Jerry Alderman is the founder and CEO of Valkre. Through Valkre, he has helped companies including GE, Owens Corning, Philips, Amgen, Varian, Sabre and others leverage technology to improve Customer Value Creation and Co-Creation. He started his business career at Boise Corporation where he spent 12 years learning and experiencing the unique challenges of B2B companies. Before starting his business career, Jerry served six years on nuclear submarines as a Naval Officer through the Admiral Rickover program. These experiences, combined with a Bachelor Degree in Civil Engineering, a Master’s Degree in Nuclear Engineering, and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business provide the basis for his work.

Session 211: Building Account Plans with Account-Based Marketing

Steve Andersen founded Performance Methods, Inc. following a successful technology career that included multiple appointments as chief sales officer. PMI's unique approach provides clients with customized sales, account management and sales management solutions that are among the most highly regarded within the sales performance industry. Steve’s background includes extensive experience in sales, sales management and sales leadership, and he brings a contemporary, practical view to his work with clients, which include many of the world’s largest corporations. Steve has addressed a variety of audiences on a wide-range of sales and account management topics and has numerous publications in the areas of sales, sales management and account management best practices, including Beyond the Sales Process: 12 Proven Strategies for a Customer-Driven World and The Keys to Effective Strategic Account Planning. You can reach Steve at https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-andersen-5442ab11/.

Session 113: Planning to Grow: The Critical Elements of an Effective Account Growth Strategy (Sunday only)

Alessio's business experience, customer orientation and passion for customers were instrumental in the design, launch and success as the Director of the Strategic Key account organization 3M EMEA.

Alessio holds a university degree in Engineering from Politecnico of Milano and a Master in Business Administration from Bocconi University of Milano. He joined 3M in 1981 and along his 37 years experience has held different positions of increased responsibilities. In particular he was Business Director Industrial Adhesives and Tapes EMEA and Market Director of Safety and Security West Europe at 3M HQ in Brussels. In 2015 through 2018 he has been Director of Strategic Key Accounts Organization West Europe. Retired in September 2018, he is member of the Board of Directors Fondazione 3M , Professor and Member of the Advisory Board of the Executive Master at BBS.

Session 124: You’d Better Know How to Engage with Executives!

Melody Astley joined FinListics as VP of Sales in June 2013. Melody’s previous positions include senior sales posts at Gartner and IBM, where she earned a “Best of IBM” award as one of the corporation’s top 500 performers worldwide.

Having utilized FinListics’ solutions while at IBM, Melody understands how instrumental they are when building a business case for a company’s products and services. In her role at FinListics, Melody is responsible for the design and implementation of a disciplined and scalable sales engine that “spreads the word” about FinListics’ solutions, she says, and grows the business strategically. “The CFO looks at more deals than ever before,” Melody explains, adding that the way to structure a deal has changed. “That structure is much more financially driven.” According to Melody, a compelling seller is one who understands the client from a business and financial perspective, and who maps solutions for that client through a problem solving lens. FinListics’ solutions, notes Melody, bolster a seller’s case by linking his or her company’s products and services to improvements in a client’s bottom line.

She earned her MBA from Goizueta Business School at Emory University and received her undergraduate degree in Marketing/ Management Information Systems from Ohio University.

When not at work, Melody enjoys trying the latest restaurants (though she swears she will cook in more), running, traveling, and spending time with friends and with her children – a Boxer and a Boston Terrier.

Session 103: Bringing Value: Using Insight-Led Selling

Kim was born and raised in the Central Florida area. She went to college in Orlando and received a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from The University of Central Florida. Kim has been in the Animal Health pharmaceutical industry for the last 25+ years in various sales, marketing and leadership roles within Pfizer Animal Health / Zoetis. She spent the first 9 years selling veterinary medicines and vaccines in Orlando, then moved to Pfizer HQ in New York City to become a sales trainer. Soon after, Kim started her journey in marketing and worked on pain management and parasiticides brands as well as launched key brands within Pfizer/Zoetis over the next 8 years. In 2011, Kim was then promoted to create the marketing division of Zoetis ’Corporate Accounts team. There she worked in partnership with her sales and medical leads managing the Zoetis business for some of the largest Corporate and Specialty customers within Zoetis. Today, Kim has grown this role from a team of 1 to now leading a team of 9 marketing and operations colleagues that work hand in hand with over 50 Corporate & Specialty partners within Zoetis. Kim is an active member of the SAMA Community and looks forward to continuing the journey and learning from her peers. She currently lives in Hattiesburg, MS with her husband Chris and their two sons, Matthew and Mason, along with dogs Bella and Beignet and the big boss Blaze the cat.

Session 114: Aligning Your Cross-Functional Account Team to Co-Create Customer Value

Dino Bertani serves on the Board of Directors of the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA) and brings over 20 years of big pharma experience. Dino worked at AbbVie, Allergan, MSD (Merck & Co.) and Pfizer in local, regional and global roles spanning Marketing & Sales Management, Commercial Excellence and Customer Centricity.

Most recently, Dino led the international Strategic Account Management activities as Executive Director at Allergan Aesthetics, an AbbVie company, and rolled-out of the Customer Centricity strategy across Europe, Middle East, Africa and Canada at MSD International before managing the company’s global priority accounts in the public sector.

Dino lives in Zurich, Switzerland where he started his professional career as Strategy Consultant at Bain & Company and holds a Master of Science in Biochemistry from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) and an Executive MBA from Quantic School of Business and Technology.

Session 119: How to Operationalize the SAMA Seven-Step Process for Value Co-Creation

Shakeel Bharmal is an experienced business and non-profit leader with a proven track record at the senior management level, as well as a consultant, teacher, & management coach. He has demonstrated the ability to drive revenue growth by aligning customer-focused strategy with operational execution. His experience includes leading start-ups, process and organization transformations, product launches, and turn-around situations.

In addition to being a senior member of the Summit team, he is a practicing executive coach and a member of the Ivey Coaching Network at the University of Western Ontario’s Ivey School of Business. For the past 7 years he has been the chief operating officer and director of resource development for an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network. Prior to this he launched The Summit Group in Canada, where he focused on teaching business acumen to sales teams, and developing and coaching sales and marketing leaders’ capabilities in the online, transportation, construction, biotech, medical equipment, and pharmaceutical industries.

His leadership experience in the supply chain and logistics industry includes serving as general manager of global logistics, and director of marketing and salesforce effectiveness at Purolator. Other experiences include: management roles in the retail and wholesale oil & gas sector; teaching supply chain and general management at the University of British Columbia and Gold Platinum Institute in Russia; and as a strategy consultant to clients in aerospace, natural gas, energy, and transportation industries.

Shakeel holds an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business, where he graduated as Valedictorian. He is based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Session 109: Using a Coach Approach With Your Customer to Deepen the Relationship

Session 204: Third Box Strategy Alignment: Design Thinking to Co-Create Your Customers’ Future

Bio coming soon.

Session 211: Building Account Plans with Account-Based Marketing

Bio coming soon.

Session 107: Mastering Communications in the Post-Covid World

Rachel Brutosky is the Vice President of Sales – Strategic Accounts for Nilfisk, Inc., a leading global supplier of professional cleaning equipment. Under her leadership, Brutosky is spearheading the transformation of the company’s Strategic Account Program, utilizing SAMA principles. She joined Nilfisk in 2007 and throughout her tenure has held various cross-functional roles in Communications, Marketing, and Sales. Brutosky is well-versed in strategy development technique, servant leadership, and building strong professional selling teams founded on process, discipline, and internal alignment. She is a member of the company’s U.S. Executive Leadership Team.

Brutosky is passionate about leading and coaching others to bring out their highest potential. She is certified in Situational Leadership II, has a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications from Temple University, and a Master of Business Administration from West Chester University. Brutosky also serves on the board for the ISSA Hygieia Network – a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of women in the cleaning industry. Above all, Brutosky is a mother of 2 girls, ages 8 and 10.

Session 125: How COVID Changed an Entire Industry’s Movement From Backstage to Center Stage

Kate Burda is the CEO and founder of consulting firm Kate Burda & Co, which leads revenue performance and growth strategies for organizations, large multi-national brands, owners, and investors. Through the “revenue trifecta” of sales, digital marketing, and price modeling, many of Kate’s clients have enjoyed 25 percent growth in revenue gains through her work.

Working with companies from startups to exit strategy, financial downturns, and shifts within the marketplace over her nearly 30 years   of experience, Kate has advised some of the world’s leading companies, such as Goldman Sachs, Brookfield, Abbott, Boehringer Ingelheim, Ricoh, Marriott International, Hilton, Loews Hotels, IHG and more.   She has worked for multi-national firms in leading sales, marketing, and revenue management / pricing teams at the executive level.

Kate has brought thought leadership within marketing strategies within branding, awareness marketing in the digital space, as well as creating methodology in effective targeted marketing to your most valuable customer segments.   She has led and developed strategy in working with teams to create a revenue roadmap and how to engage commercial teams to effectively achieve that future vision.  

Recently they have just launched IGNITE, a SaaS program, that enables companies to create a revenue pathway and connect teams to goals and strategies. 

As an industry leader, Kate is a Think Tank member of the Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell and has taught graduate and undergraduate courses for Fairleigh Dickinson University and Purdue University System teaching Revenue Management and Distribution, Global Marketing and Digital Marketing. Her memberships include Boutique Lifestyle Leaders Association (BLLA), International Society of Hotel Consultants (ISHC), Kate has spoken at Chesapeake Hospitality Summit, Hunter Conference, Hotel Asset Manager Association 2020 Summit, and more. She earned her MBA at University of Colorado and currently lives in Dallas.

Session 302: Developing Strategic Account Managers: A Roundtable with IDEXX, AbbVie and Ecolab

Prior to joining the Columbia Business School faculty in 1979, Professor Capon served on the faculties at UCLA Graduate School of Management and Harvard Business School. He has also been a Visiting Professor at INSEAD (Fontainebleau France), the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), and the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) (Shanghai). He also holds the position of Distinguished Visiting Professor at Manchester Business School (Great Britain).

Professor Capon's early training was in chemistry; he holds B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from University College, London University. He also holds advanced degrees in business administration from Manchester (Dip. BA), Harvard (MBA), and Columbia Business Schools (Ph.D.). His publications have appeared in many refereed journals and managerial outlets. He has also written several research and managerial books on marketing, sales, and key and global account management. To address the high cost of college education, Professor Capon’s publisher, Wessex Press, offers his marketing textbooks at low prices and with pay-what-you-think-it’s-worth options.

Professor Capon is a highly experienced executive educator. He has designed and directed many educational programs in marketing, sales, and account management for Columbia Business School, other educational institutions, and business organizations globally. At Columbia, he is Director of the Managing Strategic Accounts and Global Account Manager Certification programs. He also teaches on Columbia's Executive MBA program and its partner programs with the University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley/Columbia EMBA) and London Business School (EMBA Global). You may learn more about Professor Capon at www.axcesscapon.com.

