Featured Speakers

Angus Fletcher is a Professor of Story Science at The Ohio State University, where he studies how narrative shapes human behavior, decision-making, and innovation. His work sits at the intersection of cognitive science, psychology, and storytelling, offering a fresh lens on how people think, solve problems, and drive change. For continuous improvement leaders, Fletcher’s expertise is especially relevant: he translates complex research into practical insights on how to influence culture, build alignment, and move teams from analysis to action. Rather than focusing on tools alone, he helps leaders understand how to engage the human side of improvement—how to frame problems, communicate ideas, and inspire better thinking across an organization. His work has been used by global organizations and government agencies to improve performance and decision-making, making him a compelling voice for leaders looking to strengthen not just their processes, but the way their people think and act.

Anna Nguyen has worked at Nationwide Children’s Hospital for 14 years in various roles in biobanking and cancer research, bioinformatics, data management, and now process improvement. She is currently a Process Improvement Specialist and facilitates teams from all over the organization through process improvement and change. She is an Ohio Wesleyan University graduate with a bachelor’s in chemistry and zoology.

Chad Cummings is an accomplished leader in continuous improvement, serving as Vice President of Lean Transformation and Improvement at the Cleveland Clinic. With a career spanning more than 25 years, Chad has refined his expertise across both manufacturing and healthcare sectors, where he has become a recognized practitioner and champion of Lean methodologies.

Prior to joining the Cleveland Clinic, Chad held significant leadership roles in a range of industries, successfully applying process improvement strategies in various Fortune 500 companies. Throughout his professional journey, Chad has consistently demonstrated a commitment to implementing transformative systems and frameworks that advance organizational performance.

Chad’s academic achievements include dual undergraduate degrees in Business and Engineering from Ohio University, complemented by a master’s degree from Case Western Reserve University. His educational foundation provided the springboard for a career dedicated to driving operational excellence and fostering a culture of innovation.

Dana is passionate about continuous improvement in the restaurant industry, starting out her career in entrepreneurship at The Students of Georgetown, Inc., the largest student-run corporation in the country, where she led the build and launch of The Hilltoss — a fast-casual salad and smoothie cafe that remains in operation today. She didn’t know it at the time, but she and the team used a rudimentary pull system using half sheet pans to keep the lettuce fresh! At Georgetown, Dana received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. She then joined Deloitte as a Business Analyst, contributing case study analysis to the firm's published "Restaurant of the Future" whitepaper and working across financial services, restaurant, healthcare, and life science clients. After leaving Deloitte to study Culinary Arts & Restaurant Management at the Institute of Culinary Education and gain practical experience as a line cook, Dana served as Head of Operations at Farm.One, a multi-unit hydroponic farming start-up in New York City. There, Dana owned multi-unit operations performance and built standard work for seeding, transplanting, nutrient testing/dosing, harvesting, and packing. Dana spent five years at Anheuser-Busch InBev across various roles, primarily developing operations, franchising, and retail software programs which were implemented at the regional and global levels. As an Engagement Lead at Service Physics, Dana leads teams of consultants to deliver lean operations transformations for multi-unit food & beverage brands. She is particularly passionate about using customer research to inform operations strategy, developing programs to translate technical concepts to operations, and using experiential learning to coach key stakeholders. For the past four years, Dana has led an engagement with an American Chinese restaurant chain which has resulted in a $135M annual incremental sales opportunity.

Danielle Klein is a Process Improvement Specialist at Nationwide Children's Hospital where she facilitates teams through process improvement projects that improve safety, efficiency, and effectiveness. Danielle is an Ohio University graduate with a bachelor's in industrial and systems engineering and a master's in healthcare administration. She also received her Six Sigma Black Belt certification from the American Society for Quality. Danielle loves contributing to improvements in clinical and non-clinical spaces and the opportunity to communicate and educate on process improvement methodologies.

Greg Poyet-Smith leads business transformation for Amazon Finance and Global Business Services, where he drives operational excellence initiatives and strategic transformation across global business lines. In this role, he leads Lean Six Sigma teams, manages portfolios of high-impact initiatives, and develops transformation roadmaps that deliver measurable improvements to performance and ROI. Greg has more than 15 years of experience leading global teams across technology, healthcare, finance, and supply chain organizations. Prior to Amazon, he spent over a decade at Cardinal Health in Operational Excellence leadership roles, where he led Lean Six Sigma deployments, developed continuous improvement talent, and drove large-scale operational improvements across distribution and healthcare operations

Dr. Lars Maaseidvaag started out his career in operations research and management consulting. He then managed the Lean Six Sigma curriculum for Accenture/George Group as the Curriculum Manager for several years. Afterwards, Lars led MoreSteam's product development teams. During that time, Lars was instrumental in the design and creation of EngineRoom®, MoreSteam's online data analysis software, and was the mastermind behind Process Playground™, MoreSteam's online process modeling tool. Lars has been a lead instructor for the Master Black Belt training program offered in collaboration with The Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business for over ten years and has over 20 years of experience teaching advanced Lean topics. Lars received a PhD in Operations from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He received a Masters in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering and an MBA from The University of Texas in Austin. Currently Lars is working with Service Physics to strengthen their use of Lean Six Sigma methodologies (Dana and Kelly are the first two Black Belts in training) and process design using Process Playground across the portfolio of Service Physics clients.

