within the sourcing organizations at St. Paul Fire and Marine (Traveler's), The Toro Company and most recently Microsoft Corporation.  While in these roles Frenchie also led procure to pay technology strategy and implementation efforts.  Founder of the Northwest eSourcing Forum, Frenchie will share her insights and lessons learned on how to build effective stakeholder relationships while driving adoption and acceptance in the most difficult environments.

Since joining Wachovia in 2006, Adrian Hee has strategically led and managed Wachovia’s Corporate and Investment Banking Offshoring and Outsourcing program. Recently, he was promoted to head up the Business Integration and Governance group that will focus on broad based efficiency improvement opportunities across the platform, the Program Management Office and New Product Introduction for Corporate and Investment Banking. Adrian joined Wachovia from Bank of America, where he had a ten-year career in roles such as Offshoring Program Director for the Global Corporate Investment Bank division, Project Portfolio Manager for Bank of America’s Finance Enterprise Project Management Center, and front line roles in High Grade and Leveraged Finance. His key experience includes program/project management, project portfolio management, change management, efficiency improvement, organizational strategy, operational risk management, and strategic planning. Adrian received an MBA from the Wake Forest Babcock Graduate School of Management and a BS in Accounting from the University of Florida.

Bill Huber is Director of CPO Services for TPI. Bill joined TPI in 2006 following a successful career as a sourcing leader spanning four Global 500 companies with responsibility for all areas of outsourcing and procured services. Since joining TPI Bill has led strategy and implementation initiatives in the automotive, building products, financial services, and life sciences industries resulting in both internal and outsourced solutions. Bill worked in several senior management positions in the financial services industry before joining TPI. He was Senior Vice President of Outsourcing Strategy and Governance, SVP/Head of Strategic Sourcing and VP/Head of IT Sourcing at Wachovia. As Senior Vice President -Outsourcing Strategy and Governance, Bill completed the enterprise service delivery transformation strategy for Wachovia Corporation. The transformation included an enterprise offshore strategy, multi-process HR outsourcing, and establishment of a large virtual captive offshore solution for business and knowledge processes. As SVP/Head of Strategic Sourcing, he was responsible for procurement transformation and attained over $300M in annualized savings, led merger integration and rationalization activities, implemented a leading sourcing management system and outsourced facilities management for office towers. Earlier in his career, Bill was Senior Manager – Outsourcing and IT Procurement at American Express, and held various advanced technology sourcing and program management roles at United Technologies Corporation and GEC/Marconi Aerospace. Bill holds a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Dartmouth College, and a Master of Business Administration in International Business from the University of Bridgeport and has completed additional post graduate work in Accounting at WCSU. Bill is a nationally recognized thought leader in Sourcing and Commitment Management and was recently two-term Chairman of the Board of the International Association for Contract and Commercial Management (IACCM) as well as a member of the Board of Advisors for the Sourcing Interest Group. Bill recently chaired an international academic conference on the subject of Commitment Management, and has written and presented frequently on change management and sourcing strategy.

Dr. Wendell Jones is formerly Chair of the Computer Sciences Faculty at the United States Military Academy at West Point.  He is also the author of a leading book on Technology Outsourcing.  During his career, Wendell was General Manager, McDonnell Douglas Aerospace Information Services.  There, he led the analysis and participated in the negotiation of one of the largest IS outsourcing contracts in history, a three billion dollar arrangement with IBM Global Services.  Other experiences include having headed the largest software development organization in the Defense Department and chairing the Computer Sciences Faculty at West Point.  He is the author of a leading book on Technology Outsourcing.

Tim Minahan, Chief Marketing Officer for Ariba, Inc., is a widely recognized expert on supply chain management and technology issues. In his current role, he is responsible for the design and execution of Ariba's global marketing programs. Throughout his career, Tim has been a strategic advisor to the world's largest supply chain and technology companies. He served as chief services officer at Aberdeen Group where he helped build Aberdeen’s Supply Chain Research practice into one of the most influential of the top industry analyst firms. Tim is a member of the International Association of Contract and Commercial Management's (IACCM) Thought Leadership Council. He has thrice been named one of Supply & Demand Chain Executive's Industry Pros to Know. He has also received Supply Chain Technology News' Top Industry Influencers Award.

