Speakers

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.

With over 20 years of experience in the polymer compounding industry, I am the Director of Continuous Improvement at HEXPOL Compounding, a global leader in polymer compounding solutions. I hold a Six Sigma Black Belt certification and an Executive MBA from Quantic School of Business and Technology, where I graduated in the top 10% of my class.

My mission is to deliver superior returns through the development and implementation of the HEXPOL Production System, a comprehensive framework for organizational excellence. I provide CI support to 13 plants in the US and Mexico, working with company leadership to develop and implement strategic initiatives. I have trained several green belts and yellow belts and led key projects in areas such as ERP implementation, maintenance excellence, customer service, EHS, quality scrap reduction, supplier performance, customer experience, and learning and development. I have also successfully developed and implemented an online learning management system (Talent LMS).

I collaborate with cross-functional teams to provide inputs for business decisions, create and maintain executive KPIs, develop and execute capital expenditure plans, and improve product launch processes and procedures. I am passionate about driving continuous improvement and innovation in the polymer compounding industry, leveraging my skills in process improvement, quality management, and lean manufacturing.

Ravi Mydur is SLB’s Vice President of Manufacturing. Ravi has over 24 years of experience leading complex technology development, technology delivery and field services teams across the globe.  As the Manufacturing VP, Ravi oversees delivery of a portfolio of cutting-edge products, managing operations across 60+ manufacturing plants worldwide. His areas of focus and passion are in driving innovation, operational excellence, and sustainable growth within the organization. Ravi’s professional journey is marked by a series of high-impact roles across North America, Europe, Middle East and Asia. His expertise spans R&D, manufacturing, supply chain management, technology strategy, change management, and executive communications. Ravi holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University and has 5 awarded patents.

Parthiban Ravikumar is the Manufacturing Engineer at Bray International Inc., Houston, Texas.

Parthiban accomplished his Bachelor’s in Production Engineering from Anna University, India with the award as University First Rank holder.

He worked in multi-national Valve business at India as Senior Engineer; executing improvement projects, before coming to United States for his graduate program.

Parthiban got his Master’s Degree in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University (TAMU), College Station during 2014 and then started to work for Bray International Inc as Manufacturing Engineer.

During his Master’s program at TAMU, Parthiban received Graduate Scholarship and worked as Graduate Teaching Assistant at CAD lab and Plastics Manufacturing lab.

Parthiban has 10 years of experience in Manufacturing Engineering and worked at international locations of Bray for executing Manufacturing projects.

He has expertise in developing and mentoring manufacturing teams for Lean manufacturing projects, Safety practices and Efficiency improvement.

He has published articles in Valve Magazine on two topics.

1. Behavioral aspects of compliance with workplace safety measures

https://www.valvemagazine.com/articles/behavioral-aspects-of-compliance-with-workplace-safety-measures

2. Steps to integrating LEAN principles into Valve manufacturing

https://www.valvemagazine.com/articles/steps-to-integrating-lean-principles-into-valve-manufacturing

Parthiban has been instrumental in Bray during new process developments, cost reduction and tooling experiments.

Parthiban continuously keeps him abreast with new technologies and currently works on Robotic projects at Bray.

He enjoys sharing his knowledge with peers and had been invited by Texas A&M University Alumni Association to share his industrial knowledge with Bachelor’s and Master’s students of Industrial engineering department.

Parthiban feels privileged to join the panel of NAMES 2024 and looking forward to learn and share Manufacturing concepts.

For over 30 years Bill has held executive positions, specifically in the electric vehicle industry. In 2023 he joined BAC as the Global Director Business Development-EV Battery. Previously, he served as the Director Commercial Sales at Proterra, Inc. – focusing on all Electric Commuter Shuttle/Transportation solutions at all Airports, Universities and Corporations.

Prior to joining Proterra, he spent several years working on EV infrastructure for airports, workplace and universities as well as smart city and US Department of Energy projects. Bill convinced Elon & the SpaceX team to install 30 level 1 chargers in their parking structure for employees. He has presented at GigaFactory and Construction EVents in Germany, Spain, France, Belgium and the US. He has also been a featured presenter at the Pentagon, Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of Energy. Bill continues to be a passionate and knowledgeable, (“EVangelist”), spokesperson for the EV Industry. He’s been published in various media.

Shane A. Yount is a nationally recognized thought leader, author, and Chairman of Competitive Solutions, Inc. (CSI), an international Business Transformation consulting firm which pioneered the acclaimed organizational development system known as Process Based Leadership®. Since 1991 he has led the offices of CSI in becoming one of the nation’s most recognized Business Transformation consulting firms, personally working with such organizations as The Department of Defense, 3M, Colgate Palmolive, Bristol Meyers Squibb, and many others.

Sneha Arora is an accomplished Global Director of Quality Assurance with over 15 years of experience leading quality transformation across the Pharmaceutical and Cosmetic industries. She is known for building high-performing global teams and modernizing Quality Management Systems that integrate regulatory excellence with operational performance.

Her expertise spans FDA, ISO, Health Canada, China GMPs and international regulatory frameworks, with a strong focus on leveraging AI-enabled analytics and data-driven strategies to accelerate decision-making and proactively manage risk. Sneha brings a unique perspective that blends deep regulatory knowledge with innovative digital tools to create scalable, future-ready quality programs.

A charismatic and trusted leader, Sneha is passionate about developing talent, fostering collaboration, and redefining the role of Quality as a strategic business partner. She speaks on topics including Quality Transformation, AI in Quality Systems, Regulatory Readiness, Supplier Quality Excellence, and Leadership in Highly Regulated Industries.

Sneha’s mission is to inspire organizations to view quality not only as compliance, but as a catalyst for growth, innovation, and sustainable success.