Amber Pate

Executive Director

Amber oversees NLPA’s operations and provides oversight for the organization’s important functions and programs, including sales and development, graduate benefits and retention, training, communications, and more. She joined the organization in 2018 as Executive Director.

Amber earned a BA in public relations and business management from the University of South Carolina. She currently resides in South Carolina with her husband, son, and dog.

Jeff Dean
CPOS, CPOP, CPOM, CPOE

Director for Education

Jeff brings 28 years of supply management excellence over multiple business categories including Hospitality, Startups, Food and Beverage, Gaming, City Government, Tribal Government, Short Term Rentals, MultiFamily Real Estate and more. Jeff has managed budgets of over $300M over all major spend categories (Direct/Indirect) and managed teams of over 120 managers and team members.

Cynthia Vereen,

NLPA Member Services Team Lead

Cynthia joined the NLPA team in 2017, bringing over a decade of customer service experience to the team. Her background in servicing customers allows her to identify the member’s needs quickly so they receive the ultimate customer service experience.

Cynthia oversees all new student inquiries, new member processes, and member renewals. She prides herself in providing a superior level of service for NLPA.

Diana Hummel,

BSBA – Olin Business School

Affiliate Instructor

Diana brings 30+ years of experience in Supply Management. Her ability to leverage her deep expertise, outstanding collaboration skills and a bias for results has yielded over $500 million in benefits to the bottom line throughout her career. Her major spend categories include manufacturing raw materials, packaging supplies, manufacturing capital equipment and supplies, inventory reduction/optimization, freight, vendor consignment, R&D and lab operations equipment and services. She is expert in insource verses outsource cost analysis and spend categories in support of administration out-sourcing including IT hardware and software. Industries that Diana has worked in include chemicals, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, and small business.

David G. Strand

BAS, MSES & MBA

Affiliate Instructor

David brings 20+ years of executive sourcing and procurement leadership in automotive, aerospace, high tech electronics and defense sectors, including Nexteer Automotive, Merrill Technologies, Navistar, General Motors, and Delco Electronics. David has a proven record of delivering continuous improvements in quality, manufacturability, reliability, efficiency and productivity while reducing costs. His teams have identified hundreds of millions of dollars in savings opportunities, consistently enabling organizations to do more without spending more. David holds an MBA Capstone Degree from the Kelley School of Business, and MS in Engineering Science & Technology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a BA Applied Science degree in Electronics – University of Michigan.

Bryan Seidensticker

CSCP, CPIM

Affiliate Instructor

Bryan brings over 20 years of practical experience in global supply management, training, coaching and consulting. Bryan has personally managed annual spend of $400 million or more during his career in Service Delivery, Global Distribution and manufacturing leadership roles with automotive and industrial products companies. Major spend categories with experience include MRO, Electronics, Software, Professional Services, and Labor. Industries with extensive experience include Telecom, Automotive, Mail Automation, Material Handling and Fintech. Bryan holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from the Kelly School of Business, Indiana University, Bloomington Indiana.

Patrick Pritchard

BSBA

Affiliate Instructor

Patrick brings 20+ year of practical experience in supply chain management, training, coaching, mentoring and consulting. Patrick has personally managed annual spend of $500 million or more during his experience. Major spend categories with experience include capital projects, major equipment, construction, logistics, operational materials, in diversified industries both domestic and internationally. Major industries include Alternative Energy, Energy, Mining, Manufacturing, Pharma, Upgrading/ revamping industrial properties and various Government projects (Antarctica, Demil of Chemical Agents). Long term active memberships with APICS, ISM, numerous awards for domestic and international projects. BSBA- UCD- University of Colorado at Denver. Various certifications in TQM, Negotiations and Purchasing.

Jeremy Barger

MBA

Master Instructor

Jeremy Barger’s industry experience includes Manufacturing including Automotive, Capital Equipment Material Handling Equipment. He brings 25 years of overall global procurement supply chain experience. Jeremy has held various leadership roles in global strategic sourcing with annual spend responsibility of more than $800 million, inclusive of all major spend categories (Direct/In-Direct). He works in consulting as an Executive Director & Principal for a firm specializing in supply chain and operational cost reduction initiatives.

Blake D. Mathies

CSCTA, SCOR-P, CSCP, CPIM, LSSGB, PMP

Affiliate Instructor

Blake brings 25 years in procurement, supply chain management, logistics, project management, training, coaching and consulting. Blake has personally managed annual spend of $500 million during their career. Major spend categories with experience include: Plastic and steel raw materials, Mechanical/electrical installation services, and aircraft engines. Industries with extensive experience include manufacturing, large company government service and construction contracting, warehouse/logistics automation systems integration and brick and mortar retail. Blake graduated from the USAF Academy with a BS in Political Science and from Troy University with a Master of Public Administration.

Bill Antonace

Affiliate Instructor

Bill Antonace brings a successful track record of streamlining end-to-end supply chains for business growth and the competitive advantage of global organizations. His expertise is in reducing waste, financial management, customer service, inventory control, lean processes, strategy, cost reduction, building, mentoring, and leading world-class international teams.

Bill is steeped in international logistics, 3PL, distribution, sourcing, procurement supply chain best practices, and spent years as part of Gartner’s team researching world-class best practices. His areas of expertise include Sourcing and Supply Strategy, Logistics Excellence, 3PL & 4PL, Distribution, Supply Chain Transformation, Metrics, Executive Dashboards, End to end Strategy Design, Lean Six Sigma, and Procurement cost reduction execution.

Ron Crabtree

Affiliate Instructor

Ron has over 30 years of experience in innovation and transformation for organizations and business and, along the way, he has spent more than 20 years of those years focused on procurement and supply chain. He is an internationally recognized expert in cutting-edge business process improvement methodologies. Ron is a Master Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, who has helped train and certify thousands of Lean Six Sigma and Six Sigma belts and provided hundreds of millions of dollars in value for his clients. He is the author/co-author of 5 books on Operational Excellence.

Jason Borgesi

Affiliate Instructor

Jason Borgesi has over 20 years of diverse global procurement and supply chain experience supporting many industries, including construction, mining, high technology, automotive, performance materials, manufacturing, industrial, and most recently, robotics. He has achieved documented cost savings and working capital improvements in the millions implementing purchasing best practices and developing rock star teams. He has a passion for procurement with expertise in strategic sourcing/e-sourcing, negotiations, category management, supplier relationship management, operating process management, supplier performance management, and overall supply management strategy.