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SPEAKERS

Americas Focus

Gina Chung

Vice President and Head of DHL Americas Innovation Center, United States

Mike Parra

Chief Executive Officer, DHL Express Americas

Scott Surredin

Chief Executive Officer, DHL Supply Chain NORAM

Javier Bibao

Chief Executive Officer, DHL Global Forwarding LATAM

  • Gina is a global innovation leader with over 8 years of experience in the digital transformation of logistics and supply chains. Today she is responsible for DHL’s Americas Innovation Center: a purpose-built platform to engage customers, startups, and industries on the future of logistics.

    Gina manages a portfolio of projects focused on the rapid testing and adoption of technologies such as collaborative robotics and artificial intelligence across logistics operations. Prior to this role, Gina spent 6 years in Germany shaping DHL’s global innovation strategy and developing DHL’s trend research series including co-authoring publications such as IoT in Logistics together with Cisco and the industry-acclaimed Logistics Trend Radar. Gina is based in Chicago and holds two degrees from the University of Auckland.

  • Mike is responsible for the management of DHL Express business activities in over 55 countries and territories across the Americas, which includes the company’s presence in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and South America. Mike joined DHL in 1997 as a Service Center Manager in South Florida and quickly progressed within the DHL organization, managing from both a U.S. and Americas Region perspective. 

    Before his most recent appointment in 2016 as CEO of DHL Express Americas, Mike served for nearly three years as CEO of DHL Express in the U.S. He has also served as Senior VP of Network Operations for the Americas Region and Senior VP & Area General Manager, Western U.S. Before his career at DHL, Mike worked for ten years with TNT Express Worldwide. He resides in South Florida with his wife and two children.

  • Scott manages all operations within the US and Canada, as well as central functional teams supporting the entire Americas region. He joined DHL in 2002, holding leadership positions including President of the Consumer and LSH business units, and SVP, Operations, before serving as the COO for the Americas. His previous experience included 14 years with US Foodservice, ultimately as VP, Operations, for the Southwest region. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

  • Javier is a member of the DHL Supply Chain Divisional Board and Global Transport Lead for DHL Supply Chain. He is responsible for more than 22,000 associates across 11 countries including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and Mexico. Javier joined DHL in 2000, starting in the audit department and progressing through various roles in financial management and operations     before ultimately serving as President of DHL Supply Chain Brazil. His qualifications include an executive MBA and a degree in business management.

Tim Robertson

Chief Executive Officer, DHL Global Forwarding Americas

Lee Spratt

Chief Executive Officer, DHL eCommerce America

Kevin Blankespoor

Senior Vice President & General Manager Warehouse Robotics, Boston Dynamics

Ben Perlson

Innovation Project Manager, DHL Americas

  • Tim Robertson is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for DHL Global Forwarding Americas, leading more than 7,500 employees across 16 countries. He serves on the Global Forwarding Freight Executive Committee, and focuses on being the quality leader and the most customer-centric Freight Forwarder by empowering the best team of freight forwarding experts enabled by digitalization. 

    He holds a MBA from the Harvard Business School; and a Bachelor’s degree with First Class Honors in Chemical Engineering from the University of Sydney in Australia. Robertson is married with two children which consumes most of his spare time, and when he has the opportunity he enjoys riding at SoulCycle and the occasional round of golf. 

  • Lee Spratt has been Chief Executive Officer of DHL eCommerce – Americas since September 2008. Prior to this appointment, Lee held several top leadership positions within the company, including Senior Vice President of the Domestic Business Unit, Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Senior Vice President of Customer Solutions (which includes Information Technology and Customer Service) and Vice President of Channel Sales.   

     &Lee was Vice President of Sales   Marketing at QuikPakuntil 2004, when the catalog fulfillment provider and two other companies—DHL Global Mail andSmartMail—were integrated to form DHL Global Mail. He previously served in various upper management roles at CheckFree Corp., an e-commerce software provider, and AT&T/Lucent Technologies. 