Session 126: Managing Global Accounts 

Mounir Chaouki is an IT/Telecom engineer and has a Doctorate of Business Administration in Strategy from Nice Sophia Antipolis. He is a consultant trainer certified with honors in the development of business competitiveness by the ITC / OMC / United Nations with more than 20 years of international experience in Marketing and Sales support. Since January 2017 Mounir has held the position of Timeshare Marketing Director (50% of the time) and Co-Head of the Strategic Sales Global Accounts (Top company accounts) for a leading group in the health sector Promamec (520 million MAD of turnover & 300 employees). He has lived in Paris for 11 years where he has held various regional and global responsibilities in setting price-by-value policy, product management, project management in the Telecom environment.

As a Consultant, Mounir has supported numerous industrial and service references in strengthening their Marketing and Sales capacities.

In addition, Mounir has taken academic responsibilities.He is a Lecturer in several French Top Tier Engineering and Business Schools (Télécoms ParisTech…) and leads seminars in Marketing & Sales for the training of managers and executives. As a trainer, he values learning through doing and enjoy using gamification. Mounir has carried out the engineering of several multimodal training systems in Top Tier French and Moroccan business schools and companies. He believes, active pedagogy-based on the concepts of Neuroscience enable permanent anchoring of learning.

Session 202: Introduction of a New SAM Organization in the Healthcare Distributor Environment in Africa

Dennis Chapman is a talented and seasoned executive with over 40 years of sales and account management experience. Dennis brings a wealth of expertise in the areas prospect/pipeline management, sales coaching and leadership, customer loyalty/commitment assessments and strategic account management (process, methodologies, skills, and tools/metrics). His metric-based, collaborative approach to working with clients has enable organizations to experience significant and sustainable revenue results in the form of client retention, acquisition and growth.

Dennis started The Chapman Group in 1988 – a sales and account/relationship management effectiveness consulting firm that specializes in optimizing client revenues and relationships. The Chapman Group currently works with organizations across a variety industries including, Healthcare and Pharmaceutical, Specialty Chemicals, Business Services, Insurance, and Finance, to develop more mutually beneficial relationships with their customers. The Chapman Group is a Strategic Partner of Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA) and a Core 4 CSAM program provider.

Dennis is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts School of Business and prior to starting The Chapman Group held sales and management positions with Xerox, ROLM/IBM and other high-tech firms. He is a former panelist in the Johns Hopkins MBA Capstone Program and a past member of the SAMA Board of Directors.

Over the past 30 years, as the Founder/CEO of The Chapman Group, Dennis has established himself as a thought leader in sales and account management community and has not only been nationally published on the topics of sales, sales leadership, customer feedback/experience management, strategic account management and sales performance metrics, but also speaks globally on these very same topics.

Session 208: Metrics that Predict If Your SAM Program Will Succeed

Jeff is responsible for delivering the SNI classroom experience. This responsibility includes making sure that customized programs are relevant to participants and that simulations are challenging and have the right amounts of education, reality, and levity. Jeff acts as a live negotiations consultant during the day of facilitation, offering opportunities for program participants to tackle current issues that may lend themselves to an even deeper level of application of the principles.

Jeff has coached negotiation teams within organizations and has delivered high impact presentations from 45 minutes to three days in length. His audience size has ranged from five executives around a boardroom table to 600 people in an auditorium. In addition to his role as an educator and an entertainer, Jeff has also played a significant role in selling and designing negotiations programs for SNI.

At ADP Total Source, SNI training implemented by Jeff had a major impact on reducing the number of days from hire to productivity for new District Managers. He also delivered “Listening for Negotiators,” a program that demonstrates the value of better listening skills in terms of increased efficiency, improved morale, and greater productivity.

Jeff has delivered customized programs for clients across many diverse sectors: Financial Services (Barclays, PricewaterhouseCoopers, J.P.Morgan Chase, RBC Centura, Allied Capital, Citigroup Private Bank); Pharmaceutical (Sanofi-aventis, Ortho Biotech, Bristol Myers Squibb); Insurance (GeneralReinsurance, Benefitfocus, WebMD); Consulting (Gartner Group, Cedar Management); Telecommunications (Verizon Business, Comcast Cable, Cingular); Medical Devices (Toshiba Medical Systems, Siemens Medical, Suros Surgical); and a host of others. Jeff has also worked closely with companies that provide other products and services such as TEKsystems, Ecolab, Corporate Express and Anthony Robbins Platinum Partnership, an exclusive membership-only group personally coached by Tony Robbins.

Jeff has lived and worked extensively in Asia and has delivered programs on six continents and in multiple countries including Canada, Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Turkey, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Japan, South Africa, Fiji and Australia.

Before joining SNI in 2000, Jeff was an Account Manager for Tessco Technologies, the nation's largest communications infrastructure supplier. He managed a portfolio of over 250 accounts including Mitsubishi Electronics. In his role as corporate trainer, Jeff was responsible for educating new sales professionals and handled new hire training for Tessco, a company that had grown to $196 million in annual sales at the time of his leaving.

Jeff’s first career was working in Nepal for three years as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer. Assigned to the Nepal Bank Ltd., he used his status as an outside foreign advisor to successfully implement a micro-lending project targeting poor farmers and small business entrepreneurs to help them form borrowing co-ops. Jeff was able to overcome cultural and environmental obstacles to improve the lives of Nepalese farmers and small business people by helping them gain access to the much-needed credit that was critical to the success of their businesses. Following his work with the Peace Corps, Jeff worked for an international non-profit agro forestry organization in Nepal, India, and Belize. In his role as the South Asia Program Director, he raised over $300,000 to initiate community-based projects and provided on-site technical training to developing world farmers.

Jeff is a member of the Mensa International Society and holds a B.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University. Jeff lives with his wife and his two children in Fallston, Maryland.

Session 118: Dealing with Difficult People and Conversations

In 1997 I started in the business world and have worn several “hats” in including, applications specialist, sales, marketing, and training & development. I have worked in four industries, diagnostic imaging (GE Healthcare and Bracco Diagnostics), wound care (ConvaTec and Derma Sciences), the chemical industry (Dow Chemical) and now in Veterinary Medicine (IDEXX). Over the past 25 years I have been fortunate enough to lead many great people and win several excellence awards. During the past 5 years I have had the great pleasure to help develop the strategic account manager programs at Bracco and IDEXX. I have learned that no matter the industry, sales and especially strategic account management skills are critical to success. On a personal note, I have been married for 23 years and have 4 children. We are also the proud parents of a 110lb Old English Sheep dog. You will quickly recognize my NY accent, born and raised in Brooklyn. I have strong passion to help others achieve success and truly believe we are better as a team than as individuals.

Session 302: Developing Strategic Account Managers: A Roundtable with IDEXX, AbbVie, and Ecolab

Bio coming soon.

Session 122: Non-Traditional Strategic Value Creation: ESG, Supplier Diversity and Digital Platforms

Candy served as Vice President, Global Operations, supporting cutting edge solutions in over 36 countries that enabled global business to become more agile and aggressively compete in their industries. She managed digital transformation by implementing a single platform for all customer and internal interfaces and led 5,000 employees through a massive re-skilling effort in software engineering and use of data analytics.

Session 103: Bringing Value: Using Insight-Led Selling

Dominique Côté brings 30 years of experience leading commercial teams in global pharmaceutical and biotech organizations. Her consultancy work is focused on Strategic Commercial Excellence, Executive coaching & leadership, KAM/SAM roadmaps, process, and tools as well as Account-Based Marketing.

Prior to starting her consultancy firm, she served as a commercial executive within Lifesciences companies such as Novartis, Pfizer and UCB leading Global go-to-market transformations, SAM Journeys, Commercial Excellence and General Management. She also led Global Marketing & innovation for big Pharma and biotech groups. She is an accomplished international business leader, recognized as a chief architect of global account program journeys, leading corporate changes and cultural shifts for customer-centric innovation and patient value. She is an advisor at Bain and co and a principal at the SUMMIT group for SAM training.

Dominique is a panelist and keynote speaker in Europe and the U.S. and a sought-after writer on diverse commercial areas, leadership and Account-Based marketing published in many well-known business journals including a regular writer in our Velocity^® magazine.

She brings together the marriage of science, business, and customer-centric approaches as her core focus with leaders and teams.

Her career provided her with Country & global/varied market experience and diversified cultural knowledge. She managed teams in more than 36 countries, leading activities to optimize profitability and effectiveness of commercial strategies, as well as enabling deployment of new commercial and go to market business models as a global commercial leader.

Dominique has been on many global councils for commercial excellence, patient centricity, as well as diversity. She is on the board of SAMA (Strategic Account Management Association) since 2011, part of WIB (Women in Bio) executive women group among others.

Dominique is originally from Canada and lives between Montréal and Brussels, Belgium to stay close to her global clients. She speaks French and English.

Session 214: SAM Center of Excellence: How To Inspire and Establish A Global SAM Journey, a Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health Story

Session 205: Enabling, Accelerating and Sustaining Leading-Practice SAM

Session 304: Women Leaders in SAM: Driving Success with Diverse SAM Organizations

Adrian is an international speaker, business strategist, and trusted advisor for chief executives and sales leaders. He speaks on the subjects of corporate strategy, competitive advantage, and sales excellence.

Adrian is a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP).

He is also a certified professional in Business Process Management (P.BPM) and a certified Competitive Intelligence Professional (CIP).

Adrian is the author of Human-to-Human Selling: How to Sell Real and Lasting Value in an Increasingly Digital and Fast-Paced World.

As president of management consulting firm Whetstone Inc., he has worked with organizations such as Suez, Fanuc, ITW, KPMG, Johnson & Johnson, Dupont, and Siemens. He is one of the top trainers at the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA), where he helps Fortune 500 companies develop their key account skills and processes.

Session 117: Outside-In: Where Sales Meets Strategy

Ronald E. Davis is Executive Vice President, Global Head of Customer Management, with Zurich Commercial Insurance. He has more than 30 years of business experience dealing with many of the world’s largest multi-national companies. During this time he has had various leadership roles in Europe, Canada and the United States. For 2006-2007 he was selected to be a member of the David Rockefeller Fellows Program, which is associated with The Partnership for New York City Before joining Zurich in 2000, Mr. Davis worked for Arkwright/Factory Mutual Insurance Company for 19 years in various positions in Canada and France.

Mr. Davis is on the Board of Directors of the Spencer Educational Foundation, where he was Chairman in 2016 and 2017. As well, he is on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA). And he is a member of the David Rockefeller Fellows Alumni Committee. Mr. Davis holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Ottawa’s Carleton University, as well as an MBA from Concordia University in Montreal.

Session 124: You’d Better Know How to Engage with Executives!

