Confirmed Speakers



Renee Wawrzynski, GM_executive director logistics (web)

Renee Wawrzynski

Executive Director Global Logistics

General Motors


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Renee Wawrzynski has led GM’s global logistics since January 2023, responsible for the carmaker’s multi-billion-dollar annual worldwide transport network across inbound, vehicle logistics, containers and packaging. She has worked at GM for more than 35 years across manufacturing, production control and logistics roles at numerous assembly and component plants. Over the past decade she has had leading central logistics and purchasing roles, including as director of containerisation and packaging in North America, and as director of global logistics, containerisation and future programmes. She later moved into direct purchasing, including as director for raw material purchasing and for body and exterior purchasing. Prior to her current role, Wawrzynski was director of demand and supply planning and scheduling within GM’s global supply chain team. She has a degree in materials management from Kettering University in Michigan, and an MBA in international business from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.


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Chris Styles

Vice President, Supply Chain Management, North America

Nissan


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Chris Styles has been vice president, supply chain management, North America since March 2021. He is responsible for supply chain activities for all production parts and finished vehicle distribution in the US, Canada, and Mexico. Previously, he was senior director of supply chain logistics in the US, where he was responsible for vehicle and inbound logistics, packaging engineering and logistics strategy. Styles has worked as director of logistics for the US and Canada in Nissan's supply chain management organisation, director of purchasing for Mexico, and director of purchasing for logistics, aftermarket and accessory parts for the Americas region. He joined Nissan in 2002. He previously held logistics positions in auto parts retail and 3PL automotive companies. Styles holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.


Oliver Bilstein, BMW

Oliver Bilstein

Vice-President Production Control, Logistics, Material Control

BMW Manufacturing Co.


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Oliver Bilstein is responsible for logistics and production control operations for BMW’s plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, which is the OEM’s largest factory globally. He oversees inbound logistics, plant logistics and material control across the plant’s multiple warehouses, press, body and paint shops and battery assembly, with responsibility through to outbound logistics shipping and export. Bilstein has been with BMW for 25 years across functions including corporate planning, capacity planning and model allocation, as well as logistics. He spent three years in China leading production projects for BMW’s JV BMW Brilliance, and led logistics and financial controlling for BMW’s plant in Munich before taking on his current role in 2021.


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Greg Toornman

Vice President, Global Materials, Logistics, and Demand Planning

AGCO Corporation


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Greg Toornman is the Global VP of Materials, Logistics, and Demand Planning at AGCO, a global manufacturer of agricultural equipment. He has worked at AGCO since 2004 in the Aftermarket, Purchasing, Sales and Operations Planning, Materials Management and Logistics areas. He now leads the transformation of AGCO’s global end-to-end Sales and Operations Planning. He has previously led successful global transformation initiatives while being based in Brasil and Switzerland, and prior to that worked in heavy truck, automotive, and high-end electronics. He received a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Marketing and Operations Management from Western Michigan University and has studied further at Emory and Stanford Universities in Strategies in Leadership and Supply Chain.


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Amy Paulsen

Vice President, Logistics

Lucid Motors


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Coming soon.


David Leich, GM

David A. Leich

Executive Director, Global Supply Chain

General Motors


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In the role since January 2020, David Leich leads global supply chain operations along with assembly, propulsion and stamping, material launch execution and the demand/supply planning and scheduling organisations. He represents GM’s Global Purchasing and Supply Chain team on its North American Staff. He joined GM in 1989 and has worked across purchasing, supply chain and production, including working at different plants, executing launching for new vehicles and a greenfield plant. He has also led supply chain for pre-production, launch readiness and risk management, before taking over demand/supply planning in 2019 to lead vehicle and propulsion scheduling and capacity planning. Since 2015, Dave has represented General Motors on the Board of Directors for the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG). He has a BS Degree in Supply Chain Management from Michigan State University and a MS Degree in Management from Walsh College in Troy, MI.


Terri Stevenson, director of materials at Magna Seating

Terri Stevenson

Director of Materials

Magna Seating – North America


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Terri Stevenson is the Director of Materials at Magna Seating. In her role she leads the materials teams by creating and implementing materials management objectives, policies, and procedures to ensure key objectives are successfully achieved, primarily related to cost and delivery. Terri plays an instrumental role in the company with her deep knowledge and expertise in seating that continues to support 19 divisions across North America. Stevenson started her career at Magna as a Production Associate at Qualtech Seating in 2003. She has held various roles throughout her career including Material Handler, Material Planner, Production Control Manager, Launch Manager, Assistant General Manager, and Director of Materials at four divisions. Stevenson has a Bachelor of Psychology from University of Western Ontario. She has participated in the Magna’s Mentoring Matters Program for the last two years, as a Pod Mentor and recently as the US Facilitator.


