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When it comes to overcoming supply chain disruption, this year's pack of supply chain leaders left no stone unturned.
From AI implementation and warehouse automation to last-mile accuracy and returns management, they innovated, developed and executed on all cylinders, providing solutions, technologies and processes that move product from Point A to Point B in a way that almost seem seamless.
That's why this year's Pros to Know award, presented by Supply & Demand Chain Executive, celebrates the true supply chain professionals to know.
They push the boundaries and aren't afraid to take risks. They develop workforce pipelines, enforce safety and embody everything a true supply chain professional should be.
This year's award saw 41% of the nominees from the software and technology market, with 23% in transportation.
This year's award was broken down into four distinct categories:
Top Procurement Pros --> Recognizes professionals in the procurement space, with a procurement title.
Top Transportation Innovators --> Recognizes professionals in the transportation space, including freight, trucking, rail, air cargo, ship/ports, etc.
Rising Stars --> Recognizes young or newer professionals (39 and under) whose achievements, hard work and vision have shaped the supply chain network.
Leaders in Excellence --> Honors company leaders who’ve made outstanding contributions to the supply chain space. Must have at least 10 years’ documented experience in supply chain and logistics.
This year's winners really showed how they've been turning supply chain disruptions into opportunities by creating, implementing, transforming, innovating, reinventing, and collaborating.
CLICK HERE for a full list of all of this year's winners.
*Please note, all winners underwent a vetting process, which included a review of confidential information submitted in the application process. This list is compiled of supply chain professionals who actively submitted a digital application for this award. Not all applicants were named winners.
Let's first meet the four overall winners:
Top Procurement Pros --> Graham Scott, SVP, Chief Procurement Officer, Jabil Inc., https://jabil.com
Graham Scott serves as Jabil’s SVP and chief procurement officer, leading a global procurement organization responsible for more than $26 billion in annual spend and a supplier ecosystem of approximately 38,000 partners worldwide. Recently elected to the CPO role, he oversees more than 1,000 global procurement professionals across electronics, mechanicals, indirect materials, and compliance, with accountability for aligning procurement strategy to enterprise growth, margin expansion, and risk management. With over 30 years of experience in the procurement space, Scott is deeply focused on expanding Jabil’s procurement technology capabilities across the enterprise, which includes supporting advanced initiatives such as Jabil’s Procurement Intelligence Platform and MI-6 costing tool. Scott also plays a central role in procurement governance pertaining to policy updates, contract and liability approvals, organizational design choices, senior leadership promotions, and other strategic decisions that shape the direction of the function. CLICK HERE to read an exclusive interview with Scott about Jabil’s supplier relationship management programs and the importance of engaging strategic suppliers.
Top Transportation Innovators --> Philip Schmidbauer, VP, Client Solutions and Success, ODW Logistics, https://www.odwlogistics.com
Phil Schmidbauer sits at the intersection of transportation strategy, analytics, technology, and customer value realization. Serving as VP, client solutions and success for ODW Logistics, he's responsible for translating complex transportation challenges into scalable, executable solutions that drive cost reduction, service improvement, and risk mitigation for shippers. On a day-to-day basis, he leads solution design and external pricing for transportation engagements; oversees customer-facing analytics; owns customer onboarding and implementation alignment; partners closely with account management teams to drive retention, expansion, and long-term value realization for strategic customers; collaborates with sales and executive leadership to develop differentiated proposals; and serves as a trusted advisor to customers on emerging transportation risks. At the end of the day though, Schmidbauer's role is not transactional; it is highly consultative and outcome-driven, with accountability for both winning new business and ensuring customers realize the promised value after implementation. That's why he bridges analytics, operations, and commercial strategy, and designs solutions with a deep understanding of operational realities. CLICK HERE to read an exclusive interview with Schmidbauer about the importance of bridging analytics, operations and commercial strategy.
Rising Stars --> Amenallah Reghimi, Chief Product and Technology Officer, RegASK, https://regask.com
Amenallah Reghimi serves as chief product and technology officer at RegASK, responsible for defining and executing the company’s product, technology, and innovation strategy in support of global supply chain and regulatory operations. On a day-to-day basis, Reghimi works closely with executive leadership, customers, and cross-functional teams to ensure regulatory intelligence is embedded into critical supply chain decision-making processes. His responsibilities include setting product direction, overseeing AI-driven regulatory intelligence platforms, and ensuring that regulatory insights are delivered in a way that directly supports procurement, supplier management, product lifecycle planning, and market access. Reghimi also leads global product, engineering, data, and AI teams, and plays a hands-on role in customer engagement. One of his most significant initiatives has been leading the development and deployment of AI-driven regulatory intelligence platforms that automate regulatory monitoring, interpretation, and impact assessment at scale. He's also been instrumental in fostering cross-functional collaboration between regulatory affairs, supply chain, quality, and commercial teams. CLICK HERE to read an exclusive interview with Reghimi about the importance of ensuring regulatory intelligence is embedded in today’s critical supply chains.
