As the founder and CEO of Zycus, Aatish defines the vision and roadmap of all technology and innovation at Zycus. Aatish Dedhia started Zycus in 1998 with a vision to leverage technology to solve business problems. He harnessed the power of Artificial Intelligence technology for practical business purposes to create a powerful suite of solutions for the fields of procurement and finance. Under his dynamic leadership, Zycus has emerged as the industry leader in its business space. He has been responsible for the company's success in the fiercely competitive international market. His astuteness and strategy has been the pillar of Zycus' success. Prior to Zycus, Aatish enjoyed a flourishing career at Intel Corporation in the United States and was part of the core design team on the Pentium-II processor.
At Intel, Aatish also introduced Internet and Intranet technologies within the Pentium-II group for improving group work and knowledge management. Aatish is a widely known professional in the IT industry and has been invited as a speaker at several international forums. He has a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India and a Master of Science (MS) in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, U.S.

Armijn Verweij is the Vice President, Procurement Excellence at Danone. He has worked in the fast moving consuming goods industry for over 15 years, gaining experience in procurement transformation, organizational change, cost optimization and digital strategy and turnarounds for a wide range of companies. As a seasoned procurement professional, he is passionate about advancing data & analytics and leap frogging procurement teams.

In addition to leading the end to end transformation of Danone’s global procurement function, he is also responsible for the procurement centres of excellence and procurement operations. Outside of the office, Armijn enjoys golf, desert adventures, safari, and currently his house.

Brian Roche is responsible for Westfield’s enterprise Procurement function which includes the development and execution of source-to-pay capabilities including category management, third party risk management, operational procurement and process automation.

Brian joined Westfield in April 2015 from Citizens Bank, where he served in various leadership positions managing vendor risk, strategic sourcing events and technology, and training programs. Before that, he was Vice President, Senior Sourcing Strategist for Key Bank National Association. In all, he brings 20 years of procurement, financial and leadership experience to his position with Westfield.

Brian earned his graduate degree in Information Systems Management from Case Western Reserve University, and his undergraduate degree in Finance from Ohio University.

He is a former member of BITS, the technology policy division of the Financial Services Roundtable, an industry group with expertise on managing supply chain risk, and served as a charter Steering Committee member on Risk Management Association’s Vendor Management Roundtable. He is also a current member of Sourcing Industry Group and provides thought leadership in other industry forums on evolving areas of supply chain management.

Mr. Sawchuk is a Principal, Global Practice Leader and advisory leadership team member with The Hackett Group, an intellectual property-based strategic consultancy to global companies.

He has over 20 years of experience successfully advising hundreds of Fortune 500 as well as midsized companies across all industries globally. Mr. Sawchuk has provided operational and transformational guidance in strategy and organizational change as well as process design and digital technology enablement to significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of these companies.

He is globally recognized (and won several awards) in his specialty of supply management including strategic sourcing and risk management. He is cited regularly in business publications, a frequent presenter at industry and academic events, author of numerous research papers and books, and a current and past member of the advisory boards of several developing companies as well as the supply chain degree program at the University of South Florida.

Mr. Sawchuk’s background includes engineering, operations and sales roles with both United Technologies and IBM. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Union College and a Masters in Business Administration from Binghamton University (State University of New York). He is currently pursuing his Doctorate in Business Administration from the University of South Florida.

Jacob de Bruyn is the Business Process Leader at Dow. He has worked in the field of supply chain and procurement for over 30 years, gaining experience across logistics and sourcing, order fulfilment and planning, procurement transformation and digital strategy as well as mergers, acquisitions, and divestures. He is based out of Netherlands and has a degree in Business Administration/Management.

Jaswinder Saini is the Head Procurement at Tata Sky Ltd., a leading Indian direct broadcast satellite service provider. He is a supply chain management professional with 23 years of rich experience across industries such as automobile, manufacturing, Telecom, etc. Over the years, he has gained vast expertise across complex negotiations, large RFPs, procurement planning, warehouse logistics, and vendor management.

As a seasoned supply chain professional, Jaswinder holds the ability to identify, understand and implement upcoming technologies that help strengthen and elevate the organization’s supply chain departments.

John possesses more than 20 years of experience in a business to business environment. He began his career with a research and consulting firm, where he led an operational team, led business development activities in Asia and Latin America, and sourced and managed a variety of suppliers throughout the world. John later worked for two outsourcing organizations in the Employee Mobility industry. While working for these companies, he served in a variety of globally-focused roles encompassing Operations, Account Management, and Supply Chain.

