SPEAKER BIO'S

 

Alex Walker

CEO

Cube Route

Alex Walker is a business executive with more than ten years of executive experience guiding the operations for early stage as well as mature private and public businesses. Alex joined Cube Route after serving as COO and CFO with Abridean, an enterprise software company specializing in user management and provisioning.

Bill Eby

OBC Project Leader

McKee Foods

Senior Computer System Administrator and Onboard Computer Project Leader has been employed by McKee Foods Corporation, makers of the ‘Little Debbie' snack cakes since 1988.

In this time at McKee Foods Corporation, I held various positions including Purchasing Agent, Senior System Administrator,   Information Services Superintendent, Interim Manager for Distribution Center and Onboard Computer Project Leader.   

While working as OBC Leader I did extensive market research into trailer tracking systems as well as cab-mounted Onboard computer systems.

McKee is now in the implementation stage of integrating the OBC data with our in house developed transportation/distribution system, and I am leading that effort.   I also work with tracking our loads of product on common carrier trailers that we do not own, and I work with Interactive Voice Response systems that inform our drivers of their dispatches, give drivers personal messages and help us update our computer systems through a telephone interface.

 

Bogdan Pavlic

President & CEO

Telargo

» Bogdan Pavli c , b.1972. Graduated from University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Europe. Received BSc in computer science. Has joined Ultra, and R&D company, soon after its founding in 1989. Developed and lead development of series of products and systems combining telecommunication and supply chain technologies to improve overall performance and visibility of supply chains. Since 1999 responsible for research & development. Author of a number of Ultra's patents. Since 2005 CEO of Telargo, a New Jersey based mobile assets management company which is a joint venture of Ultra and NTT Docomo, a leading mobile operator of Japan. «

Carlton Rose

Transport Manager

McKee Foods

Bio coming soon

Chuck Odom

VP Supply Chain Solutions

Averitt Express

Chuck Odom is the Vice President of Supply Chain Solutions/Global Development with Averitt. Chuck has extensive management experience in domestic and international distribution/transportation, supply chain management, marketing, finance and operations. His experience includes UPS, UPS Supply Chain Solutions, UPS Inventory Express, Redwood Systems, AIT Worldwide Logistics and Averitt Express, Inc.

Averitt is a Global asset-based transportation and supply chain solutions provider. They create diverse solutions that meet customers changing business needs by providing comprehensive domestic and international services, air freight, and distribution, warehousing and PortSide facilities for efficient supply chain solutions.

Averitt's infrastructure is designed to meet the transportation needs of businesses in today's global economy by offering flexibility and options. Averitt has the strength of an asset-based carrier and the capabilities of a third-party logistics provider and is a single-source supplier for freight transportation and supply chain solutions that save time and money.

 

Chris Scheele
Dir. Business Technology

XTRA Lease

Chris Scheele is the Director of Business Technology for XTRA Lease LLC.   XTRA Lease is a subsidiary of XTRA Corporation, a Berkshire Hathaway company, and is a leader in the rental and leasing of over-the-road truck trailers.   XTRA Lease operates a fleet of over 130,000 trailers from 85 locations throughout North America .

Mr. Scheele has primary responsibility for aligning and implementing XTRA's strategic business goals with the proper mix of technology and business process reengineering.  He also serves on an IT governance team that manages XTRA Lease's information technology group.   Prior to his present position, Mr. Scheele spent 9 years as a management consultant implementing enterprise resource planning, e-commerce and user centered design software solutions for a number of industry leading companies. Mr. Scheele holds an Industrial & Operations Engineering degree from the University of Michigan and resides in St. Louis , Missouri with his wife and two children.

