From lipsticks to oil filters to SUVs, Nils has successfully built and deployed predictive models across a number of industries. His successes in the field include a world first - a real time forecasting model for evaluating marketing plans for cosmetics sales. In his current role as COO for Volvo Car Mobility, Nils is responsible for Operations, Go To Market and Data Science in a company providing an alternative to car ownership. He is responsible for finding solutions to the challenges of peak demand, congestion and parking by predicting geospatial demand based on consumer preference. Prior to assuming his COO role at Volvo Car Mobility, Nils spent 6 years as analytics professional/forecaster at Oriflame Cosmetics and 2 years as a management consultant at Ernst & Young. He holds a master’s degree in engineering from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Aigul currently works as Head of Supply Chain at Burger King Kazakhstan where she leads operative and strategic management of the supply chain including materials planning, procurement strategy, supply chain structure and more. Prior to joining Burger King, Aigul worked as Supply chain Manager at Bosch Siemens Home Appliances, Demand Planner for Central Asia and Caucasus at Beiersdorf Kazakhstan, and as Supply Planner at Philip Morris Kazakhstan. She holds two Master’s degrees, one in Supply Chain from Edinburgh Business School, and one in Supply Chain Management from Moscow Business School. She is currently studying an MBA at Edinburgh.

Jan Steuber is the Director of Global Demand Planning in the Enterprise Strategy Analytics organization at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS). Jan’s career at BMS has included roles in demand consolidation, market forecasting, master data management and strategic planning and decision analysis. These roles mainly support demand forecasting and budget alignment at regional and global level. Prior to BMS, Jan was at Mars Inc. and SABMiller where he held various roles in European Supply Chain Transformation, Forecasting Center of Excellence, as well as Global S&OP Design team. Jan holds a Bachelor’s in Economics majoring in Marketing from the University of Zurich and a Master’s in Economics majoring in Innovation Management from the University of Applied Science, Zurich.

Walco is currently employed at Lamb Weston Meijer as the Customer Supply Manager. In this role he is responsible for Demand Planning, Sales Inventory Planning/Safety Stock Planning and Customer Supply Collaboration Initiatives, and leads a team of 4 people. His previous roles include Demand Manager, Supply Chain Improvement Specialist and Supply Planner, all at the same company. Walco started at this global, Netherland-based food manufacturer in 2008 after he finished a Master’s in Econometrics & Management Science at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. He also worked as a consultant for OM Partners whilst studying his master’s degree.

Ugo Carolyn Ogwo is currently the Head of Planning for Suntory Beverage and Food in Nigeria where she is responsible for the implementation of S&OP process as well as the end-to-end planning and management of Demand, Supply, Materials (including Raw, Packaging and Engineering Spares) and Finished Goods. Prior to this, Ugo was an S&OP Manager responsible for the design and implementation of S&OP processes across Suntory Markets in Africa, the Middle East and Caribbean . Other markets where she has successfully deployed S&OP process include Kenya, Trinidad and Morocco. Ugo started her S&OP journey in October 2011 as Demand Planning Manager at GlaxoSmithKline in Nigeria and was promoted to the role of Head of Demand Forecasting looking after the West Africa business. She holds a Master’s in Engineering from The University of Nigeria, and an MBA from IE business school in Madrid.

Mihaela is Project Manger, Demand Planning at Sibelco, where she is responsible for rolling out the demand planning process across Europe and serves as project manager for the implementation of the OM Partners forecasting tool. She has 10 years of business planning experience across 3 industries (materials, automotive and pharma) covering sales forecasting, budgeting and 5-year planning. Prior to Sibelco, she worded as EMEA Demand & Supply Specialist for QIAGEN and as Global Marketing Specialist and Global Demand Planner for Honeywell Friction Materials. Mihaela holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Marketing and is APICS CPIM certified.

Sammy is currently Benelux Demand Manager for Maxeda DIY Group where he leads supply chain organization for related categories and the implementation of ERP systems software, as well as managing the integrated supply chain. Prior to joining Maxeda, Sammy worked as Sr. Demand & Supply Planner with a focus on S&OP at Friesland Campina Belgium, as Sr. Demand Planner at Unilever, as Junior Value Added Service Manager at Eurobrokers N.V. and Export Coordinator at Ingersoll Rand. He holds Bachelor's Degrees in Expedition, Distribution & Transportation, and Marketing, from Hogeschool voor Wetenschap & Kunst University in Belgium, and holds a certification in Total Quality. He is APICS certified.

Alessandro joined Goodyear in 2010 and has worked in several areas of supply chain in project management and operational roles. In his current role as Manager Supply Chain Execution and Inventory EMEA, he is the owner of the S&OE process and the functional leader of inventory management. Alessandro led the implementation of several project initiatives at Goodyear, such as the distribution planning module of SAP. His background includes several years in consulting for multinational corporations in FCMG and Pharma including Nestle and Hewlett-Packard. Alessandro Mantione is a Computer and Industrial Engineer with degrees from the University of Pisa in Italy, and holds an Executive MBA from the Maastricht School of Management.

