March 2022

Caroline Lawson is a Director in Johnson & Johnson Supply Chain Procurement, leading the global categories of Facility Management, Real Estate and Energy, identifying and directing procurement goals and strategies. She is also currently serving as the Supplier Diversity & Inclusion Lead for Supply Chain Procurement. Caroline joined Johnson & Johnson in 2015, after working in international banking for 22 years. Her professional experience includes: Security, Business Continuity, Risk, Procurement, Facility and Corporate Real Estate Management. Caroline is passionate about managing change across multiple countries, cultures and legal entities, and providing clear direction to multi-disciplinary teams. Caroline is married, a mother of 2 teenagers, and lives in The Netherlands.

Ajoy recently assumed leadership as the Global Vice President for Medtronic’s Indirect Supply Management organization where he oversees $8B in spend.  Previously, Ajoy led the Global Direct Materials and Contract Manufacturing Operations team supporting a portfolio of critical Therapies including Spine and Enabling Technologies, Respiratory, and Patient Monitoring businesses, and representing $11 Billion in revenue. Ajoy lives in Minnesota with his wife Deepthi, their daughter and son.

Syed joined Merck in July 2007 via Merck Manufacturing Development Program (MMDP) where he provided support in rotational roles as Planning Analyst, Vaccine Global Supply, Quality Engineer, Quality Operations, Operations Engineer, Viral Vaccine Manufacturing Operations, and Engineer, Global Pharmaceutical Commercialization.  In 2010, he joined the MRL’s Sterile Liquid Pilot Plants group as Staff Development Engineer and coordinated manufacture of sterile clinical products.   

Syed joined Global Procurement, Direct Materials – API and Intermediates Procurement in October 2011 where he managed a wide variety of suppliers in the API and Intermediates category.  In 2017/2018, Syed participated in a cross-category development assignment in the Sterile External Manufacturing team.

Syed received a Master of Business Administration, with a concentration in Supply Chain Management, from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA.  Syed graduated from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ earning Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemical Engineering and Economics.

Lisa M. Yates, PhD, PMP is currently Director, Drug Product, Biologics Drug Substance & Cell Therapy Development Strategic Sourcing & Procurement for Product Development at Bristol Myers Squibb.  In her current role, Lisa is a dedicated team leader driving strategic development & clinical sourcing decisions, external innovation engagements, continuous improvement, and value-add initiatives.  Lisa joined Bristol Myers Squibb in May 2016 as a Sr. Sourcing Associate in Souring Excellence for Global Product Development & Supply, primarily supporting Product Development.  She was promoted to Category Manager, Biologics Drug Substance Development & Clinical Supply and Associate Director, Emerging & Novel Technologies Procurement in 2017 and 2020, respectively.  Prior to BMS, Lisa completed her doctoral research at Princeton University in peptide chemistry, developing synthetic chemical tools to probe biological signal transduction pathways, and prior to Princeton, she worked in the Raw Material Center for Johnson & Johnson Consumer, leading a team investigating supply chains for APIs and chemical raw materials. 

Lisa earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Accounting from Boston College, Carroll School of Management, as a dual-degree major, graduating with honors.  She received her Masters of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy from Princeton University, in Chemical Biology and has her Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. She is also an active volunteer leader with Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association as the Director of Programming on the Central New Jersey Chapter Board. 

Dave McCarthy is a supply management professional with extensive experience in supplier risk management and procurement of direct and indirect spend areas.  He joined Pfizer in 1998 and has held regional and global roles of increasing responsibility within Pfizer Sourcing & Enterprise Services.  Dave’s current role is Senior Director, Supply Assurance & Risk Management where he leads Third Party Risk Management (TPRM) and  direct material supply assurance & risk management strategies for the company.

Prior to joining Pfizer, Dave held engineering and technical roles at Colgate-Palmolive and RJR Nabisco/Kraft (Mondelez).   Dave obtained B.S Chemical Engineering, B.A. Business Administration and MBA Finance degrees from Rutgers University.

From 2009 to 2016, Cathy held Supply Chain global leadership roles in a variety of complex and integrated business portfolios, including Dow Building and Construction, Dow Home and Personal Care and Dow Industrial Solutions. Over this time, she transformed business supply chain operations delivering optimized working capital, reduced cost to serve and improved order to cash performance and customer service. From 2016-August 2019, Cathy led supply chain technology integration for the Company’s large corporate mergers, acquisitions and transformational programs including the E2E Business Planning program. In addition, she introduced innovative concepts, leading-edge technology and breakthrough analytics that facilitated critical insights on customer and employee experience opportunities.

Erica Stephens-Lynch is the Global Supplier Diversity Director and Purchasing I&D Director. In this position, Erica is responsible for further developing and implementing Dow’s Supplier Diversity Strategy and leading the company’s efforts to identify, expand and accelerate the use of Minority-owned, Veteran-owned, LGBTQ-owned, and Disabled-owned suppliers.