As leader of Revenue Storm’s global consultants and coaches, Kevin is responsible for the delivery of services with clients. His team focuses on transforming the effectiveness of global sales organizations for a wide range of cultures and industries. The team’s expertise covers consulting, executive coaching, marketing alignment and messaging, management and sales workshops, management and coaching governance, sales management coaching, and pursuit coaching.

Kevin’s results-driven executive background has given him a profound understanding of strategic selling, a rich history of successful business coaching, and discerning insight into political and competitive strategies and tactics. As Co-owner and Chief Revenue Officer for Revenue Storm, Kevin lends his experience via a dynamic personal approach, helping clients implement strategies to accelerate sales performance.

Kevin personally provides one-on-one coaching for senior executives, as well as engaging on some of the world’s largest “mega deals.” He is a sought-after speaker, leveraging his extensive sales performance insights in the IT outsourcing, software, automotive, consulting, capital equipment, and manufacturing industries.

Before joining Revenue Storm, Kevin had a successful corporate executive career in New Zealand. His last role was Chief Executive Officer for QANTAS New Zealand.

Being a kiwi, Kevin can adapt to international cultures – and since living in the U.S., he has been able to expand his passion for long distance motorcycle riding.

Session 108: Five Game Changers for Virtual Strategic Account Management

After a remarkable 35-year career with Schneider Electric, Harvey Dunham serves as the Managing Director of Strategy & Marketing for the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA), a nonprofit professional association based in Chicago.

During Harvey’s time at Schneider Electric, Harvey started as an Account Manager then progressively became a District Sales Manager, a Strategic Account Manager (SAM), a SAM Leader, a Country President (South Africa & Poland), and, finally a Global Solution VP who supported SAMs in developing solutions for their global strategic accounts around the world.

Thanks to his impressive and long career at SAMA, Schneider Electric, as well as military service, Harvey’s areas of expertise include B2B sales, account management, channel strategy and management, negotiation, presentation skills, facilitation, training, coaching and process improvement.

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND

- US Coast Guard 1978 -1978 Square D/Schneider Electric 1980-2015

- SAMA 2016 - present

ACADEMIC BACKGROUND

BS Electrical Engineering, Oregon State University, 1980

INTERESTS

Strategic Account Management, Golf, Hunting, Fishing, Kayaking, Hiking

Session 119: How to Operationalize the SAMA Seven-Step Process for Value Co-Creation

Chris is an expert in developing and executing growth plans, and helping companies transform their go-to-market strategy to create value for customers and their customers. His work draws on his over 20 years of extensive global experience in structuring sales, financing transactions, and driving revenue growth for companies. He has built an understanding of international business by closing on over $6 billion of transactions in more than 20 countries and managing teams on 4 continents. He started his career at the Royal Bank of Canada in Toronto, worked in New York as an investment banker, and held executive sales and finance roles at both startup and Fortune 500 technology companies in Minneapolis. Chris’s education includes B.Sc.E Civil Engineering and M.Sc.E Environmental Engineering (Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada), MBA Finance (Schulich School of Business, Toronto, Canada), and J.D. (Osgoode Hall Law School). He was also part of the adjunct faculty at the University of Saint Thomas. Chris lives in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, and is a Council Member at the Metropolitan Council for District 3 representing 17 cities in the southwest suburbs of Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

Session 110: Understand Your Customer’s Financials to Avoid Commoditization

Jim Ford has recently been appointed as the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) for Solecta, a global leader in process membrane technology and solutions. Solecta is a portfolio company of True North Venture Partners, a venture capital firm focusing on Clean Technologies.

Prior to joining Solecta, Jim was the Global Head of Client Development for Arcadis, a leader in design and engineering consultancy for natural and built assets. Prior to Arcadis, Jim worked in private equity, helping environmental testing leader, TestAmerica achieve a successful turnaround and sale to a strategic partner. Jim also spent 20+ years working for the Nalco Water, an Ecolab company, in various P&L and leadership roles, most recently as VP of Global Corporate Accounts. Jim serves on the Board of Directors for NClear Inc., a pioneer in nanocrystal, nutrient removal technology.

Jim is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA).

Jim has been recognized as a Global Business Leader and Change Agent who drives commercial transformations in top- and bottom-line performance by defining strategic differentiation, building value-added offerings, creating channel strategies, and developing strategic client partnerships. His global experience in B2B markets ranges from small cap venture capital mid cap private equity to Global Fortune 500 companies, helping companies realize rapid commercial success.

Keynote: SAMA Expert Council Panel: “The Only SAM Metric that Matters – Business Value!”

Denise brings over 40 years of executive management in Sales, Sales Operations and Sales Transformation. She joined SAMA in 2018 as President and CEO, providing thought leadership and training to organizations in becoming more essential to their key clients.

Previously, Denise held several sales and sales transformation roles at IBM.

• Leading IBM’s CRM implementation to over 40,000 global sales professionals
• Development of a global sales and client value methodology called “Signature Selling Method”, touching all aspects of IBM sales model (sales process, coverage segmentation, sales eminence)

The foundation of Denise’s career has been primarily in direct sales and sales management roles with several global and regional sales executive positions, including Strategic Account Director for one of IBM’s largest accounts.

Denise is a certified change management professional (CCMP) and active in external mentoring with Menttium. She graduated from the University of Illinois, and MBA from the University of Chicago. She enjoys golf, theater, and most importantly being a role model for her two daughters.

General Session: Welcome and Opening Remarks

Gordon Galzerano is responsible for leading Cisco’s Next Generation Sales and Leadership programs in support 20,000 sellers and sales managers worldwide. With more than 28 years of technology and business experience, he is a strong advocate for applying people development practices and strategies to solve business challenges and improve productivity.

Within Cisco, Galzerano held a variety of sales and operations leadership positions across several of Cisco’s business segments including Global Accounts, Enterprise, Service Provider, Commercial, and Channel segments. He also served as the leader of the Sales Associates Program, overseeing all aspects of an organization designed to integrate “new in career” account managers and systems engineers into Cisco.

Prior to joining Cisco, Galzerano was responsible for Ingram Micro’s northeast sales operations. He is a graduate of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania with a BS degree in Business Administration.

Session 306: The Three Key Trends that All Leaders Must Consider When Attracting, Developing and Retaining Top Talent

Session 122: Non-Traditional Strategic Value Creation: ESG, Supplier Diversity and Digital Platforms

Before retiring, John had global leadership and set the direction for the Global Strategic Accounts Program across the Process Group. The Global Strategic Accounts Program focuses on those Accounts that are driving growth at multiples of the total Process Management business and have established a desire to collaborate with Emerson to drive increased value and business results enabled thru the Technology, Products, Services, Processes, and People of Emerson Process Management.

Under John’s Leadership, The Global Strategic Accounts Program had grown by a Growth Factor of 5X over past 5 years with the same number of total Strategic Accounts and represented over 45% of the Total Process Group Sales. The Program was recognized in 2012 as the SAMA [Strategic Account Management Association] Global Strategic Account Program of the Year [POY] Award Winner.

John is a member of the Process Executive Group [Large-PEG], Group Global Sales Leadership Team, Sales Council, and participates actively in setting direction for sales processes and as an active Executive Sponsor & member of Executive Steering Groups with multiple Strategic Accounts. John is active in the Emerson Global Leadership Institute where he serves as a Resident Executive and Guest Speaker by actively coaching & mentoring the next generation of Leaders in Emerson Process Management.

Session 124: You’d Better Know How to Engage with Executives!

As both Managing Partner of KRW International and Research Practice Lead, Kelly brings over twenty-five years of executive experience, providing coaching, consulting and advisory services to boards, the C-suite, and learning and development. One of the principal field researchers for the seminal Return on Character® project, Kelly is now focused on converting research insights into application—as well as sharing ROC broadly in the world through joint research programs, and training and certifying coaches in evidence-based ROC methodologies. Kelly also has a strong interest in leadership within emerging markets. In cooperation with the University of Bucharest, Leaders Romania, and Leaders Moldova, Kelly converted corporate team development programs into curricula designed to share cutting-edge leadership strategies with emerging leaders while also examining the unique challenges of their post-communist economies. The Romanian-American Center for Business Excellence, a subsidiary of the university’s Academy of Economic Studies, commissioned Kelly to conduct a national leadership gap analysis and invited her to be a guest lecturer for the academic year.

Session 301: Defining Keystone Character Habits That Will Define and Distinguish the Highest-Performing Salespeople of the Future

Ned Gilbert is a Sr. Director of Strategic Accounts for PINC AI Applied Sciences, the research and analytics division of Premier. He has more than 14 years of professional account management and sales experience, with a reputation for creating motivated team environments and coaching colleagues with compassion and persistence. In this current role, he leads a team of 5 Strategic Directors and collaborates with life sciences organizations to identify goals and help them meet critical milestones through customized quality improvement, population health, and outcomes research solutions, all for the purpose of improving patient care. 

Prior to joining Premier, he spent 10 years with Medtronic, the largest medical device company in the world. He most recently served as Medtronic’s Senior Area Manager and led the competitive, high-growth Southeast region. A two-time President’s Club Winner, he succeeded by openly collaborating with all professional areas, including marketing, national accounts, group purchasing, sales training, and clinical and professional education. He received his Bachelor of Arts in English and marketing from Western Kentucky University.

Session 119: How to Operationalize the SAMA Seven-Step Process for Value Co-Creation

Bio to come.

Session 302: Developing Strategic Account Managers: A Roundtable with IDEXX, AbbVie, and Ecolab

Mike is the Head of Healthcare System Engagement for Latin America and Canada. Mike is an accomplished and innovative healthcare leader with expertise in driving results through the design, build and leadership of high performing teams tailored in response to evolving healthcare markets and channels. A true silo buster Mike has become a Strategic partner across internal functions, resulting in efficient working teams with clear vision and focus, working together as one. Mike has been in the health science industry for 15 Years where he led the US healthcare systems strategy and teams for multiple companies prior to joining the LACan region. 

Mike graduated from University of Maine, and is certified in six sigma and population health.

Mike is passionate about bringing together all customer facing teams to work as one organization with key customers, building and anchoring their  approaches around the principles of trust & transparency, value and partnership to address the customers challenges within their own organization and customer base.  

Session 305: KAM Metrics Panel: A Balanced Scorecard Approach - from Design to Operationalization

Bio coming soon.

Session 210: How Do You Fly the Friendly Skies … Greener? How United’s Sales Team Is Helping Customers Make Air Travel More Sustainable

Bio coming soon.

