SCHEDULE | |
3:00 PM | Welcoming Remarks: Creating a Better Supply Chain |
3:10 PM | Talent: Empowering a Better Supply Chain |
3:20 PM | Innovation: Inventing a Better Supply Chain |
3:40 PM | Customers: Sharing a Better Supply Chain |
3:55 PM | Execution & Scaling: Delivering a Better Supply Chain |
4:10 PM | Q & A Panel Discussion |
4:30 PM | Adjourn |
Rick Cohen is Chairman of Symbotic’s Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Symbotic. He is also the Executive Chairman of both C&S Holdings and C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc., where he is the third generation of the Cohen family to lead that company. Rick grew up in the C&S Wholesale Grocers business, working for his father during the summers until his graduation from college in 1974, when he went to work full-time at C&S Wholesale Grocers. Rick became Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of C&S Wholesale Grocers in 1989 and served as President until March 2014 and as Chief Executive Officer until January 2018, during which time he led the growth and expansion of C&S Wholesale Grocers into an industry leader in supply chain solutions and wholesale grocery supply. Rick holds a B.S. in accounting from the Wharton School of Business. He has also been awarded honorary doctorate degrees from Assumption College and Keene State College. Rick was selected to serve on the board of directors due to his extensive experience in the wholesale distribution business, his vision and experience in automation and his experience and track record in entrepreneurship, investment and business development and deep relationships in various industries.
Bill Boyd has served as Chief Strategy Officer of Symbotic since February 2020. In that role, Boyd is responsible for planning and directing various operational, financial, administrative and strategic activities for Symbotic. He has more than 12 years of extensive distribution and logistics industry experience. Since February 2020, Bill has also served as the Chief Legal Officer of C&S Wholesale Grocers. Prior to joining Symbotic, Bill served from April 2019 to February 2020 as the chief legal officer at Imperial Dade, a high-growth foodservice packaging and supplies distribution company. Bill also held the roles of general counsel and chief legal officer at C&S Wholesale Grocers from March 2009 to February 2018 and February 2018 to April 2019, respectively, and in those roles, Bill was involved in the initial investment by Rick Cohen in CasePick Systems, which later became Warehouse Technologies. Bill has a diverse educational background, with a J.D. from Duke University, M.B.A. from Babson College and a B.A. in history and psychology from Williams College.
Carol Hibbard has been named Chief Financial Officer at Symbotic. Carol brings nearly 30 years of financial, operational and business experience and a passion for technological transformation. She joins Symbotic from The Boeing Company, where she served as Senior Vice President and Corporate Controller, responsible for all financial reporting and regulatory compliance functions. She also held several leadership roles at Boeing, including Vice President and CFO for Boeing Defense, Space and Security and Vice President and CFO for their Engineering, Operations and Technology organization. Before Boeing, Carol was an Operations Research Analyst with the Department of Defense in Washington, DC, supporting the United States Navy, United States Air Force and National Reconnaissance Organization. Carol received an M.B.A. from Virginia Polytechnic University and a B.S. in statistics from the University of Pittsburgh.
Walt Odisho is Chief Manufacturing & Supply Chain Officer at Symbotic, leading teams responsible for strategic sourcing, supply chain, manufacturing & quality, project execution & implementation, commissioning, and customer site safety. Walt has over 30 years of experience in operations, engineering and manufacturing, with a proven history of implementing strategies that facilitate growth in quality, safety and productivity. Prior to joining Symbotic, Walt served as VP of Operations Fulfillment at Amazon.com, Inc. Prior to that, he was VP of Manufacturing, Safety & Quality for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, where he led a global production system. Prior to Boeing, Walt was Vice President/General Manager, Manufacturing and Operations at Toyota, where he spent over 24 years in senior manufacturing roles and led the company’s largest manufacturing facility across the globe. Walt graduated from The Wharton School’s Toyota Executive Development, Business Administration and Management program and holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from California State University, Fresno. He has served as an executive board member for the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers since 2010.
Miriam Ort is Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) at Symbotic. In this role she is responsible for leading the human resources and communications organizations. Miriam brings more than 20 years of experience driving transformational change in global organizations. Since December 2019, Miriam has also served as EVP & CHRO of C&S Wholesale Grocers Inc. Prior to C&S, Miriam was the senior vice president, human resources at Avis Budget Group. Miriam previously spent nearly a decade in executive HR roles at PepsiCo, before which she was head of talent management for Avon Products, North America. An accomplished author and speaker, Miriam coauthored the bestselling book, "One Page Talent Management: Eliminating Complexity, Adding Value from Harvard Business Press." Miriam holds a Masters in HR Management from Rutgers University and a B.A. in English from Thomas Edison State College.
