SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Kevin Hall

Director of Business Development- Contract Packaging, Menasha

Contract Packaging for Menasha, the industry’s largest independent, retail-focused packaging and merchandising provider. With over 20 years of supply chain experience, both as brand owner with the Clorox Company and as a supply chain services supplier with small and large packaging companies, Kevin has spent his career focused on product customization specific to various retail channel demands.  As a frequent industry speaker and college lecturer, Kevin enjoys helping everyone from industry veterans to young supply chain talent solve the most difficult retail customization challenges.

Jeff Kaiden

Chief Executive Officer, Capacity LLC

Jeff has managed Capacity since its inception in 1999, guiding innovation in fulfillment technology and customer satisfaction. He brings a combination of engineering knowledge and passionate leadership to the organization where has overseen triple digit growth over the past three years and steady growth throughout the company’s 18 year history.

Jeff works closely with Capacity’s Operations and Engineering teams to craft and deploy unique technology and materials handling solutions. These solutions enable clients to rapidly scale their ecommerce channels from hundreds to thousands to tens of thousands of daily orders and also to handle the complexities of their domestic and international retail customer shipments.

Prior to founding Capacity, Jeff served as Senior Consultant at Sigman/Kaiden Consultants, working from 1995 to 1999 with major corporations around the USA to develop and implement warehouse designs and material handling solutions. Standout projects included an innovative design for the launch of Fresh Direct in New York. Between 1990 and 1995, he worked as project manager on the design, financial modeling, development and construction of private sector infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia with Hopewell Holdings Ltd. of Hong Kong and the Keppel Group of Singapore.

Jeff holds a degree in Civil Engineering and Operations Research from Princeton University. Outside of the office Jeff cooks a mean chili, a compelling Thai curry, and a very labor-intensive French Onion soup, as well as speaking the languages of each of these dishes and a few more to boot.

 

John Jaffke

Senior Executive, Kraft Heinz Company

John Jaffke is an accomplished Senior Executive, Entrepreneur, and Board Member with more than 35 years of success in the food production and food & beverage industries. Leveraging extensive experience with solving specific business problems related to expansion, John is a valuable asset for companies seeking guidance on developing a business strategy from concept, plans, automation, and implementation. His broad areas of expertise include operations management, logistics, supply chain, strategy, sales, business development, CPG, procurement, merchandising, design, manufacturing, and process improvement.

Throughout his executive career, John has held leadership positions with DJ Jaffke Consulting; The Kraft Heinz Company; Kraft Foods Group; Oscar Mayer Foods Corp, and Frito Lay. In his current role as President and Co-Founder of DJ Jaffke Consulting, he has been responsible for developing and implementing strategies which improve operational effectiveness,  drive revenue growth, and enhance shareholder value; improving enterprise effectiveness thru personal engagement, a focus on business performance, timely strategic planning, the sharing of operations management expertise, and building the best supplier relationships. Previously, as Senior Director, Merchandising at The Kraft Heinz Company, John led KHC’s $4 billion in-store display business, including the post- merger integration of all Heinz brands; he was instrumental in the design, manufacturing, procurement, and logistics of 2200 projects annually, across a complex 15-site outsourced supply chain; industry Board experience gave broad exposure to business trends such as ‘Speed-to-Market’, leading to a redesign of Kraft processes and Customer Fill Rate (CFR) improvements of 4%, and he developed and implemented a new supply chain to address the market expansion of E-Commerce.  John recently completed a Supply Chain analysis for a major packaging company which will lead to profit improvements of $32 million.

John holds an MBA in Business Administration (magna cum laude) from Indiana Wesleyan University and a BBA in Production Operations Management (magna cum laude) from UW-Whitewater. He has served on the Board of Sun Prairie (WI) School Board, an elected position where he served for three years as both Vice President and President as a Member of the Board of Directors for POPAI (Point of Purchase Advertising Institute). In addition, John was honored from 2011-2017 as a “Who’s Who in Shopper Marketing” by the Path to Purchase Institute.  CBE Board Certified in M&A, Long-Term Growth, Strategic Communications, and Audit.

