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Food Manufacturing & Supply Chain

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October 5th

3:00 pm

Registration

3:30 pm - 4:20 pm WELCOME DAY SPECIAL CONTENT

Panel: The Interconnected Ecosystem of Food Operations: How Are We Protecting Margins in a High-Cost Environment

Hakim R. Savoy

SVP, Chief Supply Chain Officer

C.H. Guenther & Son

Ana Estevez

Vice President, North America Procurement

Mondelez International

Mike Williams

Vice President Supply Chain

Reddy Ice

Session Details Arrow Icon
  • Creating a cross-functional dialogue between Procurement, Operations, Manufacturing, and Supply Chain to identify where misaligned incentives are currently creating hidden costs and operational friction
  • The “Total Cost” Mindset: Shifting from siloed department budgets to a “Total Cost of Delivery” model—ensuring that a win in one area (like lower ingredient costs) doesn’t result in a loss in another (like plant floor downtime or logistics delays)
  • Doing More with Less: Sharing real-world strategies for maintaining throughput and safety standards during budget rollbacks, focusing on “low-capital” process improvements and better asset utilization
  • Protecting the Plant Floor: Discussing how to shield manufacturing and operations from the volatility of the upstream ecosystem, ensuring that “Sourcing Strategy” stays grounded in the “Reality of Production
4:25 pm - 5:00 pm WELCOME DAY SPECIAL CONTENT

Agile, Resilient, Sustainable, AI-Enabled: Future-Proofing the Food Industry

Session Details Arrow Icon
  • Driving enterprise-wide digital transformation leveraging AI to enable predictive insights, faster decision-making, and competitive advantage
  • Building end-to-end supply chain resilience by anticipating risks, diversifying sourcing, and embedding agility into operations
  • Integrating sustainability as a core business strategy to reduce environmental impact while creating long-term value
  • Fostering organizational agility through modular manufacturing, cross-functional collaboration, and rapid innovation capabilities
  • Aligning strategic initiatives with business outcomes and market dynamics to future-proof growth and operational excellence
5:05 pm - 5:55 pm WELCOME DAY SPECIAL CONTENT

Panel: Empowering People, Enabling Technology: Shaping the Future of Food Manufacturing

Lisa Grenier

Chief Supply Chain Officer

Just Born

Session Details Arrow Icon
  • Putting people at the center of operational transformation, equipping teams with the skills and tools needed to manage modern, tech-enabled supply chains
  • Adopting a human-plus-machine operating model to address labor gaps, streamline workflows, and manage growing operational complexity
  • Modernizing core manufacturing and supply chain systems to better navigate cost pressures, ingredient volatility, and evolving food safety expectations
  • Building a culture of agility and problem-solving so frontline and planning teams can respond quickly to disruptions and regulatory changes
  • Strengthening cross-functional coordination between manufacturing, supply chain, quality, engineering, and procurement to deliver a more resilient and responsive operation
6:00 pm

Drinks Reception

6:30 pm

Executive dinner

October 6th

7:30 am - 8:15 am

registration & breakfast

8:15 am - 8:30 am

Opening Remarks, Important Announcements & Chair’s Welcome Address

8:30 am - 9:05 am KEYNOTE

Fireside Chat: Scaling Change and Modernization in Manufacturing Without Operational Disruption

Craig Weiss

SVP & Chief Product Supply Officer

Conagra Brands

Session Details Arrow Icon
  • Understanding how manufacturing transformation succeeds when people, processes, and culture are aligned with operational reality on the shop floor
  • Learning how AI and digital tools must be grounded in core manufacturing discipline, stability, and production fundamentals to deliver value
  • Gaining insight into how to embed change within live manufacturing environments while maintaining safety, quality, and throughput
  • Recognizing how workforce constraints in manufacturing, skills gaps, turnover, and multilingual teams, directly shape system design and adoption
  • Appreciating how modern manufacturing systems must adapt continuously to regulatory pressure, food safety requirements, and shifting demand
  • Understanding why practical, simple, and scalable solutions outperform complex digital programs in plant-level execution
  • Learning how capability building across frontline teams and leadership enables sustainable manufacturing transformation at scale

9:10 am - 9:45 am KEYNOTE

Fireside Chat: Inside Diageo's Transformation Journey: Creating Value Through People, Process and Technology