 

Kevin Nash is the Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer for USAA. In this role, he oversees all of the sourcing, contracting and management activity with suppliers. He is responsible for managing the enterprise spend of $3.5B and for establishing the relationships with all third parties to support revenue creation. Kevin joined USAA in 2008 and brings over 20 years of procurement and supply management experience. Prior to joining USAA, Kevin was the Vice President of Global Procurement at American Express where he was responsible for the sourcing and contracting of all goods and services required by American Express in North and South America. Kevin holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey; and a MBA from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Kevin started his career at GE and is a graduate of a GE Management Program.

Sarah Pfaff is EquaTerra’s Procurement Practice Leader for North America, and Global Practice leader for Knowledge Process Outsourcing. She has spent the past 20 years helping clients to improve their general and administrative processes and reduce their overall cost structures. Her experience spans procurement, outsourcing, offshoring, and strategy/marketing consulting projects. Sarah has helped companies like ChevronTexaco, Halliburton, Clorox, and McGraw-Hill realign their structure, governance and management processes, establish shared service centers, evaluate and transition services to outsourcing arrangements, plan and transition processes to offshore centers, re-engineer business processes, and reduce overall cost structure and spend on goods and services.?? Sarah has always been at the forefront of emerging industries. She began her career with A.T. Kearney where she focused on organizational effectiveness and operational improvement. After observing the inefficiencies in classic strategic sourcing processes, she left A.T. Kearney and founded eBreviate, an eSourcing firm, funded by EDS. She grew eBreviate to 200+ Global clients and was instrumental in building the self-service eSourcing industry. She then continued to help shape this industry by joining FreeMarkets as Executive Vice President of Consulting Services and Chief Marketing Officer. She has been a frequent speaker on eSourcing, strategic sourcing and most recently procurement outsourcing. Sarah received her Masters in Business from the Anderson School at UCLA. In addition to SIG, she is an advising member of SupplyChain50, a membership-only organization of industry supply chain leaders.

Ashwin Rao is Senior Vice President/Chief Sales Officer and Member of the Board of Directors of Collabera, a US-based IT services firm that provides onsite, offsite and offshore services to Global 2000 clients. During his tenure, Collabera’s sales have increased 100-fold to $300 million, making it one of the fastest growing and best-positioned companies in its space. Collabera, with 4,00 employees, has recently been ranked among the Top 10 IT services providers by NeoIT and Global Services publication for 2009. In 2010, DiversityBusiness.com also recognized Collabera with numerous awards as one the largest diversity owned global IT services firms with capabilities and experience in providing onsite, offsite and offshore based solutions to clients. With over 17 years of experience, Mr. Rao’s career reflects continually expanding responsibilities and remarkable achievements at Collabera and earlier at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). At Collabera he has created sales and account management processes and formed and trained sales teams to drive consistent growth in highly competitive markets. A motivational leader with exceptional relationship management skills, he has established customer relationships at the CIO level and led the transition from selling cost arbitrage to consulting-led selling of a “right shore” delivery model. He is skilled in strategic planning, tactical problem solving as well as structuring and negotiating IT services deals. Mr. Rao joined Collabera, then Global Consultants Incorporated (GCI), a fledgling IT professional services company, as vice president of solutions sales in 1999. Within two years he had acquired ten accounts that formed the company’s base for growth. He formed the sales team, created new competencies for growth, and built the company’s first Proximity Development Center. In 2002 he established the business development group for acquiring large strategic accounts. He also formed the financial services group and acquired key accounts that still account for 50 percent of the company’s revenues. Mr. Rao also leads the Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) team for the company’s first offshore acquisition in the same year. He was named to his current position in 2007 overseeing the near-shore activities while being closely involved with all offshore engagements Mr. Rao is a frequent speaker and panelist for industry groups as TiE, New Jersey Technology Council (NJTC), National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) and Sourcing Interest Group (SIG).

