Regional Connect Los Angeles

As our official tour host, Sony Pictures Studios will welcome attendees to a private guided tour that offers a behind-the-scenes look at a working studio, time to connect with peers before Thursday’s event, and an opportunity to learn more about Sony Pictures Entertainment’s sustainability efforts.

Tour information:

• Space is limited, reserve your spot when you register for the Regional Connect LA. You must register by October 20.
• Please arrive at the lot no later than 4:45 PM to allow time for arrival and check-in. Transportation will not be provided, but parking is available.
• This is a walking tour, comfortable footwear is recommended.
• The tour route is accessible. If you have accommodation needs, please let us know when you register so we can help coordinate your experience.
• The tour will conclude at 7:00 PM. Attendees who would like to continue connecting are encouraged to explore the many nearby dining options in Culver City for dinner following the tour.

Best of all, this experience is included with your Regional Connect registration at no additional cost!

Scott Vowels is one of the most consequential voices in supplier diversity and minority business development in the United States. As the newly named Chief Development Officer of the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC), he brings more than three decades of experience spanning procurement, economic research, corporate supplier diversity leadership, and regional council management.

Vowels led the Supplier Diversity Business Unit at Apple, where his team elevated the company's utilization of diverse suppliers to achieve more than $1 billion in verifiable annual spend, earning Apple a seat on the prestigious Billion Dollar Roundtable. Prior to Apple, he successfully led both the Northern California and Alabama Minority Supplier Development Councils to national prominence as President and CEO, while simultaneously operating a federal Minority Business Opportunity Center for the U.S. Minority Business Development Agency.

His early career began in manufacturing procurement and sourcing at General Motors, giving him a grounded, operational foundation that has informed his strategic thinking ever since.

A prolific thought leader, Vowels is the co-founder of The Bigger Discussion, a landmark video series examining the future of supplier diversity and is the author of Don't Be Afraid to Call the Baby Ugly and Hacking Supplier Diversity. He also conducted the largest minority business economic impact study in NMSDC's history, introducing the concept of "economic impact" as a measurable framework within supplier diversity.

Vowels holds a doctorate and master's degrees in both Business Administration and Economics. Before entering the corporate world, he competed as a world-ranked professional tennis player — an early indicator of the discipline and competitive drive that have defined his career.

In his new role at NMSDC, Dr. Vowels steps into one of the most critical moments in the organization's history, charged with building the relationships, resources, and partnerships necessary to advance economic equity for minority business enterprises nationwide.

Stephen Harrington is Chief Supply Chain Officer at MGM Resorts International, where he leads the strategic evolution of the Fortune 250 company's global supply chain organization. Since joining in 2025, he has redesigned a 400-person organization spanning warehousing, logistics, inventory control, and procurement, and delivered over $170 million in P&L savings and cost avoidance.

Stephen brings more than two decades of global supply chain and procurement leadership to the role. He most recently served as SVP and Chief Supply Chain Officer at Delaware North, a $4.6 billion hospitality and entertainment company, where he had functional responsibility across Gaming, Travel, Parks & Resorts, Sports Service, and international business units in Australia and the UK. There, he led the company's pandemic shutdown and reopening strategy, delivered more than $1.8 billion across 230+ capital construction projects, and built the strategic client relationship with the PGA of America as executive on-site for championships. Earlier in his career, Stephen held procurement leadership roles at M&T Bank, Chiquita Brands International, and Cadbury Schweppes, and was ranked among ExecRank's top 25 Chief Procurement Officers in the U.S.

Stephen is a U.S. Navy veteran who served during Desert Storm. He holds an MBA in Marketing and Operations from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.S. in Manufacturing and Materials Management from Rochester Institute of Technology. Outside of his operational work, he has a long history of investing in the next generation, including a decade on the board of Buffalo Prep and service on the board of the WNY YMCA, and remains passionate about mentoring rising leaders in supply chain and procurement.

Experience SPLC Peer Learning Circles live and in person. Typically offered monthly as a benefit for SPLC members, these facilitated small-group conversations create space to share experiences, explore common challenges, and learn directly from peers across procurement and responsible sourcing.

Presentation | The Sustainability Payoff: Using Supply Chain Strategy to Drive Savings and Resilience 

Companies face growing operational and financial pressures from climate-related disruptions, supply chain volatility, and rising costs. Global environmental shifts present a fundamental threat to human health, affecting the physical environment and economic conditions. Those shifts have a multiplier effect, harming human health through extreme heat, worsened air quality, and intensified natural disasters, while also impacting supply chains. As a result, companies are increasingly using sustainability as a strategic lever to strengthen supply chain resilience, improve financial performance, and reduce supply chain volatility. This discussion highlights operationalized sustainability through executive-sponsored sourcing strategies, supplier partnerships, and cross-functional governance, including quantified results, including multimillion-dollar cost savings, waste reduction, and improved supply assurance during disruption. Attendees will gain practical insights into how sustainability initiatives can be embedded into core supply chain and financial decision-making to deliver measurable value while supporting corporate missions and long-term operational continuity. 

