Breakfast + Registration

Chairs’ Opening Remarks

• Harry Haney, Associate Director, Supply & Value Chain Center, Loyola University
• Doug Reese, Chief Strategy & Growth Officer, GE Transportation Digital Solutions

CO-CHAIR: Harry Haney

Harry J. Haney, III is currently Associate Director of Loyola University Chicago’s Supply & Value Chain Center.  The Center works with member companies to provide educational events, networking opportunities, training, recruiting students for internships/ full-time placement, and access to academic resources (faculty and students) for consulting projects.   Prior to this role, Harry was with […]

CO-CHAIR: Doug Reese

Opening Keynote: Forgetting Tariffs and Adopting Blockchain, Gaining Absolute Transparency of Trade

Today’s trade issues will not be resolved with tariffs, innovation is the answer and the creation of distributed ledger technology, known as Blockchain, is the technology that will work. Blockchain smart contracts is the technology that will punish cheaters without punishing your friends.

• Jack Bouroudjian, Commentator, CNBC, Chief Economist, UCX LLC

Jack Bouroudjian

Hagop (Jack) Bouroudjian is the Chief Economist, co-founder and director of the Universal Compute Exchange and the India Compute Interchange. Previously, Jack was CEO of Index Futures Group, SVP for Nikko Securities, Japan’s second-largest brokerage house; SVP for Credit Agricole Futures and Commerzbank Futures, divisions of the 17th and 25th largest banks in the world […]

Panel Discussion: Supply Chain Collaboration (SCC): Using Blockchain for Data Storage and Information Sharing, Transparency, and Trust

Increasingly, companies are relying on vendors to deliver their own products and services. In this panel we discuss how Blockchain can transform many business processes, making the data used in those processes more available, transparent, immediate and secure. Moderator:

• Mahesh Sahasranaman, Principal Architect - UPS Supply Chain Solutions, UPS

• Brian Anderson,Global Purchasing & Supply Chain Lead, Duracell
• Mark Gannon, Head of Network Supply Chain & Procurement, Extenet Systems
• Michael Kennamann, CSCP, Director, Supply Chain, Essendent

Brian Anderson

Mark Gannon

Michael Kennamann, CSCP

Mahesh Sahasranaman

Networking Break

Case Study: Blockchain Technology and Social Sustainability: Strengthening Accountability Loops and Individual and Collective Transparency

With each passing year, supply chains become more complex and globalized, making their management and control more and more difficult. As a distributed digital ledger technology, Blockchain promises on easing supply chain management problems: Transparency, traceability, and security.

• Jeff Lang, Vice President, Digital Transformation, Breakthrough Fuel

Jeff Lang

The Blockchain Future State – Legal & Regulatory Impact

Blockchain stands to transform fundamental relationships and interactions throughout our global supply chains. The breadth of change may extend to our legal transactions and disputes with suppliers, providers, and customers, as well as our interactions with and enforcement by regulatory agencies. This session will quickly explore those high impact opportunities and challenges that blockchain represents for legal and regulatory landscapes.

• Jonathan Todd, Partner - Transportation & Logistics Law, Benesch

Jonathan R. Todd

Jonathan advises clients on transportation, logistics, warehousing, import compliance, export controls and economic sanctions, and related supply chain management issues. He leads those transactional and regulatory matters for manufacturers, distributors, retailers, third-party logistics providers, brokers, forwarders, intermediaries, and carriers of all modes. His work spans the wide range of challenges that arise when clients buy […]

Networking Luncheon

Blockchain to Improve Internal Inefficiencies: Free up Working Capital for an Optimized Value Chain

Inefficient document handling systems along the supply chain provides a toll on company profits. Maintaining bureaucratic paper trails required to manage modern supply chains are costly and inefficient. Established industry players and supply chain startups are beginning to utilize blockchain to optimize their value chains, improve inefficiencies and free up working capital, and make goods and services more accessible.  

Case Study: Blockchain and Provenance of Goods and Services – Quelling the Demand For Transparency

When goods reach their final destinations, most buyers and sellers do not know the true origins of the manufactured products including the ingredients of the goods they have purchased. Transparent supply chain solutions have the potential to provide consumers and other downstream participants higher standards of responsibility and sustainability in sourcing and production: (a) transparency of environmental impact, such as or measuring diesel pollution of trucks at shipping ports, (b) food provenance: origins, production type and ingredients of the food we eat, conditions under which the plants are grown, animals treated.

• Mahesh Sahasranaman, Principal Architect, UPS Supply Chain Solutions

Mahesh Sahasranaman

Blockchain in the Food Packaging/Agriculture Landscape

This presentation will provide an overview of the Food Trust Blockchain platform and address topics related to the initiative, how it works, the status of the project, moving from pilot to production, and the benefits beyond traceability.

• Bob Wolpert, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, Golden State Foods and Chairman IBM Food Trust Advisory Council

Bob Wolpert

Bob Wolpert is the Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at Golden State Foods, one of the largest diversified suppliers to the QSR industries. Bob is also the Chair of the Food Trust Advisory Council with IBM. He’s also worked for ITT Corporation, and earned an MBA from Harvard University and serves as board member and […]

Networking Break

Panel Discussion: Intersection of Blockchain & Ethics – Solving Social Problems & Consumer Concerns

In this panel, we discuss blockchain’s established, rigid, and transparent attributes that are championing ethical business practices by enabling consumers with an understanding of provenance, protecting local environments and reducing exploitation of workers. It is truly a tool for change, bolstering an era of the "conscious consumer.

• Fernando Lopez, Chief Financial Officer, Bluewater Builders
• Al Zucco, VP Sustainable Supply Chain, USG

Fernando Lopez

Melanie Nuce

Al Zucco

Blockchain and IP: The Challenges That Blockchain Brings to IP Protection and Enforcement

Blockchain brings with it its own unique set of challenges with regard to the creation, protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in the supply chain world. Areas of planning include the legal impact of standard setting and their interplay with patent rights, data security and cyber risks, the challenges associated with open source platforms, the challenge of protecting IP on the blockchain, and external IP threats to products and platforms. These topics will be discussed to identify issues that must be considered, and strategies for addressing those issues.

• Joshua Krumholz, Partner, Holland & Knight LLP

Joshua C. Krumholz

Joshua Krumholz is a trial attorney and the national Practice Group Co-Leader for the firm’s Intellectual Property Group. He focuses primarily upon intellectual property litigation, with a particular emphasis on patent litigation. His practice covers a variety of technologies and jurisdictions. Mr. Krumholz has successfully taken cases to jury verdict in the Eastern District of […]

Closing Keynote: Blockchain as an Emergent Ecosystem – Turning Supply Chain Into an Integrated Global View

Supply chains and operations have become increasingly dynamic, product life cycles are shorter, and ramp-up and ramp-down periods are more intense. With blockchain technology, companies can rebuild their approach to supply chain management at the ecosystem level and go from limited insight into an integrated global view.

Chairs’ Closing Remarks

• Harry Haney, Associate Director, Supply & Value Chain Center, Loyola University
• Doug Reese, Chief Strategy & Growth Officer, GE Transportation Digital Solutions

CO-CHAIR: Harry Haney

Harry J. Haney, III is currently Associate Director of Loyola University Chicago’s Supply & Value Chain Center.  The Center works with member companies to provide educational events, networking opportunities, training, recruiting students for internships/ full-time placement, and access to academic resources (faculty and students) for consulting projects.   Prior to this role, Harry was with […]

CO-CHAIR: Doug Reese

Summit Concludes