Marsha McIntosh

President, North American Supply

Diageo

Session Details Arrow Icon
  • Exploring how people, process and technology work together to enable successful transformation
  • Delivering transformation across enterprise functions, not just within individual operations
  • Using automation, digital technologies, and innovation to support operational excellence and business performance
  • Optimizing manufacturing networks and strengthening supply chain resilience in a rapidly changing environment
  • Building the talent, leadership and organizational capabilities required for sustainable transformation
  • Integrating sustainability as a natural outcome of operational and technology improvements
  • Leading people through change while preserving culture, engagement and organizational momentum
  • Reflections on the journey so far, key lessons learned and priorities for the next phase of transformation
9:50 am - 10:25 am Workshops
Stream Four

AI on the Plant Floor: Improving Yield, Throughput, and Profitability

Milliken

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  • Leverage AI for predictive insights to optimize production planning, reduce downtime, and improve yield
  • Automate routine operational tasks such as quality checks, inventory monitoring, and scheduling to free up workforce capacity
  • Integrate real-time data across the supply chain to enable faster, more informed decision-making
  • Use AI-driven analytics to enhance quality and compliance while reducing waste and operational risk
  • Empower teams with actionable intelligence to support continuous improvement and drive operational transformation
Stream Five

Strategic Capacity Planning in an Unstable Demand Environment

Tive

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  • Align capacity with demand forecasts to ensure the network can respond quickly to market changes
  • Optimize production and distribution networks for speed, flexibility, and cost efficiency
  • Use scenario modeling and analytics to anticipate bottlenecks and plan for disruptions
  • Invest in adaptable processes and technology that allow rapid scaling up or down of operations
  • Enable cross-functional collaboration between supply chain, manufacturing, and commercial teams to improve fulfillment performance
10:25 am - 12:10 pm Pre-Arranged One-To-One Meetings Arrow Icon

These mutually agreed-upon conversations are arranged and facilitated by Executive Platforms staff to ensure attendees have valuable discussions about their top-of-mind questions, challenges, and opportunities.

  • 10:30 am – 10:50 am: Meeting Slot 1/Networking
  • 10:55 am – 11:15 am: Meeting Slot 2/Networking
  • 11:20 am – 11:40 am: Meeting Slot 3/Networking
  • 11:45 am – 12:05 am: Meeting Slot 4/Networking
12:15 pm - 12:50 pm Case Studies
Stream Four – Manufacturing & Operations

Advancing Technical Excellence in Maintenance & Reliability: Including Technical Independence and AI

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  • Strengthening technical capability through targeted training and job enrichment
  • Building technical independence across maintenance and operations teams
  • Enhancing maintenance planning and embedding Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) principles
  • Driving reliability through advanced analytics and intelligent systems
  • Leveraging technology as a key enabler for consistent, high-quality production
Stream Five – Supply Chain

Enterprise Modernization & Transformation: Delivering Measurable ROI

Session Details Arrow Icon
  • Identifying the transformation gap and understanding where existing processes, teams, and systems need improvement
  • Making tough executive decisions on standardization, governance, capital allocation, and accountability
  • Driving transformation by integrating people, process, and technology with leadership capability and operational discipline
  • Achieving rapid, measurable results while maintaining operational stability
  • Sustaining long-term impact through governance, margin improvement, and capital efficiency
12:50 pm - 1:50 pm THEMED LUNCH DISCUSSIONS

Explore this year’s themed lunch discussions led by industry leaders, where executives engage in focused conversations over a meal, discussing topics they’re passionate about alongside their peers.

Leadership Under Pressure: How Can Leaders Maintain Clarity and Drive Momentum?

Kiran Mann

CEO

Brar's

Shop Floor Excellence: Aligning Maintenance, Operations, and Quality to Reduce Downtime

Réal Bernier

Managing Director, Supply Chain and Operations

Cerelia Bakery

Content to be Announced

Executive to be Announced

Integrated Project Management Company

Cross-Functional Wins – When Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Operations & Quality Align

Rebecca Wallick

Sr. Director Sourcing and Policy

HP Hood

Empowered Teams, Safer Plants: Driving Workforce Engagement, Wellbeing and Union Collaboration

Bilal Khalid

Director, Supplier Quality Assurance

PepsiCo

Content to be Announced

Executive to be Announced

Sparetech GMBH

From Firefighting to Forecasting: How Do We Shift Operations from Reactive to Predictive?