 

Clay Andrews

Senior Systems Analyst

Con-Way

Clay Andrews is the wireless project coordinator for Con-Way Transportation Services, Inc, CNF's $2.6 billion transportation and services subsidiary. As the project coordinator Clay is responsible for developing, implementing and supporting Con-Way's wireless handheld pickup and delivery application.  He has over 18 years experience in IT. The last 7 years Clay has spent in the transportation industry primarily responsible for application development involving wireless technologies. He came to Con-Way from Emery, at the time a sister company to Con-Way. At Emery he managed the wireless Pickup and delivery application as well as warehouse applications and was involved in an automated routing application involving wireless devices. He came to Con-way 3 years ago to manage the Pickup and Delivery initiative which involves using wireless handheld devices. Clay earned his bachelor's degree in computer science for the University of Great Falls .

Dana Fenner

Director of Fleet and Logistics

TeleAtlas

Dana Fenner is currently the Tele Atlas North America Market Director for Location Based Services and is responsible for all sales and product development in the Location Based Services Market. Dana joins Tele Atlas through the acquisition of Geographic Data Technology, Inc. where he was employed for over six years, and was previously Director of North American Sales for the GIS markets.

Prior to joining GDT, Dana has held various sales and marketing positions for several high tech companies since 1983. Dana holds a Bachelor's of Science degree in Business Administration from Northeastern University .

 

Debbie Blanchard

Director of IT

Con-Way

Ms. Blanchard  joined  CNF IT in 1979 and moved to the Con-Way  IT organization in  1995 as a member of th at company's  IT startup team .   Starting  originally as a programmer ,  s he subsequently progressed through a series of increasingly responsible positions  to her current role.  M s .  Blanchard is based at C NF 's  IT headquarters in  Portland, Oregon .  M s .  Blanchard  earned h er bachelor's degree in  computer science  from  the University of Oregon and her MBA from the University of Portland. 

Erik Anderson

Executive Vice President

Agentek

Greg Muir

Account Manager, Fleet Logistics

Teleatlas

Bio coming soon

Jack O'Neil

VP Field Operations

DHL Americas Express

Bio coming soon

James Barker

Manager IT

FedEX Services

Bio coming soon

Jeff Loftus

Senior Transportation Specialist

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Admin

Bio coming soon

Jim Mele

Editor-in-Chief

Fleet Owner

Nationally recognized journalist, author and editor, Jim Mele joined Fleet Owner in 1986 with over a dozen years' experience covering transportation as a newspaper reporter and magazine staff writer. As editorial director, he led Fleet Owner's move to online publishing and took the magazine through a complete redesign and reorganization. The magazine has won 16 national editorial awards since his appointment as editor-in-chief in 1999.

Mele holds a masters degree in creative writing from City College of New York and has authored four collections of poetry and a book on the science fiction of Isaac Asimov, as well a numerous essays, reviews and critical studies for national magazines and anthologies.

John Glasner

Director Special Projects

Ryder System

Director of Special Projects - Ryder
John has over 29 year of Ryder experience in FMS and SCS/DCC field operations and multiple functional areas in a Headquarter environment.

Specific focus in 2005 was related to identifying providers in the marketplace which would allow for data capture through Telematics to streamline current business processes and driving costs out of the business.

John Lakes

VP Major Account Sales

@Road

Bio coming soon

John Lewis

President & CEO

GeoLogic Solutions

John Lewis joined GeoLogic Solutions in January 2005 as President and CEO.  Before joining GeoLogic, Lewis had been Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of XATA Corp., a leading provider of onboard computing systems for private trucking fleets.

Prior to XATA, Lewis held senior executive positions with two Minneapolis-based manufacturing companies.  For both of these organizations he managed the sale of the business to strategic acquirers and directed the post-merger integration processes.

Lewis began his career with Price Waterhouse as a Senior Consultant in the Strategy Implementation Group in Newport Beach , Ca.  He has an MBA from the J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Northwestern University .