Session 302: Developing Strategic Account Managers: A Roundtable with IDEXX, AbbVie, and Ecolab

Since joining Bayer in 2005, Tim has held increasing roles of responsibility all supporting commercial sales:  starting with Regional Sales Manager, Field Sales Director, Director of Customer Strategy, National Sales Director, and currently leading key account management as Senior Director of Key Accounts & Sales Transformation.  In his current role he is leveraging all his experience in pharma and field sales to work with internal teams and customers to create long term strategic partnerships that balance the needs and priorities of customers as well as Bayer oncology portfolio to create win/wins and ultimately benefit patients in need.​

Tim understands the value key account management can bring but also the challenges leaders have had in making KAM successful in Pharma.  KAM is still fairly new to Pharma vs other industries and still evolving based on prior experience and success.  Tim knows full well key account management is a strategy and takes full organizational support in order to make successful. Tim understands the need to balance the priorities of the brands along with priorities of customers and one has to provide “reasons to believe”  along the way with  leading and lagging indicators to drive confidence in the approach.  Tim’s years of sales leadership and priority around driving sales growth helps him understand the importance of driving teamwork, transparency, and trust in the process.​

Tim has over 30  years of experience in the pharm industry, with over 23 of those years in leadership roles and over 20 years in oncology.  Companies prior to Bayer include J&J, Wyeth, Genetics Institute, SmithKline Beecham, Beecham Labs.​

Tim has a B.S. in Marketing Management from Florida State University.

Session 305: KAM Metrics Panel: A Balanced Scorecard Approach - From Design to Operationalization

Deb Honea leads sales productivity at Amazon Web Services (AWS) for the worldwide commercial sales organization. She brings a track record of driving strategic long-term growth and operational improvement initiatives for Fortune 100 enterprise sales organizations. She thrives on providing structure and simplifying complex cross-functional initiatives through strategy, process, and technology improvements that drive change beyond the status quo. She was recently awarded the OneTeam award for leading a large-scale sales acceleration initiative at AWS.

Prior to joining Amazon, Deb was the Director of National Sales Strategy & Execution at Sysco Corporation, the global leader in food service distribution. In this role, she established a strategic account management program, end-to-end sales process, and an innovative new CRM platform that transformed the $15B National Sales business into a customer centric sales organization. Her approach to solving business challenges is to listen to the customer’s perspective in order to establish a sales model that aligns closely to their buying journey. Deb learned these principles during her 20 years at Hewlett-Packard and HPE leading strategic, operational, and business process improvements in global and regional leadership roles.

Deb is a proud Aggie from Texas A&M University and enjoys being outdoors and traveling with her family. She resides in Houston, TX with her husband and two energetic boys who love to play soccer and golf competitively.

Session 123: Managing the Hidden Buying Journey

Before cofounding S&H Strategic Sales Consulting LLC and consequently entering the consulting field in early 2020, David was the director of global strategic accounts for Emerson Electric’s Final Control Business Segment. His involvement in strategic account management began when he was asked, along with Richard Santucci, to initiate and develop the strategic account program for Tyco Valves and Controls’ oil and gas business in 2010. Prior to that he managed Tyco Valves and Controls’ US sales and distribution business, which grew from 500MM to 800MM between 2005 and 2008. Between 2002 and 2005, he was a regional Vice President for Tyco Valves and Controls, first managing the Northeast region and then the entire East region before being promoted to US Vice President of sales and distribution.

David spent the first nineteen years of his career working Valquip Corporation, a specialty distributor of industrial valves, where he held numerous sales and sales management positions. During his career with Valquip, he developed a rich knowledge of numerous industrial valve types. He served on the board of the Valve Manufacturers Association (VMA) from 2012 until 2019. He was the board chairman during the 2018/2019 board year.

David graduated from the University of Michigan (with High Distinction) with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He resides with his wife, Janet, in eastern Pennsylvania.

Session 203: How to Build a Strategic Account Management Program from a Practitioner’s Perspective

Jonathan Hughes is a partner at Vantage Partners, where his practice focuses on growth and competitive strategies, supply chain strategy, externalized innovation, and organizational transformation. He has worked with leading companies and state-owned enterprises across a range of industries in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa.

Prior to joining Vantage Partners, Jonathan was a senior analyst at Putnam, Hayes & Bartlett, where he provided litigation strategy and management consulting advice to clients.

Mr. Hughes has published multiple articles in the Harvard Business Review, California Management Review, and Supply Chain Management Review, as well as articles in Sloan Management Review, Ivey Business Journal, Global Business and Organizational Excellence, the Journal of Strategic Alliances, Supply Chain Asia Magazine, CIO Magazine, and The Outsourcing Journal.

Mr. Hughes has been a guest lecturer at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, the US Military Academy at West Point, the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Advanced Program of Instruction for Lawyers at Harvard Law School.

Outside the corporate arena, Jonathan worked for many years with the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) at the United Nations, to develop and implement a strategy for partnerships with private sector companies. In addition, he has facilitated strategic planning processes with multiple non-profit organizations including The Autism Alliance of Michigan, A Safe Place (an Illinois-based organization focused on domestic violence, where he is also a Board member), and the Michigan Human Society.

Jonathan has also designed and delivered training programs focused on negotiation, strategic influence, and relationship management for U.S. conventional and special operations forces including Naval Special Warfare, the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade, and the 2nd Battalion 5th Calvary Regiment.

Mr. Hughes is a graduate of Harvard University.

Session 121: Creating Competitive Advantage Through Co-Innovation With Customers

David Ivester, Vice President Global Accounts and Projects for Emerson is responsible for leading the Strategic Account program for Emerson globally.

In his 30 year career at Emerson, David has served VP Sales for the US Gulf Area, VP Marketing & Planning and spent six years as a Strategic Account Leader for two of Emerson’s top tier global strategic accounts. He started his career as a front-line salesperson after graduating with his engineering degree.

David prioritizes his time to focus on engaging with customers, developing talent, and driving collaboration both internally and with customers. He serves as Emerson’s executive sponsor for several strategic accounts.

David is a graduate of Georgia Tech with Bachelor of Science in Industrial & Systems Engineering and received his MBA from Georgia State University. A native of Atlanta, he currently lives in Houston with his wife, two teenagers, and two dogs and his favorite hobbies include playing golf, music and overusing sports and music analogies to talk about work situations.

Session 212: Evolving a Mature Accounts Program in Alignment with Shifting Business Dynamics

Every moment of Ryan’s professional career has been an opportunity for him to learn and understand the strategic importance of sales and leadership, working to align customer needs and desires with solutions that achieve results.  Ryan joined the WBM team in May of 2003 as one of the organization’s first Strategic Account Managers. In this role, his energy and engagement was instrumental in the execution of a deliberate and transformative step forward for the company, leaving traditional sales models behind in the pursuit of great client relationships.  Driven by this relationship-focused model, WBM has grown to now deliver on strategic business outcomes within some of the most progressive organizations in Canada, across industries that include energy, transportation, education, government and healthcare.

In advancing WBM’s client connections from strangers, to trusted partners, and ultimately to strategic allies, Ryan has helped to build a team of Account Managers who are working with their clients to achieve business outcomes that are the envy of IT Service Providers across Canada. Today, in his role as a Director of Strategic Account Management, Ryan leads a team of Enterprise Account Managers tasked with understanding the strategic initiatives of the WBM community, and ensuring that technology initiatives are aligned with the corporate direction of a growing community. In addition, Ryan is a member of the WBM Strategic Leadership Team, working to chart a course for the company as it has grown into one of Canada’s largest and most progressive Managed IT Services Providers.

Ryan brings a contagious passion and level of enthusiasm to everything he is involved with, and often brags about his fantasy sports teams despite their losing ways. When not engaging in activities in Saskatoon with his family, Ryan keeps busy by contributing his time working with charities and service organizations in the city.

Session 117: Outside-In: Where Sales Meets Strategy

Craig Jones is a sales management veteran, offering 30 years of invaluable marketplace experience in sales and consulting to the Fortune 500 corporate environment. As a Management Consultant, Craig uses his experience in sales, sales management and sales coaching/consulting to help organizations institutionalize best practices for their customer engagement teams.

Craig has played a key role for Performance Methods in designing, developing and delivering such programs as Executive Level Positioning, Management Coaching, Strategic Account Management, Customer-Specific Value Propositions, Collaborative Planning and Sales Process Design.

Craig’s client work has brought him into direct contact with corporations such as Assurant, AT&T, Citi, Experian, GE, Hilton Worldwide, Honeywell, HP, IBM, Panasonic, SAP, SAS, Staples, SunGard TaylorMade, Verizon and Zurich.

Craig is a contributing member of the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA) where he has been a speaker on such topics as:

• Keys to Effective Strategic Account Planning
• Creating and Delivering Customer-Specific Value Propositions
• The Impact of Collaborative Planning with Strategic Accounts

Prior to PMI, Craig held various sales, sales management and leadership positions in the technology industries such as VP Sales, Strategic Account Manager, Sales Manager, Account Executive and Customer Account Manager.

Craig is credentialed through the International Coach Federation as a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and is a SAMA Certification Fellow where he certifies Strategic Account Managers.

Craig graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. He, his wife, and their two daughters reside in Atlanta, GA.

Session 114: Aligning Your Cross-Functional Account Team to Co-Create Customer Value

Denise currently serves as Group Vice President, Life Sciences, leading Premier’s PINC AI Applied Sciences team which is the research and analytics division of Premier. She is responsible for developing strategic business relationships with life sciences companies and health systems and expanding the utilization of PINC AI Applied Sciences’ solutions.

Prior to coming to Premier, Denise retired from Merck after a successful 30-year career. During her time, Denise worked for MSD, an innovative, global healthcare leader that is committed to improving health and well-being around the world. She spent the last 5 years of her career at MSD as part of a division focused on managing all enterprise efforts with Merck's top customers, as part of an executive leadership initiative to transform the company from product and geographically focused into a leading customer centric organization. In previous roles, Denise worked in various areas within the commercial organization including Global and US Marketing, US Sales including leading a large team of Business Managers, Medical Group Account Executives and Customer Team Representatives in the Greater NYC/CT Region. She has extensive experience in Account Management, leading both National Account Executives and Customer Managers in Managed Markets for over 10 years. 

Denise graduated magna cum laude, with a degree in Health Science from Seton Hall University. She also obtained her Master’s degree from East Stroudsburg University in Exercise Physiology/Cardiac Rehabilitation. Denise participated in the Executive Education at the Harvard Business School of Harvard University and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

As a leader in strategic account management, she has spent much of her career building and advocating for strategic customer management. Since joining Premier, she has successfully garnered the support of the organization in instilling the principles of a strong strategic account management program. She was interviewed and featured for her work with Premier Healthcare Alliance in Beyond the Sales Process: 12 Proven Strategies for a Customer- Driven World. She has served on the Board of SAMA for the last six years and achieved her SAMA certification in 2016.

Denise has been involved in community service for the last 20 years. She has served on the Board of Directors for the North Penn Senior Center for 5 years. Additionally, Denise was an advisor to The Women’s Place in Bucks County. Denise has extensive experience in mentoring young women in professional development. She served as a mentor in the Women Unlimited, Inc. program for the last five years and in 2017 was selected to be a mentor for the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA). Denise was recognized as the first recipient of the Linda A. Rooney Award for Executive Women’s Leadership.

