North American Manufacturing Excellence Summit

Darcy MacClaren is currently responsible for leading the North American Team driving SAP’s Customer’s business success around innovating their Supply Chain and Manufacturing processes. Since joining SAP in 2012, Darcy has also held several management and executive leadership roles. Most recently she served as a Regional VP in the Eastern US focused on consumer and process industries. As an expert in the area of Supply Chain Management for the Process Industries, Darcy has over twenty-five years of experience working with companies in transforming their digital supply chains. Before joining SAP, Darcy held several senior supply chain leadership positions at companies such as JDA, Infor, G-Log, (acquired by Oracle), and Hewlett Packard. Darcy graduated from St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY, with a Bachelor of Arts degree. She has an MBA from SUNY at Buffalo.

Sean Trainor is senior vice president of HP Inc.’s Personal Systems (PS) Operations, an organization spread across 12 countries and 29 sites. PS Operations is responsible for delivering a resilient, agile, innovative supply chain that supports the PS business portfolio, which exceeds $40B+ spanning PCs, displays, peripherals, services, software, and immersive computing.

Sean joined HP in 2023 and brings more than 30 years’ experience in manufacturing, engineering, supply chain management, and product development. Prior to joining HP, Sean served as chief supply chain officer for Cynosure. His responsibilities included the operation and transformation of the global supply chain network focusing on quality, scale, and efficiency.

Sean led world-class, high-tech, manufacturing, operational, supply chain, and procurement functions.

Previously, Sean was senior vice president of Manufacturing and Distribution for Visionworks, where his teams transformed the end-to-end supply chain driving break-through improvements in service, quality, cost, and customer value.

He was also senior vice president of Global Operations Engineering and Quality at Dell. He was responsible for new product introduction, supplier and factory quality, and operations engineering for all of Dell’s products across the global supply chain. Sean’s teams formed the linchpin between product research and development and supply chain operations to enable flawless product and solution delivery.

During his 18 years at Dell, Sean also served as an executive overseeing many transformative teams. On assignment in Singapore, he led Dell’s Global Supply Chain and Fulfillment organization that focused on the end-to-end supply chain and fulfillment transformation to provide the lowest cost and best value of products for customers.

Sean earned a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from GMI Engineering and Management Institute and a master’s degree in Business Administration from Louisiana State University. He serves as an advisor to the University of Houston C.T. Bauer College of Business.

Sean is married with two daughters and is based in Houston, Texas.

Peter Gibbons joined 3M in November 2021 as group president of Enterprise Operations, which brings together manufacturing, supply chain and customer operations, and is focused on optimizing the customer experience through end-to-end aligned and agile operations.

Prior to 3M, Peter served as chief executive officer of TireHub, a joint venture last mile distributor between Bridgestone and Goodyear. Possessing a wealth of experience in manufacturing and supply chain operations, Peter previously held senior-level executive positions at Mattel, Starbucks and ICI Paints North America. His growth mindset, inclusive leadership, and orientation toward developing talent and culture has helped him lead highly successful complex changes and significant transformation.

“I believe that building confidence and removing the fear of failure are key components of leadership,” says Peter. “People achieve great things when they are embraced and valued; when they are connected, not isolated; and when their intelligence and imagination are unleashed.”

Outside of work, Peter enjoys hiking, reading, and supporting the Glasgow Celtic soccer club and serves on the boards of CP Kelco and the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics from University of Edinburgh and a master’s degree in Business Administration from Strathclyde Business School in Glasgow, Scotland.

Torsten Pilz is Senior Vice President and Chief Supply Chain Officer.

Torsten has broad responsibilities for the integrated supply chain, including procurement and driving improvements in plant efficiency and working capital while continuing to enhance quality and delivery.

Prior to Honeywell, Torsten served as Vice President, Supply Chain, for SpaceX, where he was responsible for planning, purchasing, material management and logistics. He built and developed a team that supported dozens of launches a year as well as the development and production of the Falcon and Falcon Heavy Rockets, the Dragon Spacecraft and the SpaceX’ satellite program. Prior to that, he served four years as Vice President, Worldwide Operations, at Amazon.

Before that, Torsten spent eight years at Henkel AG & Co. in a series of roles, culminating in his assignment as Senior Vice President, Global Operations, and Chief Executive Officer, Schwarzkopf & Henkel Production Europe GmbH. He also worked at Strategy& at PWC and Clariant AG.

Torsten earned B.S. and M.S. degrees, followed by a doctorate in chemical engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany.

• Senior Fellow at Haslam School of Business, University of Tennessee
• Board Member for Two Companies
• Private Equity Senior Operating Executive for The Carlyle Group
• Retired EVP, Global Supply Chain, Mondelēz International
• Former EVP, Global Supply Chain, Kraft Foods
• Former Global VP, Product Supply, Procter & Gamble

Daniel Myers is currently a Senior Fellow at Haslam School of Business teaching as a guest lecturer for both graduate and under-graduate studies. He currently serves as a Senior Operating Executive for the Carlyle Group, one of the largest Global Private Equity firms and is on two company boards. He is the retired Executive Vice President of the Global Integrated Supply Chain of Mondelez International where he led the Procurement, Manufacturing, Engineering, and Customer Service & Logistics groups, which represent more than 70,000 of the company’s employees.  Daniel held the same position at Kraft Foods Inc., the predecessor to Mondelēz International, since he joined the company in September 2011.  The spin-off of the company’s North American grocery operations occurred in October of 2012.  Under his leadership, Mondelez funded a major reinvention of its worldwide supply chain delivering more than $3 billion in savings over 3 years. He has extensive experience in investor management including representing Mondelez in the investor presentations at CAGNY and Barclays.

Prior to Kraft Foods, Daniel worked for Procter & Gamble for 33 years, serving in roles across all areas of the Supply Chain. Most recently, he served as Vice President, Product Supply, where he led the supply chain function for P&G’s Global Hair Care business. He was also responsible for coordinating the company’s $28 Billion Beauty & Grooming business.  He had responsibility for P&G’s Customer Service and Logistics operations globally for four years and while in this role he led the integration of the operations of the Gillette company, a $56 Billion acquisition.

Daniel has strong experience launching new brands and building operations in emerging markets. He has over 25 years’ experience delivering winning innovation leading major global expansions. He has worked in 54 countries and lived outside the U.S. for more than 10 years. Daniel has mastery in the successful implementation of best practices including building High Performance Organizations and Lean Six Sigma. During his successful career, he has had responsibility for over 250 manufacturing plants and 400 warehouse and distribution centers.

Daniel received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tennessee and served on the Board of the Global Supply Chain Institute at the University of Tennessee for over 10 years.

Daniel and Karen, his wife of 40 years, are Christians who have led music and youth groups for 5 churches in three different countries over a period of 25 years. They have been active in mission work helping support and build schools or orphanages in Venezuela, Romania, Nigeria, Kenya, India and Myanmar.