SCMI Fall Forum Speakers, Sessions and Sponsors

Come a little early and join us for lunch before the Forum officially begins. You will have time to meet and network with business colleagues, faculty, and students in a comfortable and relaxed setting.

Brian Tietje, Dean, Knauss School of Business - University of San Diego
Greg Skrovan, Director, Supply Chain Management Institute, Knauss School of Business - University of San Diego

Agents Assemble: The Next Era of Supply Chain

Join us for the opening keynote as Angel Mendez kicks off the afternoon sharing insights into Agent AI.

Agentic AI has moved past the demo stage. From Kinaxis's Maestro Agents to Walmart's autonomous supplier negotiations to Arch Systems reading machine signals on the Flex factory floor, AI agents are no longer just monitoring supply chains, they're starting to run them. This keynote cuts through the hype to show where that transition actually stands today, drawing on research from Gartner, Zero100, and Kinaxis alongside real deployments at Unilever, ExxonMobil, and beyond. The verdict: this isn't a story about replacing supply chain professionals. It's about which parts of the job are shifting to agents, which new roles are emerging in their place, and which human judgment, exception handling, supplier trust, systems thinking, no agent can touch.

Expect a fast-moving, visually driven session built for practitioners, not analysts: real numbers, real company examples across planning, procurement, and manufacturing, and a candid look at the workforce questions every supply chain leader is quietly asking. Attendees will leave with a clear framework for where agentic AI creates value today, where the research says the job market is headed by 2030, and a concrete first step for putting an agent into production without losing control of it.

Angel L. Mendez, Board Director and Enterprise Transformation Executive

Select from one of the two workshops listed below

Select the remaining workshop listed below

Bringing It All Together

As organizations continue to explore the transformative potential of AI, procurement sits at the intersection of innovation, value creation, and business strategy. This closing keynote brings together the day’s key insights, reflecting on how AI is reshaping procurement, the lessons learned along the way, and the opportunities that lie ahead. Attendees will gain a practical perspective on navigating AI-driven transformation and hear thoughts on the evolving skills, mindset, and leadership capabilities that will define the next generation of procurement professionals.

Rakesh Keswani, Director Strategic Sourcing, Qualcomm

This workshop explores how AI is transforming supplier risk management and procurement decision-making through conceptual frameworks, agentic AI applications, practical tools, and real-world use cases. The session features interactive discussions, examples from Microsoft's supply chain operations, and a live demonstration of an AI-powered supply chain risk management dashboard.

Facilitators:

Yanyan Yang, PhD, Clinical Professor of Business Analytics, Knauss School of Business - University of San Diego

John Martin, Senior Sourcing Engineer, Microsoft Azure

AI tools built for supply chain management get demoed constantly, but what about their actual practice? This hands-on workshop skips the lab conditions and focuses on real work: mapping your actual tasks, exploring AI implementation and adoption strategies, and leaving with one concrete practice to test this week.

Facilitators:
Richard Clarke, Clinical Professor, MS-SCM Academic Coordinator, Knauss School of Business - University of San Diego
Sthefanie Goodall, Executive Director, Process Engineering, CVS Health