John joined SIRVA in 2011 as Vice-President of Global Operations. In the following years, he served as Vice-President of Account Management and Senior Vice-President of Global Operations. In 2016, John assumed his current role. Initially, John focused on leading a worldwide Supply Chain team responsible for the selection and oversight of direct spend suppliers who deliver more than $700 million in services annually. In 2019, the scope of John’s role expanded to include responsibility for SIRVA’s indirect spend.

John has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Spanish from DePauw University and a Master of Business Administration in International Management from The Thunderbird School of Global Management. He is fluent in Spanish and possesses basic knowledge of French.

Dr. Margherita Fontana is the Global Strategic Planning and Governance Procurement Director at Dow Chemical, leading Dow’s Global Strategic Procurement activities to ensure its value generation and impact on Dow businesses and functions, for a spend portfolio > $10B. Prior to her current role she held the EMEAI Procurement Director role and was accountable for the Strategic Sourcing and Procure to Pay Services in the EMEAI region, driving stronger partnership with Dow’s diverse suppliers, while leading changes and driving innovation across a spend portfolio of > $3B.

Margherita has a wide marketing & sales and innovation portfolio management experience, including P&L, maturated at Dow across different businesses, from Packaging and Specialty Plastics to Dow Construction Chemicals both globally and regionally. She was awarded the Pinnacle Award for Marketing Excellence in 2012.

Margherita is the Chair of the Global Dow Women Inclusion Network (WIN), leading the advancement of women in Business both at Dow and externally. In 2020 she was recognized in the HERoes 100 Women Future Leaders list supported by Yahoo Finance.

Before joining Dow in 2011, she held various innovation development and project management roles for BASF and Ciba Specialty Chemicals. Her work at BASF and Ciba resulted in 13 granted WO, US, EP patents. Dr. Margherita Fontana is also the author of 15+ scientific publications in the field of polymer science and technology.

She holds an MBA from INSEAD business school and earned her doctorate degree in Material Sciences from the Swiss Institute of Technology, ETH- Zurich, and a master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Palermo.

Morgan is the VP - Global Indirect Procurement at Belden Inc., a global leader in high quality, end-to-end signal transmission solutions, delivers a comprehensive product portfolio designed to meet the mission-critical network infrastructure needs of industrial, enterprise and broadcast markets.

With 15+ years of industry experience, Morgan currently leads the global digital transformation of Indirect Procurement. Alongside, he is also responsible for driving business process improvements and indirect savings across multiple brands on a global-basis at Belden Inc.

A supply chain professional, Ruth has worked at Philips and Mars before joining Heineken. A qualified Master Brewer, who switched into the Procurement arena a decade ago, Ruth is now the Director of Global Procurement Enablement based in the Netherlands. Responsible for all elements of procurement enablement, Ruth has guided the team on a transformational journey from being a process focused organisation to one which is now recognised as leaders who use technology to enable the business to drive decision making. Passionate about team development, and finding different ways to work with suppliers, has allowed the organisation to deliver projects in a way which should be possible.

As Vice President for Corporate Development, Richard leads strategic initiatives in the areas of new product introduction, market development, thought leadership, analyst relations, and strategic partner development programs. Richard has an extensive background in B2B eCommerce, going back to his early career at GE, where he helped launch GE's Trading Process Network (TPN), the first on-line marketplace for sourcing and procurement in the mid 1990's.

He had been a co-founder of B2eMarkets, one of the first SaaS (Software as a Service) Sourcing Suite providers and later covered the Supply Management market as an industry analyst for the Aberdeen Group. Prior to joining Zycus, he helped bring to market new innovations in P2P (Procure-to-Pay), helping global clients achieve world-class P2P system adoption and performance. Richard has a B.A. from Wake Forest University and is a graduate of GE’s Financial Management Program (FMP).

Jonathan has more than 15 years of procurement experience in various industries from ICT, Aviation, Consultancy and Real Estate Management for leading companies in Africa and the Middle East . Since 2015 he has been with TECOM Group, leading the procurement operations and SRM team in the implementation of TECOM’s overall procurement transformation journey. Jonathan is also a visiting lecturer for CIPS at the University of Dubai and has trained more than 200 procurement professionals in the UAE. Jonathan has created an award winning SRM team and enhanced procurement influence through supplier performance management and reporting. He is currently the Head of Strategic Sourcing for TECOM Group.