Lisa Rathburn

VP Operations

The Marzetti Company

Content to be Announced

Executive to be Announced

Virginia Economic Development Partnership

Content to be Announced

Executive to be Announced

Worximity Technology Inc

From Data to Decision: Turning Supply Chain Intelligence into Competitive Advantage

1:55 pm - 2:30 pm Case Studies
Stream Four – Manufacturing & Operations

Why CAPEX Projects Stall: The Leadership and Alignment Side of Transformation

Session Details Arrow Icon
  • Creating a strong, aligned culture across cross-functional teams to drive accountability and ownership in CAPEX projects
  • Using emotional intelligence to lead diverse teams, manage conflict, and maintain engagement under pressure
  • Building trust and collaboration across multiple stakeholders to enable faster and more effective decision-making
  • Navigating change, uncertainty, and shifting priorities while keeping teams focused and motivated
  • Balancing technical delivery with people leadership to ensure both project success and long-term capability building
Stream Five – Supply Chain

Transforming the End-to-End Supply Chain Without Losing Agility

Session Details Arrow Icon
  • Reimagining the supply chain to balance efficiency, flexibility, and speed to market
  • Embedding digitalization and data-driven insights to strengthen visibility and decision-making
  • Expanding production capacity and operational capability to support accelerated growth
  • Integrating sustainability into every stage of the value chain, from sourcing to distribution
  • Building agility to adapt quickly to market shifts and consumer expectations
  • Empowering teams and partners to drive innovation and continuous performance improvement
2:35 pm - 3:10 pm Workshops
Stream Four

Reducing Waste, Water, and Operational Cost Across Food Manufacturing

GE VERNOVA

Session Details Arrow Icon
  • Developing a circular waste strategy that turns byproducts and organic materials into revenue-generating resources
  • Investing in advanced wastewater and resource recovery systems to enhance operational sustainability and resilience
  • Embedding sustainability metrics into production planning to align waste reduction with business and environmental goals
  • Leveraging cross-functional and industry partnerships to scale innovative waste solutions and ensure regulatory alignment
  • Using data-driven insights to prioritize initiatives that maximize environmental impact and operational efficiency
Stream Five

Supplier Diversification in a High-Risk Supply Environment

INFOR

Session Details Arrow Icon
  • Diversifying the supplier base to mitigate risk, enhance resilience, and support business continuity
  • Implementing robust governance frameworks to ensure compliance, ethical sourcing, and alignment with corporate standards
  • Establishing clear performance metrics and accountability mechanisms to drive supplier excellence and reliability
  • Leveraging technology and data insights to monitor supplier performance, identify risks, and optimize collaboration
  • Fostering strategic partnerships with key suppliers to innovate, co-create value, and strengthen long-term supply chain competitiveness
3:10 pm - 4:30 pm Pre-Arranged One-To-One Meetings Arrow Icon

These mutually agreed-upon conversations are arranged and facilitated by Executive Platforms staff to ensure attendees have valuable discussions about their top-of-mind questions, challenges, and opportunities.

  • 3:15 pm – 3:35 pm: Meeting Slot 5/Networking
  • 3:40 pm – 4:00 pm: Meeting Slot 6/Networking
  • 4:05 pm – 4:25 pm: Meeting Slot 7/Networking
4:35 pm - 5:10 pm Case Studies
Stream Four – Manufacturing & Operations

Manufacturing Reimagined: Phased Modernization Without Operational Disruption

Session Details Arrow Icon
  • Defining the transformation vision: enable scalable growth, reduce operational risk, and position the enterprise for long-term competitiveness
  • Setting a strategic, phased roadmap balancing short-term wins with long-term platform modernization
  • Leveraging digital technologies to drive enterprise-wide visibility and agility, supporting faster, informed executive decision-making
  • Ensuring executive alignment and sponsorship to secure resources, prioritize initiatives, and maintain accountability
  • Recognizing and manage transformation barriers—including cultural resistance, legacy technical constraints, and organizational complexity
  • Embedding organizational alignment so people, processes, and technology evolve together to sustain strategic outcomes
Stream Five – Supply Chain

