Featured Presenter
James A. Tompkins, Ph.D.
President and CEO, Tompkins Associates
Dr. James A. Tompkins is an international authority on leadership, logistics, material handling, outsourcing, and supply chain best practices. As the founder and CEO of Tompkins Associates, he provides leadership for Tompkins globally.
His 35-plus years as CEO of a consulting/integration firm and his focus on helping companies achieve profitable growth give him an insider’s view into what makes great companies even better. As a high-level business advisor, his unique perspective prepares corporations and executives for the future.
To share his knowledge and provide up-to-date information on supply chain and business trends, he developed the GoGoGo! Blog and Global Supply Chain Podcast.
He has written or contributed to more than 30 books, including Caught Between the Tiger and the Dragon, Bold Leadership, Logistics and Manufacturing Outsourcing, The Supply Chain Handbook, No Boundaries and Facilities Planning. Jim has been quoted in hundreds of business and industry magazines such as The Journal of Commerce, Supply & Demand Chain Executive, and FORTUNE, and he has spoken at more than 4,000 international engagements.
Jim has served as president of the Institute of Industrial Engineers, the Materials Management Society and the College-Industry Council on Material Handling Education. Purdue University has named him a Distinguished Engineering Alum. He has also received more than 50 awards for his service to his profession.
Jim received his Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering in 1969, his Master of Science in industrial engineering in 1970, and his Ph.D. in 1972, all from Purdue.
Additional Conference Presenters
Steve Buffington
Vice President, Supply Chain Development, The Coca-Cola Company
Steve has worked and lived all over the world in the past 30 years as a general manager of Coca-Cola bottling operations and as a supply chain leader for The Coca-Cola Co.
Beginning his career as an industrial engineer, Steve quickly got involved in bottler consolidations in North America during the 1980s. In 1990, he moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina to manage technical operations for south Latin America, and subsequently for all of Latin America, responsible for R&D, engineering, quality, packaging, concentrate manufacturing, procurement and supply chain strategy.
Steve led operations for a joint venture, Coca-Cola Femsa, in the mid-1990s as KO Femsa started their expansion across Latin America to become one of the strongest Coca-Cola anchor bottlers. He established an internal Coca-Cola supply chain strategy and consulting group in the late-1990s to improve leverage of KO’s massive supply chain networks.
In 2001, Steve became managing director of KO’s bottling operations in Sweden, Norway and the Baltic and achieved strong financial turnarounds with a focus on lean supply chain operations. In 2005, he took over management responsibility for Bottling Investment Group operations in Brazil, Uruguay, India, Philippines and Singapore as The Coca-Cola Co. took a more hands-on approach to bottling in key markets.
Late in 2009, Steve moved to his present position as Vice President, Supply Chain Development, responsible for supply chain strategy, targeted consulting support and capability development for the Coca-Cola system supply chain.
Steve holds a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial management from the Georgia Institute of Technology and is an unabashed "Rambling Wreck." He is married with four children and enjoys sports and working on his farm in northeast Georgia.
Kyle Hancock
Vice President, CSX Transportation
Kyle Hancock is vice president for industrial and agricultural products for CSX Transportation.
CSX Transportation is a principal operating company of CSX Corp. Based in Jacksonville, Fla., CSX Corp. is one of the nation’s leading transportation companies, providing rail, intermodal and rail-to-truck transload services. The company's transportation network spans 21,000 miles with service to 23 eastern states and the District of Columbia, and connects to more than 70 ocean, river and lake ports.
Kyle has been with CSX for more than 26 years, serving in numerous leadership positions. Among them, he was President of CSX’s logistics subsidiary, TRANSFLO Corp. He also was instrumental in the creation and operation of NDX Intermodal, a European joint venture of CSX, the German Railroad and the Dutch Railroad based in Amsterdam.
Kyle has served in his present capacity for seven years and is responsible for over $2.5 billion in CSX annual revenue across four business units, including Forest & Paper Products, Agricultural Products, Food & Consumer Products and Metal Products.
Kyle has a B.S. in communications and business from Shorter College in Rome, Ga., and is a graduate of the Program for Management Development at the Harvard Business School.
Kyle has served on the board of the World Junior Golf Association. He is currently on the board of GoRail, a national, nonprofit, grassroots organization that promotes moving more freight by rail. Kyle also serves on the Advisory Board of National FFA, an organization over 500,000 strong dedicated to making a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.
James Metzger
Special Projects Manager, FedEx Ground
James Metzger serves as Special Projects Manager in the Strategic Projects group at FedEx Ground, the $9B small-package ground unit of FedEx Corp. With a network of more than 500 distribution hubs and local pickup-and-delivery terminals, FedEx Ground has a workforce of nearly 70,000 employees and independent contractors who use more than 20,000 motorized vehicles to deliver more than 3.7 million packages daily throughout the United States and Canada.
James joined FedEx Ground nearly 20 years ago as a quality assurance clerk in the company's Brooklyn, N.Y., field location. Today, as Special Project Manager based at the company's Pittsburgh, Pa., headquarters, Metzger serves as a liaison between the company's largest shippers, sales, and field operators. He works to ensure that the transition into the FedEx Ground network is smooth for new customers and that the company delivers on the specific operational requirements of each new partner. Metzger then works closely with customers as they grow their own operations; adding product lines, relocating distribution centers and forecasting operational needs.
James obtained his bachelor's degree in business administration from Hofstra University and his Masters of Business Administration from Dowling College.
John Trestrail
Director of Supply Chain Design, LLamasoft
John Trestrail joined LLamasoft in 2011 after having run a consulting practice focused on supply chain modeling and international shipping projects for six years. He has performed supply chain design projects for Linens N Things, ITT Corp., UPS Supply Chain Solutions, Sigvaris, United Agri Products and ExpressPoint. Prior to LLamasoft, John has filled various executive and operational engineering roles for global companies, including Cendian Chemical Logistics, Maersk Line and American President Lines. John has a bachelor's degree in international studies from the University of Michigan and an MBA in decision science from Georgia State University. He is also CPIM certified through APICS and ASBA certified in cargo brokerage and ship chartering.