Marquee Speaker Roster to Headline Arkestro's Optimal '22 Las Vegas

Industry Thought Leaders to Collectively Impart Decades of Experience and Knowledge in Supply Chain and Procurement

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Arkestro, the leading Predictive Procurement Orchestration platform, today announced an amazing lineup of industry thought leaders to speak and participate at Optimal '22 Las Vegas - Arkestro's Leadership Summit for Predictive Procurement on November 8-9th.

"We look forward to welcoming this extremely talented group of thought leaders to Optimal '22," says Arym Diamond, CRO, Arkestro. "With these speakers and actional breakout sessions, Optimal '22 will offer tremendous opportunities for attendees to network, engage in thought-provoking conversations and hear directly from these supply chain and procurement gurus and others representing a variety of industries."

In addition to keynote speaker Keith Krach and guest keynote speaker Charlotte de Brabandt, those currently scheduled to present "Predictive Procurement in Action Case Studies" include the following:

• Jean Michel dos Remedios, VP of Strategic Sourcing, Bel Brands USA - Jean Michel will share how this maker of beloved cheeses Babybel, The Laughing Cow, Boursin and more has used Arkestro to achieve savings of approximately 10 percent on all spend, as well as increase sourcing velocity by 25 percent.
• Linda Chuan, Chief Procurement Officer, Box - Box, one of the world's most widely used enterprise technologies for secure content management, workflow and collaboration, is using Arkestro to ensure that over 25 percent of its spend goes to diverse suppliers, where the industry norm is 5.9 percent. Linda will discuss this as well as other benefits realized including improved supply chain sustainability, validated ROI for procurement, and more.
• David Schultz, VP, Chief Supply Chain Officer, Westfall Technik - David will share how Westfall Technik, a global holding company which provides highly-productive plastics manufacturing solutions to the medical, consumer packaging and consumer goods industries, is working with Arkestro to optimize its relationships with suppliers. David's broad business experience and data-driven approach enables organizations to dramatically reduce costs in extremely competitive markets. He is an imaginative dealmaker passionate about building trusting relationships and highly skilled at managing several billion dollars of spend resulting in significant dividends and speed-to-margin. Prior to joining Westfall, David served as VP CSCO/Chief Procurement Officer for multiple publicly held companies.
• Sven Theysohn, BASF - Sven is Head of Procurement Coatings Americas at BASF Corp., and is highly skilled in product management, commercialization, market analysis, pricing strategy and project management in the chemicals industry.

The following experts will also be in attendance, moderating panels and leading breakouts:

• Jeoffrey Burris, Advanced Purchasing Dynamics (APD) - Jeoffrey founded APD after spending 20 years in the automotive industry, where he became a recognized authority on procurement processes. He is a noted builder of high performance teams, having led purchasing staffs at Ford Motor Company, Metaldyne and Intier Automotive Seating that consistently saved money on procurement costs and significantly improved related processes.
• Susan Walsh, The Classification Guru - Susan will lead a breakout session entitled, "The Power of Clean Supplier Data." A specialist in data classification, taxonomy customisation and data cleansing, Susan is also an industry thought leader, TEDx speaker and author of the published 'Between the Spreadsheets: Classifying and Fixing Dirty Data.' She is well-known for her proven methodology which accurately and efficiently classifies, cleanses and checks procurement data for errors, thus helping prevent costly mistakes and bringing clarity and accuracy to data and procurement.
• Gregory Heim, Texas A&M University Mays Business School - Gregory will spearhead a breakout session on, "Talent Management and the Future of Procurement Teams." As Full Professor of Information and Operations Management, a key focus of Gregory's research focuses on how technology supports operations management and supply chain management.
• Damian R. Beil, University of Michigan – Stephen M. Ross School of Business - Damian will jointly lead a breakout session with Jacob Gorm Larsen, author of the book "A Practical Guide to e-auctions for Procurement" and former Head of Digital Procurement at Maersk, entitled, "Discovering Advanced Procurement Auctions." Damian Beil is the Donald C. Cook Professor of Business Administration and Area Chair of Technology and Operations at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, where he teaches courses on strategic sourcing and operations management. He has published widely on sourcing topics and has received numerous teaching awards at Michigan. Damian has worked with dozens of companies in areas from aerospace to retail – including Amazon, Avon, Boeing, BorgWarner, Coca-Cola, Conway, Corn Products, Dell, Domino's Pizza, Ford, General Motors, Intel, Microsoft, Owens Corning, Pfizer, Sodexo, and Toyota. He received a BA in Mathematics from New College and a PhD in Operations Research from M.I.T.
• Meredith Gibbons, Volkswagen Group of America - As Head of IT & Innovation Purchasing, Meredith has worked in the procurement industry for many years, including more than eight specializing in the automotive and original equipment manufacturing (OEM) industry. The focus of her experience is indirect procurement, from the factory to Volkswagen Group of America's corporate headquarters to its Silicon Valley environments.
• Dawn Tiura, President and CEO of Sourcing Industry Group (SIG), along with Amanda Prochaska, Founder and Chief Wonder Officer, Wonder Services; Sheri Spinks, Global Procurement and Supply Chain Enthusiast, Primo Water Corporation and Amy Fong, Partner, Everest Group's Sourcing and Vendor Management practice, will moderate a panel on, "Corporate Innovation and Change Management During Inflation."

Optimal '22 Las Vegas will focus on highlighting practical, real-world examples of the impact that Predictive Procurement Orchestration can have on both the enterprise balance sheet and strategic corporate initiatives. The event promises to provide a great opportunity for procurement, sourcing, IT transformation, supply chain and finance teams to gain professional development around digital initiatives and predictive procurement.

Arkestro is the leading Predictive Procurement Orchestration platform. Built to amplify the impact of procurement's influence, Arkestro helps enterprises deliver a 2-5x lift on cost savings attributed to everyday purchasing and sourcing cycles. Top enterprises leverage Arkestro's behavioral science, game theory and machine learning to predict and win faster value across every category of addressable spend. Learn more at arkestro.com

SOURCE Arkestro