North American Manufacturing Excellence Summit

Stephanie O’Brien is Chief Supply Chain Officer at Nestlé USA, leading end-to-end supply chain strategy and operations across planning, customer-facing supply chain, order management, warehousing and logistics.

A results-driven leader, Stephanie has a proven track record of delivering measurable impact across the U.S. and global markets. In her previous role as Vice President of Demand & Supply Planning, she restructured the planning organization and delivered over $200 million in savings in her first year through improved service, reduced waste and optimized working capital.

Stephanie has held senior leadership roles across Nestlé, including Vice President of Supply Chain for Nestlé Coffee Partners and Deputy Head of Supply Chain for Zone North America. She has also been a driving force in modernizing Nestlé’s planning capabilities, leading efforts such as the Enterprise Forecasting initiative as part of the One Planning transformation. Prior to joining Nestlé, Stephanie managed end-to-end supply chain at Electronic Arts.

Known for her authentic, people-first leadership, Stephanie builds high-performing, inclusive teams and is a frequent speaker on supply chain transformation, leadership and human-AI collaboration.

Kevin Austin is Group Vice President, Supply Chain Strategy and Operations and Quality for Toyota Motor North America. He also serves as Deputy Chief Quality Officer.

In his role, Austin oversees North America’s end-to-end vehicle and parts supply chain operations, as well as the strategy and execution of quality systems and policies. His responsibilities span Demand and Supply Management, Supply Chain Strategy, New Product Introduction, Service Parts Operations, and Logistics, covering both parts and finished vehicle distribution, along with product technical support and customer quality assurance. He is also focused on advancing digital and structural transformation across the supply chain organization, leveraging technology to enhance efficiency, resilience, and customer experience. His team is committed to driving operational excellence and continuous improvement in support of the company’s broader strategic goals.

Austin began his career at Toyota in 1999 as an analyst within the Production Control division at Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America (TEMA). In this role, he was responsible for production planning efforts and helping lead Toyota’s supply chain coordination to ensure appropriate production capacity and output to meet customer needs and demand. Following Production Control, Austin worked in the Human Resources department supporting company-wide initiatives focused on team member engagement and development.

In 2012, Austin took an international assignment in Japan where he worked for two years in the Toyota Motors America Japan (TMA-J) division for Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC). Upon completion of the TMC assignment, Austin rotated to Toyota Motor Sales (TMS) in California where he worked in the Distributions Operations department until his transition to the TMNA headquarters in Plano, Texas in 2015.

Austin has held several roles since then, including a rotational assignment within TMS in the Denver Region office, supporting and engaging the regional team and dealers in achieving mutual sales and fixed operations goals and objectives, general manager within the Toyota Sales team, and most recently, serving as vice president for DSM.

Austin is originally from Montgomery, West Virginia and obtained a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from West Virginia University.

Robin Higgs currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Engineering for 3M. In this role she has global responsibility for  the efficient execution of 3M’s capital budget and for advancing technology across 3M’s manufacturing and distribution facilities.

Robin is a well-respected and highly accomplished executive in 3M.  She has an extensive background in manufacturing and over the course of her 30-year career with the company, she has held a variety of supply chain leadership positions and worked at several manufacturing plants around the world.   Prior to her current role in Engineering, Robin was the Senior Vice President for US and Canada manufacturing operations where she was responsible for driving safety and operational excellence across a network of 55 manufacturing plants.  Robin also served as the Manufacturing Director of 3M’s network of chemical plants which supply unique and specialty materials supporting $20B of 3M’s $30B in sales.  Robin also lived in China for three years while she oversaw the design, construction and start-up of 3M’s first chemical plant in China and served as the first site manager of the site.

Robin earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville where she also played college basketball.  Robin’s experiences in athletics form the basis of her strong leadership, commitment to teamwork and desire to win.