We were honored to welcome the following speakers to the inaugural Global Footwear and Apparel Traceability in Portland, Oregon, October 17-18, 2024.
Keynote Speakers
Felicia M. Pullam was appointed to serve as the Executive Director of the Office of Trade Relations at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in 2021. She leads a team that acts as CBP's primary point of contact for private sector and stakeholder engagement, while also serving as an advisor to the Commissioner.
Pullam has worked on trade issues from both the state and federal perspective: she has served at the Delaware Department of State, the Maryland Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
During the Obama Administration, Pullam helped steer SelectUSA, a presidential initiative housed within Commerce, through a high-pressure start-up phase to promote the United States as the leading global destination for foreign direct investment. Pullam was then appointed to the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Textiles, Consumer Goods, and Materials, where she managed three offices to analyze and implement trade policy covering a large swath of the global economy.
Outside of government service, Pullam was recently the Director of Strategy at the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. Earlier in her career, she spent nearly a decade in China, leading the Asia regional corporate responsibility and sustainability practice for APCO Worldwide. She got her start as a Princeton in Asia Fellow, followed by a yearlong adventure as the tutor and translator for actress Zhang Ziyi. She graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University.
Noel Kinder is a thought leader in global sustainability and has more than 20 years of experience in general management, strategic planning, supply chain management, and government relations.
Kinder most recently served as Nike's Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) where he led Nike's "Move to Zero" strategy and integrated sustainability across functions, resulting in Nike's recognition as an industry leader in sustainability.
Prior to the CSO role, Kinder served as Vice President of Sustainable Manufacturing and Sourcing, and before that as general manager of Nike Vietnam LLC, one of the company's largest sourcing countries, in which he was responsible for all manufacturing operations and represented Nike as the country's largest indirect employer to the Vietnamese government.
He has served as a member of the New York Stock Exchange Sustainability Advisory Council and currently advises Collab Fund and Greenplaces.
Kinder holds a bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Oregon and a master's degree in business from Portland State University. He is fluent in Spanish.
Event Panelists
Brian Carelli combines more than 20 years of technology experience with a dozen years in supply chain to find innovative solutions for Infor Nexus's footwear and apparel customers. Carelli fused his passions for sustainability, technology, and product into a new role focused on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) in 2023. He and his team are building clever applications to improve supplier traceability, to accurately calculate scope 3 carbon emissions and to produce better outcomes for people and the planet in general.
Serial entrepreneur Jeff Gaus is the founder and CEO of The Provenance Chain Network, whose mission is to be the system of evidence for verifiable credentials of people, places, processes, and products of critical supply chains. Gaus also founded the Oregon Enterprise Blockchain Venture Studio to establish Oregon's position with this emerging technology, and is a member of several boards and committees focused on blockchain.
Karen Lobdell has more than 30 years of global trade experience, during which she held numerous management positions in the areas of operations, business development, product management, trade policy and regulatory compliance. She is also a U.S. licensed customs broker. Her focus is on supply chain risk and trade compliance, including the government regulations, policies, initiatives affecting clients operating in global markets. She provideces guidance on how to use technology to mitigate supply chain risk. Lobdell completed two terms as an appointed member of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations (COAC), and is a current member of the COAC Forced Labor Working Group as well as the American Association of Exporters and Importers Board of Governors.
Kevin Myette has extensive experience in international business as well as supply chain, product development and information systems. He has been in his current role at bluesign technologies for more than 10 years, overseeing the systems that evaluate and improve all bluesign brands for chemical integrity and overall sustainability. Prior to bluesign, Myette spent 27 years with Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI), where he headed product integrity and supply chain sustainability and also served in product quality, research, materials and development roles, and was responsible for creating and managing the organization's original product sustainability and social responsibility programs.
Andre Raghu is a recognized authority with more than 20 years of experience in regulatory traceability, labor standards, and supply chain due diligence. Under his leadership as CEO, HAP International has become an industry leader in leveraging such advanced technologies as deep learning to enhance end-to-end supply chain due diligence. Raghu is also co-creator of the TRACE ID system, which fosters collective action across the global trade community, reducing due diligence and traceability costs for importers while driving the normalization of enhanced traceability standards at the source.