Henrieta Steen joined AbbVie in 2012 and since then has worked in various functions within Supply Chain Operations. Her experience includes short term and long-term planning, supporting new product introductions, and delivering SAP software implementation. In November 2018, Henrieta moved into her current role of Supply Chain Manager, leading a team of 10 Supply Chain professionals. Henrieta holds a degree in International Business and Management from Saxion University of Applied Sciences, and a Masters degree from the University of Groningen.

Marieke Sellies joined AbbVie in 2004 and has worked in various functions in Supply Chain Operations. This varies from Customer Service to Planning related activities as well as participating in various projects relating to AbbVie’s Lead Logistics Provider, setting up regional CDC’s and organizational restructuring. In November 2018, Marieke moved into her current role of Supply Chain Manager, leading a team of 15 Supply Chain professionals. Marieke’s expertise lies in the customer service and SOX compliance area, having spent 6 years in business support roles at Abbot Logistics. Marieke holds a degree in International Business from Hogeschool University.

Gary joined QAD DynaSys in 2014 as a Business Consultant. He is passionate about enabling organizations to unlock the potential of supply chain planning solutions to support their Integrated Business Planning processes. Prior to joining QAD DynaSys, he spent 7 years in system implementation and 10 years in operational planning for various UK manufacturers and retailers. In his time, Gary has worked as Supply Chain Manager, Supply Chain Consultant, Supply Chain Analyst and Demand Planner at companies including Ford, FuturMaster and B&Q. He holds a degree in Business Studies from the University of East London and is APICs certified.

With more than 18 years’ experience in Demand & Supply Chain Planning, Gavin joined Chaucer Foods in 2013. Today, he has a dual role. He is the Project Lead for Integrated Business Planning globally across Chaucer’s three operational centers in France, USA & China. He also manages the Central Supply Chain team based in the UK, ensuring the delivery of their customers’ requirements through the effective management of capacity planning and freight delivery at a global level. Prior to becoming IBP & Group Supply Chain Manager, he worked as Demand Planner, and prior to that he spent 11 years as Inventory Control Planner at Spicers Ltd., a publicly listed office supplies company.

Sefa is Central Demand Planning Manager at Haier Europe where he leads the central demand planning and statistical forecasting program for the Candy, Hoover and Haier brands. Prior to Haier Europe, he worked for Suominen Corporation, SC Johnson, Sealed Air and Reply Consulting in various demand planning and supply chain roles. Sefa holds a B.Sc in Mechanical Engineering from Istanbul Technical University and an M.Sc. in Management Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Milan.

Gerd Wiesendorfer is an experienced analyst in the global agricultural machinery industry. He works for the AGCO Corporation, a leading manufacturer of tractors, harvesting machines and other agricultural equipment, with 14 main factories around the globe. Gerd is based at the European AGCO Headquarter in Switzerland and leads industry forecasting and market intelligence. In his previous position he worked at VDMA, the German Engineering Federation, as a market analyst and managed several European and global committees of the agricultural machinery industry. Gerd holds a Diploma in Marketing from the University of Applied Science Villingen-Schwenningen (Germany) and an MBA in Agriculture Management from the University Anhalt (Germany).

Martin has worked at Eli Lilly since 2007, starting as Business Intelligence Manager before becoming Forecasting lead for Canada, USA and Europe. He now works as International Business Unit Forecasting Lead. Before joining Lilly, Martin graduated with a degree in Biology at the University of Bielefeld and attained a doctorate in Molecular-Neurobiology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. In that time, he had a foreign exchange scholarship from the “Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes”. After a post-doc assignment at the University Hospital Hamburg Eppendorf, Center for Molecular Neurobiology, Martin worked for three years in the area of Allergology/ Immunology before moving into the forecasting/business intelligence fields.

Jakob Wolf is currently project-manager in the corporate sales-controlling department for Bosch, a German multinational engineering and technology company headquartered in Gerlingen, near Stuttgart. Jakob is also studying for a master’s degree (M. Sc. International Management) which he will complete in October 2019. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Information Systems while working for Bosch, at the time engaged in agile project-development and controlling business units.

Hadrien is a Senior Manager of Global Demand Planning and Analytics in the Enterprise Strategy and Performance organization at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Hadrien started his career at Procter & Gamble as Category Demand Planning Analyst where he was exposed to a very mature S&OP process driven by demand planning. He stayed at P&G for the following 2 years as a financial analyst in various units of the company before joining Celgene where he established a Demand Planning department along with an S&OP process. Hadrien is now responsible for long term planning of BMS’s Established Brands portfolio. He holds a degree in International Hospitality Management from Lausanne Hospitality Business School and is CPF and CPIM certified.