     Lee received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Florida Atlantic University. 

  • Kevin led and contributed to the development of the BigDog, LS3, Atlas, Handle, and Stretch robots. Blankespoor’s Warehouse Robotics team is focused on building flexible mobile robots capable of taking on all of the box handling tasks in warehouses and distribution centers. He also wrote the control software that first enabled Boston Dynamics’ legged robots to dynamically balance and walk outside in the real world. Blankespoor received his Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Virginia and his Master’s in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado.

  • Ben Works for DHL at the DHL’s Americas Innovation Center: a purpose-built platform to engage customers, startups, and industries on the future of logistics. Ben is an Innovation Project Manager focused on bringing the latest cutting-edge technology into DHL operations by working with startups and experienced vendors to identify the best way to bring new innovations to fruition within DHL’s expansive network of operations.

    Throughout Ben’s career, he has spent time working with industry leaders across many topics, including but not limited to, robotics, automation, 3D printing, and AI to support the ever-changing dynamic and growing logistics environment.

    Ben is based in Chicago and has a bachelors and masters in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Iowa.

Jeff Billingsley

Vice President CVG Global Hub, DHL Express

Richard Saavedra

Vice President and General Manager, Southeast, DHL Express

Juan C Hurtado, Jr

Innovation Engagement Manager, DHL America's Innovation Center, Chicago, United States

Michelle Eggers

Vice-President NA Market Operations & Global Logistics Purchases, Procter & Gamble

  • Jeff Billingsley is currently the VP / General Manager for the CVG Global Hub and has been with DHL Express for 22 years. Prior to taking the Hub role in 2019 Jeff was VP of US Gateways supporting both Clearance and Gateway Operations for the USA. Jeff also spent time in the Field heading up our Mid-West Operations from 2014 thru 2018.  In his current role, Jeff is focused on continuing to support the Greater Cincinnati area by ensuring that DHL Express is at the forefront of growth and development and is seen as a beacon of hope in the community for those with career aspirations in logistics.   

  • Richard joined DHL Express in 1988 and has held various leadership roles within the organization, including Regional Service Director, Vice President COG & Service Quality – Americas and, most recently, VP, Ground, Gateways & Operations – Americas.

    Richard brings over 20 years of management experience to his leadership role as VP and General Manager, Southeast U.S., for DHL Express. He not only has a wealth of experience in operations, but he has also maintained successful relationships with some of the largest customers in the Southeast U.S., where he started with DHL (in Miami) over 30 years ago.

    Richard holds a degree from Florida International University and is based in Plantation, FL.

  • Juan is a logistics and supply chains professional with 6+ years of experience within DHL. 

    Currently, Juan is an Innovation Engagement Manager at DHL’s Americas Innovation Center: a purpose-built platform to engage customers, startups, and industries on the future of logistics. Juan manages a multitude of projects focused on Life Sciences & Healthcare, Manufacturing & Engineering and Auto mobility sectors, both in the US and Latin America. 

    Prior to this role, Juan spent 5 years managing a variety of business operations for DHL Global Forwarding. 

    Juan was born and raised in Chicago, attended Benedictine University and served in the United States Marine Corps. Born to parents from Latin America, he has donated his time and efforts to support the Hispanic Community in Chicago. 

  • Michelle Eggers is the Vice-President of NA Market Operations and Global Logistics Purchases for Procter & Gamble.  

    Michelle has more than 25 years of experience in Engineering, Manufacturing and Purchases working across all P&G’s categories and regions.  She has been exposed to many industries during that time including Pulp and Paper, Flavors and Fragrances, Contract Manufacturing, Brand and Business Services and most recently Logistics.

    Over the last 5 years, she has had the opportunity to lead not just Global Logistics Purchases, but also P&G’s Global Physical Distribution Center of Excellence which led the innovation program for P&G Physical Distribution Operations.