After graduating from SKEMA Business School and gaining an Executive MBA from HEC, Sophie Macquet joined SPIE, the independent European leader in multi-technical services in the areas of energy and communications, in July 2020, as the Global Purchasing Director.

Sophie is coming from the Automotive Industry where she first held a range of responsibilities in operational and strategic after-sales marketing both in France and abroad. In 2011, Sophie Macquet joined the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance Purchasing Organization (APO). She held the roles of Global After-Sales Purchasing Director, then the Renault Maroc Purchasing Director in 2016, before being appointed APO Transformation Director in 2019.

In her new rôle as SPIE Purchasing Director, Sophie is leading the function to support the SPIE roadmap in assisting customers in their energy and digital transition and to enhance the financial and non-financial value created in partnership with the suppliers.

Daniel Braune is the Head of Procurement at Hapag-Lloyd AG. During his professional tenure of more than 15 years, Daniel has performed increasingly senior roles in procurement and logistics functions viz. strategic buying, category management, supply chain management to leading global procurement. His work experience spans mulitple business environments and industries from automation to communication to Power Transmission/Distribution. Daniel has undertaken his education in Germany and US.

Kaitlynn Sommers is a Research Director covering the strategic sourcing and procurement technology market. She researches and advises on procurement technology strategy, including the evaluation, selection, implementation, and use of source-to-pay applications. Ms. Sommers also advises on key market trends and the influence of emerging technologies such as AI, RPA, blockchain and advanced analytics on the sourcing and procurement technology market. Ms. Sommers work is cross-industry, cross-category and includes e-sourcing, spend analysis, contract life cycle management, supplier management, catalog management, e-procurement, AP invoice automation, e-invoicing and contingent workforce management solutions.

Prior to joining Gartner, Ms. Sommers spent many years as a practitioner in strategic sourcing, contracting, procurement, and supplier management in the retail industry. She held a variety of positions managing the procurement of good and services including the selection, implementation and continuous improvement for multiple procurement and sourcing technology initiatives.

Olivier Coeur is the Sourcing & Procurement Consulting Practice Lead for France at Accenture. He has been with Accenture for 15 years and counting in increasingly senior roles. His experience with Accenture helped him build a deep knowledge of the Source-to-Pay software editor market. He has led large S2P transformations in enterprises across Consumer Goods, Insurance, Automotive and Nuclear Industries.

Corinne Cabellec is the Founder of Dragonfly Procurement Consulting. She has worked in the Automotive Industry for 15 years, gaining experience in procurement transformation, project management, procurement performance, and all along the way developed a Procurement Digitalization Expertise. Over the last 3 years, supporting SPIE in their procurement Digitalization Roadmap by selecting and deploying the S2C Zycus solution within all SPIE subsidiaries and holding associated transformations topics always with the aim to create value.

Adrian Oyekanmi serves as Senior Vice President, Strategic Sourcing for Radisson Hotel Group. He is responsible for developing and enhancing its market leading procurement platform that serves and protects the needs of the Radisson Hotel Group. His charge includes creating opportunities to leverage the vast global spend of RHG with best-in-class vendors while enabling the hotels access this value through market leading technology. Oyekanmi is based in Brussels and reports to Iñigo Capell, Executive Vice President & Global Chief Resources Officer.

Oyekanmi is an industry veteran who joined Radisson Hotel Group in April 2017, initially based out of the Minneapolis office. Since then, he has worked to develop and implement a comprehensive sourcing strategy built to improve the value proposition for the entire hotel portfolio and its owners, focusing on cost reductions and service delivery while promoting the company’s responsible business practices.

Prior to joining Radisson Hotel Group, Oyekanmi spent 17 years with Starwood Hotels & Resorts. Most recently he served as Vice President of Supply Chain, where he led finance and business analytics, contract management, the implementation of an award-winning procure-to-pay platform, and Six Sigma process improvement. His other assignments at Starwood include Controller, Director of Finance, and Regional Director of Finance.

He received an International Baccalaureate diploma from the United World College of the Atlantic in the United Kingdom, and a Bachelor of Science degree in building and construction management from Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria. Oyekanmi is also a Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (ACMA, CGMA).