Vincent A. Sanchez, Chair, Technology and Sourcing Practice Group, focuses his practice in the areas of technology-related transactions, electronic commerce and privacy, outsourcing, and general corporate law. Mr. Sanchez is experienced in advising Fortune 500 companies, as well as emerging companies, in the acquisition, divestiture, and licensing of various technologies, products, and services either for strategic use in their businesses or for distributing, licensing, or selling such products or services to third parties. He has represented such companies in transactions involving the licensing, distribution, and marketing of such technologies, products, and services including negotiating arrangements involving strategic alliances and private labeling, co-branding, marketing, and reseller arrangements. Mr. Sanchez is experienced in representing Fortune 500 companies in the outsourcing of business processes and operations such as a company's human resource, accounting, financial, or technology operations. He also advises such companies with respect to implementing strategies and business processes related to electronic commerce and the risks associated with transacting business online through the Internet or in other networked environments, and he also advises such companies with respect to the legal and regulatory issues and risks related to a company's use and security of data and other information. In 2004, the Law Bulletin Publishing Company, publisher of Chicago Daily Law Bulletin and Chicago Lawyer magazine, named Mr. Sanchez one of “40 Illinois Attorneys under 40 to Watch.” In 2005, he was designated an Illinois Super Lawyer in a research project jointly conducted by Law & Politics and Chicago magazines. He is recognized by the respected English research firm Chambers & Partners in its publication Chambers USA: America 's Leading Lawyers for Business.  In 2007, he earned rankings from Chambers for his work in Technology and IT Outsourcing in Illinois and as an Up and Coming DLA lawyer for his work in Business Process Outsourcing nationally.

Ben Trowbridge is a proven leader in all areas of IT Outsourcing and Business Process Outsourcing with over 20 years of diversified global experience as a Senior Executive, Managing Partner and CEO. He is a respected advisor to corporate clients seeking to restructure their organization with the use of strategic outsourcing, offshore and shared services plans and resources. He is an innovator in the evolution of Outsourcing. Ben proudly serves on the Sourcing Interest Group Advisory Board. He is renowned for his forward thinking and collaborative approaches to deal structuring and sourcing techniques that have redefined the development, negotiation and implementation process. He is an aggressive negotiator with a reputation for win/win results and innovative business solutions. He has led and supervised sourcing transactions ranging from $150 million to $2.2 billion for a variety of activities such as F&A, HR and IT across multiple industries to include: transportation, consumer products, telecommunication, manufacturing, retail, technology, entertainment and energy/utility industries. Prior to Alsbridge, Ben served as Managing Partner for Ernst & Young’s Outsourcing Services Business and COO for their Global Outsourcing Business. Ben personally led and directed two of the firm’s largest outsourcing relationships, with a total contract value of over $4 billion. Ben has also served in a variety of executive roles at Electronic Data Systems (NYSE: EDS), including Industry Vice President. During his tenure at EDS, Ben successfully grew several vertical businesses from start-up to maturity. Ben served in the U.S. Marine Corps attaining the rank of Captain and as Company Commander on four separate occasions to include the Marine Corp’s first Special Operations Capable Raid Company.

Tom Vetterani oversees CompuCom Systems’ solutions development and market quality initiatives. In collaboration with various industry analysts, and leaders throughout the company, he identifies process and improvement trends, enables technology adaptation to service delivery, and delivers best practice processes to strengthen CompuCom’s outsourcing solutions strategy. In addition, Mr. Vetterani is responsible for the melding of CompuCom’s Integrated Infrastructure Management™ (IIM) and ClientLink™ methodologies into the organization’s service delivery operations. CompuCom’s IIM approach helps clients improve operational performance while reducing cost and increasing business value. CompuCom’s ClientLink™ methodology is a system of processes aligned across six phases (Assess, Plan, Design, Test, Implement, and Support) that contain proven documents, tools, and methods for project management, service delivery, and ongoing operations of a client services engagement. Bringing more than 30 years of demonstrated technology and management expertise, Mr. Vetterani joined CompuCom in 1999 from former parent organization Safeguard Scientifics, where he provided business and technology consultancy and leadership to a number of Safeguard’s portfolio companies. Prior to that, he was Chief Technical Officer and then President of Global Intellicom’s AMCom and VirCom subsidiaries, later focusing on mergers and acquisitions, as well as business development. Mr. Vetterani began his career at IBM and spent more than a dozen years in various executive positions at BASF and McKinsey in both the United States and Europe. Mr. Vetterani is a former U.S. Navy aviator and holds bachelor’s degrees in biology and electrical engineering, as well as an MBA, from UCLA, and is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt.  Mr. Vetterani is a well-respected technology expert in the IT, outsourcing, quality, and consulting sectors, and has authored several articles on technology adoption.

SIG Advisory Board Alumni

Linda Cantwell is an experienced supply chain executive with broad cross-functional experience and focused expertise in all aspects of Procurement.  Linda has a passion for leading teams through times of change, and has successfully led several initiatives in the course of IBM’s extensive business transformation in supply chain.  Linda is currently leading a new corporate initiative driving process transformation for the next dramatic improvement in Procurement business effectiveness for hardware and labor.  Prior to her current assignment, Linda led global delivery services for IBM’s Supply Chain Management outsourcing solutions, supporting a global portfolio of commercial clients.  This position was a natural next step for Linda after having led the development of the Supply Chain Management commercial offering, leveraging personnel and assets of IBM's Integrated Supply Chain (ISC) organization.