Dr. James Cole has served with USSOCOM and has been a Navy Officer, paratrooper, military diver, and surgeon. He left active duty in 2000 but after the events of September 11th, he rejoined the reserves and was deployed to both Afghanistan and Iraq. He practices Trauma Surgery, Critical Care, and Emergency General Surgery in Illinois.

Joseph Baker is the Chief Operating Officer at Veritext Legal Solutions, one of the largest legal technology providers in the United States. A Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and experienced operations leader, Joseph specializes in operational execution, leadership development, and scaling organizations through periods of growth and transformation. He has delivered results across several Fortune 300 service organizations and brings deep expertise in operational excellence, AI and product commercialization, customer experience strategy, and post-merger integration. Known for his ability to connect strategy with frontline execution, Joseph focuses on building strong leaders, developing talent pipelines, and driving measurable performance improvements that help organizations grow while strengthening their culture.

Kelly Greenbauer helps hospitality teams do more of what matters and less of what doesn’t. After studying International Relations and Entrepreneurship at Tufts University, she led training program development, concept innovation, and sustainability initiatives for organizations including Celebrity Cruises and Marriott International. She also developed a deep appreciation for hospitality and service through frontline roles at Blackberry Mountain and Tatte Bakery & Café. While completing her Master of Management in Hospitality at Cornell University, Kelly was introduced to Service Physics and its methodology rooted in Lean manufacturing and the Toyota Production System through a Spaghetti Mapping exercise. Tracing an employee’s movement through a busy restaurant revealed work patterns that looked more like a plate of spaghetti than an intentionally designed system, sparking her interest in using operational system design to solve the service industry’s most pressing challenges. Today, Kelly uses the firm’s approach to lead operational diagnostics, service delivery system design, restaurant layout optimization, and implementation strategy for restaurant companies with 500+ units. These improvements have created more capacity for meaningful connection between employees and guests while driving better outcomes for the business.

Kim Scibelli is the Executive Director of Supply Chain and Operations at AVS Bio. As an accomplished champion of Lean principles, with a demonstrated history of success in logistics, operations, and continuous improvement across the supply chain workflow, Kim has coached multiple teams through Lean Transformations. She helps create cultures centered around high-level problem-solving and develops strategies for cultivating cultures of continuous improvement. She summarizes her experience in three key areas; an engaging and effective team leader, a process improvement pioneer, and an organizational management expert.

Mark Reich spent 23 years at Toyota, beginning in Japan in 1988, where he worked in Product Planning during the critical launch of Lexus. In 1994, he returned to the U.S. to join the Toyota Supplier Support Center (TSSC), helping apply the Toyota Production System (TPS) across industries—including healthcare and nonprofits.

In 2011, Mark joined the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI), serving as COO and now as Senior Coach and Chief Engineer, Strategy. He has led lean transformations and coached executives in hoshin kanri across companies such as GE Appliances, Michigan Medicine, and Turner Construction.

Mark holds a degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and studied Japanese at Nanzan University. He is fluent in Japanese.

As Director of Continuous Improvement at Ace Hardware’s Corporate office in Oak Brook, Illinois, Tim Malone is a transformative leader with a proven track record in supply chain optimization and operational excellence. Tim has advanced through key roles in Inventory Control, Replenishment Planning, Supplier Compliance, and led Ace’s import warehousing operations across multiple locations.

Currently, Tim spearheads the Continuous Improvement department, driving Lean Six Sigma initiatives and enhancing the efficiency of Ace’s private Fleet utilization. Renowned for cultivating a culture of accountability and continuous improvement, Tim is dedicated to delivering measurable results and fostering high-performing teams.

Tim Malone holds an MBA from Northern Illinois University and a Bachelor of Science in Operations Supply Chain Management from Marquette University.

Alexander “Xander” Hathaway leads MoreSteam’s software development team and helps shape the product strategy, architecture, and technical foundation behind the company’s learning and improvement platform. His public work explores how AI, machine learning, and software systems can support continuous improvement without losing sight of value, standard work, system understanding, and the “gemba” where work actually happens. Before joining MoreSteam, Xander worked as a senior software architect in consulting, designing and implementing cloud-based solutions for a wide range of clients. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Notre Dame and a Master of Information and Data Science from the University of California, Berkeley.