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Laurie Wimmer

Advance Logistics Manager

Magna Seating – North America


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Laurie Wimmer has more than 20 years’ experience in global logistics, trade and customers roles across automotive manufacturing, energy and third-party logistics providers. She plays a key role across Magna Seating’s logistics and supply chain activities as advanced logistics manager, including in domestic and international transport operations, customs, as well as driving processes and standards. She has held this role since April 2022 after joining Magna Seating in 2018 in procurement. She previously worked more than 12 years in customs and logistics management in the Americas at tier-1 supplier Draexlmaier. She has a degree in languae and trade from Clemson University.


Gerardo de la Torre Garcia

Gerardo de la Torre Garcia

Senior Director & Advisor Supply Chain Management

Nissan North America


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Gerardo is an experienced automotive supply chain executive with extensive experience leading Nissan’s regional and global supply chain and manufacturing operations, currently responsible for supply chain improvements in North America. He recently led Nissan Americas Semiconductor Supply Crisis Management Strategy enabling incremental production volume during the severe global supply crisis, receiving the 2021 Global Nissan President Special Award in recognition of his leadership and his teams’ contribution.

Since joining Nissan in 1989 he has successfully implemented global innovations, improvements and strategies across new model launches in Mexico, Brazil and USA, dealer and manufacturing order-to-delivery and vehicle allocation in the Americas markets, and global sales planning and car flow management in Japan. In 2015 Gerardo received the Global Nissan-Renault Alliance SCM Innovation award in Paris.



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Daniel Harrison

Automotive Analyst

Automotive Logistics & Ultima Media


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Daniel Harrison is an automotive analyst at Ultima Media, providing business intelligence insight across the three main brands Automotive Manufacturing Solutions, Automotive Logistics, and Car Design News. Daniel has over 15 years of experience as a market analyst, economist, writer, and industry commentator.
Daniel produces a wide range of insightful industry analysis including market reports, whitepapers, forecasts, databases, presentations and news commentary across a broad range of automotive issues including the automotive logistics market, electric vehicles, Gigafactories & the battery supply chain, production / sales forecasting, powertrain forecasting, CO2 regulation / targets, sustainability in supply chains, interior design trends & surveys, automotive manufacturing surveys, and finished vehicle logistics (FVL) surveys.


2022 Speakers



Dr Jacob Ward is supply chain deployment manager at the US Dept of Energy

Jacob Ward

Supply Chain Deployment Manager,
Office of Manufacturing & Energy Supply Chains

US Department of Energy


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Dr Jacob Ward serves as supply chain deployment manager in the United States Department of Energy’s new Energy Sector Industrial Base program within the Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains, where he leads the federal government’s efforts in modelling, mapping, and analysing America’s critical energy supply chains. Previously, Dr Ward worked for 15 years with US DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office, where he served as the program manager for operations and analysis, the acting program manager for mobility systems, and the director for DOE’s sustainable-transportation industry partnership. He holds a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy and Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, where his research focused on the energy and environmental impacts of shared, automated, and electrified mobility systems. Dr Ward also holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Georgetown University and the University of Texas at Austin, respectively.


Ryan Etherton, AAM

Ryan Etherton

Senior Manager Global Transportation and Logistics

American Axle Manufacturing


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Ryan Etherton has been with American Axle & Manufacturing for 4 years, holding the role of senior manager global transportation and logistics. His current responsibilities include supporting the development and deployment of AAM’s logistics strategies, policies and procedures and operational execution. Ryan leads strategy and procurement of global air and ocean transportation and participates on AAM’s Sustainability Council as key representative for SCM Transportation activity. Ryan has over 16 years of professional supply chain experience working for global tier-1 suppliers to the automotive industry.

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Steve Brown

Vice President, Parts Supply Chain

Toyota North America


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Steve Brown is responsible for the parts supply chain for Toyota plants across North America, which includes Toyota’s production parts and service parts supply chains. He oversees teams responsible for central planning and coordination of parts logistics, route engineering, new model planning, IT systems and sustainability initiatives for logistics. He also works closely with service parts planning as part of Toyota’s integrated parts supply chain function. Steve has worked with Toyota for more than 30 years across assembly, production control and logistics. He is based at Toyota’s North American headquarters in Plano, Texas.


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Bridget Grewal

Director, Packaging Continuous Improvement

Magna International


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Bridget joined Magna International in September 2013 and is currently assisting its 136 plants in North America achieve cross-group synergies. She has built a Packaging and Transportation Steering Committee to optimise this non-core business area by identify cost-saving opportunities across all the plants in North America, Europe and Asia. She holds the position of Great Lakes Regional Vice-President for the Institute of Packaging Professionals and has also served as President of the MSU School of Packaging Alumni Association. Bridget has considerable experience in the automotive industry, including roles at Ford and The Budd Company, and in 2008 started the Packaging Consultant Group, helping firms like Mobis, Polaris and Caterpillar with packaging optimisation.


