North American Manufacturing Excellence Summit

The North American Manufacturing Excellence Summit is a premier gathering of industry leaders, manufacturing executives, and experts dedicated to exploring innovative strategies, emerging trends, and best practices in the dynamic world of manufacturing management.

April 14 - April 16, 2025

Omni Fort Worth Hotel | Fort Worth, TX

Attendees
+
of attendees are Director level and above
%
Global Organizations
+
Renowned Speakers
+

Join This Year's Conversation

NAMES gathers SVPs, VPs, and Directors of Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Operations, and Quality, Lean/CI/OpEx Executives, and Plant Managers to share insights, foster innovation, and build invaluable connections. Dive into a thoughtfully curated environment that brings together thought leaders, allowing you to explore new ideas and engage in meaningful discussions. Join the conversation at NAMES and be part of a community dedicated to pushing the limits of manufacturing success.

Featured Speakers

Year after year, we bring to the stage today's thought leaders and innovators

Peter Gibbons

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.

Peter Gibbons

Group President Enterprise Operations

3M Company

Sean Trainor

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.

Sean Trainor

Senior Vice President, Global Head of Personal Systems Operations

HP Inc.

Vinod D’Souza

Vinod D’Souza leads the Manufacturing and Industry vertical for Google Cloud’s Office of the CISO. In this role, he partners with organizations to help them adopt Google Cloud and Workspace, supporting their overall security transformation. With over 20 years of experience in cybersecurity and technology, Vinod has a proven track record of working with organizations in a variety of industries, leading customer-focused security and transformation engagements. Vinod holds an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical and Electronics from Manipal Institute of Technology, Mangalore University, India.

Vinod D’Souza

Office of the CISO, Head of Manufacturing

Google Cloud

Christina Upah

Christina Upah

Vice President Attack Helicopter Programs & Senior Mesa Site Executive Department

Boeing

Manny Bansi

Manny Bansi is Vice President of Toyota Logistics Services (TLS).  He is responsible for finished vehicle logistics for North American operations that includes managing Marshalling Yards and Ports Operations.

Manny started his career at NUMMI (Joint Venture Between Toyota & General Motors) back in 1992.  He then went on to hold positions in various areas including Corporate Strategy, Production Planning, Human Resources, including two-year assignment at Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan.

Manny is also involved in many Business Partnering Groups (BPG) at Toyota Headquarters, such as Young Professionals, AAC, Spectrum, TODOS, TAASiA, and WIIT.  He currently serves as Executive Advisor for TAAiSA BPG and believes in the growth of all of his team members through Toyota principles.

Manny Bansi

Vice President, Logistics

Toyota

Sylvia Wilks

Sylvia Wilks is an accomplished senior global supply chain operations executive and a passionate, engaged business leader with 30+ years of experience in diverse sectors: Food & Beverage, Retail, CPG, Automotive. She is known for developing and nurturing best-in-class culture for Fortune 200 companies, building operations processes, growing talent in start-ups, and has enabled significant growth in mature businesses while developing a diverse company culture.
Sylvia brings superior influencing and collaboration skills and thrives in fast growth businesses. She has expertise in large CapEx initiatives, operational transformation, OpEx management, and growing organization capability. She is a trusted advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion serving in executive sponsorship roles.
Sylvia joined REI as their first Chief Supply Chain Officer and set her vision and strategy for an integrated value chain overdelivering on cost reduction targets while simultaneously improving service. In 2023 she opened a 400k sq ft sustainable omni-channel fulfillment center.
Prior to REI Sylvia was a founding executive of the JV start-up TireHub. She built a customer-centric, wholesale distribution supply chain that weathered the Pandemic attaining EBITDA positive results on ~$2B revenue in 3 years.
As Kimberly-Clark’s Chief Procurement Officer Sylvia was responsible for $12B annual spend. She restructured to a global matrixed organization, installed strategic Category Management and Supplier Relationship Management delivering value ahead of budget and benchmarks.
A 16-year veteran of Starbucks, she served in global functional roles and had accountability for end-to-end supply chain. Her relentless drive for improvement enabled $60 million incremental revenue by increasing OEE and her customer service passion drove a 200% improvement in USA business OTIF. Sylvia built a state-of-the-art $172M process plant to insource coffee ingredients and built and led Starbucks’ first European plant enabling accelerated EMEA expansion. Experiences of working across cultures has shaped her view on how businesses and people can contribute to their communities and environment.
Prior to Starbucks, Sylvia held roles leading multiple plant sites for large UK and European food processing companies serving UK Grocery multiples. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering Design & Manufacture from Hull University, UK and has completed Kellogg School of Management executive programs in Finance, Supply Chain Management and Strategic Operations Planning, and UCLA’s Corporate Governance Program.