 

Kent Szalla

Director, Business Systems Group

Pitt Ohio Express

Kent Szalla is the IT Business Systems Director for Pitt Ohio Express LLC, a regional mid-Atlantic LTL transportation provider located in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , USA .   Kent has been working in the Information Technology and Services group for the past 4 years at Pitt Ohio and has implemented many programs for the entire organization, including build-out of e-commerce web site, workflow applications, various sales systems and onboard computer systems for Pitt Ohio 's fleet. Kent 's 11 years of management and consulting experience spreads out across a variety of supply chain industries from manufacturing, warehousing, to transportation.   He has implemented enterprise resource planning, warehouse management and a variety of e-commerce systems.   Kent received his Industrial Engineering and Liberal Arts degrees from The Pennsylvania State University in State College , Pennsylvania , USA

Kathy Laughman

VP - Business Systems and Services

SCG The Select Carrier Group (An EGL, Inc. Company)

Kathi Laughman, Vice President – Business Systems & Services - SCG The Select Carrier Group (An EGL, Inc. Company) has worked in the logistics industry since the mid-1970's.  Since 1998, her focus and responsibilities have been to drive value and ROI from the development, implementation and management of technology throughout all business processes and services.   She is responsible for technology development and deployment for the ground services group in North America and serves on EGL's Global Executive Steering Committee for strategic planning.  Prior to joining EGL in 1995, Ms. Laughman worked within the international logistics sector with an emphasis on global project management and business integration.

Laura Johnson

Senior Director, Enterprise Solutions

Cingular Wireless

Laura Johnson is the Senior Director, Enterprise Solutions at Cingular Wireless.   Mrs. Johnson develops the marketing strategy for the Cingular laptop mobility offers and wireless data solutions targeting vertical industries.   She started with Cingular Wireless as the Director, Government Solutions and shifted to industry solutions for commercial enterprises.   Mrs. Johnson has a BA in Management from University of California , Santa Barbara . She has worked in the telecommunications industry for 15 years.

 

Mark Licht

President

Licht & Associates

Mark Licht is a Partner in C.J. Driscoll & Associates and President of Licht & Associates, a strategic consulting firm.  Since 1993, C.J. Driscoll & Associates has provided marketing consulting and research services on GPS and wireless products and services for the commercial and consumer markets. Clients include major cellular carriers, telematic system suppliers, automotive manufacturers, MRM service providers, technology companies and investment firms .  In September 2005, the company released the 2005-06 Mobile Resource Management Systems Market Study , which provides in-depth information on each major segment of the MRM market, including the market for installed Fleet AVL systems, the emerging market for monitoring mobile workers with GPS-equipped cellular phones, and the market for monitoring assets, such as trailers and heavy equipment. The study assesses the current market penetration of MRM systems and services and projects annual subscriber growth and revenues through 2009 for each major segment. It includes profiles of over 160 suppliers of MRM systems and services.

Mr. Licht is a location industry pioneer with nearly 20 years experience in the formation, financing and operations of wireless location service and technology companies. He co-founded and served as President of SigmaOne Communications, an E911 wireless location technology venture.  Licht also co-founded and served as President of Teletrac (now owned by TrafficMaster), the world's first wireless location ASP focusing on the delivery of fleet management, stolen vehicle recovery, and consumer location services. The Teletrac system is currently used by over 300,000 subscribers in the US, Israel, Argentina and Brazil.

Mr. Licht holds a B.A. degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Masters Degree from the London School of Economics

Marc Mitchel

Transportation Practice Director

EIS

Marc Mitchell helped co-found Enterprise Information Solutions in 1994 along with 3 former technical team co-workers. With a background that includes a Bachelors of Science in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Illinois in Urbana/Champaign and project assignments that have included key architect and design roles on several large scale, leading edge custom application development projects, Marc has worked hard to ensuretechnical capability plays a core role in the make up and direction of this uniquely focused organization. Not being comfortable with the term "consulting firm", which just seems too high brow; EIS goes out of its way to describe itself as a computer engineering company.
Today, Marc's title is Transportation Practice Director, which reflects EIS's focus on several of the vertical industries where they have the most experience in adding value through the application of technology. For while it is technology that provides the ability to scale operations, decrease costs, or attack new markets, in today's IT climate people make commitments based on a demonstrated understanding of their business and its specific challenges. The shift to a vertical Practice focus was one that Marc helped define. The fact he has spent much of his career dedicated to the specific challenges of the transportation industry on projects for such industry heavyweights as FedEx made the decision to focus on this vertical first fairly easy to make. In this role, Marc works hard to stay on top of the trends of both the companies that make up the industry and the vendors that attempt to serve them as well as the emerging technologies that can make a difference in the way operations got the job done. As an unbiased advocate for what holds the most potential for bringing efficiencies to the operational environment, Marc strives to bring his message of technology; most notably standards based “Open Systems”; to the industry through numerous speaking events, papers and articles.