    Since the onset of Covid, P&G has had 3 priorities.  Keeping our people safe, our consumers and customers provided for and responding to the needs of our community.  Michelle has played an active role in all three of these.  On top of leading the Purchases Organization through the response to the surge of demand from our consumers and customers which included prioritizing the safety of our 3PL’s, drivers and contractors, she also led P&G’s efforts to secure PPE for internal use and donation which included the start up of mask and hand sanitizer production to keep our own employees safe and enable donation externally.

    Prior to her role in Logistics, she worked for P&G in Moscow, Russia where she led all Purchases activities for their Eastern European Business and Brand Building Purchases for Middle East, Africa, India.  While in Russia, she experienced the need for agility during times of massive economic and geopolitical upheaval.

    Michelle sat on P&G’s Supplier Diversity Advisory Council for 3 years. Internal to P&G she is passionately involved with culture work and has been an activist for Equality and Inclusion.  She currently leads P&G’s “Bold Actions” team focusing on Economic Empowerment for Multi-cultural Start Ups and Entrepreneurs.

    Michelle graduated from Clarkson University with a BS in Chemical Engineering.

Megan Wolski

Innovation Engagement Manager, DHL, United States

Alicemarie Geoffrion

Vice President Packaging, DHL Supply Chain

Ariel Szarfsztejn

Senior Vice President - Head of Mercado Envios, Logistics & Supply Chain

Cristian Vera

Senior Vice President Sales, DHL Express Americas

  • Megan has over ten years experience in global supply chain and logistics operations.

    Today she works for DHL’s Americas Innovation Center: a purpose-built platform to engage customers, startups, and industries on the future of logistics. Megan works with customers to discover opportunities for digitalization within their supply chains and connects them with the right experts to accomplish their goals.

    Throughout Megan’s career, she has touched multiple areas within in the supply chain, from finished goods deployment and allocation strategy, to increasing velocity on retail shelves and working with technology teams to build software for logistics companies.

    Megan is based in Chicago and holds two degrees from The Pennsylvania State University and Georgia Southern University.

  • Alicemarie Geoffrion has been with DHL Supply Chain since 2012. Alicemarie is currently the VP, Packaging Operations where she is responsible for growing North America’s packaging business. She is a member of the North America Board and supports DHL’s packaging product globally. 

    Within DHL, Alicemarie has held roles in the Strategy group and she was also the Head of Global Solutions for our former Williams Lea Tag division.

    Over the years, Alicemarie has mentored five DHL associates and truly believes that mentor/mentee relationships can significantly impact each of our individual careers. 

    Prior to joining DHL Supply Chain, Alicemarie held positions at Cap Gemini Consulting and Orion Consulting. In addition, she was Vice President of e-Commerce / Business Solution for IMS which is part of the Omnicom Group. 

    She holds a BS in Management Science and an MBA from Case Western Reserve University. 

    Alicemarie has been married to her husband Jean-René for 20 years and is the proud mother to Jacques-Charles (18), Natalie-Soleil (17), Pierre-André (14) and Louis-François (10)

  • Ariel Szarfsztejn is a Senior Vice President at Mercado Libre and he leads Mercado Envios, its logistics and supply chain business unit. In that capacity he is responsible for leading the design, planning and execution of all the logistics operations for the entire region. Prior to this role, he was Vice President of Strategy, Corporate Development and Investor Relations for Mercado Libre. Mercado Libre is the largest online commerce and payment ecosystem of Latin America with a presence in 18 countries.

  • Cristian A. Vera, SVP of Sales for Express Americas, is responsible for the commercial strategy and execution in over 55 countries and territories across the Americas, which includes the company's presence in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean.

    In total he oversees sales for 3.5bn, and is responsible for a team of more than 1,000 Certified International Specialists. Cristian is part of the DHL Express Americas Board, reporting into the Americas CEO, Mike A. Parra. He is the Board Sponsor for Brazil, a +100M euro market for DHL Express, and the Fit for Life, Fit for Work wellness initiative for the Americas. He is an active facilitator of our CIM (Certified International Manager) program, where he particularly enjoys helping individuals achieve their potential and balance.

