2012 APICS Board of Directors

Marc Harris, CPIM, CSCP
Chair of the Board

Harris brings more than 25 years of global experience in operations, inventory, and supply chain management to the leadership team. He has directed activities from both foreign and domestic offices in the software, electronics, food and beverage, and timber industries. Harris is a recognized leader in the operations management industry. He holds professional certifications in both production and inventory management and supply chain management, and he has served at the chapter and international level.

Robert Boyle,
CFPIM, CIRM, CSCP
Chair-Elect

Boyle has more than 20 years of business experience, and demonstrated depth in multiple disciplines. His experience ranges from working in start-up environments to a Fortune 100organization; from public- to private-company environments; and operating in advisory roles. He has experience developing and executing large programs, facilitating communication across cross-functional/cultural teams, and resolving complex business problems. Boyle has served in leadership roles in a corporate growth and innovation function, and has led and managed programs involving internet, client server, and mainframe technologies.

Mondher Ben-Hamida,
CPIM, CSCP
Secretary-Treasurer

Ben-Hamida is a senior global supply chain strategist with more than 15 years of management and manufacturing consulting experience. His primary focus has been the design and implementation of supply chain management strategies and tools, advanced planning and scheduling solutions, and theory-of-constraints initiatives. Ben-Hamida is a published author of articles on various industry topics, a frequent speaker at supply chain events, and a coinventor of a supply chain carbon-modeling tool.

Luis Barcón, CPIM,
CIRM, CSCP
District Director, Terra
Grande District

Barcón is the founder of the APICS Chapter in Guadalajara. He has served as a district manager for APICS Terra Grande, Body of Knowledge Chair, and as an APICS vice president for Region VI, the Membership and Chapter Development, the Chapter Development Committee, and as VP of education. Barcon has a master’s degree in business administration from Universidad de Las Américas Puebla and Stanford University, and in industrial and systems engineering from Universidad Iberoamericana.

William Bickert
Director-at-Large

Bickert serves as deputy commander, NAVSUP Global Logistics support – a Naval Supply Systems Command senior executive service position. He has extensive experience in both commercial and military supply chain management as a retired US Navy Supply Corps captain with 24 years of active service, and as a corporate supply chain executive for 7 years. Bickert has served as executive assistant to the Director of Defense Logistics Agency, as commanding officer of NAVSUP Fleet Logistics Center San Diego, as director of material planning and procurement for COMPAQ Computer Corporation, and as vice president and division manager at CACI, responsible for field service support of Navy and Marine Corps activities in the Pacific.

Norman Carmichael,
CPIM, CSCP
District Director,
Southwest District

Carmichael currently holds a position as a manufacturing practice director. He has 25 years of experience including global services senior consultant at IBM, director of materials at Copper Mountain Networks, director of operations at American Technology Corporation, director of supply chain at Continuous Computing Corporation, and vice president of operations both at American Technology Corporation and CarrierComm. In his time as a volunteer at APICS, Carmichael has served as chapter vice president (VP) of membership, chapter president, and VP of education.

Bintong Chen, Ph.D.
Director-at-Large

Chen’s professional experience includes time as senior editor of Production and Operation Management, service on the advisory board of the American Journal of Operations Research, on the editorial board of the International Journal of Mathematics in Operational Research, and on the advisory board of YCC International. Chen has served on organization committees as a member for events like the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Workshops on Behavioral Operations Management, as vice chairman for the 6th Management Annual Meeting of China, and as organizer and host for the Workshop on Earthquake Recovery Planning and Management.

Rick Donahoue,
CPIM, CSCP
District Director,
Mid-Atlantic District

Donahoue has experience in materials management, Enterprise resources planning (ERP), inventory management, demand flow technology, cost reduction, planning and scheduling, purchasing and supply chain, and strategy development. His experience also includes value stream mapping, team building and training, lean manufacturing, sales and operations planning (S&OP), and business transformation. Donahoue owns a materials and operations management consulting firm specializing in supply chain best practices, lean enterprise, implementing comprehensive business solutions, cost reduction initiatives, and training. 