Sylvia Wilks

Chief Supply Chain Officer

Lamb Weston

Torsten Pilz

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.

Torsten Pilz

Chief Supply Chain Officer

Honeywell

Tom Carrubba

Thomas J. Carrubba (Tom) is the Vice President, Production Operations for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control (MFC). He is responsible for leading and executing the portfolio of production programs across fifteen manufacturing sites in the US, UK and Japan.

 

Prior to this role at MFC, Mr. Carrubba served as the Vice President of F-35 Production Operations at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. He was responsible for production of the F-35 Lightning II Program, which included all domestic and international production sites across the Aeronautics business area. During his decade-long support of the program, Mr. Carrubba provided leadership over the first 500 F-35’s ever manufactured.

 

Mr. Carrubba holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from North Carolina State University. Additionally, he earned his MBA and a master’s in Engineering Management from the Florida Institute of Technology.

 

During his 25 years with Lockheed Martin, Mr. Carrubba has held various leadership positions in  production operations, program management and quality at the Aeronautics and Missiles and Fire Control business areas.

Tom Carrubba

Vice President of Production Operations

Lockheed Martin

Heather Bishop

Heather Bishop

Global Director Manufacturing & Operations

John Deere

Garrett Dornbrook

Garrett has spent more than 11 years in P&G’s largest and most profitable region/sector combination, Fabric Care North America. He’s had the pleasure to work on all laundry forms at 4 different locations, across 4 different functions, at 4 different levels of the company. Garrett is energized by people and opportunities to step change business results.

Garrett Dornbrook

Vice President, Manufacturing

Procter & Gamble

Mike Bassani

Mike Bassani

Senior Vice President, Supply Chain and Corporate Technology

Starbucks

David Johnson

David Johnson is the SVP, Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management. Prior to this role he was Vice President, Production Engineering and New Model Quality, Nissan North America, Inc. where he was ensuring the highest level of quality possible at the maximum output in all of Nissan’s U.S. and Mexican manufacturing operations.

Previously at Nissan, Johnson was director, New Model and Central Engineering at Nissan Motor Company, UK.

Since joining Nissan in 2002, Johnson has held a number of roles of increasing importance throughout Nissan’s manufacturing operations.

Johnson was most recently appointed to the board of directors of the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce.

Johnson holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Tennessee Technological University, and an executive master’s degree in business from Vanderbilt University – Owen Graduate School of Management.

David Johnson

Senior Vice President, Manufacturing & Supply Chain

Nissan

Apply To Be One Of This Year's Thought Leaders

Highlights From Last Year

Highlights from last year

The North American Manufacturing Excellence Summit 2024 gathered top manufacturing leaders to share new ideas and collaborate on solutions that inspired a collective vision for change, shaping the future of the industry.

Some Of This Year's Sponsors

Showcase your solutions to the industry's leading collection of
manufacturing executives, thought leaders, and innovators.

Apply To Be One Of This Years Thoughts Leaders

"*" indicates required fields

Are you a Delegate or Solution Provider/Vendor?

By completing and submitting this form, you agree to receive marketing emails from Executive Platforms Inc. You can opt-out at any time by utilizing the unsubscribe link provided at the bottom of each email. All data collected will be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Learn More About This Year's Sponsorship Opportunities

"*" indicates required fields

By completing and submitting this form, you agree to receive marketing emails from Executive Platforms Inc. You can opt-out at any time by utilizing the unsubscribe link provided at the bottom of each email. All data collected will be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

"*" indicates required fields

Are you a Delegate or Solution Provider/Vendor?

By completing and submitting this form, you agree to receive marketing emails from Executive Platforms Inc. You can opt-out at any time by utilizing the unsubscribe link provided at the bottom of each email. All data collected will be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Download The Agenda PDF

"*" indicates required fields

Are you a Delegate or Solution Provider/Vendor?

By completing and submitting this form, you agree to receive marketing emails from Executive Platforms Inc. You can opt-out at any time by utilizing the unsubscribe link provided at the bottom of each email. All data collected will be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.