    Cristian joined DHL in 2007 as Vice President of Sales and Customer Service for DHL Express Mexico, where we lived 5 years, and then served 4 years as VP of Sales for Africa, one of the most amazing experiences of his life traveling to over 30 African countries.

    Before his career at DHL, Cristian worked for ten years with Procter & Gamble in multiple roles in Operations, Sales and Marketing, in both South America and the United States.

    Cristian holds an engineering degree from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica of Chile, a Master of Management from the IPADE Business School in Mexico, and a Master of Positive Psychology from Upenn.

    Cristian resides in South Florida and lives with his wife and three children. He enjoys cycling competitively, and playing music, and has a band that plays routinely in different spots in the area.

    But overall, is most passionate about helping organizations and individuals achieve their full potential, live healthier lives and be happier.

Sascha Kaczmarek

Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of MotionMiners GmbH

Joe Welsh

Chief Commercial Officer, Outrider

Ignacio Galiana

Chief Executive Officer, Verve Motion

Brian Krejcarek

Chief Executive Officer, Reelables

  • Sascha Kaczmarek studied logistics at TU Dortmund University from 2007 to 2012. From October 2012 to December 2015, he worked as a research associate at the Chair of Materials Handling and Warehousing in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at TU Dortmund University. 

     In addition to lecturing in the field of material flow calculation and picking and sorting systems and conducting research projects, he worked in close cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML on various planning and process optimization projects for customers such as Esprit, Siemens and the Deutsche Bundesbank.  From January 2016 to April 2017, he worked as a process engineer at Vanderlande Industries in Mönchengladbach. There, he was responsible for performance reporting, process transition support, performance improvement and continuous improvement.

    In his work, he led projects at Zalando, Edeka, Oslo Airport, FedEx (China) and HutGroup (England). In 2017, he founded MotionMiners GmbH, as a spin-off of the Fraunhofer IML, together with Dr Sascha Feldhorst and Dr René Grzeszick and has since been COO and responsible for sales and projects.

  • As Chief Commercial Officer, Joe leads the Sales, Professional Services, and Customer Operations teams. He is responsible for the successful deployments of Outrider’s yard automation system from the pilot stage to scaled operations. Before joining Outrider, Joe served as the Chief Operating Officer for US Government embassies in Oslo, Norway, and Lome, Togo, where he managed hundreds of employees across all logistics and business functions.  For his integrity and leadership in this role, Joe was honored as a finalist for US Operations Officer of the year and awarded multiple Meritorious Honors awards. 

    Joe also served in key leadership positions at IBM, leading teams that implemented complex technology solutions for logistics and shipping customers.  Joe holds a BA degree in Communications from the University of California San Diego and an MBA degree from the University of California Los Angeles Anderson School of Business. In his spare time, Joe enjoys coaching and officiating USA National and high school water polo.

  • Ignacio Galiana is the CEO of Verve Motion, a company commercializing lightweight wearable systems that can be worn all-day, every-day to energize and protect associates across multiple industries. 

    Prior to Verve, Dr. Galiana was a program manager at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University leading wearable robotic programs. While at Harvard, he was the technical lead for the Harvard team under the DARPA Warrior Web program developing soft exosuits to augment human performance. 

    Galiana received his Ph.D. in Automation and Control from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in 2013. During his Ph.D. he received multiple awards including the “best Ph.D. thesis in Europe on haptics” for his contributions to the design and control of haptic devices

  • Brian Krejcarek is CEO at Reelables and leads research and development of the company’s hardware and thin-film printed Bluetooth electronics product lines.  His electrical engineering and firmware background includes over ten years working with wireless sensor-based applications. 

    Previously, Brian founded two consumer electronics start-ups in Silicon Valley along with work helping to commercialize an RF energy harvesting technology in the UK.  An unwavering interest in building very low power (and low cost) wireless devices has culminated in his current venture with Reelables, marrying an enterprise SW platform to wireless labels to automate supply chains around the world.