Leaders in Excellence --> Ryan Gariepy, Vice President, Robotics, Rockwell Automation, www.ottomotors.com
As VP of robotics at Rockwell Automation, Ryan Gariepy is responsible for robotics research and development, strategic technology planning, and technology integration and partnerships, and was instrumental in establishing and growing Rockwell’s new Robotics Center of Excellence. Gariepy’s day-to-day work spans both deep technical engagement and high-level strategy. He oversees internal research and development programs, guides technology innovation, and reviews ongoing engineering developments across his organization. He plays a central role in shaping corporate strategy, development priorities, and long-term investment decisions related to robotics and autonomy. Before stepping into this role in July 2025, Gariepy co-founded and served as CTO of Clearpath Robotics and OTTO, both acquired by Rockwell in 2023. Under his leadership, the organization helped shape the modern robotics ecosystem, becoming what is said to be the first independent company to support the Robot Operating System as part of its products. OTTO also achieved multiple industry firsts under the helm of Gariepy, including deploying the first commercial heavy-load AMR and the first productive fleet over 100 units. Today, Gariepy is applying this same mindset to help manufacturers improve safety, efficiency, and workforce empowerment across the entire production line. CLICK HERE to read an exclusive interview with Gariepy about expanding autonomous solutions beyond material handling and into every corner of the facility.
Congratulations to all of this year's winners. CLICK HERE to view the full list of winners.
Below are a couple of additional standouts (in alpha order by company name).
Douglas Kent
Executive Vice President, Association for Supply Chain Management (ASCM)
www.ascm.org
Category: Leaders in Excellence
Douglas Kent serves as executive vice president of sales and alliances at ASCM, where he oversees 50-plus North American chapters, 120-plus international training partners, nearly 300 corporate clients, all B2C e-commerce functions and is responsible for growing and strengthening the organization’s strategic alliances globally. Essentially in order to fulfill ASCM's vision of "Making the World Better with Supply Chain," Kent's omnichannel approach, subject matter expertise and strategic thinking helps to ensure the organization can reach every learner in every community across the globe. As a primary contributor to the Enterprise Standards for Sustainability, he helped craft an industry‑agnostic blueprint that enables organizations to adopt sustainable best practices at scale. He co‑authored Sustainable Supply Chain Orchestration, guiding leaders to “unlearn” linear models and embed circularity in modern operating systems. A long‑standing steward of the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model, he ensured its continued relevance as the preeminent framework for end‑to‑end supply chain transformation. As the organization’s liaison to the United Nations Global Compact, Kent advances thought leadership on climate action, living wages, and participates in UNGC‑led forums, including COP engagements. He also serves as the principal ASCM contributor behind the collaboration that created the KPMG Supply Chain Stability Index, providing clear insight into the volume, variety, and severity of disruptive events. Among his most impactful contributions is spearheading the development of four interconnected assessment tools addressing critical dimensions of supply chain performance and leading efforts to expand ASCM’s global health maturity model. Looking ahead, Kent plans to complete the Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership at Harvard University within the next 12 months, equipping him with advanced critical thinking to strengthen nonprofit operating models for a sustainable future. He also plans continue to champion the development of industry-leading tools that deliver actionable intelligence, enabling organizations to embed agility into their DNA amid ongoing global disruptions.
