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Powered by Manufacturing Executives, Authors and Thought Leaders

The Reshoring Institute is led by experienced manufacturing, operations and supply chain management professionals, and guided by an Advisory Board second to none, profiled below.

Rosemary Coates 2019 (2)

Rosemary Coates
Executive Director and Chairman of the Board

Ms. Coates is the Executive Director of the Reshoring Institute and the President of Blue Silk Consulting. She is a seasoned executive with an MBA, 25 years’ experience in Supply Chain Management, Operations Management, Project Management and Systems Consulting. Prior to BSC, she was a Senior Director at SAP, the Supply Chain Practice Leader at KPMG Peat Marwick and at Answerthink, and a Regional Manager at Hewlett-Packard.  Ms. Coates has consulted with global and domestic clients, VCs and PE firms on operations systems and processes.  She has considerable international experience and has worked for extended periods in Asia and Europe.  Her experience spans a broad range of industries including High Technology, Software, Chemicals, Health Care, Consumer Products, Industrial Products, Food Distribution, Transportation, Publishing, Retail, Oil and Gas. She has extensive knowledge and experience in manufacturing and outsourcing in Asia, Europe and the US. She has authored an Amazon.com Best Seller book: 42 Rules for Sourcing and Manufacturing in China, 42 Rules for Superior Field Service and is particularly excited about Reshoring Guidebook.

Ms. Coates in a member of the Board of Directors at the University of San Diego Supply Chain Management Institute. She earned a BS in Business at Arizona State University and an MBA at the University of San Diego. She resides in Silicon Valley.

Daisie Hobson

Daisie Hobson
Chief Operations Officer and Member of the Board

Ms. Hobson is the Chief Operations Officer of the Reshoring Institute, overseeing the Institute’s research agenda, manages consulting projects and marketing activities.  She is also a Member of the Board and a Director at Blue Silk Consulting.

In 2013, she returned from Mexico, where she served for two years as a Project Management Specialist Volunteer in the Peace Corps. She worked at a government research and manufacturing center located in Central Mexico. She was responsible for identifying the initial areas of improvement in the new project management system, implementing project management tools and policies, creating a weekly reporting system, working with and training project managers, assessing the current project management system and creating a project management curriculum for training future project managers.

With a BS in Ceramic Engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla, she began her professional career in the Semiconductor Industry in Arizona. She started as a Process and Product Engineer for leading companies such as Motorola, Flip Chip, and Medtronic. After a brief stint in technical sales, Silicon Valley called and she moved to CA where she changed sides. She went from being the customer to supporting the customer by working for KLA-Tencor’s Global Support and Services team. At KLA-Tencor, she managed and supported a multi-million dollar SEM system. After several years and thousands of air miles, she changed to consumer products by moving to Palm, Inc. where she helped launch Windows Mobile products and the revolutionary WebOS, the Palm Pre and Pixi. While at Palm she obtained an MS in Organization Development from the University of San Francisco.

Her work in these areas has taken her to over forty countries including Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, India, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and The Philippines, where she met wonderful people, tried fantastic food, and learned more about the local culture. As much as she enjoys working in and with other countries and helping their economies she is extremely interested in bringing manufacturing back to the US. About reshoring and international work, she believes that a healthy balance is not only possible but necessary.

Joel Sutherland

Joel Sutherland
Director, Reshoring Institute and Member of the Board

Joel has more 40 years of experience as a supply chain executive, educator, consultant and public speaker. Joel has delivered hundreds of presentations and workshops around the world and is frequently sought out as a SME by WSJ, The Economist, USA Today, and numerous trade publications / journals about reshoring and other topics.

Prior to joining academia (first Lehigh and now University of San Diego), Joel held executive level positions at Denso (Toyota’s largest global supplier), International Paper, ConAgra, Formica, JB Hunt / Transplace, and CSX Rail and Sealand Services – creating and managing a 3PL in Europe. Joel earned a BS from the University of Southern California, with a focus in logistics management, and an MBA from Pepperdine University. As an adjunct professor, Joel also taught MBA courses at USC.

Joel is a past Board Chair of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) and in 2009 received their highest honor – the Distinguished Service Award. Joel also received the Professional Achievement Award from Logistics Management magazine; was recognized as one of the Top 20 Logistics Executives by CLO magazine and the Logistics & Supply Chain Forum; and honored as a Thought Leader by Supply Chain Quarterly and DC Velocity magazines.

ANGEL L. MENDEZ
Executive Advisor to the Board

A recognized leader in global enterprise transformation, innovation, and operational excellence, Angel L. Mendez brings over 30 years of proven management expertise with some of the world’s leading companies.

Mendez retired from Cisco Systems in March of 2015, having served on that company’s Senior Leadership Team for the past 10 years. Most recently, Mendez served as Senior Vice President of Cisco Transformation where his collaborative approach and commitment to operational rigor and innovation enabled him to lead the Accelerated Cisco Transformation Program (ACT), a company-wide, multiyear enterprise transformation program. Under Mendez’s direction, ACT enabled Cisco to reinvent its operating model and business processes to deliver next-generation products and services while significantly improving shareholder value.

Mendez’s business background includes extensive international business experience in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. He was named by Business 2.0 Magazine to the “Business 2.0 Dream Team–All Star Executives Any Company Would Kill For.” Hispanic Business Magazine placed him on its list of the “20 Most Influential Hispanic Executives in Corporate America,” and he was named to the list of “Most Influential Latinos in Silicon Valley.”

A native of Cuba, Mendez holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Lafayette College and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Crummer School at Rollins College.

Garnett

RONALD B. GARNETT
Member of the Board

Ronald B. Garnett is President and CEO of the Council for Supplier Diversity. The Council’s mission is to use Supplier Diversity initiatives as an engine for economic development in under-represented communities. The Council believes that diverse business development is a key component of reducing poverty, unemployment, increasing wealth, and integrating American society.

Over the past ten years, the Council has continued to grow in size, capability and reputation under Ron’s innovative leadership.

Previously Ron was founder and CEO of PPI, a performance consulting firm, where he distinguished himself as an effective performance strategist. His broad background in executive management, sales, distribution, operations and human resources provides a unique combination of experience and competency when it comes to improving strategy.

His work has been recognized in national trade magazines and his writings on performance improvement have been published in professional publications. Ron currently serves on the Board of the Asian Business Association.

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