o9 Solutions boosts thought leadership within the AIM10x Executive Council with former leaders from The Coca-Cola Company and General Motors

DALLAS, TX – March 1, 2021 – o9 Solutions, the leading AI-powered integrated business planning platform, announced the addition of two new leaders in supply chain management with a wealth of experience from former heads in Coca-Cola Company and General Motors.

o9 Solutions’ AIM10x Executive Council added two members to its roster. Chris Gaffney and Dirk Lembregts will be sharing experience and insights from their long careers in supply chain management and logistics. Digitally transforming processes within large enterprises requires the right technology, a solid strategy, and outstanding leadership. This is why o9 Solutions has brought together a network of the most visionary leaders to share valuable learnings, best practices, and knowledge through the AIM10x community to help executives navigate and accelerate their digital business transformation. The main topics discussed are leadership, strategy, change management, digital transformation journeys, and how to leverage new technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning to reach business goals.

“The AIM10x Executive Network keeps growing: it is a hive of new ideas, of knowledge and experience. New members Chris Gaffney, with his work at Coca-Cola, and Dirk Lembregts from General Motors bring something new to the table. Both have worked all over the globe, managing supply chains in various industries.” said Chakri Gottemukkala, CEO at o9 Solutions and active member of the AIM10x Executive Council. “The foundations of supply chain planning are rigid and strong. As digital transformation speeds up, we must bring forward the knowledge from the past and ensure leaders like Chris and Dirk carry the torch into the future of the global supply chain. Both have witnessed the transition to digital, and they have the expertise and willingness to play a significant role in your steps to success.”

"New members Chris Gaffney, with his work at Coca-Cola, and Dirk Lembregts from General Motors bring something new to the table. Both have worked all over the globe, managing supply chains in various industries."

Chakri GottemukkalaCEO - o9 Solutions

Chris Gaffney

Chris Gaffney received his Bachelor’s and Master’s in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Georgia Tech. Currently, he works as a consultant and advisor in the supply chain space after retiring from the Coca-Cola Company in 2020. In his last role with Coca-Cola, he led the Global Supply Chain Strategy team and was responsible for providing strong franchise leadership for the Coca-Cola system. In particular, he played a major role in the area of strategic supply chain planning in support of the acceleration of the Beverages for Life vision. Chris was previously the President of the National Product Supply Group, the governing body of the National Product Supply System responsible for 95% of the volume produced in North America. He is also a board member of the Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer.

During his 25 year tenure with the Coca-Cola system, Chris held multiple leadership roles, including President of Coca-Cola Supply, Coca-Cola Refreshments Business Integration Strategy Lead, Sr. VP Product Supply System Strategy, and Vice President of System Transformation for Coca-Cola North America. Chris is delighted to join the Council and eager to share his knowledge:

"I think o9 is and will be the leader in advancing supply chain planning and integrated planning globally."

Chris GaffneyVice President, Global Strategic Supply Chain - The Coca-Cola Company

Dirk Lembregts

Dirk holds a Master’s degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Antwerp and completed the Harvard Senior Executive Program. He is an experienced leader in integrated supply chain management and has held senior positions in multiple industries.

As Executive Director Supply Chain for General Motors, he was responsible for Europe, where he was building a supply chain organization from multiple silos, and for the global SC Engineering function supporting the company’s first global vehicle platforms. After GM, he was SVP and CSCO of the newly formed Philips Consumer Goods Division. Later as Group Director SC and Logistics for Marks & Spencer, Dirk was instrumental in building the omnichannel Supply Chain capability.

Now, he works as a consultant for supply chain strategy, operations, and organization, as well as interim management, keynote speaking and executive education. Dirk’s work has brought him to Antwerp, Zurich, Frankfurt, Detroit, Amsterdam, Hong Kong and London. His global knowledge of supply chain operations and experience in leadership will be a great addition to the Executive Council.

Delighted to join the Council, Dirk states:

“Covid raised the bar for supply chains. Companies with digital capabilities handled the crisis better and digital transformation moved higher up the corporate agendas. Platforms like o9 have game-changing potential. By turning vast amounts of data into actionable and explainable insights, it is driving effective decision-making.”

"Platforms like o9 have game-changing potential. By turning vast amounts of data into actionable and explainable insights, it is driving effective decision-making."

Dirk LembregtsExecutive Advisor - o9 Solutions

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About the AIM10x Executive Council

The future of digital transformation, next-generation planning, and decision-making is here. But most businesses will find the journey to their goals difficult. The AIM10x Executive Council is a business advisory board that combines the expertise and experience of operational leaders at some of the world’s largest enterprises.

o9 Solutions created its AIM10x Executive Council in partnership with visionary experts across industries to deliver expert insights drawn from professional experience. Executives can navigate and accelerate their digital transformation journeys through AIM10x webinars, Masters of Digital Transformation podcasts, and the AIM10x Innovators Network.

Visit the AIM10x Executive Council

About the author

o9 Solutions

The Digital Brain Platform

o9 offers a leading AI-powered Planning, Analytics & Data platform called the Digital Brain that helps companies across industry verticals transform traditionally slow and siloed planning into smart, integrated and intelligent planning and decision making across the core supply chain, commercial and P&L functions. With o9’s Digital Brain platform, companies are able to achieve game-changing improvements in quality of data, ability to detect demand and supply risks and opportunities earlier, forecast demand more accurately, evaluate what-if scenarios in real time, match demand and supply intelligently and drive alignment and collaboration across customers, internal stakeholders and suppliers around the integrated supply chain and commercial plans and decisions. Supported by a global ecosystem of partners, o9’s innovative delivery methodology helps companies achieve quick impact in customer service, inventory levels, resource utilization, as well as ESG and financial KPIs—while enabling a long-term, sustainable transformation of their end-to-end planning and decision-making capabilities.