Bill Mrzlak
President, ChainSequence, Inc.
www.chainsequence.com
Category: Leaders in Excellence
Bill Mrzlak is a leading practitioner in the development and deployment of supply chain and S&OP programs spanning over 30 years. His primary day-to-day role as president of ChainSquence involves leading client teams, serving as a facilitator, educator, subject matter expert, and motivator in solving supply chain and operational challenges and integrating sales and operations with long-term financial goals for clients in the electronics, industrial manufacturing, healthcare/pharma, and consumer packaged goods sectors. Mrzlak maintains direct or indirect involvement in every project engagement, providing breakthroughs in supply/demand management and alignment; operational process improvement, integrated with long-term horizon strategic planning; and enterprise-wide education. Under Mrzlak's leadership, ChainSequence maintains a "people first, then process, then technology" approach. He helped re-develop an existing S&OP process, where executive leadership recognized the need for improvement and understood the challenge ahead. Mrzlak was engaged to assess the current S&OP process and underlying supply chain planning processes; develop an S&OP deployment roadmap; conduct organization-wide S&OP training for the key stakeholders; and guide the implementation of the S&OP process. His facilitation and training was instrumental in getting through to each impacted internal organization (sales, finance, supply chain, etc.), so they could better understand their roles in the improved process and the benefits that came with it.
Philip Rosenmüller
Head of Fleet Management & Consulting, CHG-MERIDIAN
www.chg-meridian.com/us-en
Category: Leaders in Excellence
Philip Rosenmüller brings a rare combination of hands-on operational experience, financial insight, and global perspective to the material handling world. He serves as head of fleet management and consulting for CHG-MERIDIAN, working directly with Fortune 1000 companies in the United States and globally to analyze, advise, and optimize their material handling operations. His day-to-day includes reviewing complex asset data, identifying inefficiencies, and developing practical recommendations that improve equipment usage, training approaches, and financial structures. He also travels domestically and internationally to warehouses, logistics hubs, and related facilities to evaluate operations firsthand and guide improvements across logistics, supply chain, and financial processes. A key part of Rosenmüller's value is his ability to analyze asset data in a way that most companies struggle to do on their own. He identifies patterns in maintenance, utilization, damage, and downtime that reveal hidden costs and inefficiencies. From there, he builds strategies that help companies reduce total cost of ownership, extend equipment life where appropriate, and replace assets proactively when data shows costs will soon spike. As a result, he's saved multiple large enterprises millions of dollars by helping them optimize their fleets, renegotiate legacy contracts, streamline vendor relationships, and eliminate practices that were quietly draining their budgets. Over the past 12 months, Rosenmüller has led a major consulting engagement with a multinational corporation, where he built a comprehensive picture of the company's global fleet, identified exactly how many lift trucks they had, documented their condition, and surfaced the true cost impact of keeping aging or underperforming units in service. Using this data, he developed a replacement strategy targeted at the highest-cost, highest-risk assets, thus saving the company approximately $2.5 million in Q4 alone. His focus for the coming year is to continue optimizing the supply chain, logistics, and material handling operations by establishing clear operational baselines, correcting long-standing inefficiencies, and adopting data-driven fleet strategies that reduce risk and improve performance at a global scale.
Ritesh Thakur
Manager, Deloitte
www.deloitte.com
Category: Leaders in Excellence
Ritesh Thakur is a global supply chain transformation expert with over 17 years of experience in technology-enabled business transformations. He specializes in supply chain optimization, AI-driven solutions, and SAP enterprise systems. Serving as a manager at Deloitte, Thakur provides tailored consulting services focused on supply chain transformations that incorporate cutting-edge technologies and solutions to enhance operational efficiency. In addition, actively engages in mentoring and facilitating leadership forums, as well as offering specialized consulting to fellow team members. Throughout his time at Deloitte, he's led multiple strategic consulting teams across a combined portfolio of 25-plus consultants; collaborated with 6-plus major clients across the semiconductor and medical technology sectors; pioneered the integration of Generative AI capabilities into traditional ATP systems; developed comprehensive transformation roadmaps adopted at the executive level; created implementation methodologies that redefined supply chain planning processes; established a specialized ATP Center of Excellence within Deloitte Supply Chain practice; and transformed order fulfillment operations for multiple international organizations. He also developed an AI-based supply chain troubleshooter to optimize order fulfillment in SAP; reduced diagnostic time by 10 times, leading to an annual savings of 3,000 FTE hours; implemented real-time ATP validation to comply with FDA regulations; improved inventory management and prevented regulatory non-compliance penalties.
Sergio Retamal
CEO, Global4PL Supply Chain Services
www.global-4pl.com
Category: Leaders in Excellence
As the CEO of Global4PL, Sergio Retamal's daily responsibilities encompass a wide range of strategic and operational tasks, including strategic planning, leadership and team management, business development, client relationship management, financial oversight, innovation and technology integration, industry engagement, compliance and risk management, performance monitoring, and corporate culture and employee development. Under Retamal's guidance, Global4PL has embraced a forward-thinking approach, leveraging cutting-edge technologies to transform logistics operations. For instance, he implemented sustainability initiatives and developed customer-centric strategies that enhance service delivery and resonate with a growing demand for responsible business practices. Also under Retamal's leadership, Global4PL has experienced significant growth, marked by increased revenue and improved customer satisfaction ratings. He helped develop new AI software to optimize the track and trace of materials globally. He also launched a new division for domestic transportation, and improved the network of IOR Services in 160 countries to incorporate in-country services for data centers and IT companies.
