Board of Advisors

Bill Copacino, President and CEO of Copacino Advisory Services, a consultancy that focuses on Supply Chain Innovation

Bill Copacino served as Group Chief Executive for Global Business Consulting at Accenture and was also a member of the Executive and Operating Committees which ran the firm. He was also Chief Administrative Officer of C&S Wholesale Grocers, a $20 billion distributor, retailer and outsourcer of supply chains services for the grocery industry. Bill was most recently the President and CEO of Oco, Inc., the leading SaaS Business Intelligence software company which was acquired by Deloitte Consulting. He has worked with hundreds of retailers, consumer products companies and retailers on issues related to supply and demand management, profitability, business transformation and analytics.

Bill has broad experience and recognition in the area of supply chain management, having spoken to business groups, including the World Economic Forum, on these topics. He has written three books and over 150 articles on SCM, and was awarded the Salzberg Medallion from Syracuse University and the Distinguished Service Award from the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals for contributions to the SCM field.

Bill has a degree in Operations Research from Cornell University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

John Deane, SVP/CIO of Abercrombie & Fitch

John has over 25 years experience in executive management and applied information services. His experience was acquired in the retail, foodservice, healthcare, manufacturing and government industries. John is currently Senior Vice President and CIO at Abercrombie & Fitch, where he is responsible for the global footprint of information and technology services. A large share of his time is spent pursuing ANF’s strategy of global expansion, its commitment to the ecommerce channel, developing tools to enable consumer engagement and supporting over 1,100 chain and flagship stores. Prior to Abercrombie, John was Managing Director of Clipper Advisory Group, assisting various companies with the assessment, improvement planning, strategy, organizational design and recruiting for their IT functions. Before that John was EVP North American Operations for Wendy’s International, Inc. where he led the turnaround of brand operations in the US domestic and Canadian businesses. As EVP and CIO, he improved IT performance, aligned goals, searched for opportunities and delivered value through the use of technology, implemented IT as a shared service and improved user satisfaction. Prior to Wendy’s, John was Executive VP & CIO for Caremark Rx and held positions at Whirlpool Corporation, Price Waterhouse and First Wisconsin National Bank. John speaks at industry events and is also involved in TechColumbus where he recently chaired the 2010 TechTomorrow conference for CIOs. He has an MBA from Marquette University, and a Bachelor of Science degree from the Universidad Católica Argentina in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Nicholas P. Delany, President of VTech Communications Inc.

Nicholas P. Delany serves as the President of VTech Communications Inc., a subsidiary of VTech Holdings Ltd. and Mr. Delany is responsible for the overall management of Telecommunication Products business in US specifically business development, sales, customer support, business intelligence processes, product management, supply chain, logistics, IT, HR/Administration and marketing. Mr. Delany served as Senior Vice President of Telecommunication Products Business and Vice President of Supply Chain and Logistics at VTech Communications, Inc. Prior joining VTech in 2000, Mr. Delany had 23 years sales and management Experience in the industrial, retail, construction and mining Industries in the US, Europe, Asia and South Africa including more than 10 years’ experience developing supply chain systems in leading corporations in North America including The Stanley Works, Inc. Mr. Delany holds a Bachelor Degree in Marketing and Financial Management from the University of South Africa & Damlein College.

Roddy Martin, Senior Vice President of Global Supply Chain at Competitive Capabilities International (CCI)

Roddy Martin is currently the Senior Vice President of Global Supply Chain at Competitive Capabilities International (CCI). Previously he was the Vice President and Distinguished Analyst at Gartner/AMR Research. Roddy has a millwright trade, engineering technician diploma, and graduated cum laude B Sc Electrical Engineering with two final year awards from the University of Pretoria in South Africa.

Roddy was instrumental in AMR Research’s focused research on the verticalized transformation of manufacturing and supply chains to Demand-driven Value Networks. At CCI, he is responsible for the TRACC Supply Chain and Change Management products.

Thomas Matthews, Former Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer of Saks Fifth Avenue

Thomas Matthews was appointed as Former Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer at Saks Fifth Avenue in 2003. He also served as Group Senior Vice President-Logistics, Operations, Asset Protection, Construction, Design, Planning, Facilities, and Visual. Matthews joined Saks Fifth Avenue in 1993 as Vice President of Corporate Loss Prevention and has served as Senior Vice President of Asset Protection since 1999. He gained previous experience at Ann Taylor, New York, as Senior Vice President of Asset Protection, Risk Management, Systems and Procedures beginning in 1989 and began his career with Lord & Taylor.

Matthews received his Masters degree in Criminology from Rutgers University, is a Fellow at the Wharton Business School and holds an MBA from the University of Michigan.

Kathy Persian, GVP of Corporate Planning, Analysis, and Business Process of SuperValu

Kathy Persian was appointed Group Vice President Merchandising and Retail Systems at Supervalu in February 2010.  She gained previous experience at Best Buy as VP of Supply Chain and Merchant Systems in 2004 and then promoted to SVP of International Business Process in 2008.  Kathy began her career at Accenture in 1988 where in due course was promoted to Partner, Retail Practice.

Amit Singh, Vice President Global Sales and Business Development of Google

Amit Singh leads Global Sales and Business Development for Google’s Enterprise Business with responsibility for all Global Operations as Vice President, Global Sales and Business Development. He joined Google in 2010 after nearly 20 years at Oracle in different areas of the business, including product development, channel management, sales, strategy and acquisitions. In his most recent role, as Group Vice President, he led the Application Strategy Group, responsible for applications acquisitions, shared services and product strategy for North American Sales. He also ran sales and operations for some of the fastest growing acquisitions at Oracle including Demantra, G-Log, Agile, Logical Apps and Peoplesoft HR. Amit spent a decade in various sales positions managing Applications sales organizations in the Northeast and Midwest. He began his Oracle career in product development, designing and building some of the first Oracle Applications, before moving into channel management.

Amit is a graduate of Rensselaer with a master’s degree in industrial and management engineering and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Delhi College of Engineering.