Mindy Remiker

Director of E-commerce, Rust-Oleum

Mindy is responsible for maintaining and growing some of Rust-Oleum’s largest E-Commerce accounts including Home Depot, Amazon, Lowes, Wal-Mart and Menards. She also actively works each day to expand Rust-Oleum’s distribution to pure play e-commerce retailers.  Her department is responsible for all aspects of E-Commerce from content and SEO to order fulfillment.

Mindy joined Rust-Oleum in August 2004 as the Category Manager for Home Depot. Prior to her current role, she was an account manager for brick and mortar stores as well as E-Commerce. Mindy has been working in E-Commerce at Rust-Oleum for over 5 years.

Diane Wolf -Consultant for Food and Beverage Industry in Supply Chain and Operations

Diane is a former Vice President of Operations, Engineering and Global Safety, Environmental and Sustainability for Kraft Foods.

With over 30 years of experience, Wolf has held key positions in capital procurement, engineering, manufacturing and product development in North America and globally.  She led the maintenance and engineering functions in both NA and then globally and was very involved in the recruitment and development of engineering talent. Diane was actively engaged in the integration of Cadbury and Kraft and led the EHS, Sustainability and Compliance processes supporting the global Manufacturing network.

In addition to her consulting for her clients, Diane is currently working for Competitive Capabilities International, CCi, an international Manufacturing Excellence company as a Key Account Executive where she is leading the continuous improvement process for several Fortune 50 companies.

She holds a B.S. in Engineering and a M.S. in Engineering Management.

Diane has recently moved on to the EPI Breads Board of Directors. She has also been active at the board level in Heartland Alliance, a Chicago based Not For Profit for 5 years, as well as  FPSA Women’s Council and Global Women’s Leadership Forum.

Dan Haney

President, Haney Packaging

Dan Haney is the co-founder and president of Haney, Inc. Together with his brother, Matt Haney, they founded the company in 1990 to serve the brand package innovation, and go-to-market needs, of global billion-dollar consumer packaged goods companies and design agencies. Dan has a BFA in Graphic Design from Kent State University and is passionate about building capabilities that connect design, technical packaging and consumer insights teams within CPGs.  His objective is to dramatically accelerate brand packaging innovation and provide essential tools, talent and technologies that enable brands to fully leverage the power of their packaging to delight consumers and drive brand growth.

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Ron Puvak

Managing Director, Contract Packaging Association

Ron Puvak has been in the packaging industry for 40 plus years. In 1976 he began his career in Research as a Research Technician. His responsibilities included projects in Material Strength studies, Fracture Analyses and Technology Training. In 1985 as a Technical Sales Representative and became responsible for the development and promotion of inspection systems to the packaging industry. Then he was promoted to Regional Manager – Europe, onto New Product Marketing Director and finally New Business Development Director.

In 2007 he joined Plastic Technologies Inc. His duties are focused on Marketing and New Business Development for the PTI family of companies. His activities include promoting PTI’s innovative, collaborative efforts as well as any licensing agreements. He is also the Managing Director, of the PTI’s/SBA-CCI joint annual event “The Packaging Conference”.

He is also a member of the International Society of Beverage Technologists (ISBT). He has served as Chairman for the Packaging Technology Committee and now is a board member of the national organization. In 2014 Ron was the President of ISBT. In addition, he is a member of the Society of Plastics Engineers and a member of both the Blow Molding. He has served as Secretary, Chair-elect and Chairman and now serves on the board as Honored Service member.

In 2003 and then in 2010 Ron received recognition as a Certified Packaging Professional (CPP) via the Institute of Packaging Professionals (IOPP).   He is now has a lifetime CPP designation.

In September 2017 he accepted the position of Managing Director for the CPA.