Paul Howatt
District Director,
Canadian District

Howatt has spent the last 23 years at McCain Foods Limited, 19 years of which have been in the global information technology (IT) division. His areas of responsibility have been manufacturing, inventory management, maintenance management, and financials. Howatt designed, developed and implemented system solutions, and was involved in global system and process consolidation. He is currently involved as an IT finance lead for global SAP implementation.

Vadim Kapustin
Director-at-Large

Kapustin has professional experience as director of international strategy for Walmart, and as a principal at A.T. Kearney. He has helped dozens of Fortune 500 and international clients in the areas of supply chain strategy and operational improvements, including manufacturing strategy and cost reduction, warehousing and distribution, strategic sourcing, business turnarounds, and new market entry strategies. Vadim cofounded and managed Ramita and Naytov in Uzbekistan, and founded the nonprofit Russian Digital Alliance in the US.

Jerry Kilty, CFPIM,
CIRM, CSCP
District Director,
Southeast District

Kilty has more than 45 years of industry experience and is the current president and founder of Quality Management Solutions (QMS), where he is responsible for both the financial and physical elements of inventory. His experience includes being owner and manager of QMS for 20 years, working at Westinghouse Electric Corporation for 25 years, and 4 years of production line experience in GM factories. Kilty loves to teach and he spent 18 years as an APICS instructor. He holds a master instructor designation for APICS CPIM, CSCP, and Lean.

Al Kuebler
Director-at-Large

Kuebler is currently a director-at-large of APICS and owner of Technical Impact, an IT management firm specializing in startup companies. He was previously chief information officer for the McGraw-Hill Companies, Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T Universal Card Services and director of process engineering for Citibank Credit Card Services. Kuebler was also a project manager and directed the consulting practices in Europe for CSC. He has published 45 IT management articles for CIO, Computerworld, etc., and is the author of the book, Technical Impact: Making Your Information Technology Effective, and Keeping It That Way.

Merri Rich, CPIM
District Director, Pacific
Western District

Rich has worked in the manufacturing industry for more than 31 years, holding positions such as planning manager, materials manager, and operations manager. She holds an APICS CPIM and has served at her local APICS Chapter on the Board of Directors for more than 12 years. Rich is currently the district director for the APICS Pacific Western District. 

Dana Riess, CPIM
Director-at-Large

Riess has more than 19 years financial experience in the pharmaceutical industry, specializing in international commercial and manufacturing operations.  She currently works for Abbot Laboratories as a controller, and is based in Chicago.  She has held a wide variety of financial management positions at Abbot, including nine years living overseas in Puerto Rico, Switzerland, and Eastern Europe, where she directed international business planning and analysis, accounting and financial reporting, information technology, and treasury functions for numerous foreign manufacturing and commercial subsidiaries.

David Rivers, CFPIM,
CIRM, CSCP
District Director,
Northeast District

Rivers is an independent educator and consultant within the field of supply chain and operations management. He has extensive experience teaching APICS Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) certification review classes. He also works as a senior consultant for Demand Planning in Woburn, Massachusetts. Rivers has served on APICS certification committees for over 15 years, recently as chair of the Strategic Management of Resources (SMR) Committee, and has been an APICS member for more than 30 years (president, Boston APICS Chapter, 2008–2009, and current district director, Northeast United States on the APICS International Board of Directors).

Jason Wheeler,
CPIM, CSCP
District Director, Great
Lakes District

Wheeler has been employed by Roche Diagnostics since 2004, and currently serves as a process improvement engineer. He previously worked for Red Gold for nine years as a production supervisor, inventory analyst, production scheduler, and master planner. Wheeler has been an active member of APICS since late 2002, serving on the Great Lakes District Staff, the 2007 Chapter Development Committee, the 2009 and 2010 Conference Committees, along with various roles at the local chapter including president.  He also participated in the 2007 APICS Future Leaders Summit in Chicago.

Tammy Williams,
CPIM, CIRM, CSCP
District Director,
Heartland District

Williams has worked in the quality assurance and materials management fields and is currently employed at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, as an operations supervisor in procure to pay in supply chain and previously as a radiology supply management coordinator. She has a BS in biological sciences from Michigan Technological University; she has also attained the APICS Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM), Certified in Integrated Resource Management (CIRM), and Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) certifications.