4 Linda Venables

CSCO, PwC Australia

PwC https://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-venables/

Logistics veteran Linda Venables is an international executive with 35 years’ experience building and leading teams across Retail, FMCG, Industrial, and Third-Party Logistics sectors. She is the first Chief Supply Chain Officer heading Business Consulting and Services at PwC Australia, a network spanning 155 countries with over 327,000 people, each of whom is committed to delivering quality assurance, advisory, and tax services.

This is alongside her services as an Independent Supply Chain Consultant and role as Deputy Chain of environmental community Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation.

“Across key markets, senior executives are focused now more than ever to understand, invest, and better control their supply chains. We intend to provide our clients with the expertise and advice they need to confidently make critical investments and improvements,” Venables said. A rich employment history, Venables has held roles including Chief Logistics Officer in Supermarkets, Liquor and Convenience at Metcash, Director of IT and Supply Chain at Dick Smith Electronics, Business Development Manager at Woolworths Limited, and Business Director at DHL.

Her volunteering and charitable work includes sitting as a Non-Executive Director and Member of ARC for Foodbank Australia, and her work pursuing the professionalisation of supply chain management in Australia.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Birmingham, a master’s in Manufacturing Management from Cranfield School of Management, a qualification in Company Direction and Advanced Risk Management from the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Roxanne Flanagan

CSCO Walgreens

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ roxanne-flanagan-229b5761/

Roxanne Flanagan started at Walgreens, the second-largest pharmacy chain in the US, in 1993 as a management intern. Three decades later, she is Senior Vice President, Chief Supply Chain Officer.

Flanagan works with her teams to stay in-step with consumers, utilising everything from same-day delivery, partnerships with thirdparty delivery apps, micro-fulfilment centres, and drones: “I don’t know what the future is going to hold for Walgreens or for any retailer, as far as drones go,” she said. “We’re all kind of experimenting. We want to be innovative, test all the new options out there.”

The company is also focusing on microfulfilment centres to fill prescriptions, allowing the pharmacists to focus on customer engagement to refocus their workload. Last year, around 60% of prescriptions were filled through automation, with the chain hoping to expand that from 9 to

22 facilities this year. “Even though we are 120 years old, we’re not going to be complacent,” says Flanagan. “We are very innovative, always trying new things and always thinking about the future.”

Flanagan holds a bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy from Purdue University, a master’s in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix, and a Master of Science in Logistics, Materials, and Supply Chain Management from Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business. Alongside her pioneering work in Supply Chain management, Flanagan is a strong advocate for Walgreens’ inclusive work environment efforts, including the creation of its Transitional Work Group Program and Retail Employees with Disabilities Initiative to create even more opportunities for people with disabilities.

Karen Jordan

https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-jordan-47b0177

As Chief Supply Chain Officer at PepsiCo, Karen Jordan leads the North American Supply Chain for PepsiCo’s beverage business – a portfolio of billion-dollar brands such as Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Starbucks, and Rockstar.

Jordan has a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Princeton University, spent over nine years at Procter & Gamble, then joined Pepsi in 2002 as a Supply Chain Operations Manager.

Over the next two decades, she held multiple managerial positions at Pepsi, and gained her master’s degree in Transformative Leadership and Social Change from Maryland University of Integrative Health, as well as a certificate in Executive Education: Strategy Master Class from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

She is now known for collaboratively driving benchmark productivity and service results in an FMCG retail environment, utilising her on-the-ground plant management experience to deliver world-class safety, quality, service, sustainability, and cost, as well as deploying innovative employee engagement solutions that increase diversity, retention, and engagement of leaders in frontline to senior executive positions.

Jordan was recently a key voice in PepsiCo’s ‘She is PepsiCo’ campaign, which includes 28 personalised delivery trucks for frontline female employees:

“Women play a valuable role in PepsiCo’s frontline, and the opportunity for them to continue to power our supply chain is an opportunity for both PepsiCo and the communities we serve,” says Jordan. “History has shown us that women have the ability to transform industries, so it’s exciting to see progress and to be able to recognise these women across North America on our trucks, one of our most widely-seen assets.”

Kathryn Wengel

Chief Global Supply Chain Officer & VP Johnson & Johnson

https://www.linkedin.com/in/

Our 2023 Top Woman in Supply Chain is Kathryn Wengel, Executive Vice President, Chief Technical Operations and Risk Officer, and a member of the Company’s Executive Committee for healthcare company Johnson & Johnson.

With more than three decades’ experience in leadership, she now leads key technical operations functions, including: Procurement, Engineering and Property Services, Sustainability and cross-sector Supply Chain teams, and critical risk functions, under which Quality & Compliance, Health Care Compliance, Environmental Health & Safety, Global Security and Global Brand Protection are in her remit. Under her leadership, Johnson & Johnson has become the only healthcare company ever ranked among the top five on the Supply Chain Top 25 list by Gartner, Inc.

Wengel also serves as a Member of the Board of Directors at leading global life sciences company Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, is the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors at the National Association of Manufacturers in the US, Chair of the Board of GS1 Global, a nonprofit that develops and maintains global supply chain standards, as well as executive sponsor for the Women’s Leadership & Inclusion initiative and the Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Manufacturing, and Design (WiSTEM2D) programme.

In 2015, Wengel received the National Association of Female Executives’ Women of Excellence Award, was recognised in 2019 by the Council of Supply Management Professionals (CSCMP) with its lifetime Distinguished Service Award and elected to the Supply Chain Hall of Fame, the industry’s top individual supply chain honour. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering and Operations Research from Princeton University.