George joined Ecolab in 2002 in corporate Marketing and then moved into various
Procurement category management roles. During his time with Ecolab, George has held a
variety of roles such as leading our “Winning as One” Nalco integration procurement
workstream; director, Procurement for Greater China and Asia Pacific; and vice president,
Indirect & Services Procurement, and vice president, Global Direct Materials. George was
awarded the “Ecolab Leaders Who Make an Impact” award in 2018 for International
Women’s Day based on his support for women in leadership while leading Ecolab’s
procurement team in Asia Pacific and Greater China, and for his ongoing support of Supplier
Diversity.

Genriyetta (Gen) Lund has over 10 years of chemical industry expertise in finance and procurement. Gen is currently the Head of the Controlling & Governance team for procurement in North America. The role includes responsibility for BASF’s Supplier Diversity program.

Her career also includes roles in corporate finance and controlling roles prior to joining the Procurement organization in 2017. Gen began her career with KPMG prior to joining BASF in 2009.

Andrew “Drew” Bayley has 20-years of chemical industry experience with expertise in engineering, strategy, sales, marketing and procurement. Drew was appointed Vice President, Procurement, North America in July 2015. In this function, he has overall procurement responsibility for raw materials across North America.

Immediately prior to his current role, Drew was in the corporate strategy group (CDS) with responsibility for the catalysts division and the North American region.

Drew’s career includes experience as the Global Head of Marketing and Strategy for Expanded Polystyrene (EPS), BASF SE Ludwigshafen, Germany and as Business Manager EPS, BASF Corp Wyandotte, MI. Drew worked on both the NA2020 and NA2025 strategies, and he held multiple roles in the urethanes business in the areas of technical service, financial analysis and sales.

Gitanjli McRoy is an Engineering Manager with extensive experience in product design and has held roles spanning from components to complete powertrain systems. She has been with Ford Motor Company in the powertrain area for over 30 years, 10+ of those years in electrification, holding roles of increasing responsibility during that time. Gitanjli’s current role is Manager of Electrified Propulsion Systems Engineering, leading the upfront designs for Battery Electric Vehicles, Full Hybrids, and Plug-in Hybrids. She is passionate about bringing fun and exciting products to market that are mindful of our carbon footprint.

Gitanjli received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from GMI/ Kettering University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Janet Pengelly is an EV Program Manager with extensive experience in product design and planning. She has a broad range of experiences at Ford, ranging from powertrain component design and powertrain planning, to EV program management . She started with Ford Motor Company as a powertrain intern and has spent the last 6+ years in electrification.  Janet’s current role involves the transition of ICE to EV vehicles while maintaining corporate initiatives and targets. She has a passion for the EV space and bringing exciting, customer focused products to our customers while improving our carbon footprint.  

Janet received a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 

Travis is a two-time recipient of Ford Motor Company’s Global Diversity & Inclusion Summit Award, recognized for Strengthening External Partnerships and Leveraging a Diverse Workforce. Complimentary to his memberships with several honor societies, mentorship and community service initiatives, Travis is an active member of Ford African-Ancestry Network (FAAN), National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA), and University of Detroit Mercy’s Business School Advisory Board. Travis is also on the Board of Directors and Executive Finance Committee of the Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council (MMSDC), a Board of Directors member of the Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (MHCC), a member of the Billion Dollar Roundtable (BDR), and the President of the National Minority Supplier Development Council’s (NMSDC) Automotive Industry Group (AIG).

Hannah Ooms is the Electric Vehicle Communications Manager at Ford, responsible for helping tell the story of Ford’s electric vehicles, as well as educating customers on the benefits and features only made possible with electric vehicles.

Ooms has been with the Ford Communications team for four years and has previously worked in Manufacturing Communications and Maverick Communications, launching the all-new Ford Maverick.

Greg Christensen is Electrical Vehicle Footprint Director for Ford Motor Company in North America. He was appointed to the position at the beginning of 2021. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing manufacturing footprint requirements associated with transforming operations from ICE to BEV production. This includes overseeing manufacturing planning for vehicle, battery, and supporting supplier operations. He is tasked with driving complexity reduction, improving investment and operating costs, and creating close loop recycling practices.

Since 2021, Courtenay has held the position of Global Director, Manufacturing Strategy and Advanced Planning, a group tasked with developing a plan to transform Ford’s global footprint of manufacturing plants from traditional gas engine cars and trucks to Battery Electric Vehicles. Over the last three decades, Courtenay has worked in Product Development, Marketing & Sales, Corporate Design, Purchasing, Manufacturing, and Quality. She spent most of her time as a New Model Launch Manager, leading the engineering and manufacturing teams to industrialize new products into assembly plants all over North America. She also held the position of Global Prototype Manager, overseeing early prototype cars and truck built in facilities in Dearborn, Michigan and Niehl, Germany, and helped to set up builds in China, Brazil, and Australia.  

Regenia leads the Americas supply chain practice for the Central Region of the United States. She has 22 years of experience driving supply chain assessment and transformation projects, spanning sourcing, procurement and planning to fulfillment for Fortune 500 and private equity portfolio companies.

Most of her experience is in the industrial manufacturing industry, where she has both advised and helped clients to innovate their supply chains and find efficiencies through process improvement, while leveraging analytics and advanced supply chain solutions. She has also supported the integration of these solutions with ERP globally.