Denise resides in New Jersey with her daughter, Ashley. She enjoys golfing, tennis, boating and cooking.

Session 304: Women Leaders in SAM: Driving Success with Diverse SAM Organizations

Dan Kosch is Co-CEO of IMPAX Corporation and co-author of Beyond Selling Value – A Proven Process to Avoid the Vendor Trap and Breaking the Rules – 111 Tips for Selling Value in the Era of Procurement. Dan has more than 35 years of experience in direct sales, sales leadership, and sales consulting and training.

Dan is a leading authority and speaker on a wide range of sales topics including selling value, strategic account selling, strategic account management, presentation skills and sales management. His concepts enable organizations to get themselves beyond today’s challenges including: commoditization, selling value vs price, moving from being a vendor to being a resource to customers, and competitive differentiation.

Dan has been a part of the faculty at SAMA and is one of their highest ranked presenters. He has also taught in the Executive Education program at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Business.

Prior to IMPAX, Dan worked at IBM where, over his 10-plus year tenure, he held a number of sales and sales leadership positions.

Dan has a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and a MBA from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management.

Session 105: Creating Competitive Immunity Through Deep Customer Discovery

Justin has 30+ years of experience in animal health; majority of his tenure with Boehringer Ingelheim. Currently he is serving as the Head of Distribution Accounts in US and previously served as the Interim Head of Global Strategic Account Management. In his global role he designed and implemented new Strategic Account Management platforms, processes and capabilities across all animal health business units and countries. He has led both local and global account managers as well as executives through the strategy development and challenges of building a program and the entire organizational change it requires.

Session 214: SAM Center of Excellence: How To Inspire and Establish a Global SAM Journey, a Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health Story

Bio coming soon.

Keynote: SAMA Expert Council panel moderated by Jim Ford — The Only SAM Metric that Matters: Business Value

Renae has over 25 year’s managerial experience in strategic sales and marketing, with over 15 years of global responsibility. She is experienced in creating innovative solutions and business strategies by partnering with major enterprise customers and the Tyco innovation teams.

Renae was appointed to the position of Chief Commerical Officer Americas at Ansell in May 2019, and is based in the Netro Park, NJ office. Prior to this, Renae most recently served as Vice President of Global Enterprise Sales, Johnson Controls and was also with Tyco for 18 years before the merger with JCI. She has been instrumental in creating and deploying the Global Accounts strategy from its inception including sales, marketing and operations. She helped establish the Global Center of Excellence for design, engineering and program management.

She previously led Global Marketing and Communications at Tyco Safety Products for four years where she was pivotal in creating the emerging market and vertical market strategy. Renae also drove new product development and launch processes across TSP.

Renae joined Tyco in September 1999 as the Group Marketing Director for Tyco Fire & Security in Australia/NZ. In this role she was responsible for strategic planning, acquisition integration, branding, advertising, interactive services and communications.

Prior to joining Tyco, Renae was Head of Marketing for a private water infrastructure group which was a joint venture between Suez Lyonnaise Des Eaux and Lend Lease.

Education

Masters of Commerce (Marketing), University of New South Wales Bachelor of Asian Studies (Economics), Australian National University

Renae lives in Boca Raton, FL with her husband and seven year old daughter.

Session 304: Women Leaders in SAM: Driving Success with Diverse SAM Organizations

Todd Lenhart is a sales executive with over 25 years of experience in sales, sales management, corporate leadership, strategic planning, negotiations, and strategy execution. He brings a broad business background to PMI with extensive executive involvement working in and consulting with large multinational corporations. His corporate experience in sales and as a CLO coupled with his technical background as a CPA provide a unique perspective on the challenges facing sales leadership today and the solutions that help leading companies maximize every aspect of the customer engagement life cycle.

Prior to joining PMI, Todd most recently served as President of Shapiro Negotiations Institute, a global training and consulting firm focused in the area of negotiation and influence. During his 13 years with SNI he worked with salespeople, buyers, and leaders in global Fortune 500 clients across a range of industries including financial services, healthcare, professional services, media and entertainment, energy, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, information technology, manufacturing, and telecommunications. In addition to partnering with companies to help drive results through their most important strategic relationships, Todd’s role at SNI included business development, marketing, product development, and strategic partnerships.

Prior to SNI, Todd worked in multiple capacities with Allegis Group, the largest privately held staffing firm in the world. Starting out as a Controller, he eventually took on roles as Vice President of Sales and Chief Learning Officer with oversight for the training and development of 2,000+ sales and operations professionals. During his time at Allegis Group the company grew annual revenue by over 3 Billion. Todd also worked in the Audit Practice of Arthur Andersen with a focus in the area of Banking & Finance. He utilizes his roots in the financial world to drive measurement and results in every aspect of his training, coaching, and consulting activities.

Session 120: Benchmarking Your Account, Plan and Planning Process: Leveraging Lessons Learned from the SAMA Community

Tania leads the ZS global expertise center focused assessment, talent development and leadership.

As an organizational psychologist, Tania’s focus is on the intersection of business and people. She has accumulated over 20 years experience as a practitioner supporting organizations to build the capability they need to execute their strategy and sustain success in a dynamic environment. As part of the ZS Strategy and Transformation team, Tania has been focusing on defining the success drivers for new approaches to customer engagement, including KAM. She has led the development of some innovative tools for assessing and developing KAM, blending evidence-based insights with cutting-edge approaches to shaping behavior and mindsets.

Tania’s early career focused on internal people roles in retail, life sciences and financial services. A move to consulting saw her focus on MNCs in the Life Sciences Sector as client advisor. Tania served as Leadership and Talent Practice Leader for Europe for Hay Group.

Tania has undergraduate degrees in economics and psychology and an MSc in occupational psychology. She served as Associate Teaching Fellow at Birkbeck College and has collaborated with institutions such as MIT and the Open University. She is currently undertaking a professional doctorate in organizational psychology.

Session 304: Women Leaders in SAM: Driving Success with Diverse SAM Organizations

Martyn Lewis is a recognized leader in transforming sales and marketing approaches based upon how markets actually buy. His beliefs were shaped over two decades in corporate sales and marketing from front line sales to CEO of a multinational. In 1995 he started his own company, Market-Partners Inc., interacting with many clients and most importantly with their customers. He consults globally with start-ups to industry giants and his work has been used across 44 countries in 17 languages impacting over 85,000 sales professionals. The results of his work and the research he led have now been published in the book How Customers Buy…& Why They Don’t. His book has been well received with industry leaders saying it is a seminal work for businesses, changes the game, and brings much needed new thinking to the topics of sales and marketing. After starting his career in the UK and then moving to Canada, he now resides in Sonoma County, California.

Session 123: Managing the Hidden Buying Journey

Brian has a rich business background with more than 40 years of experience in sales, operations and management. Having earned his BA in Management from Hofstra University in 1976 and after holding several entry level positions, he started his career in logistics in Chicago in 1979. In 1985, he earned an MBA from Fairleigh Dickenson University. Over the years, he has held both regional and global positions with DHL, a Deutsch Post Company, working in their heavy freight division. Brian started his career in sales and quickly moved to operations management. He has managed at the station, regional and national levels. He also served as CEO of the company’s North American Unit (USA and Canada) from 2009 until 2012.

Brian was a key player on all the integration teams during the years when Deutsch Post was acquiring companies to build its global logistics business. He was charged with overseeing many organizational and leadership changes, which expanded and built upon his already robust skill set. The time spent facilitating these mergers greatly impacted Brian’s leadership style. His focus and passion shifted to serving and supporting others in the organization.

Brian has been a life-long learner and has earned a degree in Professional Coaching from the University of Texas. Brian is also an ICF Certified Coach, and he is currently serving as a Mentor/Coach, developing younger talents as they progress in their careers.

Brian was raised in New York and currently lives with his wife in St. Charles, IL. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his family, traveling, boating, gardening, and doing DIY projects.

Session 213: Positive Intelligence for SAMs Going from Good to Great!

Bio coming soon.

Session 207: A SAM Transformation Journey in U.S. Vision Care

Myla Maloney is the Chief Commercial Officer for Premier Applied Sciences with 17 years of experience in strategic account management, healthcare sales, marketing, customer segment strategy, sales leadership and pharmaceuticals. Maloney supports Premier’s mission to transform healthcare by leading the Premier Life Sciences Business Development group’s efforts to collaborate with Life Science Organizations on Population Health Improvement initiatives to improve the quality of patient care. Prior to this position, Maloney was the Vice President of Strategic Supplier Engagement for Premier where she worked with biopharmaceutical and IT organizations. Maloney received her B.S. in business administration and MBA from East Carolina University.

Session 217: Growing a Customer-Centric Organization: Lessons Learned

Jane is an experienced strategic account professional, with 25 years’ experience in a variety of SAM customer facing and leadership roles. A Minnesota native, she has worked for 3 companies: Nilfisk, Donaldson, and C.H. Robinson, each company with 100+ years’ business longevity. She started the first two decades of her career at C.H. Robinson. She was one of the company’s very first account managers in 1997, and as the SAM program expanded nationally and globally over the years, she took on increased SAM program responsibilities and numerous successful challenges, from being an on-site executive at a Top 100 customer, to selling and managing the company’s first-ever global account. Jane learned how to effectively orchestrate in concert with a multi-functional team to streamline customers’ global supply chains, long before the Suez canal and Covid brought logistics to a microscopic view of business criticality. She continued her SAM journey at Donaldson, a leading global air filtration company. Jane was hired to build a SAM program in a growing BU, where she managed a high-performing team to bring “glocal” resources to identified target accounts. The successful mission grew the customer (end-user) share of wallet in a sustainable partnership, while fostering a consistent customer experience in a global matrixed organization. During her tenure, she gained a new appreciation for work environments which collect dust, discarding it safely, and applying interesting value propositions to customers’ air filtration problems, ASTM/NFPA standards, and fire safety regulations. Jane is eager to have joined the Danish company Nilfisk team virtually in Minnesota in 2021. She looks forward to continuing the SAM journey of building trusted advisor partnerships, as well as learning about the whole new world of intelligent cleaning.

Session 125: How COVID Changed an Entire Industry’s Movement From Backstage to Center Stage

Lori is the Director of National Accounts for LP Building Solutions, where she is responsible for developing and executing short and long term strategy for national accounts in retail, pro dealer and national homebuilder segments. She brought SAMA to LP over 2 years ago and has worked with PMI to lead the transformation from a forest products company to a strategic customer based long term strategy, including SAMA certification of the entire strategic accounts team.

Prior to joining LP in 2017, Lori has more than 25 years in the building industry in progressive sales management roles with PPG building out top ranked sales teams, steering rapid segment turnarounds and surpassing expectations. Lori was consistently selected to turn around and strengthen business units based on consistent results, delivery and mobility across products, customer segments and distribution channels. In every role, Lori steered turnaround and transformation that exceeded sales/profit plans and outperformed peers despite internal/external challenges related to M&A, recessions, industry downturns, and senior management changes.