Marty Toman

General Manager, Midland Paper, Packaging and Supplies

Marty has been with Midland for 7 years.  He started as General Manager and was recently promoted to Vice President.

While at Midland, the organization has dramatically grown its automation, parts and service organization and invested in a full service Design Center.  Midland’s Des Plaines, IL warehouse also became SQF Certified – one of the few in the distribution space to have such a designation.

Marty has been in distribution for over 25 years and provided start up and revenue turn around leadership local, regional and national.

Marty is married with 3 children and lives in St. Charles, IL.

David Eggleston

President, Frain Integration

David brings over 30 years of executive officer level management for both publically traded and privately held firms. David’s experience includes responsibility for mergers and acquisitions, start-ups, corporate process engineering, business ownership, strategic planning and implementation.

Having served on a number of business advisory boards, David brought his real world business experience to Frain Integration.

Working as part of the Executive Strategy Team, David was instrumental in re-positioning and re-branding the Frain Integration 4.0 Service Portfolio. Focused on emerging consumer trends and demographics, the program is centered around speed to market, cash and capital management, shared assets/flexible manufacturing and risk avoidance.

David has published a series of industry white papers, served as a guest speaker and panelist for a range of industry events and appeared in a number of educationally driven industry videos.

Eric Lockovitch

VP of Sales, Midland Paper, Packaging & Supplies

Eric started his career in packaging 23 years ago and has been with Midland Packaging for the last 10 years.  He graduated from University of Wisconsin Stout with a Business Degree and Minor in Packaging.  His career started in the solid fiber and corrugate world and later moving to packaging distribution.  He has been in packaging distribution sales for a total of 18 years.  Recently, Eric was appointed Director of Equipment Solutions for Midland Paper with a goal of creating a consistent national platform in automation, systems, service across a rapidly growing customer base. 

Eric recently implemented a national technician support team to improve up time at the customer’s site and respond quickly on general inquiries to Midland’s growing portfolio of national packaging accounts.  Centralized customer service and tech deployment with increased redundancy for rapid response.  Eric also led the team that installed a new service ticket management system to ensure customers are kept current on status on all requests.

Midland is a privately held Paper and Packaging distributor with 20 locations across the Midwest.  Eric is still actively involved in national account management for Midland Packaging while focusing on his new role of growing the equipment and service program on a national level.

Chris Nutley

President, MSW Packaging

Chris Nutley is President of MSW Packaging – A Co-Manufacturer/Co-Packer Chris helped found in 1991 with two facilities in SE Indiana. MSW-Greendale serves the beverage and food industries for specialized cartoning, printed film variety packs, shrink sleeve labeling and displays. MSW-Batesville is a world-class SQF-L2 facility dedicated to primary filling, fulfillment, and distribution of flexible pouches for dry snack foods, granola, nuts, trail mix, crisps, and dried fruit. In 2018, MSW-Batesville opened up baking operations for the granola and trail mix markets.

Chris has more than 25 years Contract Packaging experience to compliment 5 years of grocery merchandising experience, a former Board Member/President of the Contract Packaging Association, and currently on the Executive Council of the PMMI OpX Leadership Network.  Building upon his education and experience in machinery operations, in 2005, Chris founded, C-Crest Packaging Systems, Inc. – a custom design/build process developer and consulting firm, focusing on unique automation solutions for small/medium size Co-Manufacturers and Packagers, where he holds one mechanical process patent.  Chris attended Tri-State University (Angola, Indiana) where he majored in Mechanical Engineering.

Chris serves the Boy Scouts of America, and nearly 1200 Scouts at the Council level in South-Central Indiana, and is currently a Chapter Advisor in the Order of the Arrow.  If you reach out to Chris, and he’s unavailable, he’s likely backpacking with his wife, Stephanie, and their four teenage children. Or, he’s busy rehearsing the “Spanish-word-of-the-day” from their foreign exchange student, Nico.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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