Matteo has nine years’ experience in supply chain across eight different businesses in seven different countries, working for Accenture, GE, Whirlpool EMEA and more. He has worked in all areas of planning and manufacturing, in different business environment such as Engineering to Order, Make to Order and Make to Stock, and has managed different ERP implementations (Oracle SAP and Customs). This experience has provided him a sound end-to-end supply chain understanding and expertise. His current role is Supply Chain Strategy and Roadmap Leader for Whirlpool EMEA.

Prior Roles

• Expert in forecasting, with more than 15 years of expertise in both its theory and practice
• Trained more than 500 demand planner
• Consulted with industry leaders on improving forecasting methods, systems and processes

Industry Involvement

• Published in over 40 scientific publications
• Received international awards for developing new forecasting algorithms
• Regular speaker at IBF conferences

Eric is a predictive analytics and business planning innovator, author, teacher and speaker. As Director of Thought Leadership at IBF, he brings over 20 years of experience, previously leading demand planning at Escalade Sports, Berry Plastics, and Tempur Sealy. Eric is an IBF Advanced Certified Professional Forecaster (ACPF) and received IBF’s Excellence in Business Forecasting & Planning award in 2016. He is a frequent speaker and panelist who has published extensively in The Journal of Business Forecasting and APICS Magazine. Eric is also the author of Cultural Cycles, Predictive Analytics for Business Forecasting & Planning, and Practical Guide to Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP/ IBP).

Prior Roles

• Recognized thought leader in demand planning and S&OP and is CEO and co-founder of the consultancy NorthFind Management

Education

• Graduate of the MIT Sloan School of Management
• Member of the 2019 Management Excellence cohort at Harvard Business School
• Member of the Harvard Business Review’s Advisory Council

Industry Involvement

• Long-term contributor to the IBF’s body of knowledge, with a specific focus on forecasting metrics, decision making, and behavioral science
• Author of the Amazon #1 Best Seller for his book, Histories of the Future: Milestones in the Last 100 Years of Business Forecasting

Sven transitioned from customer service to demand planning in 2006, taking a demand planner role at Black & Decker. He has worked in S&OP and demand planning ever since at companies including BASF, Omega Pharma, Wolf Oil, and most recently, Petronas Lubricants where he is currently working as Global Network Planning & Optimization Manager. Here, he and his team built a Demand Planning process bridging regional HQs and EU markets to support the regional S&OP process. Sven is now member of the Global Centre of Excellence, responsible for the Demand Planning Process around the world. His focuses are aligning the process at global level, running regional capability analysis, providing global training, and executing S&OP maturity assessments. Sven holds a degree in Economics and Languages from AP Hogeschool Antwerpen, Belgium, and is an IBF Certified Professional Forecaster (CPF).

Thorsten has almost 20 years of experience and expert knowledge in international operational and strategic logistics and supply chain management in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, covering roles within Procurement Logistics, Material Planning, Transport Management and being Head of Supply Chain Management. As Global Manager Integrated Business Planning he was responsible for the successful transformation from S&OP to IBP and close consultant to the management of the global market leader in Pigments.

Thorsten is a passionate Supply Chain Business Partner, developing end-to-end Supply Chain strategies and concepts for Organizations, Planning, Processes and People. He coaches, mentors, challenges and gives advice to employees and peers in order to foster their continuous development and personal growth.

His leadership work is dedicated to the motto given by Mahatma Gandhi: “BE the change YOU want to see in the world!”

His positive attitude, his passion for Supply Chain and his sense of responsibility sets him apart. He is highly committed and believes in the digital transformation of supply chain and logistics, as well as in the sustainable advantages for the global economy & climate accordingly. His ideas are based on an innovative and visionary mindset and help driving decisions that positively impact customers, business targets, people and the environment. Thorsten is a certified professional forwarding agent and a certified expert in Logistics Management. He holds a Diploma in Business Administration of the University of Applied Science in Mainz, Germany. He is organizer and facilitator of the 1st IBF Chapter Germany of Institute of Business Forecasting & Planning. He is founding member of SCC Supply Chain Connect – Your Personal Transformation Partner.

Luca is an accomplished leader with nearly 20 years of expertise in global sourcing, product development, and supply chain transformation. As Chief Planning Officer at Golden Goose in Milan, he oversees end-to-end supply chain planning, driving improvements in time to market and cost efficiency. His passion for direct-to-consumer models and mentoring global teams fosters a culture of engagement and excellence. Luca previously served as Vice President of Global Sourcing at Under Armour in Hong Kong, managing a $1 billion portfolio and achieving significant cost savings. He also held senior roles at Brooks Brothers in New York and Hugo Boss in Switzerland, where he led strategic initiatives to improve inventory management and supply chain performance. Luca holds a Master of Science in International Business from Verona University and has furthered his studies at Northwestern University and the Warsaw School of Economics.