Mark Robinson

CIO & VP of Information Technology

SCS Transportation

SCS Transportation is a leading provider of transportation and supply chain solutions, servicing a broad base of customers across North America .   Our two operating companies, Saia and Jevic, are committed to delivering superior service value for our customers, which in turn will produce continued growth and value for our employees and shareholders.

Mark has worked in the IT arena in the LTL industry for his entire 20 year career.   He has been employed with SCS Transportation for the last 10 years.

Mark graduated from Central Missouri State University in 1984 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Computer Science.   Mark also attended the University of Okalahoma where he received his undergraduate, accounting, and economic studies.

Michael Wolfe

Principal

North River Consulting Group

Mr. Wolfe’s main interest is the interplay between supply chain productivity, tracking technologies, business economics, and supply chain security.
He has written a series of well-regarded reports and articles on supply chain productivity, security, and technology. He is active in relevant ISO standards activities.
An opinion leader in these areas, Mr. Wolfe is a resource to government agencies, international institutions, and the private sector.
He is a skilled group facilitator and a successful seminar leader for logistics, freight transportation, and security subjects.
Mr. Wolfe has been a Principal of the North River Consulting Group for seven years.

Mike Liddell

President and CEO

Mobitrac

Mr. Liddell is President and CEO of Mobitrac. Prior to joining Mobitrac he was the Chief Operations Officer from 2001 to 2003 for AccelChip, Inc. Mike has served in several executive management positions in the software and semiconductor industries. Mike is a seasoned leader, having co-founded successful companies such as NetFuel Ventures, a premier seed-stage venture capital company and WebYes, one of the first ASPs to leverage advanced N-tier architectures, database replication, load balancing and application server technology to provide high availability solutions. Mike led WebYes until its successful acquisition by Breakaway Solutions in 1999. Mike has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Michigan State University .

Paul Erb

Director of Quality

Ward Trucking

Paul Erb is the Director of Quality for Ward Trucking, a regional less-than-truckload carrier headquartered in Altoona, PA .   In his role, Mr. Erb is responsible for creating and monitoring Quality Systems and processes that focus on both External and Internal Quality.   Prior to coming to Ward Trucking in 1992, Mr. Erb was a Senior Quality Control Engineer with PPG Industries.  

During his 26 years in business, he has worked in both manufacturing and service industries in Operations, Operations Planning and Quality.   He is a certified Quality Engineer.

Mr. Erb has a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial and Management Systems Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Arts from Juniata College.

Roman Hlutkowsky

VP Operations Technology

FedEX Ground

Roman Hlutkowsky, is the vice president for Operations Technology for FedEx Ground. He has over 22 years of experience in the transportation industry, mostly focused on the application of technology to automate field operations.

Roman and his team take great pride in being on the cutting edge of emerging technologies and integrating it in ways that are beneficial to their customers. That is why they are currently deploying a new wireless device and network for scanning packages at delivery. With wireless capability, tracking information and delivery signatures transmit in near-real time and are posted to the company's web sire within 15 minutes.

Roman began working for what would become the FedEx family of companies in 1983. He has experience in the nationwide LTL (less than truck load), regional LTL and small package transportation. He also spent one year working with Symbol Technologies, a leader in automatic identification equipment, designing software and hardware solutions for the logistics industry.

A native of Pittsburgh , Pa. , Roman earned his BSIE from the University of Pittsburgh in December 1980 and his MSIE in August 1983. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Institute of Industrial Engineers .  