Maxim Serov Benteler - High Res

Maxim Serov

NAO Supply Chain Director

Benteler


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Reporting to the Executive Vice President, Maxim Serov manages the overall regional end-to-end supply chain in North America, responsible for material planning, freight and logistics, customs and trade, and supply chain operations including lean logistics and SCM information systems. Maxim leads Benteler’s 400 strong supply chain organisation, responsible for a €70m+ annual spend, €125m inventory and manages over 450 suppliers.   Maxim has extensive experience in the automotive supply chain, and prior to moving to North America in 2018, he held international supply chain management roles with Benteler as well as with Robert Bosch and PSA. He has successfully overseen new project and new plant launches across Europe, holding positions in Russia, Poland and Germany. He has a PhD in Economics.


JS Bolton, Nissan North America 2

JS Bolton

Director of Finished Vehicle Logistics and Supply Chain Systems and Strategy

Nissan North America


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Jennifer Sarah (JS) Bolton leads finished vehicle logistics for Nissan in North America, along with leading supply chain systems and strategy. She’s been at Nissan since 2013 in roles of increasing responsibility in both manufacturing and supply chain at the carmaker’s Smyrna, Tennessee and Canton, Mississippi plants. Immediately prior to her current role, she was director of body and stamping in Mississippi, where she led the Canton team through the launch of the all-new Frontier. Prior to coming to Nissan, JS worked in investment banking at Morgan Stanley in New York and Hong Kong, specialising in advising transportation and logistics companies, as well at a truck aerodynamics start-up in San Francisco, ATDynamics. She holds a BA in History and Mechanical Engineering from Yale, an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and an MS in civil engineering from MIT, where she was a Leaders for Global Operations fellow.


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Greg Megerian

Director of Logistics

Adient


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Greg joined seat supplier, Adient in February 2019 after spending over 14 years at International Automotive Components as the Global Logistics Manager. His current role as Director of Logistics – Americas encompasses the sourcing and operations of logistics at Adient. Greg studied Supply Chain Management at Michigan State University and is a licensed US customs broker.


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Kathy Crawley

General Manager Transportation, Head of Transportation Operations Management

Amazon


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Kathy Crawley is a key leader in Amazon’s logistics management and oversees its Transportation Operations Management (TOM), which is part of the e-commerce giant’s central support services. TOM includes trucking across all of Amazon’s warehouses as well as its disruption management and plays a key role in supporting drivers for both in-house and external partners, including training and licencing. Kathy Crawley is strongly focused on developing diverse and equitable workforces across Amazon’s logistics and its logistics partners, including training and recruitment of women in operational and leadership roles. She works closely with Women in Trucking as well to help support the development of diversity in logistics. She has worked in Amazon’s logistics for 11 years, having previously worked in logistics for the aerospace industry.


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Oleg Gusikhin

Advanced Connectivity Analytics & Operations Research Manager & Technical Leader

Ford Motor Company


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Dr. Gusikhin is a Technical Leader at Ford Global Data Insight & Analytics. For over 20 years he has been working at Ford in different functional areas focusing on Production & Inventory Control, Supply Chain Risk, and IoT and Connected Vehicles Analytics. Dr. Gusikhin is a Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) and a Certified Fellow in Production and Inventory Control of the Association for Supply Chain Management (ASCM). He is a recipient of the 2014 INFORMS Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in the Practice of Advanced Analytics and Operations Research for the project “Identifying Risks and Mitigating Disruptions in the Automotive Supply Chain.

Christopher Mattingly, Stellantis

Christopher Mattingly

Vice President Transportation

Stellantis - North America


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Christopher Mattingly is responsible for logistics and packaging across North America for Stellantis, including global inbound and vehicle logistics planning and operations to and from the region, packaging and network management. He has around 35 years’ experience at the company, including Chrysler, DaimlerChrysler and FCA, where he has held leading positions across supply chain management, including logistics, procurement, supplier quality and production control. Recent roles include director of component capacity and production scheduling, and director of interregional flows and customers before taking on his current role in the new global Stellantis supply chain team in July 2021. Mattingly has a degree in operations management from Wayne State University and a master’s in business administration from Central Michigan University.

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Kelly Bysouth

Chief Supply Chain Officer

IAC Group


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Kelly Bysouth is Chief Supply Chain Officer for International Automotive Components (IAC) Group. In this role, she has global responsibility and operational control for all aspects of the company’s procurement and supply chain activities. Bysouth has more than 25 years of automotive procurement and supply chain experience. Previously, she served as Vice President of Global Procurement and Supply Chain for Adient, a position she held since 2016. Among her many accomplishments, she is credited with building the first centralized Supply Chain function within the organization and delivering benchmark year-over-year cost savings.