Transforming Supply Network Evolution with Integrated Frameworks to Support Scalable, Strategic Business Growth

Session Details Arrow Icon
  • The Current Reality: Reactive Supply Network decisions during crisis or to support unprecedented business growth leads to fragmented network design choices, capacity constraints, limited agility, and higher cost structures long-term, ultimately resulting in suboptimal outcomes and missed opportunities to take an holistic, end-to-end network synergies
  • Turning Growth into a Strategic Lever: How to leverage pivotal events such as demand surges, business acquisitions, or market expansions to redesign, not just expand, the supply network
  • Integrated Re-engineering Framework: Practical steps for improving supply network outcomes during expansion, new growth opportunities and M&A’s, including proactive capacity and footprint planning, structured scenario and risk-based modelling with clear decision triggers, and cross-functional alignment to incorporate future innovation and productivity improvements optimizing long-term operational margins and value creation.
  • Continuous Readiness: Embedding this approach as foundational supply network design discipline to ensure organizations are readily prepared for major demand shifts, disruptions, and growth opportunities.
  • Cases & Future Outlook: High level examples of what proactive and continuous network design looks like today, and how leading organizations are evolving toward more integrated, innovative and forward-looking supply network strategies.
5:15 pm - 5:50 pm KEYNOTE

Transforming End-to-End Supply Chain Planning to Improve Service, Efficiency, and Performance

Stephanie O’Brien

Chief Supply Chain Officer

Nestle USA

Session Details Arrow Icon
  • Aligning demand, supply, and transportation planning to support complex food manufacturing networks
  • Leveraging data-driven planning models to improve forecast accuracy and operational responsiveness
  • Reducing working capital and waste through integrated planning and inventory optimization strategies
  • Strengthening collaboration between sales, operations, and supply chain teams to improve service performance
  • Driving organizational transformation by building high-performing planning teams and clear operational processes
  • Balancing service, cost, and inventory objectives to support profitable and sustainable growth
5:50 pm - 5:55 pm

Chair’s Closing Remarks

5:55 pm

Drinks Reception

6:30 pm

Executive dinner

October 7th

8:00 am - 8:45 am

registration & breakfast

8:10 am - 8:45 am breakfast workshops
Stream Five

The COO Playbook: Leading High-Performance Operations with Resilience and Agility

Executive to be Announced

KERR CONSULTING

Session Details Arrow Icon
  • Building resilient operations by anticipating disruptions and embedding flexibility into processes and supply chains
  • Aligning cross-functional teams around clear priorities to drive consistent execution and operational excellence
  • Leveraging data-driven insights to make proactive decisions, optimize performance, and accelerate continuous improvement
  • Fostering a culture of agility, empowering teams to adapt quickly while maintaining safety, quality, and efficiency
  • Integrating long-term strategic planning with day-to-day operational management to balance growth, risk, and performance
8:50 am - 9:00 am

Chair’s Opening Remarks

9:00 am - 9:35 am KEYNOTE

Using Integrated Supply Chain Intelligence to Improve Agility, Forecasting, and Execution

Venky Santhirahasan

Senior Vice President of Platform & Solution Engineering

PepsiCo

Session Details Arrow Icon
  • Integrate end-to-end supply chain data to gain real-time visibility and actionable insights across demand, supply, and inventory
  • Enhance forecasting accuracy by leveraging advanced analytics, AI, and scenario modeling to anticipate market shifts and demand variability
  • Improve operational agility by identifying risks, bottlenecks, and opportunities for rapid course correction
  • Align execution with strategic priorities through cross-functional collaboration and data-driven decision-making
  • Monitor KPIs and supply chain performance continuously to drive efficiency, resilience, and customer satisfaction
9:40 am - 10:15 am Case Studies
Stream Four – Manufacturing & Operations

Transforming Manufacturing Excellence into a Workforce Retention Strategy

Session Details Arrow Icon
  • How manufacturing excellence programs are being used as structured systems to build shopfloor capability and improve daily operational performance
  • Developing practical, on-the-job skills such as problem-solving, equipment understanding, and process ownership to increase employee effectiveness
  • Embedding continuous learning directly into manufacturing operations so employees can grow while working on the line
  • Creating a culture where shopfloor employees are actively involved in identifying issues and driving improvements, not just executing tasks
  • Linking capability development with clear career progression pathways to improve engagement, retention, and long-term workforce stability
Stream Five – Supply Chain

