LEADERSHIP

Richard K. Bank, Director

Richard, a founder and Director of The Sustainable Supply Chain Foundation, is also president of Millennium International Consultants, a Washington, DC-based consulting firm specializing in commercial, governmental and international matters with particular emphasis on transportation, logistics/supply chain and international security issues.

Richard’s career spans more than three decades as an attorney, a diplomat and an international consultant. He has worked with U.S. and foreign clients in the United States, Europe, Asia, South America and the Middle East.

While at the State Department, Richard developed and implemented U.S. international shipping policy and supervised diplomatic activity in connection with the shipping, vessel-source marine pollution, supply chain and transportation-related trade practices and policies of foreign governments.

Richard headed U.S. delegations to the United Nation’s International Maritime Organization (IMCO/IMO) where he was instrumental in establishing the Marine Environment Pollution Committee in response to oil tanker accidents which had created severe environmental damage to European shorelines. He also headed delegations to the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and for six years led the U.S. delegation to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Maritime Transport Committee.

Since leaving the State Department, Richard has worked with clients as an attorney and senior partner with a major international law firm, and as a consultant employing his understanding of the essential confluence of issues which involve business, governments and national and international regulatory structures.

Richard has represented and has been a consultant to European providers of environment-friendly power generating facilities employing waste-to-energy gasification systems, and is working with a UK/Norwegian company which uses leading edge technologies in the use of carbon-capturing production of clean, hydrogen-sourced energy to be employed, in part, in the transportation field.

Richard has written articles on supply chain security and transportation/logistics, international business and government relations.

Richard chaired the 2009 and 2010 Sustainable Supply Chain Summit which is attended by major corporate, government and academic leaders engaged in sustainable supply chain issues. He is an active member of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals.

Stephen J Cox, Advisory Board

Stephen is a Supply Chain executive with expertise in efficient manufacturing operations, strategic manufacturing restructuring projects, environmental systems, cost reduction and supply chain logistics.

With nearly 40 years of experience Stephen has deep technical knowledge of all aspects of manufacturing and supply chain practices in consumer goods, foods and pharmaceutical industries. He has been with Schering-Plough, Unilever, Baxter, Hartz Mountain and WellPet . Because his work has brought him into operational contact with factories all over the world notably in China, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Egypt, Turkey, Western Europe, Brazil, Mexico and of course, North America, he has excellent perspective of best practices in supply chain in local and global businesses and also, how to build consensus across cultures.

At Unilever for almost 23 years, he was VP Supply Chain, VP, Supply Chain Strategy and Integration and other key supply chain positions in different parts of Unilever’s Personal Care and Foods businesses. While Global Supply Chain VP for two personal care product categories, Stephen was instrumental in developing a global manufacturing strategy which enabled the business to have common platforms for new product launches and a common technology platform to enable plants to share best practices and be more efficient in manufacturing and supply chain operations.

As Senior VP and Chief Supply Chain Officer at Hartz in 2009, Stephen enabled Hartz to optimize manufacturing of their U.S products, keep jobs in the US by consolidation of two factories into one, eliminate excess energy usage and effectively exit and remediate an antiquated site. These experiences are vital to the understanding of similar problems so many manufacturers and logistics providers face in efforts to survive economically through lowering energy and waste costs and become increasingly sustainable.

Stephen is recognized as a strategic thinker and he has demonstrated throughout his career an ability to break down complex issues and create new approaches and solutions . He brings to us a practical knowledge of the complexity in the extended supply chain and how to look for best practice to reduce cost, waste and carbon footprint throughout the chain.

Stephen holds a B.S. in Microbiology/Environmental Science from Rutgers University, and an MSc in Biology with a minor in Business Administration from Seton Hall University.

J. Michael Cavanaugh, Advisory Board

Mike is a partner with Holland & Knight LLP, Washington DC, and is Co-Chair of the Holland & Knight Energy & Clean Technology Team. He assists clients with project development, financing and regulatory issues in the logistics and energy fields, focusing especially on energy transportation, renewable energy and energy efficiency conversions.

With a long term background in rail and ocean shipping and intermodal transport, Mike advises several Fortune 500 logistics firms on global regulatory and transactional matters. Mike was among the coalition leaders in obtaining significant Federal Maritime Commission deregulation of ocean logistics service contracting in 2005. He has assisted logistics companies in regulatory compliance and structuring new contract forms to take advantage of new business opportunities, including integrated logistics contracts to support the construction and operation of new solar facilities in developing countries, and supply chain management concepts to enable development of offshore wind energy projects that can deliver capacity and energy at market-competitive rates.

Mike and his colleagues on the H&K Energy Team have represented electric utility clients on development of renewable energy projects, including the largest PV solar site in the eastern USA, large industrial solar net metering arrangements in New England, biomass and geothermal projects and conventional gas-fired combined cycle plants, high-capacity transmission lines, undersea power cable interconnections, and gas pipeline gathering and transmission systems.

Mike and Jon Furr of the H&K team have recently led efforts to modernize incentive-based energy efficiency contracting, and advised on the new form of building energy conversion contract for the Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA), reworking the algorithms and mathematical formulae for more accurately measuring current year energy performance against base year standards.

Mike and the H&K team have also represented facility owners on some of the largest efficiency conversion projects worldwide, including the Empire State Building, Chicago School Board, the Chicago Daley Center and other large private and public facilities.

Mike is a graduate of the Ohio State University and Stanford Law School, and taught international commercial law at George Mason Law School (1997-2005). Member of District of Columbia Bar, Maritime Administrative Bar Association and Singapore Maritime Law Association.

Rachelle C. Sampson, Ph.D, Advisory Board

Rachelle is a tenured Associate Professor of Logistics, Business and Public Policy at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. She teaches several MBA-level courses including Managerial Economics and Economics of Sustainability, and conducts inter-disciplinary research, contributing primarily to the strategy literature in addition to in organizational economics, technology management and legal studies.

Rachelle’s current research agenda surrounds how firms foster knowledge creation and commercialization, with a particular focus on the role of organization in this process. Her ongoing work focuses on the role of organization in setting incentives for innovation as well as how organizational structure influences firm investment horizons particularly in the context of environmental sustainability.

Rachelle joined the Smith School after five years at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Prior to receiving her Ph.D from the University of Michigan, Professor Sampson lived in Australia for ten years. During that time she received her law degree from Queensland University of Technology and was admitted as a barrister in New South Wales. Rachelle also held several legal and consulting positions during that time, most recently at Ernst and Young, advising firms on optimal expansion strategies for South East Asia.

Since returning to the U.S., Rachelle has received several awards for her teaching and research work. She is an active participant in several activities related to expanding the sustainability curriculum at the University of Maryland.