Featured Speaker(s)
MODERATOR:
Kara Romano, AMR Research
SPEAKER:
Lora Cecere
Research Director, AMR Research, Inc.
Lora brings more than 16 years of business and 11 years of software industry experience to her position as research director at AMR Research. With her unique combination of experience, Lora provides vendor research and analysis in supply chain planning, execution, and event management to AMR Research’s clients.
Before joining AMR Research, Lora spent 11 years in the software industry in progressive roles in corporate marketing, product marketing, and sales at Manugistics and Descartes Systems Group. Lora has experience in distribution, engineering project management, new product launch, and manufacturing operations for Procter & Gamble, Kraft General Foods, Clorox, and Dreyer’s Ice Cream. She also spent two years as an analyst focusing on supply chain research for Gartner.
Lora is currently serving a two year term on the SCOR board for the Supply Chain Council. She is a member of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSMP), APICS, and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA). She has written numerous articles and been quoted in key industry and business publications such as Supply Chain Management Review and Investor’s Business Daily. Lora is a frequent speaker for the Institute of Supply Management.
Lora received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tennessee and her M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. She has also completed post graduate studies in Organizational Development at Georgetown University.
SPEAKER:
Laurie Hall
President and CEO of Martindale Associates
Martindale Associates is a distributor and systems integrator of manufacturing automation and data collection systems.
Laurie graduated from Suffolk University with a BA in Marketing, and began her career as a sales associate with Martindale selling automated control equipment, barcode systems and industrial computers to New England based manufacturers. For the past 10 year, Martindale Associates has been selling RFID products to track vehicles and assets. As a sales executive, she was instrumental in growing Martindale to a multi-million dollar corporation. In 1996 she was promoted to Vice-President and in 1999 Laurie purchased the family business and assumed the presidency of Martindale.
Laurie has expanded the Martindale product line to offer complete turnkey hardware, software and service solutions. Currently, Martindale has over 400 accounts, and has customers in both the US and overseas.
Laurie is a member of WITI. Her hobbies include equestrian sports and skiing.
SPEAKER:
Leslie Hand, Director of Global RFID Strategy,
is the Director of Global RFID Strategy for Ahold, the third largest grocery retailer in the world. Ahold is a Dutch based company with businesses in the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, the Baltic States, Central Europe and the United States. Leslie has worked for Ahold since 1999 where she managed a Y2K remediation project for retail store systems, new application development projects and a GTIN remediation project prior to assuming her current role in April, 2004.
Prior to Ahold, Leslie acted as the Director of Store Systems for the Revlon retail subsidiary, Cosmetic Centers and the Director of Information Systems for the Dart Group subsidiary, Total Beverage. She has spent her entire career in retail, with the past 20 years in Information Technology.
Leslie's primary goal has always been to deliver innovative solutions to the business that allow them to work smarter and more efficiently. In her current role, she is working closely with the business to determine where and when to implement RFID enabled technology to maximize its value. Ahold’s overall short and long term strategies must be accounted for as the groundwork is laid for taking advantage of this transformational technology.
Leslie graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, class of 1982, where she played field hockey and track. She still enjoys the outdoors and being active. She participates in numerous charity bike rides and heads for the beach as often as possible.