Evolving into a Unified, Standardized Global Operating Model

Session Details Arrow Icon
  • Operating across multiple countries with differing processes, systems, and tool variations creating complexity and inconsistency
  • Driving a shift toward a single global operating model with standardized processes, technology, and governance
  • Aligning and scaling best practices to establish one consistent way of working across the network
  • Reducing operational complexity and cost while improving customer experience and execution speed
  • Managing the transformation journey, building the future state while continuing to deliver day-to-day operations
  • Exploring the role of technology and AI in enabling standardization, integration, and smarter decision-making
10:15 am - 11:10 am Pre-Arranged One-To-One Meetings Arrow Icon

These mutually agreed-upon conversations are arranged and facilitated by Executive Platforms staff to ensure attendees have valuable discussions about their top-of-mind questions, challenges, and opportunities.

  • 10:20 am – 10:40 am: Meeting Slot 8/Networking
  • 10:45 am – 11:05 am: Meeting Slot 9/Networking
11:15 am - 11:50 am Workshops
Stream Four

Implementing Modular Manufacturing in Food Plants: From Concept to Deployment

Session Details Arrow Icon
  • Designing flexible, scalable modules that can be quickly deployed, reconfigured, or expanded to meet changing demand
  • Standardizing processes, equipment, and interfaces to simplify integration across multiple plant areas
  • Leveraging data and digital tools to monitor module performance, optimize throughput, and ensure quality
  • Planning phased deployment with cross-functional alignment to minimize disruption and ensure smooth adoption
  • Incorporating sustainability and efficiency considerations in module design to reduce energy, water, and waste footprint
Stream Five

Harnessing AI to Revolutionize and Future-Proof Global Planning, Forecasting, and Workforce Capability

Executive to be Announced

Rockwell Automation | Kalypso

Session Details Arrow Icon
  • Integrating AI to drive forecasting accuracy, scenario analytics, and proactive service planning, to anticipate disruptions and improve customer support
  • Treating the initiative as a business process project, engaging end users early, and aligning regional regulatory needs within a global framework
  • Linking unconstrained demand, customer volatility, and supply chain performance across multiple ERP systems to improve agility
  • Managing large-scale change without fatigue by applying ADKAR to guide awareness, desire, knowledge, and ability while maintaining continuity
  • Future-proofing the workforce for a Human + AI partnership by building statistical literacy, developing super users, and preparing teams to work effectively with AI driven tools
11:55 am - 12:40 pm PANEL

Panel: Orchestrating Multi-Year Change: Executive Tactics That Deliver Measurable Results

Stephanie O’Brien

Chief Supply Chain Officer

Nestle USA

David Hernández

VP Global Procurement

Grupo Bimbo

Session Details Arrow Icon
  • Driving alignment across leadership to unify vision, priorities, and decision-making over multi-year initiatives
  • Sequencing and pacing transformation efforts to balance short-term performance with long-term strategic goals
  • Embedding data-driven oversight and agile feedback loops to course-correct quickly and maintain momentum
  • Capturing and institutionalizing lessons learned to scale successes and avoid repeating mistakes
  • Building governance structures that engage stakeholders, manage resistance, and ensure consistent execution
  • Leveraging technology and process standardization to accelerate transformation and increase efficiency
  • Aligning transformation initiatives with business outcomes and KPIs while fostering accountability and change adoption across the organization
  • Encouraging innovation and experimentation while maintaining operational discipline
12:45 pm - 1:45 pm THEMED LUNCH DISCUSSIONS

Explore this year’s themed lunch discussions led by industry leaders, where executives engage in focused conversations over a meal, discussing topics they’re passionate about alongside their peers.

Applying Lean & Agile on the Floor: Real Steps to Improve Quality, Cost, and Speed

Adapting Food Production Strategies in Response to Evolving Global Tariffs and Trade Policy Changes

Forecasting the Future: Demand Planning in Food Manufacturing

Cloud-Enabled Supply Chains: Breaking Silos, Boosting Efficiency

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