Brendan Blennerhassett is the Senior Vice President, European Region, responsible for developing and delivering Symbotic’s global expansion plans in Europe. Brendan has more than 30 years’ experience and a proven track record of identifying and developing effective ways to optimize and grow large organizations, most recently as CEO of Expert Technologies Group. Previously, Brendan held a number of executive leadership roles at Comau, including the CEO positions of the North America and United Kingdom business units, where he delivered transformational results, optimized growth opportunities for the business and was responsible for driving exceptional customer service and operational excellence. Brendan graduated from the Institute of Directors in London, England as a Certified Company Director.
Shibu Sasidharan is the Senior Vice President, Growth Strategy, responsible for developing and executing strategies to accelerate growth for Symbotic. Shibu brings to Symbotic over 20 years of commercial and strategy experience, primarily in the supply chain and automation industry. Prior to joining Symbotic, Shibu served as Executive VP, Group Strategy and Solutions Consulting at KION. Before that he was Chief Commercial & Strategy Officer at Dematic where he led corporate strategy, business development, and vertical-based marketing. He previously held senior executive positions in Corporate Strategy and Market Intelligence at Baker Hughes and General Electric. Shibu holds an M.B.A. in Operations and Marketing from Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies and Bachelor of Engineering from PSG College of Technology. He is also a graduate of INSEAD’s Executive Management program.
Jason Denmon has served as Vice President, Sales at Symbotic since September 2017. His team leads Symbotic’s customer relationships, partners on overall client success throughout program rollout and assists in identifying key partners to enable the organization and technology to scale alongside customer growth. Prior to joining Symbotic, Jason held the role of Vice President Sales at Fortna from December 2010 to September 2017, where he and his team helped some of the world’s largest brands transform their distribution operations into a competitive advantage. Before that, Jason was worked in sales at Manhattan Associates, VP of Operations at Corporate Express (now part of Staples), and began his career at Accenture Consulting. Jason is a graduate of University of Louisiana at Monroe with B.S. in finance.
As Senior Vice President, Hardware Research & Development, Cristian Mori is responsible for developing cutting-edge technologies and innovative new products to provide breakthrough solutions for Symbotic's customers. Cristian is an experienced engineering and technology leader with a proven record in delivering innovative solutions and optimizing and scaling systems and processes. Prior to joining Symbotic Cristian led deployment and systems standardization at Rivian as Director of Industrial Automation and Control, Advanced Development. Previously, he led pivotal engineering and robotic & vision systems teams at Symbotic, iRobot, and Tenova Core. He received two prior patents for his work. Cristian graduated from the University of Illinois with an M.S. in Computer Science & Data Science and holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Genoa (Italy).
As Symbotic Fellow, Ted Macdonald is responsible for directing the efforts of several Symbotic advanced technology teams, overseeing feature design and system engineering, as well as control and software architecture. In the 10+ years Ted has been at Symbotic he helped design and implement the core architecture for the company’s mobile robot system. Ted has extensive experience in automation and implementation of motion controls systems, having managed multiple high-profile projects from the design phase through integration and production. Prior to joining Symbotic, Ted worked for Automation Solutions, a motion control component distributor. Ted has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Penn State University and an M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Georgia Tech.
Teddy Ort is the Senior Director, Robot Perception and A.I. at Symbotic. He leads the SymBot Software group at Symbotic, responsible for orchestrating the seamless execution of thousands of pick and place tasks per hour across the SymBot fleet. Together with the team, he develops optimization, advanced perception, and AI algorithms to ensure the timely and precise delivery of our customers' products. Prior to joining Symbotic, Teddy worked with the Toyota Research Institute, where he contributed to the development of localization and mapping techniques for autonomous vehicles. He earned his doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and also holds an M.S. in Computer Science and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Pavithra (Pavi) Ashok is Head of Talent Acquisition at Symbotic. In this role, she is responsible for strategic initiatives to attract, develop, and nurture talent pipeline. Pavi has more than 18 years of experience in leading recruiting and talent acquisition teams at Wayfair and Verizon prior to joining Symbotic. Her passion lies in not only identifying and attracting top talent but also in leveraging programmatic approaches to build robust pipelines of future talent from schools and universities. Pavi holds a degree in Commerce and Human Resource Management from India.
Jeff Evanson is Symbotic’s VP of Investor Relations and Corporate Development. Jeff held the same roles for seven years at Tesla Motors, Inc., during the Model S, Model X and Model 3 vehicle launches. During that time, Jeff helped Tesla raise over $11 billion of equity and convertible debt capital. He also was instrumental in closing the $2.5 billion acquisition of Solar City. Prior to Tesla, Jeff worked as a sell-side research analyst and in management at Piper Jaffray (now Piper Sandler) and Dougherty & Company. Prior to his career in investment banking, Jeff was a CPA at RSM McGladrey. Jeff holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse.
Contact our Investor Relations team at ir@symbotic.com or complete our contact form so we can get in touch.