Paul Finley
Chief Operating Officer,
Intelligent Audit
www.intelligentaudit.com
Category: Leaders in Excellence
Paul Finley serves as chief operating officer of Intelligent Audit, responsible for overseeing the company's day-to-day operations; ensuring the company’s strategy is executed efficiently; leading teams and processes that turn innovation into consistent, high-quality outcomes for customers; and working closely with leaders across implementation, customer success, operations, finance, and technology to ensure teams are aligned, resourced, and executing against shared goals. He monitors operational performance, identifies bottlenecks or risks, and drives continuous improvement initiatives that strengthen service delivery, scalability, and customer experience. Finley plays a central role in translating company strategy into action. He helps define operational priorities, establishes performance metrics, and ensures accountability across teams while maintaining flexibility as customer needs and market conditions evolve. In addition to internal operations, he's deeply involved in customer-facing execution, ensuring Intelligent Audit delivers on its commitments and that customers see measurable value from the platform. Before joining Intelligent Audit, Finley was a customer, leading supply chain and logistics operations within enterprise organizations for more than a decade. In that role, he was responsible for managing complex transportation networks, controlling costs, meeting service-level expectations, and implementing large-scale supply chain technologies. Now, with over 25 years of experience spanning logistics, operations, management, and supply chain software design and implementation, he's led and supported the deployment of ERP, WMS, and TMS platforms. Within the past 12 months, Finley made a significant impact while serving as chief commercial officer, prior to transitioning into his current role, where he was responsible for driving sustained revenue growth while ensuring long-term customer retention across Intelligent Audit’s enterprise client base. Finley led a large, cross-functional organization spanning customer relations, sales, business development, marketing, implementation, and professional services, aligning teams around a shared commercial strategy focused on customer value and scalable growth. Under his leadership, the organization generated millions of dollars in revenue, while maintaining strong customer retention by prioritizing partnership, execution, and delivery over transactional sales. Over the next 12 months, Finley’s primary focus is to strengthen Intelligent Audit’s operational foundation to support scalable growth, customer excellence, and long-term resilience.
David Wedekind
VP, Strategic Accounts,
Intelligent Audit
www.intelligentaudit.com
Category: Top Transportation Innovators
David Wedekind is VP, strategic accounts at Intelligent Audit, where he helps transform solution seekers into long-term customers. He works closely with executive leaders and key stakeholders to deeply understand their operational challenges, priorities, and success criteria. With more than 17 years in the transportation and logistics industry, Wedekind's career spans the full evolution of modern shipping operations. He began in 2008 as a transportation analyst, working hands-on with shipping data, carrier performance, and cost drivers. That early experience gave him a deep, practical understanding of how freight decisions are made, where inefficiencies hide, and how even small process gaps can create outsized cost and service issues. Over time, he progressed into increasingly senior roles, ultimately reaching the VP level and leading cross-functional teams. He works closely with internal product, implementation, and customer success teams to ensure commitments made during the sales process translate into real-world outcomes. Over the past 12 months, Wedekind played a pivotal role in expanding Intelligent Audit’s enterprise customer base by securing four new strategic accounts across retail, apparel, and manufacturing sectors. Here, he led the end-to-end strategy for these partnerships, guiding each customer through a consultative evaluation of their shipping data, carrier relationships, and cost structures and identifying opportunities for audit, optimization, and long-term intelligence. Throughout these initiatives, Wedekind served as the central bridge between customer executives and Intelligent Audit’s internal product, implementation, and customer success teams. Over the next 12 months, Wedekind's primary goal is to deepen Intelligent Audit’s impact within the enterprise shipping community by expanding and strengthening strategic partnerships with large, complex shippers.
