Productivity and Operational Excellence

David Rowlands VP of Quality Xerox Corp.	David L. Rowlands is the Vice President of Quality within Corporate Strategic Services, Xerox Corporation. He was appointed to this position in January 2000. David joined Xerox in 1990, working as a business and finance analyst in Materials Management. He followed this assignment with several operational positions including components maufacturing operations manager, product manager for the Color Focus Factory, and director of the worldwide Fuser Delivery Unit. In these positions, he was responsible for technology development, design engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain operations. He has also managed the productivity office for worldwide manufacturing within Xerox, and is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Currently, he is a member of the board of governors for the Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing, and has been a featured speaker at The Conference Board, The Shingo Prize and the ABB Automation Best Practices Seminars. Previous to Xerox, Rowlands had been a consultant with Andersen Consulting, specializing in productivity, flow manufacturing, and lean enterprise transformations. Rowlands was born March 30, 1961 in Tokyo Japan. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Houghton College in 1983, and concurrently completed his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry (1987, Univ. of Rochester) and his MBA (1986, Rochester Institute of Technology). He and his wife, Anne, reside in the small town of Honeoye Falls, New York with their four children.
Sandy Postel VP of Quality Boeing Commercial Airplanes	Sandy Postel is vice president of Quality for Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group. She is responsible for ensuring the integrity of the Boeing Quality Management System and the Production Certificate throughout Commercial Airplanes. She also plays a key role in working with the Federal Aviation Administration to ensure the highest standards of quality and safety. As Director of Operations for the Longer-Range 777, Sandy led production support for development and managed manufacturing of the derivative airplanes. In addition, she was the 777 family supply chain manager, responsible for streamlining processes and redesigning the 777 product supply chain. Prior to this, Sandy was director of the Aircraft Interiors Responsibility Center, leading the business unit that designs, produces and tests Boeing Commercial Aircraft Interiors. From 1996-1998, as director of Manufacturing Research & Development (MR&D) she led the MR&D function in providing principal research and development for manufacturing and quality assurance. Sandy also served as Manufacturing Business Unit manager for the Composite Manufacturing Center (CMC) and Process Assembly. Sandy began her Boeing career in 1979 as a chemical process engineer, working in Manufacturing Research & Development for Boeing Commercial Airplane Group. After working as a factory support engineer in the 747/767 Paint Hangars, she was promoted to supervisor of Interior Fireworthiness. Earning a bachelor's degree in biology from Purdue University, Postel serves as Boeing Executive Focal to the university. She earned a master's degree from the University of Wyoming and has also completed the executive management course at Duke University. She is the Boeing Executive Focal for Society of Women Engineers as well as a member of the Industrial Advisory Board for the Society of Women Engineers at Purdue. In 1998, she served as co-chair of the Technical University Relations Coordinating Committee (URCC) for Boeing and currently serves on the Boeing Diversity Strategy Leadership Team. Recently, she completed the Advanced Management Program-International Senior Manager Program at Harvard Business School. Prior to Boeing she taught for three years. Her outside interests include antiques, hiking and golf.
Sharon Sarlo Lean Division Director Jungle Group	Sharon Sarlo is one of the leading providers of Saiteki-ka ("The Discipline of Optimization"). During the course of her 20-year career, she has developed in-depth training and implementation methods that are predictable, repeatable and scalable for Manufacturing as well as Office environments. These methods enable any company to attain significant improvement in critical business processes that drive increased profitability. Sharon has been recognized for outstanding performance in the implementation of Lean techniques and methodologies in companies such as Iomega Corporation, where she designed and taught the Total Quality Control concepts, which allowed the company to successfully implement a world class manufacturing facility. This resulted in Iomega winning the Shingo Prize for Manufacturing Excellence in 1992. Recently she has been successful in translating the methods and techniques from a manufacturing focus to administrative and office type businesses with comparable manufacturing results. One of the challenges that exist in any improvement effort is sustainability of results. For the past year, Sharon has been working with the Jungle Group which has developed reporting software that completes the implementation process and adds the needed level of accountability and visibility to the improvement process. Some of Sharon's speaking engagements have included Intel Corporation, Xerox, GM Nameplate, Council for Continuous Improvement, Department of the Air Force, Productivity Inc., and Management Roundtable.
Dr. H. Thomas Johnson, School of Business Administration Portland State University	Tom is currently the Retzlaff Professor of Business Administration at Portland State University. He is a noted authority on economic/business history, management accounting, and quality management. His current research focuses on the intersection of ecologic/systemic thinking, learning theory, and organizational management. He is currently exploring and documenting the central organizing principles that guide the affairs of several highly successful manufacturing companies located in North America, Europe and Japan. Tom has authored seven books and over 100 articles and reviews on subjects in accounting economic history and management. Since the mid-1980s Johnson has given hundreds of presentations and workshops for corporate, professional and academic audiences around the world and he has consulted with numerous major organizations. Johnson has an undergraduate degree in economics from Harvard, an MBA in public accounting from Rutgers and a PhD in economic history from the University of Wisconsin. Before entering academics, he was employed as a CPA by Arthur Andersen & Co. Tom's presentation, From Mass Thinking to Natural System Design, will contrast the 17th-century "mass" thinking that has guided American and European business practices over the past century with the evolutionary cosmological thinking that is at the leading edge of modern physics. Consideration will be given to how the new thinking emerging from present-day physics might influence business practices in the 21st century.
Bruce D. Farmer President & CEO Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation
Peter Brown Director PQS Training, LLC.
Tim Costello CEO Builder Homesite, Inc.