Organizers

John co-founded Pyramid Learning, a boutique capacity building and consulting firm at the end of 2019. Pyramid Learning provides consultancy on organisational learning and has a range of provides products and services, which are designed to be accessible, appropriate and actionable. John's main focus is with program and project management.
 
John is a dedicated professional with extensive international NGO management experience. MBA, and MA qualified, John worked for The British Council and Oxfam in various roles - including managing Oxfam’s project management systems, program director in Central America and the Caribbean and running a global program on gender and governance - before joining LINGOs – one of the organisations that merged to become Humentum, where he was responsible for program, project, and humanitarian capacity building. John is passionate about the ability of effective and efficient project management to help make the world a better place and he actively looks to collaborate with anyone, who shares these goals.
 
John helped develop the Project and Program Pro certifications, which has just passed a landmark of 30k successful candidates and is currently Chair of PM4NGOs, the NGO that owns the certifications. He would love to see a Supply Chain DPro as well.

Interested in #globaldev, project management & learning, keen chess player, fencer, runner and gardener
 

Dr. Özlem Ergun is currently a Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at Northeastern University in Boston. Prior to beginning at Northeastern, Dr. Ergun was the Coca-Cola Associate Professor in the Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech where she co-founded the Center for Health & Humanitarian Systems (CHHS). Dr. Ergun’s research focuses on the design and management of large-scale networks. She has applied her work on network design, management and collaboration to problems arising in the airline, ocean cargo and trucking industries. Recently, her work has been focused on the use of systems thinking and mathematical modeling in applications with societal impact, such as applying new algorithmic and analytical tools to important real world problems. She has worked with organizations that respond to humanitarian crisis around the world, including: UN WFP, IFRC, CARE USA, FEMA, USACE, CDC, AFCEMA, and MedShare International. Dr. Ergun received a B.S. in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University in 1996 and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001, and she was awarded the NSF Career Award in 2003.

Jarrod Goentzel is founder and director of the MIT Humanitarian Supply Chain Lab in the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics. His research focuses on meeting human needs in resource-constrained settings through better supply chain management, information systems, and decision support technology. Dr. Goentzel leads fieldwork in a range of contexts to develop insights that improve response efforts during emergencies and strengthen supply chains in vulnerable communities. Research involves direct engagement with the private sector, government agencies, humanitarian, international development, and community organizations on several continents. Dr. Goentzel has created residential and online courses and in humanitarian logistics, international operations, and supply chain finance, and has extensive experience using simulation games to build intuition and leadership skills.

Previously, Dr. Goentzel was Executive Director of the MIT Supply Chain Management (SCM) Program, a nine-month master’s degree program. He joined MIT in 2003 to establish the Zaragoza Logistics Center in Spain, which was the first node in the MIT Global SCALE Network. He received a Ph.D. from the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Andrew Parkes has been working in humanitarian operations for 15 years in various roles, including as a first responder, as well as in country management and global operations, supply chain and procurement leadership roles. He has worked in several contexts, including emergency responses, conflict zones, fragile states and developing countries, and has supported country, regional and global logistics and supply chain delivery, policy and strategy design and implementation.

Walter Proper is the executive director for the International Association for Public Health Logisticians (IAPHL). Most recently, he held the position of the Director of Field Support for the Advancing Partners and Communities project managed by JSI. He held the position of Director, Public Health Task Order on the USAID | DELIVER PROJECT. He also served for 7 ½ years as the Zambia country director for the USAID | DELIVER PROJECT, SCMS, and JSI Logistics Services projects. He has been working on improving public health systems for more than thirty years. In this endeavor, he has worked extensively in the areas of HIV & AIDS, Reproductive Health, TB, Malaria and Essential Medicine Systems improvement. His work experience includes more than 25 years as senior manager and supervisor of multicultural teams; more than 30 years as a skilled capacity building and organization development advisor/facilitator; more than 25 years as a skilled public health logistician, and 30 years extensive experience in program and strategic planning, including collaborating and partnering with governments, NGOS, donors, and academic institutions.  He has also presented on Supply Chain at international forums, including conducting courses for international organizations such as GFATM and the World Bank as well as for graduate school programs at George Washington, Columbia, Boston University and Tulane. Mr. Proper has direct work experience in more than 30 countries. He has been an early member of IAPHL and has been serving for several years on the PtD Board/Coalition representing JSI and IAPHL.