Brian Pollack
Chief Product Officer, Intelligent Audit
www.intelligentaudit.com
Category: Rising Stars
Brian Pollack is Intelligent Audit’s chief product officer, responsible for driving product strategy and innovation across the organization. He oversees the integration of AI into every facet of the business, the release of all new products and features, and the data science team behind Intelligent Audit’s proprietary machine learning models. Deeply involved in the company’s strategic direction, Pollack plays a critical role in ensuring shippers are equipped with the intelligence they need to ship smarter. He works closely with engineering and executive leadership while leading a cross-functional team of UI designers, product managers, data scientists, and project managers to bring innovative ideas to life. His career reflects a rare blend of deep scientific rigor, real-world application, and executive leadership, all focused on delivering measurable outcomes through advanced AI. His foundation as a PhD-trained experimental particle physicist set the tone for his career. Early on, he worked at advanced research institutions, including Fermilab, Argonne National Laboratory, CERN, and Northwestern University, using machine learning to detect rare signals buried inside massive data sets generated by particle accelerators. These were problems where traditional analysis failed, and success required inventing new approaches to data, models, and computation. This work sharpened his ability to extract insight from noise at scale. He later applied that expertise to healthcare, advancing computer vision and machine learning at UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh. There, Brian helped develop AI models capable of interpreting MRI scans to detect liver disease earlier and more accurately. In 2021, Pollack brought this rare combination of scientific depth and practical leadership to Intelligent Audit, where he oversees product strategy, AI integration, data science, and innovation across the organization. Under his leadership, Intelligent Audit has embedded AI and machine learning into core products that help global shippers uncover hidden costs, detect anomalies, improve decision-making, and build more resilient shipping operations. Over the next year, Pollack is focused on advancing Intelligent Audit’s product innovation with greater speed, clarity, and customer impact, ensuring the company’s AI-powered solutions continue to solve the most complex challenges facing shippers. He also plans to lead several major product initiatives, including a new capability designed to strengthen data accuracy, reliability, and trust across the platform; and an AI-powered chatbot.
Sabih Rozales
Solution Architect, ORO Labs
www.orolabs.ai
Category: Leaders in Excellence
Sabih Rozales operates at the intersection of supply chain strategy, enterprise technology, and organizational change. His role extends well beyond technical architecture. As a solution architect at ORO Labs, he is responsible for designing and guiding how complex procurement and supply chain organizations translate business intent into scalable, real-world execution. On a day-to-day basis, Rozales works closely with procurement leaders, operations teams, and IT stakeholders to understand how sourcing, purchasing, compliance, and supplier engagement actually function inside large enterprises. He then designs system architectures and workflows that reflect those realities, ensuring technology supports decision-making rather than complicating it. He also translates procurement and supply chain requirements into scalable, modular system designs; advises customers and internal teams on best-practice process models for intake-to-pay, supplier onboarding, and risk-aware procurement; serves as a bridge between product, engineering, and customer success teams; evaluates edge cases, regulatory constraints, and cross-functional dependencies that typically derail procurement transformations; and mentors colleagues and customers on how to think architecturally about supply chain systems. With more than two decades of experience working alongside procurement and supply chain organizations, Rozales has developed a reputation for understanding not only how systems should work, but why they often break down in real operating environments. He also brings a rare blend of procurement leadership and technical fluency—able to translate real sourcing and stakeholder needs into scalable system designs and orchestration architectures. Prior to ORO, Rozales built transformation credibility through procurement leadership roles at Vodafone, operating inside both local procurement execution teams and company-wide transformation programs. He contributed to ERP implementations, led cost reduction and digital transformation initiatives, and helped introduce orchestration concepts to streamline the source-to-contract process. Most notably, he supported the design of an in-house autonomous sourcing platform aimed at reducing cycle times, improving process consistency, and increasing transparency across stakeholder groups. Looking ahead, Rozales' focus is on scaling architectural thinking across the supply chain ecosystem by promoting ochestration patterns that can be reused across industries and geographies; helping organizations move from reactive procurement models to proactive, insight-driven decision frameworks; and mentoring the next generation of supply chain and procurement leaders.