Lori lives in Pensacola, Florida. When not working Lori enjoys cycling, tennis, golf and stand up paddling. She is a huge animal lover and supports local dog rescues. Lori can be reached at lori.mcwain@lpcorp.com.

Session 114: Aligning Your Cross-Functional Account Team to Co-Create Customer Value

Shane is a globally recognized storyteller, author and keynote speaker. For over 15 years now he has been regularly sharing his powerful and engaging story principles at hundreds of brands, conferences and companies like Walt Disney, Exxon Mobil, FedEx, American Express, US Bank and Ford.

His fascination with the power of story started early in his childhood with an influential pair of heroes - Batman and Luke Skywalker. Many a day on a small farm in western Ohio was consumed with him dressed up in a towel-made-cape fighting the underbelly of Gotham or wielding a homemade cardboard lightsaber battling the forces of the evil Empire.

He graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in Industrial Design and for many years at Procter & Gamble he would be a design leader for billion dollar brands like Tide, Dawn, Cascade, Downy and Pampers. Then one day long ago he decided it was time to write a screenplay and that meant immersing himself into the timeless world of storytelling. Books, classes, weekends in LA and NYC, mythology, story psychology...you name it, he dug into it. ​

Eventually, after years of studying screenwriting, movies and mythology, Shane discovered that the art and science behind his favorite films could also be used as an innovation, communication or business building tool in ANY industry. His position began to dramatically change and today he is the Procter & Gamble Company Historian & Corporate Storyteller. Outside of P&G he continues to regularly deliver his StoryMythos keynotes and workshops to hundreds of companies and brands around the world.

Just like when he was a kid, he still finds tons of inspiration for new StoryMythos content from his favorites in stage, page and screen.

Keynote: StoryMythos: Your Movie Guide to Better Business Stories

Session 115: StoryMythos: Your Movie Guide to Better Business Stories

Chris Miller is a Senior Manager of Global Service Markets & Accounts at Coherent, Inc., a leader in the Photonics Industry. His 19 plus years’ experience in product design, engineering, service and leadership provide a unique view of the challenge’s companies’ encounter identifying customer service needs and expectations. He is based in the Metro Detroit area, currently focused on supporting Coherent’s growth in Automotive, Transportation, Battery Manufacturing and E-Mobility markets and their associated customers. In addition, Chris has supported products in medical, semiconductor and other industrial processing markets. Chris is a proven leader who guides and challenges cross-departmental teams to enable customer success.

Session 101: Timing Is Everything! Global Service Account Management's Role Early in the Product Life Cycle

Bio coming soon.

Session 119: How to Operationalize the SAMA Seven-Step Process for Value Co-Creation

With more than three decades of experience leading sales teams across various industrial segments, Bill has experience with many different sales strategies, value deployment methods and strategic account success models. Bill's experience includes speaking at London School of Business on non-linear value delivery and co-creation, several SAMA speaking engagements and work as both a sales trainer and consultant to industrial clients. Bill is currently working with ERIKS North America alongside Jesse Shoff and two peers to drive business growth at strategic customers in defined industry segments. Bill is also serving on the Board of Directors of the Power Transmission Distributors Association and is President of the Power Transmission Distributors Association Foundation. The PTDA Foundation is a separate organization working within the Power Transmission and Motion Control Industry to enhance members ability to retain, recruit and improve awareness of careers in industrial distribution.

Session 215: Value Propositions Under Attack: The Future of Working with Outsourced Procurement

Jay Persinger is the Commercial Director for the North America Non-Wovens business at Owens Corning (NYSE: OC), a world leader in Insulation, Roofing and Fiberglass composites and SAMA Corporate Member since 2020.

Jay has been with Owens Corning for 12 years. Prior to his current position, he held a variety of sales roles in the North America Glass Reinforcements business. Most recently, Jay served as Commercial Director, where he was responsible for leading distribution, key accounts, and the customer technical sales organization. Together with his team, Jay led the way in the Key Account Management approach, capability building, and results for the past couple of years. Under Jay’s leadership, the team has delivered impressive results for the region.

In his current role, Jay is uniquely positioned to deliver on the key priorities for the region including continuing to execute our North America strategy to deliver growth through strong regional leadership, focus on portfolio execution, as well as strengthening Key Account Management capabilities and operating model.

All told, Jay has over 15 years of experience in various sales, sales leadership, and strategy roles across the composite and building products industries. Throughout his sales career at Owens Corning, Jay has been recognized with multiple awards including induction to the Chairman’s Club – the highest achievement for a member of the Sales organization. Jay holds a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Bowling Green State University.

Session 209: When Art Meets Science: How Creating a Formal SAM Program Drove Customer Value Creation with Speed and Scale

Nick Pintaro is one of Axis Communications Program Managers for Key Account Managers in the Americas, part of the Channel Partners & End Customer Program reporting to Ted Wilkinson. Nick has been part of Axis Communications for nearly 10 years, holding various roles in sales out of the Midwest Business Area (RSM, KAM-EC & Team Lead for the KAM-ECs). Prior to joining Axis, he worked for an engineering firm out of Chicago and Wesco. Nick is an active member of ASIS and an active member of SAMA (Strategic Account Management Association).

Session 122: Non-Traditional Strategic Value Creation: ESG, Supplier Diversity and Digital Platforms

Tim Pollard is the founder and CEO of Oratium, a leading messaging consulting firm. He is a sought-after speaker and author of the acclaimed books The Compelling Communicator: Mastering the Art and Science of Exceptional Presentation Design and Mastering the Moment: Perfecting the Skills and Processes of Exceptional Presentation Delivery. Pollard draws insight from a long career in sales, marketing, and communications for companies such as Unilever, Barclays Bank and the Corporate Executive Board.

Session 107: Mastering Communications in the Post-Covid World

Since she joined ZS in 2006, Namita has worked primarily in the life sciences industry. She leads ZS’s Healthcare Ecosystems Practice Area, helping companies design and implement Organized Customer and B2B strategies. She is also a member of ZS’s Healthcare Leadership Forum, helping to drive interconnections and partnerships in the complex and evolving healthcare ecosystem.

Namita is an expert in customer model strategy, design, and effectiveness. In the last decade, she has been involved in numerous customer model transformations, focusing on implementing innovations around local healthcare deployments and KAM transformations. Namita has authored several articles on KAM excellence in life sciences and co-developed ZS’s offerings on First Line Manager Excellence and Sales Rep Customer Engagement Quality. She has been a visiting faculty at the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern and the Indian School of Business to teach sales manager excellence. She has done hundreds of qualitative customer research interviews, led several focus groups, and conducted dozens of observational field rides with sales and KAM personnel.

Namita’s experience prior to ZS includes macroeconomic research for the Council of Economic Advisers in the White House, and she has worked closely with senior advisors to the President and Vice-President.

Namita holds an M.B.A. from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and a bachelors in politics and economics from Claremont McKenna College.

Session 305: KAM Metrics Panel: A Balanced Scorecard Approach - from Design to Operationalization

Session 207: A SAM Transformation Journey in U.S. Vision Care

Chris Pratt is a seasoned and highly skilled consulting professional with more than 30 years of experience in the sales strategy and sales competence development fields. He has responsibility for the development and delivery of The Summit Group’s value generation, executive selling, marketing, management, and leadership/coaching training programs. He has developed and delivered customized sales skills training programs for major firms in a variety of industries.

As a founding member of The Summit Group, Chris has delivered training programs in over 45 countries to a wide variety of firms including HP, Cisco Systems, Tetra Pak, Xerox, Ricoh North America, Ricoh Latin America, World Wide Technology, SBC/AT&T, SC Johnson & Company, Höganäs AB, Motorola, and Marriott International. In addition, he is certified in the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator and the DiSC Personality Profile.

Prior to joining The Summit Group, Chris spent 18 years in a variety of sales, sales management, sales assessment, and sales training positions with AT&T.

Chris holds a B.B.A. in Marketing from Ohio University. He resides in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. He also serves on the Executive Advisory Board to the Marketing Department of the University of Akron.

Session 110: Understand Your Customers Financials to Avoid Commoditization

Lori helps clients grow revenues by closing the strategy to performance gap. Her change management focus is on the levers that create the movement of people toward executing a new Go-to-Market Strategy. This includes talent coaching and a neuroscience perspective brought to the process, tools, training, and leadership needed. Lori brings over 30 years of business and human performance expertise to Revenue Storm clients, giving her an experiential base unmatched by most consultants.

Prior to her work with Revenue Storm, Lori took a leading role in developing organizational performance strategies with two specialized consulting firms. In 2001, Lori began working with a customized performance diagnosis and intervention consultancy to help clients engineer attainable future growth by improving the performance of sales organizations.

Lori’s consulting experience is grounded in extensive work with EDS, starting in the financial arena and moving to design and delivery of performance consulting for sales. Lori designed and facilitated professional skills training and coaching where she emphasized change management and systems thinking. This extended to business start-up performance consulting under EDS Human Performance Services.

Crossing over to EDS Sales Leadership, she designed and implemented tools and approaches for the EDS Strategic Value Selling process. She was instrumental in realigning the sales performance management system to include relationship competency building, competency modeling, performance alignment, and process measures. In the Manufacturing Strategic Business Unit, she led design and implementation of leadership tools.

Lori holds dual Bachelor degrees, cum laude, in Finance and Economics from Texas Tech University. She also holds a Masters of Organization Development from Pepperdine University and a certificate and passion for the role positive psychology plays in helping organizations change behavior. Lori is an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University working with masters students to spark change.

Session 303: Data Doesn’t Lie! Today's Three Must-Have Strategic Account Management Traits for Success

Geoff is a passionate believer in strategic KAM and has over 30 years of healthcare experience in posts at various operational and strategic levels. His roles include Strategic Account Manager and Business Director in the UK Pfizer Business, Sales Director UK & Ireland for Siemens Healthcare and Head of Sales, Account Management & Training at UCB Pharma.

Keynote: SAMA Expert Council panel — The Only SAM Metric that Matters: Business Value

Jeff Raber started his career in strategic accounts working for Schneider Electric as a SAM for Toyota Motor Manufacturing. He has 21 years of experience leading strategic account teams, the first 17 years with Schneider Electric building and leading teams in the Retail, Hospitality and Logistics segments. Jeff took on a brand-new challenge in 2017 with Caesars Entertainment helping them design and build a new strategic accounts team for their meetings business. While there he crafted a process to help them rank and prioritize potential accounts for SAM leadership. In June of 2019, he joined Aggreko to transform their strategic contracts team into a true SAM team. Jeff credits much of his success to his close relationship with SAMA throughout his career.

Jeff lives in Cincinnati with his wife (Kim) and family. He has been running marathons most of his life and recently completed a goal of running a marathon in all 50 states.