 

Scott Sullivan
Vice President of IT and Services
Pitt Ohio Express

Scott Sullivan is the Vice President of Information Technology and Services for Pitt Ohio Express. Pitt Ohio Express is a $200 million mid-Atlantic LTL transportation provider with a 98% on-time delivery service record. Scott's background includes various IT positions in manufacturing and consulting. Over the course of his Information Technology career he has been involved with numerous leadership positions aligning technology solutions to business drivers in areas such as e-commerce, CRM and the supply chain. Scott received his Business Information System degree from Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh and his Masters Degree from Western Michigan University .

Steve Schuler

Director: Solutions Consulting – Government

Cingular Wireless

Steve leads the government solutions consulting team at Cingular.   The Government Data Solutions Team is responsible for evaluating customer business process, defining whether a wireless enhancement is possible then defining and delivering cost effective solutions. The data solutions consulting team is nationwide, and serves Federal, and State & Local, college and university organizations.   Prior assuming leadership of the Government consulting team, Steve played a leading role in the Cingular Wireless Transportation & Logistics industry marketing and sales organization.

Steve has twenty three years in the wireless industry. He has held positions with providers of LMR, radio telephone, paging, wireless voice and data services and hardware at GE, Ericsson, McCaw, AT&T, and Cingular.   These roles included product line sales management and direct selling of services and hardware to government as well as Fortune 1000 customers including carrier sales.

Prior to his current role Steve held sales, sales training, and sales management positions. At AT&T Wireless' Data Division he and his team were responsible for launching CDPD, GPRS, EDGE, and UMTS to fortune 1000, transportation and government customers. This experience included the introduction of Pocketnet Service, Blackberry, Good Technologies, Wireless Connectivity Service, and Laptop Connect.

 

Stephen Zaborowski

Sr Vice President

Xtra Lease

 

Stephen Zaborowski is a Senior Vice President of XTRA Lease LLC.   XTRA Lease is a subsidiary of XTRA Corporation, a Berkshire Hathaway company, and is a leader in the rental and leasing of over-the-road truck trailers.   XTRA Lease operates a fleet of over 130,000 trailers from 85 locations throughout North America.

Mr. Zaborowski has been with XTRA for 27 years and is presently responsible for fleet planning, procurement and distribution, as well as, the company's operations.   He is also the leader of XTRA Lease's information technology team.   Prior to his present position, he served in various senior management positions, including, Vice President of Operations of XTRA Lease, Director of Fleet Management of XTRA Corporation and Director of Branch Operations at Strick Lease, Inc., a predecessor company.   Mr. Zaborowski also has extensive experience in the company's Intermodal operations.

Mr. Zaborowski holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Temple University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Missouri.   He resides in St. Louis, Missouri and has been a member of the ATA's Technology and Maintenance Council since 1989.

Terry Kurtenbach

Director of Aviation and Transport Services

Deloitte & Touche

Bio coming soon

Tim Miller

Vice President

Supply Chain Management

Tim Miller works with Master Halco, the world's leading distributor and manufacturer of fence systems.

As Vice President – Supply Chain Management, his responsibilities include supply chain management, encompassing logistics, transportation and fleet management, real estate and facilities, and environmental compliance.

Miller attended Morningside College in Sioux City , Iowa in the early 1970's. In August 2000, he received his Executive MBA from Claremont Graduate University - The Peter F. Drucker School of Management.   He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Advisory Council for Texas A&M's Industrial Distribution program and is also a member of the Supply Chain Systems Laboratory at Texas A&M.  

 

Val Noel

President

Pacer Cartage

Val joined pacer in 2004.   He is currently responsible for the Drayage Company for Pacer's wholesale division.

Prior to joining Pacer, Val spent 21 years with CMX Trucking and CSX Intermodal in various roles, to include dispatch, equipment, terminal operations and as president of the intermodal division of CSX.   Val was born and raised in Philadelphia, attended LaSalle University and currently resides in Jacksonville Florida.  

Pacer Cartage is an asset lite motor carrier specializing in intermodal drayage, in a local, regional and over the road capacity.