NAW Distribution Leadership Program
Elevate your leadership at The Ohio State University.
Research shows the benefits are clear: Companies that invest in their employees’ professional development experience increased employee retention, improved performance, and enhanced innovation. Join a select group of high-caliber professionals for an exclusive program designed to accelerate your career in wholesale distribution. This intensive, 5-day certificate program, led by seven expert faculty members from Ohio State will equip students with the strategic skills and knowledge to navigate industry challenges, drive growth, and lead with confidence.
Each day, experienced instructors will lead classroom discussion. Students are assigned to working teams. These teams gather each evening for brainstorming sessions to work on the distributor case study. The emphasis of the teamwork is on original and creative idea generation, and the goal is on real-world problem solving. The course concludes with each team presenting to the course faculty and other participants its remedies for the troubled distribution company featured in the case study.
Participants are intellectually challenged and return to their roles with a high level of energy ready to make an impact on their company's bottom line.
Program Details
| Program Dates | Fall 2024: October 21-25, 2024 |
|---|---|
| Delivery Method | In-person at The Blackwell Inn and Pfahl Hall over 5 days. |
| Cost |
For the early bird, group rates and member promo code, contact Patti Rausch: prausch@naw.org |
Program Components
Using a distribution-specific case study developed exclusively for NAW by Ohio State faculty, students will spend time studying how to effectively respond to a wide range of distribution challenges, including:
- Digital disruption
- Leadership transitions
- Tight margins
- Inventory “right-sizing”
- SKU proliferation
- Hiring and retaining talent
- Ever-demanding customers
- Intense competition
- Avoiding the “commodity trap”
- Growing complexity
- Master core competencies: Business strategy, finance, supply chain management, sales and marketing, talent management, and team effectiveness.
- Gain real-world insights: Learn from faculty with extensive industry experience and apply best practices to your unique challenges.
- Network with industry leaders: Build valuable connections and expand their professional network.
- Earn a prestigious credential: Receive an official certificate from The Ohio State University, enhancing your resume and professional reputation.
What You Will Earn
Once you successfully complete the program, you will be eligible to receive a certificate of completion from The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business.
You may proudly display this certificate in your office or home to showcase your accomplishment. You may also add this certificate to the licenses and certifications section of your LinkedIn profile. This will allow you to showcase your newly acquired experience to your network and stand out in your field.
Program Faculty
Keely L. Croxton is a Professor of Logistics in the Department of Marketing and Logistics at The Ohio State University. Her research interests are in supply chain management. She has developed an expertise in supply chain resilience, focused on helping companies balance their inherent vulnerabilities with their management capabilities in order to effectively respond to disruptions in the supply chain. She is also interested in further developing a process-oriented framework for supply chain management, with special focus on demand management and relationship management. Her research has been published in several leading journals and she has been awarded the Bernard J. LaLonde Best Paper Award for the Journal of Business Logistics. She is also the author on several chapters of Supply Chain Management: Processes, Partnerships, Performance. She received her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University. Before joining academia, she worked in the automotive, paper and packaging, and third party logistics industries.
At The Ohio State University, Keely teaches modeling, forecasting, and supply chain management at the undergraduate, MBA, Ph.D. and Executive Education levels. She also teaches Social Impact to MBA students. She is on the advisory board of OSU’s Global Water Initiative.
Steve DeNunzio is a Senior Lecturer, ENGIE-Axium Max M. Fisher College of Business Distinguished Teaching Fellow, former Academic Director of the Master’s in Business Logistics Engineering (MBLE) program, and current Academic Director of the Working Professional MBA (WPMBA) program at The Ohio State University. Steve is a graduate of Purdue University and the University of Cincinnati.
Prior to joining academia, Steve enjoyed a long career in retail including stints at retailers Designer Brands (DSW), Bob Evans Farms, and Lululemon Athletica. He’s also done extensive consulting work and is Principal at Milestone 112, a boutique supply chain management consultancy.
Steve is an experienced keynote, conference session and panel speaker, and industry contributor for the media. He’s appeared on CBS & NPR and in numerous newspaper & magazine outlets. Steve is also the author of the book “Fundamentals of Supply Chain Technology” and a contributing author to “Management: A Modern Perspective”.
He’s a member of multiple professional organizations, including The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), The Association for Supply Chain Management (ASCM, formerly APICS), The Project Management Institute (PMI, where he’s a certified PMP), and the American Society for Quality (ASQ).
Larry Inks, PhD is Clinical Professor of Management and Human Resources in the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University. He teaches both undergraduate and graduate level classes in the areas of talent management, organization change and project management, organizational behavior and human resource management, staffing, and statistics and research methods. He is actively involved in executive education programs and initiatives offered through the Fisher College of Business as well as external consulting and speaking.
Prior to joining the faculty at the Fisher College, Dr. Inks had a very successful career in talent management leadership roles at PepsiCo, AlliedSignal/ Honeywell, and Cardinal Health. Most recently, Dr. Inks was Vice President of Talent Management for Cardinal Health in Dublin, Ohio from 2001-2005. His areas of responsibility (among others) included culture management, employee engagement, human resource planning/talent review, leadership development, performance management systems and organization change. Prior to Cardinal Health, Dr. Inks worked with AlliedSignal as head of Organization and Leadership Development for their Polymers business. He also worked for a number of years with PepsiCo in both talent management and human resource generalist roles. In addition, he served on the faculty of the Management Department of the Barton School of Business at Wichita State University, teaching in areas of organization development, organization behavior, human resource management and business decision making and analysis.
