General Sessions

Keynote Speaker
Tuesday Major Session
Wednesday Closing Session

Keynote Speaker to Address Global Risk, Crisis Preparation, and Leadership
These issues can and do affect every business regardless of size, location, or markets served. Mitigating risk in today’s world has become a top agenda item in conference rooms across the globe. This year’s keynote message will expand your view of risk while offering a new way to mitigate it.

Frances Fragos Townsend served as Assistant to President George W. Bush for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and chaired the Homeland Security Council from May 2004 until January 2008. She previously served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism from May 2003 to May 2004. Ms. Townsend is currently providing consulting services and advice to corporate entities on Global Strategic Risk and Contingency planning. Ms. Townsend has regularly appeared on network and cable television as a counterterrorism, national and homeland security expert. She has received numerous awards for her public service accomplishments. Ms. Townsend is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board.

Ms. Townsend came to the White House from the US Coast Guard, where she had served as the first Assistant Commandant for Intelligence. Prior to that, Ms. Townsend spent 13 years at the U. S. Department of Justice under the administrations of President H.W. Bush, President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush. She served in a variety of senior positions including as Counsel to the Attorney General for Intelligence Policy. Ms. Townsend began her prosecutorial career in 1985, serving as an Assistant District Attorney in Brooklyn, New York.

In 1988, she joined the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York where she focused on international organized crime and white-collar crime cases. In 1991, she worked in the Office of the Attorney General to assist in establishing the newly created Office of International Programs, the predecessor to the Executive Office for National Security. In December 1993, she joined the Criminal Division where she served as Chief of Staff to the Assistant Attorney General and played a critical part in establishing the Division's international training and rule of law programs.

From November of 1995 to November of 1997, Ms. Townsend was Director of the Office of International Affairs in the Criminal Division, which serves as the US Central Authority for extradition and mutual legal assistance, and works with the Department of State in the negotiation of international law enforcement treaties. In November of 1997, Ms. Townsend was appointed as Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, where she oversaw international law enforcement and training matters in the Criminal Division, and acted as an advisor to the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General on international law enforcement policy.

In March of 1998, Ms. Townsend was appointed Counsel for Intelligence Policy, managing matters related to national security policy and operations for the Department of Justice. In this capacity she headed the office of Intelligence Policy and Review, an office that provides legal advice and recommendations to the Attorney General and the Department of Justice regarding national security matters, reviews executive orders, directives and procedures relating to the intelligence community, and approves certain intelligence-gathering activities, especially those matters related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Tuesday’s Major Session

Curved Thinking in a Flat World: How to Capitalize on Future Uncertainty

As prices for agricultural commodities surge globally, governments are taking measures to conserve food supplies and avoid social unrest. China is losing ground as a low-cost manufacturing center to countries such as Thailand and Vietnam. Historically high energy costs, environmental concerns, and swings in currency exchange rates are bringing new life to US manufacturing. This is not a futurist’s vision of what the world might look like in a few years, but some of the changes that are reshaping the business landscape today.

Dr. Mahender Singh, head of the ground-breaking Supply Chain 2020 research project at the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics (MIT-CTL), will map this new world of fast-evolving markets. Using the latest research on scenario planning and visioning from the SC2020 program, Singh will show how companies – and supply chain professionals in particular – can learn to think the unthinkable and sense transformational change before being overtaken by events.

Tuesday Session, Before the Roundtable Luncheon

The Executive’s Perspective: Unprecedented Instability Offers Global Opportunities

Don’t miss this new event. Four industry-leading executives from some of the world’s best companies share their insights during a unique forum. Sharing their perspective on:

• Developing business strategies in difficult economic times
• Managing global trade barriers and risks
• The implications of changing demographics
• The importance of “green”

Be prepared for penetrating questions and insightful perspectives.

Wednesday's Closing Session

Author Jack Uldrich closes CSCMP's Annual Global Conference with Faster, Better, Smaller: Leading in an Era of Exponential Change

Supply chain management will continue to grow in importance as one of the key differentiators of future. Noted futurist and best-selling author, Jack Uldrich, will outline how exponential advances in technology will facilitate this trend and discuss how innovative producers and manufacturers can harness this progress to improve margins as well as retain and increase market share. Among the topics Uldrich will discuss include: how advances in sensor and wireless technology will facilitate the tracking of products throughout the distribution and delivery process; how the continued growth of computing processing power and social networking tool will enable more accurate modeling; how innovations in the field of data management and software will create new insights from the reams of data which are now being collected; and how advances in nanotechnology will lead to everything from the creation of stronger and lighter materials to “intelligent” packaging.

Jack Uldrich is the author of six books, including the award-winning, bestseller, The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business and, most recently, Jump the Curve: 50 Strategies for Helping Companies Deal with Emerging Technologies. He is the president of The NanoVeritas Group—an international leadership and technology consultancy dedicated to helping business, government, and non-profit organizations prepare for and profit from emerging technologies. Clients include FORTUNE 100 companies, venture capital firms, and state and regional governments.

Uldrich is a regular contributor on emerging technologies and other emerging technologies for The Motley Fool, and his written works have also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Leader to Leader, The Futurist, The Scientist, The Futures Research Quarterly, TechStation Central, and scores of other newspapers around the country. 

He is a frequent speaker on the technology and leadership lecture circuits, and has addressed numerous businesses, trade associations and investment groups, including General Mills, Pfizer, and the US Chamber of Commerce. He is also a regular guest on CNBC, MSNBC and CNN.

Uldrich, a former naval intelligence officer and Defense Department official, also served as the Director of the Minnesota Office of Strategic and Long Range Planning under Governor Jesse Ventura.