Rodrigo Duran
Head of Business Development, Pyplan
https://pyplan.com
Category: Leaders in Excellence
Rodrigo Durán is a senior supply chain executive and head of business development at Pyplan, where he leads global growth and industry outreach. A professor of integrated business planning and demand planning and an economist by training, Durán helps organizations move from implicit assumptions to explicit economic bets, quantifying trade-offs, evaluating scenarios, and turning supply chain decisions into a measurable economic engine and sustained competitive advantage. In parallel, he collaborates with universities, executive programs, and industry forums, bringing Pyplan’s perspective into these engagements to help develop the next generation of supply chain leaders and advance modern planning practices globally. His core responsibilities include partnering with C-level and VP-level leaders in supply chain, operations, and finance to redesign planning processes; driving enterprise planning transformation; leading global market expansion; advancing decision-centric planning capabilities, including S&OP, IBP, and sales and operations execution (S&OE); and representing the future of supply chain planning. Through his role at Pyplan, he operates beyond individual initiatives, influencing how more than 80 organizations rethink planning as a decision-making capability that tightly aligns supply chain planning and financial planning. Over the next 12 months, Durán's focus is on advancing better supply chain planning and financial decision making across global organizations. His priorities include helping more organizations strengthen decision making at scale; advancing thought leadership that helps shape the future of supply chain and financial planning; advancing the practical application of analytics, scenario simulation, and AI; and translating proven outcomes from global leaders into scalable, repeatable models.
Derrick Miller
Senior Manager of Sales,
The Raymond Corporation, a brand of Toyota Material Handling North America
www.raymondcorp.com
Category: Leaders in Excellence
Derrick Miller serves as senior manager of sales at The Raymond Corporation, a brand of Toyota Material Handling North America, where he leads the sales strategy for the company’s technology portfolio, including advanced telematics, operator assistance technology, and automation solutions. He is responsible for driving growth in revenue and market, turning intelligent warehouse innovation into measurable business results and working directly with dealers and senior stakeholders to diagnose operational challenges, design integrated technology and guide complex product deployments. Internally, Miller is a unifying force across sales, product and engineering. His customer success stories translate real-world needs into action while elevating solution-selling capabilities across the channel through mentorship, enablement and hands-on leadership. Through his work on Raymond’s iWAREHOUSE fleet management system, he has shaped the analytics-driven solution to continuously improve and optimize labor, space and productivity. Within the last 12 months, Miller has led multiple initiatives, such as scaling intelligent warehouse deployments through integrated intralogistics solutions, advancing data-driven labor optimization, and elevating dealer enablement and solution-selling capabilities. Drawing from his background in product management, Miller has guided customers through the deployment of solutions that combine telematics, labor management systems and lift truck fleets, which have provided customers across multiple sites with a unified view of improved throughput, workflow, and equipment performance and fulfillment.
Mark Taylor
VP, Carrier Strategy, Reveel
www.reveelgroup.com
Category: Leaders in Excellence
Mark Taylor serves as VP, carrier strategy for Reveel, tasked with leading a strategic advisory team, guiding enterprise-level carrier strategy decisions, partnering cross-functionally to improve products and analytics, supporting sales and strengthening Reveel’s market position and shaping the future of Reveel’s carrier strategy offerings. Beginning with his time at FedEx, he contributed key capacity plans for peak planning and network growth, serving as the operations lead on projects to increase the number of overnight lanes, tighten service standards, and broaden FedEx SmartPost’s availability to small shippers. At Lowe’s Home Improvement, he was key in implementing a flexible fulfillment strategy, going from a 1-node network to over 200 fulfillment locations, as well as in reducing costs for the parcel program. Then, at enVista, he helped to grow the consulting practice 2 times and consult to customers of diverse industries and program spend, ultimately leading the consulting practice through transitioning to Körber (now Infios). In the last 12 months, Taylor onboarded into his current role, while driving innovation into the product roadmap using agentic AI, supporting sales in key client conversations, and leading planning for 2026. Looking ahead, Taylor aims to build out processes and teams, apply Retrieval Augmented Generation and Agentic AI technologies to the company's Shipping Intelligence Platform and further support sales in conversations with prospective customers.
Tony Kvasnicka
President, Ocean Division,
Trailer Bridge, Inc.