John Chelius has held a variety of positions over the past 25 years as both a vendor and customer of IT Services.  The first half of his career was in Engineering where he held a number of assignments working with real-time AeroSpace systems as a vendor contractor for Lockheed Martin.  This included all activities associated with crafting proposals and winning the contracts, to delivering the final product.  As bid proposal manager, he had an exceptional rating for contract wins, which lead Lockheed’s move into Commercial business arena.  During this period, he developed an acute understanding of cost modeling from the IT Service’s Vendor perspective.    The second half of Mr. Chelius’ career has included a variety of leadership positions within AstraZeneca Information Technology organization.  As leader of the Pricing Negotiation team, he crafted a position for AstraZeneca that was vendor collaborative, leveraged Gartner Benchmarking and drove to a clear savings profile for an IT Services mega deal.  The contract was signed in July 2007, with a Business Case projected cost savings of $500M over the term of the Contract.  As leader within the IT Services team, Mr Chelius has worked as the key Commercial interface with all IT Services Vendors.  Day to day management challenges include cost savings and cost avoidance.  Within the past 5 years, he has successfully driven Commodity IT Services below the Market standard year on year reduction of 5%.    Extensive experience using Gartner, Compass and RFP negotiation techniques, he established a disciplined process to get the right service at the right price.  Major current vendor relationships include HP, Accenture, EMC, and IBM.  Mr. Chelius has assumed a Global role in the new mega-deal services contract, ensuring transition of IT Services with Global reach to all AstraZeneca customers throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas.   This contract reaches and supports all 65,000 AstraZeneca employees with provision to support Externalization.

Ned Cooper is chief financial officer of Comprehensive Health Services, Inc. He has been a member of CHS’s board of directors since 1985 and joined CHS as chief financial officer in 2003. With more than 30 years of experience in the information services industry, Cooper has a proven track record of successfully deploying managed services for large-scale enterprises. Prior to joining CHS, Cooper held numerous executive positions at Lockheed Martin, including chief information officer, vice president of operations and program manager. Before that, he held sales and marketing positions at IBM and was a Captain in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, serving in Vietnam. Cooper has been a frequent speaker at industry and government conferences on technology issues and also a guest professor at the University of Central Florida, Stetson University, and the University of Colorado MBA programs. Cooper holds an M.S. in decision sciences and a M.B.A in finance from Georgia State University, as well as a B.S. in industrial engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Jonathan James is Vice President of Marketing at Unisys, where he leads the overall marketing efforts for the Global Outsourcing & Infrastructure Services (GOIS) business unit, which contributes approximately half of the annual revenue for this Fortune 500 technology services corporation. Before joining Unisys, Mr. James was Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at ITO/KPO firm Syntel, where he was responsible for Syntel's overall marketing & brand campaigns, investor relations, industry analyst outreach, public relations, and corporate communications. Prior to joining Syntel in 1996, Mr. James held various marketing and public relations positions at Ameritech, ProQuest, and Burson-Marsteller Consulting, where he managed national consumer marketing programs for leading brands such as Pampers, Mr. Clean, and Crisco. With more than 20 years of experience in marketing, branding, and communications, Mr. James has established deep expertise in "building lasting brands with shoestring budgets." Mr. James has won awards from both Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and International Association for Business Communicators (IABC) for programs he conducted while at previous employers. He was named on the Crain's Detroit Business "40 under 40" list of young execs on the rise in the early 1990s. In 2002, he helped launch the Triangle Chapter of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI). Mr. James has a B.A. in Communications/Public Relations from Michigan State University and is on the Board of Directors of the American Marketing Association -Triangle Chapter.