Session 119: How to Operationalize the SAMA Seven-Step Process for Value Co-Creation

Background

• University Degree in Business Administration
• Doctorate in Business Ethics
• Instructor skills examination in Economics (IHK)

Professional experience

• Management Partner GmbH, Stuttgart: 3 years as Management Consultant
• Siemens AG, Stuttgart and Munich:
  • Sales Rep.IT-Services at Siemens Nixdorf (1996/1997)
  • Key Account Manager DaimlerChrysler and EADS (I&C 1998-2001)
  • Corporate Account Manager Bosch Group (2002-2007)
  • Head of Account Management and Market Development Boards at Corporate Development Siemens One (CD SO) 06, 2007 to 10,2017
• TÜV SÜD AG, Munich: Head of Strategic Account Management and Sales Excellence since November 2017

Additional Information

• Born 1962, married
• 2 Children (born 2002 and 2007)
• Interests: Sports (Jogging, soccer, biking, squash, skiing, …),Travelling, Family and Friends as well as languages and cultures
• Member of the Board of Directors at the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA), Chicago
• Member of the consulting committee of Axel Springer publishing house for “Sales Excellence” Magazine
• Visiting lecturer at Reutlingen University
• McKinsey Gamechanger Community Germany

Session 206: Future Markets: Find the Growth in Strategic Account Management

In 2015, Jason was recruited by Emerson Automation Solutions as a Field Service Engineer after graduating from San Juan College with an Applied Science Degree in Instrumentation and Controls. Over his career, Jason has held several sales positions with various Business Units at Emerson and at the Platform Level including Account Manager, Regional Sales Manager, Sales Director, Vice President of Digital Transformation Sales, and is currently the Vice President for Emerson’s Strategic Accounts Program in the Americas.

His early career was devoted to selling Emerson solutions to energy producers and transporters across the West Central and Western United States. In 2018, he was appointed to Vice President of Digital Transformation and organized an Industry Sales team who connected to customers digitization initiatives in a meaningful way; in so doing, customers frequently recognized Emerson as a trusted “ecosystem partner” who could help accelerate the time-to-value and their business outcomes. Jason now leads a team of Strategic Account Directors and manages a handful of accounts as well. Jason is passionate about evolving Emerson’s mature account program in alignment with shifting business dynamics.

Jason is personally committed to fostering an environment of diversity and inclusion, collaboration, and teamwork which together is proven to generate the greatest value for Emerson and our customers alike.

Jason’s education and training consists of a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Business from Colorado State University. He also holds several certifications including Marketing, Project+, and most recently completed Digital Transformation (Leading People, Data, and Processes) from UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business. Jason is also a graduate of Emerson’s Leadership Program.

Session 212: Evolving a Mature Accounts Program in Alignment with Shifting Business Dynamics

Chris is in charge of ensuring a global team of sales professionals has everything they need to be successful. In this role, he wears many hats, including trainer, internal consultant, video producer, project team lead, and vendor manager, just to name a few. His approach to Sales Effectiveness is centered around partnering with all key stakeholders to make sure that his trainings are as relevant, inclusive, and ultimately drive the greatest results possible. He’s passionate about finding ways to make the United Airlines Sales team more effective and efficient in their job, while always allowing for some humor and levity along the way. Prior to joining the Sales org, Chris found his passion for change management working on key company initiatives with all of the employees we interact with when we travel fly the friendly skies, and many of those behind the scenes. In his spare time, you can find him enjoying the great outdoors of Colorado where he resides, either on his bike or in a pair hiking boots.

Session 210: How Do You Fly the Friendly Skies … Greener? How United’s Sales Team Is Helping Customers Make Air Travel More Sustainable

A thought leader, with global experience in strategic account management, B2B sales and marketing. James collaborates with leading companies to accelerate profitable growth, elevate teamwork, co-create value, transform go-to-market execution, and differentiate customer engagement.

He works with world-class companies such as 3M, Abbott, Cisco Systems, Cox Automotive, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Medtronic and Ricoh enabling them to reimagine and differentiate how they create value, engage and grow with customers.

James’ strengths lie in customer-focused business transformation and sales, marketing, account management and leadership talent development. He has taught at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, Global Account Management Executive Program and is on the Strategic Account Management Association CSAM faculty.

James lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

Session 205: Enabling, Accelerating and Sustaining Leading-Practice SAM

Before cofounding S&H Strategic Sales Consulting LLC and entering the consulting field in early 2020, Richard Santucci was the global key account director, oil and gas for Emerson Final Control, a business unit within Emerson Automation Solutions. He held the same position with Pentair Valves and Controls, a division of Pentair PLC, which was acquired by Emerson Automation Solutions in 2016. Prior to Pentair Valves and Controls, Richard held several positions with Tyco Valves and Controls, a business unit within Tyco Flow Control, including serving as Vice President Latin America, leading all commercial and operational activities for the Latin America and Caribbean regions, including sales, marketing, service and repair, valve automation, and strategic planning activities. Prior to his Latin American post, Richard held several general management, sales, strategic planning, and marketing positions with Tyco Flow Control. Richard entered the Tyco Flow Control organization as part of the acquisition of Varec Vapor Control, where he initiated the environmental and biogas business unit. In addition to his rich knowledge related to industrial valves, Richard also has extensive experience in process control, instrumentation, and analysis markets having held several sales and marketing positions with Teledyne Analytical Instruments. Richard holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from California State University, Los Angeles. He is fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. He and his wife have three children and a grandson.

Session 203: How to Build a Strategic Account Management Program from a Practitioner’s Perspective

Working in the industrial distribution market for more than 17 years, Jesse managed teams of up to 80 employees focusing on customer prospecting, acquisition, implementation, and continuous improvement projects. During this time, he created customer value through technology-enabled cost savings across a variety of industries, including aerospace, defense, and manufacturing. Moving to ERIKS North America in 2018 as a Strategic Account Manager, Jesse oversaw major customers in the steel, tire, and refinery markets. In 2021, Jesse began work as a Key Industry Director focused on ERIKS’ direct approach to the Pulp, Paper, and Chemical industries.

Session 215: Value Propositions Under Attack: The Future of Working with Outsourced Procurement

As Co-President of IMPAX Corporation, Mark Shonka unites powerful thought leadership and decades of high-level selling experience to launch the world’s leading sales organizations to the next level of selling success. Intensely results- and action-oriented, Mark does far more than merely spout ideas about how to improve sales; he details precisely what sales teams need to do to within their unique corporate structures and business cultures to achieve stellar sales success. His expertise is valued by organizations such as Microsoft, IBM, DHL, US Bank, DuPont and GE Healthcare. Mark is a highly sought-after speaker globally, has authored numerous articles by top selling publications and co-authored with Dan Kosch, Beyond Selling Value, a business bestseller that was named one of the top 40 books of the year by Business Book Review.

Mark’s sales acumen stays razor sharp because he practices what he preaches every day – expertly selling to the complete business-to-business spectrum and leading a team of top sales professionals who do the same. Mark’s knowledge is founded in more than 25 years of experience in direct sales, sales management, and sales consulting and training. He is an authority on a range of sales topics, including selling value, strategic account selling, strategic account management, account planning and sales leadership.

Mark has been associated with IMPAX Corporation since 1988 and has been a Co-President since 1991. Prior to joining IMPAX, he had a successful sales career in the information systems industry working for IBM and Memorex-Telex. He has a bachelor’s degree in Marketing/Management from the College of St. Thomas and a Master’s of Business Administration from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management. Mark is actively involved in the community, providing leadership in academic foundations, sports associations and his faith community.

Session 104: Executive Presence for Strategic Account Managers

Ben Siddall is a Partner at Vantage Partners. Ben works with sales organizations to achieve breakthrough results by collaborating with their customers to identify and deliver new forms of value; defining relationship management and account governance processes; and negotiating more creative and effective agreements.

Ben works with sales organizations in numerous sectors, with a particular emphasis on pharmaceutical, IT, manufacturing, and professional services. His engagements regularly include working with sales leadership teams to define game-changing macro negotiation strategies; develop and implement cross-selling, joint solution development, and internal collaboration processes; and build account and relationship management tools (especially for large/complex accounts). He also coaches and advises individual sales teams on high-value customer negotiations and on remediating troubled customer relationships.

Ben has contributed to a number of Vantage publications, including Vantage’s Customer-Supplier Negotiation Study, Extreme Negotiations with Customers, and Managing Outsourcing Relationships to Maximize Value: Evolving Relationship Management Practices. He also has spoken at conferences and events on topics including managing complex negotiations, defending value during the sales process, negotiating professional service fees and scope, and conducting effective pharmaceutical market access negotiations.

Prior to joining Vantage, Ben led business development and partnership outreach at a startup technology company in Boston, Massachusetts. He began his career as a commercial litigator for Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. and has also worked as an economic consultant, helping companies and governments assess regulated industry pricing and manage complex risks. Ben received his JD cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center and his B.A. magna cum laude in political science from Boston University.

Session 121: Creating Competitive Advantage Through Co-Innovation with Customers

Alex leads ZS’s KAM Solutions space as part of the Healthcare Ecosystems leadership team.

Alex leads ZS’s KAM Solutions area with a focus on supporting pharma and life sciences companies as they build and transform their account-based engagement capabilities. Alex has supported a number of KAM implementations with a particular focus on customer engagement processes and helping his clients support best-in-class account planning and management practices. During his time at ZS, Alex has helped global pharmaceutical companies build and align KAM strategies across US and OUS markets, developed role and competencies descriptions for key account teams, and develop and optimize account team tools and enablers. Alex also led ZS and SAMA’s collaboration to assess the State of KAM in Pharma.

Alex has an MBA from the Booth School of Business at University of Chicago and a BA in Political Science from the University of Chicago.

Session 305: KAM Metrics Panel: A Balanced Scorecard Approach - From Design to Operationalization

Carmen Simon is Chief Science Officer at Corporate Visions. A Silicon Valley entrepreneur, cognitive neuroscientist, and keynote speaker, Dr. Simon has pioneered a groundbreaking approach to creating memorable messages that are easy to process, hard to forget, and impossible to ignore―using the latest in brain science.

Dr. Simon’s most recent book, Impossible to Ignore: Create Memorable Content to Influence Decisions, has won the acclaim of publications such as Inc.com, Forbes, and Fast Company, and was selected as one of the top international books on persuasion. Dr. Simon holds two doctorates, one in instructional technology and another in cognitive psychology. She also teaches at Stanford University and speaks frequently to corporate audiences on the importance of using brain science to craft communication that is not only memorable but sparks action. After all, what’s the use of memory if people don't act on it?