www.trailerbridge.com
Category: Leaders in Excellence
Tony Kvasnicka serves as president of the ocean division at Trailer Bridge, responsible for overseeing the company’s asset-based ocean operations across the Caribbean, including the critical Puerto Rico trade lane. Kvasnicka's day-to-day responsibilities include oversight of vessel operations, port operations in Jacksonville, Fla., and San Juan, Puerto Rico, customer experience, support services, and asset maintenance as well as managing partnerships with the Jacksonville Port Authority, Puerto Rico Ports Authority, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and a wide range of service providers. A U.S. Coast Guard veteran with 10 years of service, Kvasnicka earned the rank of Machinist’s Mate First Class (E-6), gaining deep technical and operational expertise in maritime systems, safety, and mission execution. Since joining Trailer Bridge in 2017 to manage vessel operations, Kvasnicka has steadily advanced through roles of increasing responsibility, including his promotion to VP, ocean operations in 2023, before assuming his current role in 2025. Throughout his tenure, he has been instrumental in strengthening asset reliability, enhancing operational coordination between sea and shore, and reinforcing a culture of safety and accountability. Over the past 12 months, Kvasnicka has led several initiatives, including driving improved asset utilization and financial performance across the ocean division, resulting in Trailer Bridge achieving 94.14% average utilization of its RoRo barges (a 4.962% year-over-year increase) and 89.81% average utilization of its LoLo barges (a 3.945% year-over-year increase). Kvasnicka also played a central leadership role during the Brooklyn Bridge barge incident, when the vessel ran aground off the coast of the Bahamas and was subsequently looted. Kvasnicka was boots on the ground in the Bahamas throughout the incident, overseeing response efforts firsthand. Looking ahead, one of Kvasnicka’s priorities center on building upon Trailer Bridge’s strong reputation within the Caribbean market by growing the company’s share of the Puerto Rico trade lane.
Adela Hysaj
Director, Customer Experience,
Trailer Bridge, Inc.
www.trailerbridge.com
Category: Rising Stars
Adela Hysaj is director of customer experience for Trailer Bridge’s ocean division, tasked with overseeing the strategic direction, performance, and growth of the customer experience organization supporting one of the company’s most critical business units. Her team manages relationships with more than 360 customers moving freight to and from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. On a day-to-day basis, she leads and coaches a team of 12 account managers, and works cross-functionally with port operations, truck operations, and support services teams to oversee cargo flow, optimize barge utilization, and deliver a seamless end-to-end supply chain experience. Hysaj's leadership journey is deeply rooted in hands-on experience. She began her career in transportation working for a trucking company owned by her uncle; then joined Trailer Bridge in 2015 as a logistics operations representative. After 7 years as manager of customer experience, she was promoted to her current role in February 2025, where she leads with a quiet confidence and a strong sense of accountability to both her team and her customers. Under her leadership, for example, Trailer Bridge realized a 2.7% increase in overall ocean division revenue, and in a mid-year 2025 customer survey, Trailer Bridge achieved a 98% overall customer satisfaction rating, with 87% of customers rating communication as exceptional, a direct reflection of the culture and standards she has established. Also under leadership, Trailer Bridge achieved 94.14% average utilization of its Roll-on, Roll-off (RoRo) barge fleet, representing a 4.962% year-over-year increase, and 89.81% average utilization of its Load-on, Load-off (LoLo) barges, a 3.945% year-over-year increase. And, she played a critical role during a major operational crisis when Trailer Bridge’s Brooklyn Bridge barge ran aground off the coast of the Bahamas and was subsequently looted, impacting more than $11 million in customer cargo. She served as a key member of the crisis management team, assuming responsibility for all direct customer-facing communications and serving as the primary liaison between impacted shippers and internal operations, legal, and executive teams.
Chris Goss
VP, Government & Projects,
Trailer Bridge, Inc.
www.trailerbridge.com
Category: Top Transportation Innovators
Chris Goss serves as VP, government and projects at Trailer Bridge, where he leads one of the company’s most complex and mission-critical business segments, supporting U.S. government and allied military transportation programs across the globe. His role sits at the intersection of strategy, operations, and execution. On a day-to-day basis, Goss oversees government contract strategy, capture, and execution, guiding teams responsible for port operations, stevedoring, vessel and asset coordination, multimodal transportation, and regulatory compliance. He works closely with U.S. Transportation Command, Department of Defense agencies, NATO partners, and a global network of service providers to ensure military and humanitarian cargo moves seamlessly. Equally central to his role is team development, where Goss has built and continues to mentor a high-performing government logistics team. Under his leadership, Trailer Bridge’s government team has been awarded four multi-year contracts valued at more than $14 billion, representing one of the strongest government logistics portfolios in the company’s history. In addition, he has led the capture of critical single-award contracts, including the All Ports Denmark contract valued at $60.5 million and the DeCA Bulk Deliveries contract valued at $6 million. With more than 8 years of service as a civilian with the Department of the U.S. Army, he understands military logistics from the inside while possessing the commercial expertise required to execute complex transportation solutions at scale. Over the past year, Goss has led several high-impact transportation initiatives, including Trailer Bridge’s first mission under the WEXMAC 2.0 contract, supporting the U.S. Navy’s Continuing Promise 2025 humanitarian mission in the Dominican Republic. As prime contractor, Goss led Trailer Bridge’s government logistics team in developing a fully operational medical treatment site at a local school in Puerto Plata. He also led Trailer Bridge’s first executed operation under U.S. Transportation Command’s PORTS contract, conducting stevedoring and port operations in Narvik, Norway. And, he played a critical leadership role in launching Trailer Bridge Europe, establishing the company’s first European location in Frankfurt, Germany. Looking ahead, Goss’ top priorities include securing at least one additional single-award government contract and increasing total annual government contract awards beyond $25 million.