Neil is a Supply Chain leader with multi-region & multi-sector executive experience living and working across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas in the international development, aid and relief, commercial logistics, international trade & engineering sectors. Coming originally from an engineering, supply chain & commercial logistics management background working in leadership roles with large multinational corporates; Neil has worked extensively with a range of INGOs in recent years in supply chain & logistics leadership roles, including International Rescue Committee, International Medical Corps, Save the Children UK and International, Merlin and serves on the Advisory Boards of the Humanitarian Logistics Association, the World Humanitarian Forum and Aviation without Borders-USA. With a passion for and expertise in developing countries, his objective is to drive excellence in high performing supply chain and logistics global operations through effective change management strategies & inspirational leadership with the aim of furthering outcomes for all stakeholders. Neil is also passionate about humanitarian causes; capacity building particularly at the last mile in developing countries and about the potential of the private sector in being an agent for sustainable positive change through effecting the right linkages and partnerships. Outside work, Neil is a doting and hands on dad to 2 children; and enjoys gardening, technology, sports and exploring new cultures.

Sarah Schiffling is a Senior Lecturer in Supply Chain Management at Liverpool John Moores University, UK, and an International Research Fellow with the Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Research Institute in Helsinki, Finland. She obtained a PhD from Heriot-Watt University, UK, for her work on complexity in humanitarian logistics. Sarah's research interests include pharmaceutical supply chains, disaster relief operations, and supply chain management in developing nations. Her current projects focus on vaccine supply chains, logistics in conflict areas, commercial-humanitarian interactions, and project management. Apart from academic publications, Sarah also regularly writes for The Conversation on supply chain topics.

Julie Swann is Department Head and the A. Doug Allison Distinguished Professor at the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) at North Carolina State University. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to joining NC State, she was the Harold R. and Mary Anne Nash Professor in the Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she co-founded the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems, one of the first interdisciplinary research centers on the Georgia Tech campus. In 2009, she was on loan as a science advisor for the H1N1 pandemic response at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Swann is a research leader in using mathematical modeling to enable supply chain systems and health care to become more efficient, effective, or equitable. Recent collaborations have been to quantify the return on public investments to improve pediatric asthma, plan for infectious disease outbreaks, analyze administrative claims data from Medicaid patients across the US, and design systems with decentralized decision makers.

Born in Split, Croatia on December 31, 1967. 
Pharmacist – Technician.
Employee of International Medical Corps (IMC) since March 1993. 

Senior Advisor for Logistics and Supply Chain Management based in Split, Croatia responsible for logistics and procurement related procedures and training development. Master Trainer for Logistics and Procurement under USAID funded National NGOs training project implemented by International Medical Corps in Africa, Middle East and South East Asia.

Joined International Medical Corps during crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Worked as Country Director or Head of Mission in several countries on a longer or short term assignments: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, Indonesia, Iraq, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Chad and then joined IMC HQ as Deputy Director of International Operations in 2002 for one year.

Until 2015 managed Logistics department and had responsibility for overall coordination of logistics support to International Medical Corps missions worldwide. Was team lead or logistics coordination in over 30 disaster responses worldwide. 

Funding member of the Humanitarian Logistics Association (HLA) and contributor to Universal Logistics Standards (ULS) development and review as member of the Technical Advisory Group.
 

Professor Van Wassenhove's research focus is on closed-loop supply chains (product take-back and end-of-life issues) and on disaster management (humanitarian logistics). He is the author of many award-winning teaching cases and regularly consults for major international corporations. He recently co-edited special issues on humanitarian operations for the Journal of Operations Management, the Production and Operations Management Journal and the European Journal of Operational Research.

Mr. Woolgar's experience includes Operations Management, country based and roving, CfW programming and Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Chuck has extensive leadership experience in development and emergency contexts, gained while living and working in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Somalia, coupled with numerous global deployments. He enhanced and developed strong strategic skills when relocated to head office position in 2012. Keen advocate for protection within Supply Chain and that the localisation concept has the potential to build Supply Chain and Operation professionals of the future.

Dominique is the Executive Manager of the People that Deliver Initiative (PtD). She is an international development professional with 23 years of experience in managing programs with a focus on health supply chain management, livelihood, food security and nutrition.

Since 2016, Dominique has been responsible for the management and overall performance of PtD, a broad coalition of governments and international, regional and national organizations working together to raise the profile of the health supply chain workforce as a key strategic area of health systems. Prior to PtD, she worked for ten years on the HIV/AIDS supply chain for John Snow International (JSI) at the Partnership for Supply Chain Management (PFSCM), which procured and delivered essential lifesaving medicines and related commodities to HIV/AIDS programs around the world.

Dominique also has experience working with multilateral development agencies; the International Food Policy Research Institute, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the International Finance Corporation. She has both an MBA in International Business Administration and a Master's degree in Nutrition. She is fluent in English, Spanish and Dutch. As a native of The Netherlands and having lived in Latin America (Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela) and Washington, DC, she is now based at UNICEF Supply Division in Copenhagen, Denmark.