Eric is a predictive analytics and business planning innovator, author, and speaker. He is the Director of Thought Leadership at the IBF. Prior to this he worked as the Director of Demand Planning at Escalade Sports, Director of Demand Planning at Berry Plastics, and Director of Demand Planning & S&OP at Tempur Sealy International. In 2016, he received the Excellence in Business Forecasting & Planning award from the IBF. He is an IBF Advanced Certified Professional Forecaster (ACPF) with over 20 years of experience. Eric is a visionary in his field, a frequent speaker and panelist for many executive forums and professional conferences, and has written numerous articles in publications such as The Journal of Business Forecasting and APICS Magazine. He is also the author of the books Cultural Cycles and Predictive Analytics for Business Forecasting & Planning.

Patrick Bower has a wide area of expertise, including S&OP, Demand Planning, Inventory, Network Optimization, and Production Scheduling. A recognized expert on demand planning and S&OP, and a self-professed “S&OP geek” - Patrick was previously Practice Manager of Supply Chain Planning at the consulting firm, Plan4Demand where his client list included Diageo, Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Foster Farms, Cabot Industries and American Girl. Patrick’s experience encompasses tenures with Cadbury, Kraft Foods, Unisys, and Snapple. Patrick also worked for the supply chain software company - Numetrix, and was Vice President of R&D at Atrion International. He was also the recipient of IBF’s 2012 award for Excellence in Business Forecasting & Planning.

B.C. Silver currently serves as Vice President, General Manager - National Brands for Green Dot Corporation where he oversees all branded consumer products carried nationally in retail and online (over $1 billion in customer revenue). He also leads end-to-end operational S&OP planning, design and implementation. B.C. has 16 years of S&OP /IBP experience and has implemented S&OP processes in several unique product categories across 6 countries. His subject level expertise ranges from AI and advanced analytics to S&OP initiation. Prior to joining Green Dot, B.C. held a number of senior leadership roles in Marketing, Demand Planning and Sales Planning at Procter & Gamble, Clorox and Mars. He has championed large scale corporate S&OP integration and served as an S&OP consultant to a range of medium and large companies. He holds an MBA from the University of Tennessee.

Todd has extensive experience in coordinating demand planning processes and S&OP. He was involved in Finance, Customer Service, Supply Chain, and Sales Planning. He is an Advanced Certified Professional Forecaster (ACPF) and holds a BS degree from Boston College and an MBA from University of New Hampshire with a focus in Supply Chain Management and Marketing. Todd is also a member of the Institute of Business Forecasting & Planning (IBF) Board of Advisors and has served as a keynote speaker & panelist for IBF Executive Forums and conferences. Todd has also published in the IBF's Journal of Business Forecasting.

Steve Hernan is the Market Intelligence Manager at Rauland, a division of AMETEK, Inc.As the key liaison with sales, operations, finance, and leadership, he oversees all forecasting and demand planning activities for Rauland’s North American and international healthcare product portfolios.Steve’s expertise includes both quantitative and qualitative forecasting with a special emphasis on product lifecycle management (NPL/EOL, pricing/portfolio optimization) and forecast value added (FVA).In addition to his S&OP responsibilities, Steve manages Rauland’s marketing analytics and competitive intelligence programs.Steve has an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and is an active member of SCIP (Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals) and IBF.