Matt Yearling
CEO, YMX Logistics
www.ymxlogistics.com
Category: Leaders in Excellence
Matt Yearling is CEO of YMX Logistics, where he leads the company’s mission to redefine yard and site logistics through technology, electrification, and operational excellence. With a career spanning over two decades in optimization and enterprise software, Yearling brings deep expertise in applying advanced algorithms and data-driven systems to complex logistics networks. Before founding YMX Logistics, he held senior leadership roles in supply chain technology firms, including CEO of PINC, where he helped organizations improve visibility, efficiency, and sustainability across their operations. Under Yearling's leadership, YMX introduced YMX OS, a proprietary logistics operating system that powers hundreds of yard operations across North America. And, in just over a year, YMX has delivered measurable improvements for Fortune 500 shippers, reducing downtime, increasing labor productivity, and helping companies meet sustainability goals through EV yard truck deployment and optimized routing. On a day-to-day basis, Yearling executes strategic direction, operational oversight, technology and product leadership, customer and partner engagement and team and culture building. As a champion of digital transformation, Yearling is passionate about using technology to solve the supply chain’s biggest challenges. Looking ahead, he's focused on expanding YMX’s reach with enterprise shippers across North America, broadening adoption of integrated yard services and standardized operations that deliver measurable performance improvements.
Erin Mitchell
COO, YMX Logistics
www.ymxlogistics.com
Category: Top Transportation Innovators
As COO of YMX Logistics, Erin Mitchell is responsible for turning strategy into daily execution across the yard. Her day-to-day blends operational leadership, team development, customer success, and technology adoption while overseeing a team of over 200 employees. Her extensive background in operations, transformation, and technology provides her with the expertise to navigate complex supply chain challenges and lead transformative initiatives. After 22 years with Kraft, Mitchell left the corporate world to join as a key executive at YMX Logistics, then, an early stage organization, where she has been instrumental in taking the company off the ground and driving the integration of acquired companies into the YMX brand. Over the past 12 months, Mitchell has played a pivotal role in advancing YMX Logistics' operations and industry standing, spearheading the integration of Netradyne's AI-powered fleet safety solutions across YMX Logistics and its subsidiary, Kutzler Express. Also under her leadership, YMX Logistics partnered with Orange EV to introduce zero-emission electric yard trucks into their operations.
Brad McBride
CEO, Zero Down Supply Chain Solutions
http://zdscs.com
Category: Leaders in Excellence
Brad McBride, CEO of Zero Down Supply Chain Solutions, sets the vision and strategy for the logistics provider. Although he is involved in day-to-day operations, his focus is on the bigger picture: where the company is going, how the product should evolve, and what clients actually need from their supply chain partners. He spends significant time on product direction for the company's proprietary platform, FreightOptics, which now provides connectivity to over 200 freight carriers and 35-plus parcel carriers. He also owns key client relationships, with the belief that a CEO should understand what is happening at the ground level, even if he is not doing the work himself. McBride spent his first 15 years in logistics working for carriers. At Consolidated Freightways, he learned how carriers price freight and protect their margins, and at Eagle Global Logistics, he ran South American sales and managed accounts across the Americas. He saw firsthand how carriers respond to bids and where they pad their pricing when shippers lack detailed data. That experience is the foundation of Zero Down. When he started the company in 2003, his goal was to give shippers the same level of data and insight that carriers have. What sets McBride apart is that he still thinks like a carrier. He knows how they build contracts, where they protect margin, and what levers actually matter in a negotiation. Moving forward into 2026, McBride aims to make FreightOptics accessible to mid-market shippers who have been priced out of enterprise-level visibility tools, and give companies with $2-10 million in freight spend the same data infrastructure that Fortune 500 companies have. He is also expanding Zero Down's footprint in ocean freight.
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*Please note, all winners underwent a vetting process, which included a review of confidential information submitted in the application process. This list is compiled of supply chain professionals who actively submitted a digital application for this award. Not all applicants were named winners.