Session 102: The Neuroscience of Your Customers’ Attention

Jennifer Stanley is a Partner who leads McKinsey’s sales-and-channel work in North America and has a deep expertise in B2B sales, go-to-market and omnichannel strategy, sales transformation, sales-force effectiveness, and value selling. Her guidance, based on customer- centered research, has enabled countless sales executives to make winning strategic decisions. Jennifer specializes in go-to-market transformation, sales force and channel management issues and serves a range of sectors, including banking and payments, advanced manufacturers, and multi-tier distribution environments. She also helps clients implement professional development and capability-building programs as part of transformational growth initiatives.

Prior to McKinsey, Jennifer held various sales and marketing roles with a travel and logistics player while completing her higher education. She also taught sales management at the university level. Jennifer was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, holds a MSc. in international political economy from the London School of Economics and has her BA from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Keynote: Strategic Selling in an Omnichannel World

Session 304: Women Leaders in SAM: Driving Success with Diverse SAM Organizations

As CEO of The Summit Group, Phil is a recognized thought leader on business value transformation as part of the go-to-market strategies of some of the world’s premier sales consulting firms, both in the public and private sectors. In addition to his keynote presentations and engaging programs, Phil serves as a coach, mentor, consultant, and advisor to top leaders across a range of industries. He has delivered sessions in over 40 countries.

Phil has served on the Board of Directors for SAMA (Strategic Account Management Association) and also leads the CEO Forum as part of the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. He is on the board of OppSource, an AI-guided sales platform developer, and a board advisor for Nanocopoeia, Fourteen Foods, and The Frauenshuh Companies. Phil is also a founding board member of the Minnesota Silent Warrior Project, an initiative to support veterans with PTSD. Mr. Styrlund is also one of the co-founders of The International Journal of Sales Transformation, based in London.

Phil has written for, or been cited in, articles in leading publications that include: The Wall Street Journal, The National Account Management Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Inc., Fast Company, as well as in several best-selling books including Adversity Quotient and The Power of Purpose. In 2014, the book Relevance: Matter More was released; co-written by Phil. He is also a contributing author to the recently released book Crisis of Disengagement: How Apathy, Complacency, and Selfishness Are Destroying Today’s Workplace.

His career includes key leadership positions with US West and ADC Telecommunications. Phil also teaches in various university and executive education programs and has master’s degrees in Business Administration and Telecommunications Science.

Phil resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Santa Barbara, California.

Keynote: Return on Character for SAM

Session 301: Defining Keystone Character Habits That Will Define and Distinguish the Highest-Performing Salespeople of the Future

Sara Theis is the Key Account Management (KAM) Program Manager at Owens Corning (NYSE: OC), a world leader in Insulation, Roofing and Fiberglass composites and SAMA Corporate Member since 2020.

Sara currently leads the Operating Model, Capability Development, and Management Systems of the KAM program for the OC Composites business, aimed at delivering differential value to key customers in order to drive organic growth.

She joined Owens Corning in 2016 as Senior Marketing Lead for Commercial Building Insulation where she generated market demand by influencing architects and specifiers to use OC products, then served as a Strategy Analyst evaluating various growth opportunities across three (3) business units before assuming her current role in 2020.

All told, Sara has over 20 years of experience in various sales, communications, strategy, and marketing roles across the packaging, automotive, and building products industries – both on the client and consultant side.

She has served as an Account Manager twice in her career, first at Owens-Illinois (NYSE: OI) co-creating custom packaging solutions for The Clorox Company, and later as a Senior Account Executive at a marketing agency where she won the firm’s “Rising Star” award for doubling revenues of a Tier One automotive client over two consecutive years.

Sara holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and is currently pursuing SAMA’s CSAM certification.

Session 209: When Art Meets Science: How Creating a Formal SAM Program Drove Customer Value Creation with Speed and Scale

Session 211: Building Account Plans with Account-Based Marketing

Michael brings experience from a career of more than 25 years in solutions-selling, consulting and professional services management roles, serving account bases that include some of the largest companies in the world. With direct experience selling complex portfolios of products and services, and acting as a mentor and coach for executing sales strategies around the world, Michael has a background of demonstrated successes at the strategic level. He provides effective leadership to account teams, segment managers and executive sales leadership across a wide span of verticals and markets.

As the principal and founder of Magnetic, Michael helps lead diverse teams towards transforming their sales and customer management practices. Starting in 2011, Magnetic has engaged with customers in over 15 countries across the globe, bringing innovative sales strategies and delivery experience to multiple industries and channels. In the past 5 years, Magnetic has directly impacted over $1.6B USD in revenue and sales for their customers.

Before founding Magnetic, Michael worked at Microsoft for 15 years within their enterprise accounts group and consulting organizations. Additionally, he served key transition roles in their Silicon Valley area as part of major cloud-based acquisitions. His responsibilities included readying customer accounts and businesses for introduction into the multibillion-dollar enterprise sales organization, as well as managing the ongoing P&L of those customer business teams during the transitions.

Prior to Microsoft, Michael held positions with several boutique consulting and custom software development firms in the Great Lakes, United States region, leading and managing both revenue lines and services teams.

Michael is a frequent speaker and presenter for private and public functions. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from The University of Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio. Michael currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee.

Session 106: The Challenge of Selling Expertise, Not Product: Transforming SAMs Into High-Value Advisors Supported by Engaging Digital Content

In his role as Vice President of Global Sales – Americas, Gus Vonderheide has the responsibility over Hyatt’s transient and business travel segments. He provides leadership over a global strategic team who manages relationships with Hyatt’s largest corporate, consortia and travel management companies. These customers, all based in the Americas and doing business globally, generate over $1B annually for the brand. Part of a larger team, Hyatt’s Global Sales Force can be found in 20 additional locations around the world.

A 28-year Hyatt employee, Gus has led the sales teams at the Hyatt Regency Louisville, KY, Hyatt Regency Dearborn, MI and the Grand Hyatt Washington, DC. He also spent time in the Worldwide Reservation Center in Omaha, NE where he managed the Western Worldwide Sales Office and group call desk. Prior to his Hyatt career, hotel management experience includes Sales, Front Office, Purchasing and Convention Services.

Gus continues to fill leadership roles in a number of industry organizations. A recent past member of the GBTA Board of Directors, MPI Foundation and currently a BTN Group Advisory Board Member and SAMA’s Expert Council.

Keynote: SAMA Expert Council panel moderated by Jim Ford — The Only SAM Metric that Matters: Business Value

Max has spent over 30 years in various leadership roles spanning Strategic Account Management (SAM), General Management, Sales Excellence and Six Sigma and is a Sales and Marketing man at heart. He works for Medtronic as Director of SAM and was previously at 3M. 



Max is a passionate advocate of SAM, customer centric thinking and change leadership. He led Global Commercial Operations for 3M’s SAM program where he was instrumental in establishing 3M’s enterprise-wide strategic account organization.



Prior to his focus on SAM, Max led businesses at both an EMEA and UK level across a variety of market sectors, with extensive experience in the implementation of commercial transformation & sales excellence initiatives.


Max is married with three children, and lives in Windsor, UK.


Keynote: SAMA Expert Council Panel: “The Only SAM Metric that Matters – Business Value!”

Session 205: Enabling, Accelerating and Sustaining Leading-Practice SAM

Ed consults with and speaks for corporations and associations across the globe with a client list that is a Who’s Who of Fortune 500 companies. He is the author of Fares to Friends, Creating Relational Capital, Business Relationships That Last, and his most recent the #1 best seller, The Relationship Engine. In addition, Ed is currently on the Executive Education faculty of Drexel’s LeBow College of Business and Villanova University’s Human Resources Master’s program.

Session 116: Develop Competitor Proof Relationships: Make Every Sales Interaction Matter

Carrie has been a Partner at Think! Inc. & 5600 blue since 2001. Her role includes consulting clients on implementing value creation and value capture ecosystems, business development, developing sales strategy, and onboarding new consultants.

Prior, Carrie held a long career at Marriott International focused on sales & strategic account management. She contributed to the creation and implementation of Marriott’s first Strategic Account Management model and strategy.

She is a practitioner first, consultant second, meaning that everything she teaches she also has implemented.

Carrie is a member of Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA) since 1996 and held a 10-year position on SAMA’s Board of Directors. Think! Inc is one of learning partners that contribute content to SAMA’s certification program.

She is a graduate of the Executive Development Program at the Aspen Institute/University of Maryland and holds a B.A. from the University of Colorado. Carrie resides in Lake Bluff, IL with her husband, John, and four children.

Session 111: Do Not Give Up Your Value in the Last Mile

Chris has worked at bioMérieux for just over 30 years. His career began in a sales role and then progressed on to being the Industry Sales and Marketing Manager (Food and Pharmaceuticals) and then the Managing Director of the UK subsidiary where he was responsible for both the Clinical and Industry divisions of the company.

In 2011, Chris moved into a global role, with the remit to build a worldwide programme for developing Strategic Account management within the Industry division. Over the last 10 years, Chris has continued to develop the programme, as well as ensuring that best practice is adopted around the world. He also manages four global strategic customers and has both developed and now delivers value selling training for marketing and sales colleagues.

Session 201: Building a SAM Program From the Ground Up

Having delivered Strategic Customer Advisory Boards in the Middle East, Europe, Latin America and the US, Betsy has the knowledge, experience, and expertise to masterfully execute executive-level customer engagements. As the leader of Congruity, Betsy ensures that all clients achieve and exceed the predetermined metrics for success from their customer engagement initiatives.

Betsy is the co-host of the popular REALLY Know Your Customer podcast, ranked as one of the “Top 15 Customer Retention Podcasts on the Web” by Feedspot. She co-authored the #1 Best Selling book, ProphetAbility – The Revealing Story of Why Companies Succeed, Fail, or Bounce Back as well as the newly released book, The Rarest Advantage – How to Co-Create Strategic Value to Retain and Grow Your Key Customer Accounts.

Betsy excels at relationship building and has developed a methodology for recruiting executive leaders from recognized companies to serve on Congruity clients’ Customer Advisory Boards. In addition, Betsy has a vast global network of customer engagement experts she depends on to provide Congruity clients with the best of the best expertise. Executives serving on Congruity Customer Advisory Boards consistently rate the value of participating on the CAB at an average of 4.8 out of 5, a testament of how Betsy and her team help clients cocreate value with their strategic accounts.

Providing extreme value for both Congruity clients and their customers is the foundation upon which The Congruity Group is built.

Session 216: The Rarest Advantage: How a Strategic Customer Advisory Board Co-Creates Value

Robert (Bob) Willard is the Senior Manager of Global Service Markets and Accounts at Coherent, Inc., a Leader in the Photonics Industry. His 27 plus years of experience in product management, laser sales and service provide a unique view of the challenge’s companies’ encounter identifying customer service needs and expectations. As a US Army veteran, he is a proven leader who challenges individuals, teams, and departments to work together and meet, and when possible, exceed customer expectations.

Session 101: Timing Is Everything! Global Service Account Management's Role Early in the Product Life Cycle

Bio coming soon.

Session 112: Recipe for Co-Creation