Kathleen A. Murray Kathy Murray is a key senior operational leader with broad experience in transforming business functions and removing costs by hundreds of millions of dollars. She is recognized as an entrepreneur able to implement creative and innovative solutions within large complex firms with a style that enables the firms to service their clients, increase revenue, decrease expenses and mentor staff.   Kathy was, until October 2008, the Managing Director of Operations for PricewaterhouseCoopers. Based on the ongoing outsourcing, off-shoring, divestment and restructuring, the number of staff in her units varied from 3000 to 150. The accountability grew to over $2.3 billion of spend even after achieving cost reductions of 15-25% for each service. The savings took out over $560 million from the firm’s cost basis.   In addition to these functional accountabilities, she led firm-wide initiatives such as establishing the firm’s carbon footprint, teaming on a McKinsey review of all internal operations, piloting a national approach to administrative assistant support, creating a global network with peers to leverage initiatives, sponsoring a women’s network circle and structuring a weekly forum with peers.   Until December 1999, she was Senior Vice President of Operations for Aetna Retirement Services, and Chief Operating Officer for Aetna Business Resources. Earlier she led numerous underwriting, sales and recruiting units at Aetna, Inc and INA (now CIGNA) in Pittsburgh, Dallas and Hartford. In each of the roles, Kathy has been a leader in actualizing several mergers, sales and acquisitions. She also served on the Board of New England Mechanical Services, which was sold to another firm in 1999.   Kathy received a BA in Math and General Science from the University of Rochester and the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program degree. She also holds these professional designations: Chartered Property & Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) and Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC).   She is very engaged as a leader in industry, alumni and community activities and viewed as an advisor by each organization’s leadership. Currently, Kathy is a Fellow of the Foreign Policy Association and an Advisory Board member of the Sourcing Interest Group. She is a Board member of the Harvard Business School New York City Women's Association and a member of the Harvard Business School New York City Club, along with their Community Partners program. Kathy is leading the reunion for her University of Rochester class, having been the President of the College’s Alumni Council earlier. She serves on the National Alumnae Board of Ellis School for Girls in Pittsburgh. She is also on the Advisory Boards of Outward Bound and Teatown Nature Reservation and a Trustee for the Union Church of Pocantico Hills.   Kathy has a wide variety of interests such as playing squash and backgammon, as well as enjoying wine and gourmet cooking. She is a member of the University Club of New York City and the Harvard Club of New York City. Kathy and her husband, Alan, enjoy residences in New York City and Westchester. Their children live in Massachusetts and North Carolina.

Len Prokopets Len Prokopets is a Principal with Archstone Consulting and is the co-lead of Archstone’s Sourcing and Procurement Practice. He has over fourteen years of experience helping Global-1000 clients achieve results in their Supply Chain initiatives. Len specializes in: Procurement Transformation, Procurement Strategy, Supplier Relationship Management, Working Capital Optimization, and Supply Chain Operations Improvement. He brings experience in a number of industries, including Life Sciences, Consumer Goods, High Tech Manufacturing, and Aerospace and Defense. Prior to joining Archstone, Len was a Senior Manager at Deloitte Consulting. Len’s publications include: “Does Offshoring Still Make Sense?”, “Five Key Elements to SRM Success”, and “Supplier Relationship Management - Maximizing the Value of Your Supply Base” and he is a frequent speaker on the topics including Supplier Management, Business Intelligence, Advanced Procurement Analysis. Len received a Masters in Industrial Administration from Carnegie Mellon University and Bachelor’s degrees in Electrical Engineering and in Mathematics from the University of Rochester.

Edwina Stoate is Vice President, Global Expense Management & Sourcing of Manulife Financial where she is responsible for managing the Company's global strategic sourcing organization and global expense management initiatives. Under Ms. Stoate's leadership, the department has put in place policies, processes and tools and a team of sourcing experts to guide work area managers and employees in their purchasing, spend and demand management activities to ensure the Company gains maximum value for each and every spending decision. Ms. Stoate received a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of Toronto in 1979 and an MBA Finance from York University in 1983. In 1979, Ms. Stoate joined Ontario Hydro, a public utility, in the Treasury Division and for the next 16 years held positions of increasing responsibility in a number of functions including capital markets, corporate finance, cash management and securities operations. Manulife Financial recruited Ms. Stoate in 1995 to join as Director, Cash Management. In 1996, she added responsibility for Corporate Finance and, in 1997, also took accountability for securities operations. In May 1998, she was appointed Vice President, Investor Relations where she became actively involved in Manulife Financial's conversion from a mutual company to a shareholder-owned company in 1999, including being responsible for establishing the investor relations function. She subsequently led the communications process with investors about the Manulife / John Hancock merger that was completed in April 2004 and oversaw the process by which more than 675,000 former stockholders of John Hancock became shareholders of Manulife Financial. In September 2004, Ms. Stoate established a new department as Vice President, Global Expense Management, with responsibility for developing and implementing an enhanced infrastructure and tools for global expense reporting, oversight and analysis.