Dr. Inks has a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from The Ohio State University and a Bachelors degree in Psychology from Purdue University. He has received a number of teaching and service awards while at The Ohio State University, including the Fisher Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award, the Daniel Westerbeck Pace Setters Award for Undergraduate Teaching Excellence, the Daniel Westerbeck Pace Setters Award for Graduate Teaching Excellence, the Bostic-Georges Pace Setter Award for Faculty Service, and Fisher’s awards for Graduate Teaching Excellence in Management and Human Resources. He is a three-time recipient of recognition by members of the Sphinx/Mortar Board Senior Class honor society for the faculty/staff member having the greatest impact on the student’s educational experience while at OSU, and in 2015 received Ohio State University’s Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching (the University’s highest recognition for teaching excellence).
Dr. Lori Kendall is the Academic Director of the Full-Time MBA program and Senior Lecturer in Management and Human Resources at the Fisher College of Business. She received her PhD in Management from Case Western Reserve University and her MBA from Holy Names University.
Dr. Kendall has over 30 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur and technology executive for venture-backed and publicly traded firms in B2B software, hardware, and networking. She has held VP and senior leadership responsibilities for new product development, portfolio management, and cloud services.
Dr. Kendall teaches a variety of graduate and undergraduate courses in entrepreneurship, leadership, management consulting, and executive education offerings in strategy & innovation. She also supervises executive doctoral students at Hult University and teaches quantitative methods, specializing in structural equation modeling.
Dr. Kendall's research centers on entrepreneurial ventures and corporate intrapreneurship. Her primary interests focus on innovation and scaling practices from the lenses of organizational ambidexterity, managerial cognition, and relational dynamics. Her publications include works on entrepreneurial cognition, relational dynamics influencing contextual ambidexterity, and mental model shifts driving paradigm change with social benefit firms.
She was the 2021 Recipient of the Fisher College of Business Pace Setters Daniel Westerbeck Graduate Teaching Excellence Award and the 2024 Recipient for Undergraduate Teaching.
Formerly a Distinguished Fellow at the Weatherhead School of Management Fowler Center at Case Western Reserve University, she led research for the United Nations NGO Goi Peace Foundation to show how firms shift from shareholder models toward becoming positive impact companies.
Professor Knemeyer’s research focus is on supply chain relationships. His work has been published in such professional journals as the Harvard Business Review, Transportation Journal, Journal of Business Logistics, and International Journal of Logistics Management. Knemeyer was also a co-author of four chapters in the book Supply Chain Management: Processes, Partnerships, Performance.
Maria Landekhovskaya is currently working as a consultant, primarily focused on international sporting events. One of her most recent projects was as a consultant with the marketing department of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ Local Organizing Committee. Prior to this role, Maria was a Senior Strategy Consultant with the Chicago Sports Commission (CSC), where she developed a strategic plan to guide CSC forward with clear goals around priority sporting market segments and strategies to continue to enhance the reputation of Chicago within the Sport Tourism Industry.
Maria has also worked at two global Olympic partners. Prior to her experience with the city of Chicago, she was the Communications Leader of Olympic Operations for The Dow Chemical Company. In her role, she was responsible for leading the communications strategy for the Carbon Partnership of Dow’s Olympic Sponsorship.
Prior to her experience with Dow, Maria spent five years with Coca-Cola as an Environmental Affairs and Sustainability Manager within the Public Affairs and Communication Department. She was responsible for developing the Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy for Coca-Cola, including the integration of sustainability projects with the sponsorship strategy of major events, such as the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games and the FIFA World Cup 2010 Trophy Tour.
Maria has other diverse experiences working on major events, including the Coca-Cola hospitality program for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and Jet Set Sports for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
In 2004, prior to joining the sports world, Maria spent a year working in the field of waste management and recycling in the United States, gaining experience as she pursued her Master’s Degree. Her work included experience at the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO), the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA), and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR).
Maria holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s Degree in Environmental Science from the Russian Peoples’ Friendship University and an MBA in marketing from The Ohio State University.
Professor Oglevee is the Academic Director of the Fisher Executive MBA Program. He teaches in the Executive MBA and both Graduate and Undergraduate programs. His courses include venture capital, private equity, financial modeling, corporate finance, entrepreneurial finance, futures and options, investments and personal finance. He also teaches specialized classes within Fisher College’s Executive Education program including International courses in India.
Professor Oglevee has managed various Domestic student programs in Silicon Valley and New York as well as International based programs in London, Brussels, India, China, Hong Kong SAR and Africa. He is a faculty advisor for various case competition teams and teaches a variety of networking/interviewing seminars to help students prepare for Consulting and Wall Street case interviews.
Professor Oglevee is the recipient of numerous teaching awards. Working Professional MBA classes at Fisher have chosen him for their Outstanding Faculty Award for best Elective Professor in both 2014 and 2013. He has also received the Undergraduate Program Teaching Award for Faculty Excellence multiple times as well as The Ohio State University Annual Career Services Award. In 2014, he was awarded the Pace Setter’s Teaching Award, the highest honor for teaching at Fisher, for sustained excellence in teaching.
Prior to teaching, Professor Oglevee was an entrepreneur within the wireless sector and spent three years in venture capital and nine years on Wall Street holding positions at Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Oppenheimer. He consults regularly with early stage management teams on financing, valuation and business plan development to assist companies in becoming "Venture Ready."
Alan Pritchard is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Marketing and Logistics. He joined the Fisher College of Business after five years at Texas Tech University, where he was a finalist for the Jerry S. Rawls Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching award. Alan earned his Ph.D. in Supply Chain Management from the University of Maryland and M.A. and B.S. degrees in Economics from Old Dominion University. His research focuses on inventory management, retail operations, and reverse logistics. He teaches core undergraduate and graduate courses in managerial economics, logistics, and supply chain management.
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