As Commercial Strategic Leader for Cargill Cotton, Krista Rickman is responsible for the company's cotton sustainability portfolio and engaging with brands and retailers. During her 30-year career with Cargill, Rickman's previous roles include Global Operations Leader, which saw her managing trade execution, logistics, supply chain, and warehousing, and North American Controller. She is the current president of the Southern Cotton Association, and also serves as a board member for the American Cotton Shippers Association, International Cotton Association, National Cotton Council, U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, The Seam, and EWR.
In his role in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Apparel, Footwear, and Textile Center, James Snider has oversight of such various enforcement activities as forced labor, trade special operations, free trade agreements, and intellectual property rights. Snider joined U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the port of Long Beach in 1992 and relocated to the San Diego in 2001 to become a supervisory import specialist. He served a decade as a supervisor trade program manager with the San Diego field office prior to his assignment as an assistant center director in 2016.
As director of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Trade Modernization Division, Garret Wright is responsible for leading efforts to modernize the agency's legal framework, strengthening its response to supply chain disruptions impacting the trade environment, executing the Global Business Identifier Test to facilitate supply chain traceability, and establishing requirements for the cross-border movement of drones. Wright has more than 14 years of experience within U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Prior to his current role, he led numerous high-profile, broad impact initiatives within the agency's Office of Trade, Office of Field Operations, and Enterprise Services.
Committee Members and Organizers
Jay Golden is an internationally recognized researcher and academic regarding the dynamics of the global sustainability transition and the transition to a net-zero carbon economy. He is the Pontarelli Professor of Environmental Sustainability and Finance at Syracuse University, where he also founded and directs the Dynamic Sustainability Lab. He also serves on the boards or as a technical advisor for multiple businesses, as well as as a consultant for both public and private organizations. In 2017, Golden was appointed to the Board of Scientific Counselors for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where he served on the executive committee until 2024. Prior to Syracuse, Golden led major research centers at Arizona State University and Duke University. He has served as a University Vice Chancellor and University President and CEO as well as leadership positions in the private sector, including a fortune 250 environmental services company. He is the author of the recently published book, Dynamic Sustainability: Implications for Policy, Markets and National Security.
Dave Kelley's 24 years at Nike Inc. spanned a wide set of functions, including sports marketing and sales, but focused primarily on end-to-end supply chain management, including footwear materials management, manufacturing, product creation, distribution and logistics, and manufacturing innovation. During his time with Nike, Kelley spent three years working in Vietnam and three years working in The Netherlands. After retiring in 2018, Kelley started his own consulting firm, Zefyr Solutions LLC, which focuses on optimizing supply chains in the footwear and apparel industries. He also teaches for the UO Sports Product Management program and serves on a variety of industry advisory boards. Outside of work, Dave is passionate about advocating for improving the lives of individuals living with Autism.
Stacey Roen is a traceability and transparency consultant with more than 15 years experience working in apparel supply chain responsibility. She previously served as the Vice President of Traceability Design for Oritain, and before that worked for 7 years developing lululemon athletica's social compliance and traceability programs. She has also worked for Columbia Sportswear and PVH. Roen grew up watching her parents and grandparents manufacture clothing and deal with a variety of compliance challenges, and has a passion for transparent and sustainable supply chains.
After being personally mentored by Bill Bowerman and spending 27 years at Nike working in Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, Korea and the United States, Ellen Schmidt-Devlin realized there wasn't a program out there that could prepare students to work in the sports product industry. Upon receiving her MBA at the University of Oregon's Lundquist College of Business, she worked alongside Roger Best to cofound the university's Sports Product Management program. She also teaches the program's Integrative Project-Sports Product Making course. Schmidt-Devlin's expertise spans across the supply chain with direct responsibility for product development, merchandising, marketing, and manufacturing. Her strengths include strategic planning, team leadership, project management, international business management, and government and partner company relationship building.
Lorrie Vogel is the founder of ImagineNOW LLC, a consultancy that accelerates innovation by using the power of design thinking, leveraging more than 30 years of innovation, design, and sustainability expertise. Previously, she enjoyed a 21-year career at Nike in such roles as Vice President of Material Science and Innovation, General Manager for Sustainable Design, and Innovation Director for Nike Footwear, Apparel, and Equipment. In 2010, Vogel cofounded the Sustainable Apparel Coalition. She was named to Fast Company's annual Fast 50 list of innovative companies and "incubators of genius," and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry recognized her as one of its top 12 innovators due to her more than 30 utility patents. Her sustainable design work has been featured in multiple publications, including an MIT case study, establishing her as a global leader shaping the future of the apparel and footwear industry.