Duncan contributes to Forrester's offerings for Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals and for Application Development and Delivery Professionals. He is a leading expert on business application strategies and how to get the most from strategic software partners, including packaged applications, SaaS, and custom development. By researching enterprises' experiences in dealing with key software providers, such as IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP, Duncan helps clients create sound sourcing strategies, nurture better supplier relationships, and get better outcomes from their strategic software investments. He also advises software providers on pricing strategies and commercial trends.

Duncan is also a leading expert on ePurchasing applications, such as eProcurement and supplier risk and performance management (SRPM), with a particular focus on the increasing overlaps and conflicts between ePurchasing and sell-side B2B eCommerce. He advises clients on their application strategy in these areas, how to make good choices between alternative solution providers, and how to get the best results from implementation.

Previous Work Experience
Prior to joining Forrester in 2006, Duncan worked for seven years for QAD, an international provider of enterprise solutions for manufacturing companies, in various product management and product marketing roles. Most recently, he had global responsibility for radical changes to QAD's pricing and licensing strategy.

Duncan qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG and then joined Courtaulds, a diverse multinational manufacturing company. In 10 years with Courtaulds, he held various line finance and IT roles before becoming project manager in a corporate team, managing systems-enabled business improvement projects around the world.

Leyla is the Chief Information and Digital Officer in Coca Cola İçecek responsible for defining and executing digital strategy and transformation to improve current business operations and implement digital products, services and new digitally enabled business models. In her previous role, she was CIO defining and driving Digital Technology strategy for Enabling Functions in GE Healthcare working closely with Finance, Quality & Regulatory, Legal, HR and Business Development teams. Leyla was the Chief Information Officer and Lean Leader for Eastern and African Growth Markets (EAGM), GE Healthcare. EAGM, a large and diverse set of growth markets, comprising over 80 countries including Africa, Middle East, Turkey, Central Asia, Russia and CIS. She was responsible of creating and executing the IT strategy for EAGM to accelerate business growth in this region. Leyla was also leading the EAGM Lean team to drive sustained business process improvements.

Leyla joined GE in 1998 in Tradanet jv GE Information Services. She then worked for Tradelink Technologies Inc., managing multi-national EDI projects with the European and US companies from various segments. She continued her career as Chief Information Officer in Aras Holding until she joined GE Healthcare in 2010.

Leyla actively engaged in the Women’s Network, led initiatives which support growth of women in technology and co-led the GE Girls Infrastructure group. She is an active board member in YenidenBiz, NGO supporting women to join the workforce.

Leyla holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and a M.S. degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, USA. She enjoys swimming. Leyla recently relocated to Istanbul, Turkey from Wisconsin, USA where the GE Healthcare global headquarters was based, with her husband and their son.

Mat is the Global Head of Supply Chain Operations, Technology and Transformation, after leading the successful Supply Chain Transformation initiatives in Asia Pacific. His primary responsibility is to further strengthen and develop the supply base foundations through technology enhancements, operational productivity and transformation initiatives across all business lines.

PROFESSIONAL
Mat is a commercial and supply chain professional with almost twenty years of experience within Real Estate, Finance, Technology and Oil & Gas industries in Asia, Europe and Africa. A multi-disciplined professional with experience in Client / Stakeholder Management, Strategic Sourcing and Category Management, Supplier Management, Consulting, Project and Change Management and Operations.

Prior to joining CBRE in March 2016, Mat was a Strategic Advisor at a Freelance and Vendor Management SaaS start-up, Shortlist, and assisted in their sales, product development, marketing and operations. Also in Singapore, Mat was the Head of Enterprise Supply Chain at Citi. He has held a number of commercial and supply chain roles at a global, regional and country level.

These roles covered all the facets of management including, governance, contract performance, financial stewardship, building new teams and shared service centres, strategy development and leadership of high performing teams. The roles oversaw a range of geographies and functions.

Michael has spent the past 23 years working with organizations to enable and implement enterprise technology in the ERP, accounts payable / receivable, Source to Pay, and global compliancy verticals. He has helped companies of all sizes and industries improve their practices and achieve best in class status. In addition to his day job, Michael brings these skills to his position on the Leadership Committee of the Business Payments Coalition (BPC), a volunteer group supported by the US Federal Reserve who work to make B2B electronic payments more efficient across the end-to-end process.