Fireside Chat | Data-Driven Reprocessing in Healthcare Supply Chains

Healthcare systems are under growing pressure to reduce costs, strengthen supply chain resilience, and meet ambitious climate goals, yet procurement decisions often remain disconnected from sustainability outcomes. One high-impact opportunity is the reprocessing (remanufacturing) of single-use medical devices, which reduces waste, lowers costs, and cuts emissions without compromising clinical quality.

At Kaiser Permanente, reprocessing has evolved from a niche sustainability effort into a core sourcing strategy, enabled by cross-functional collaboration across clinicians, supply chain, infection prevention, and sustainability leaders. This session shares how data transparency, supplier partnerships, and interdisciplinary governance can unlock adoption at scale. This approach offers a practical model for embedding sustainability into everyday procurement decisions, particularly relevant as public and private organizations seek to operationalize climate commitments through purchasing. 

Presenters:

Elizabeth Eldridge
Director of Sustainability
Kaiser Permanente

As the Director of Sustainability for Kaiser Permanente’s Impact Spending program, Elizabeth is focused on reducing the environmental footprint of healthcare and is responsible for developing and executing the sustainable procurement strategy in support of Kaiser Permanente’s health mission.  Specific areas of focus include supplier engagement, environmentally preferable purchasing, and greenhouse gas emission reductions.  She and her team also deliver contextual business intelligence to multiple levels of both internal and external stakeholders in support of Impact Spending’s social, environmental, and economic impact pillars. 

Nestor Jarquin
Supply Chain Services, Director Category Manager Surgical
Kaiser Permanente

Nestor Jarquin is part of the Supply Chain Services organization at Kaiser Permanente, leading surgical sourcing for the direct spend sourcing team. He oversees sourcing for most of the company’s basic surgical products and equipment, except for specialty products used for orthopedics, spine, and cardiology. Nestor Jarquin manages several teams that are responsible for reviewing specific products and product categories to ensure that sourcing decisions are aligned across different areas of the organization. The portfolio he manages consists of 300 contracts valued at 1B in spend. He has been with Kaiser Permanente for 19 years. Prior to his role at Kaiser Permanente he held Director level positions in Hospital Materials Management Departments for 20 years.

Active supply chain decarbonization can take many forms, from formalized supplier engagement programs focused on building significant supplier capacity, to ad hoc/opportunistic reduction efforts, or companies themselves sourcing renewable energy to cover their supply chain emissions. This interactive session will explore these three leading approaches, invite participants to share their initiatives and experiences, and help each company identify which model best aligns with their goals, supplier base, and internal resources.

 What to expect:

• Overview of 3 common models to drive supply chain decarbonization with real world examples.

• Discussion of when industry collaborative models (e.g., Energize-style programs) or single company-led approaches are most effective

• A review of decarbonization levers scalable to supply chain emissions

• Peer learnings and knowledge sharing discussion 

• Synthesis and key takeaways to help determine the best-fit pathway for your organization

Presenters:

Luke Eisenhauer
Client Development Manager, Renewable Energy & Carbon Advisory
Schneider Electric Advisory Services

As a Client Development Manager with the Renewable Energy and Carbon Advisory, Luke Eisenhauer helps Commercial and Industrial clients meet ambitious sustainability goals by identifying strategic decarbonization opportunities throughout the value chain including offsite PPAs, Tax Credit Investments, onsite solar and renewable Energy Attribute Certificates (EACs). Dedicated to understanding clients’ unique business needs and challenges, he serves as a facilitator and liaison to ensure organizations receive expert advisory services and support.

Jason Wykoff
Supply Chain Renewables Leader, Energy & Sustainability Services
Schneider Electric Advisory Services

As the Commercial Offer Leader for Schneider Electric’s Supply Chain Renewables program, Jason helps global organizations engage their value chain partners and achieve scalable scope 3 decarbonization via renewable electricity. Supply Chain Decarbonization programs focus on supplier capability building and supported renewable electricity procurement.

Jason has over 20 years experience focused on aligning client scope 2 and 3 GHG reduction goals with renewable energy solutions for Fortune 1000 companies and their value chain partners.

Organizations are increasingly looking beyond supplier data collection to uncover actionable insights that drive procurement decisions, strengthen stakeholder engagement, and advance sustainability goals. This session will explore how Organizations of any Type can leverage Sourcient's sustainability intelligence platform to transform supply chain food purchasing data into measurable business value for internal teams, customers, and external stakeholders. Participants will learn how sustainability attribution can support more strategic sourcing decisions, establish tangible procurement goals, and demonstrate progress against sustainability commitments.

What to Expect:

• An overview of how sustainability attribution creates visibility across complex supply chains and supports enterprise sustainability objectives.

• A real-world enterprise case study demonstrating how organizations leverage Sourcient to transform supplier food purchasing data into actionable insights for procurement, sustainability, and executive leadership teams.

• Discussion of how sustainability intelligence can support customer engagement, stakeholder reporting, compliance initiatives, and business growth.

• Examples of how procurement teams use sustainability insights to establish measurable sourcing goals, identify improvement opportunities, and prioritize supplier engagement efforts.

• Peer learning and knowledge-sharing discussion on challenges, opportunities, and best practices for transforming complicated purchasing data into strategic decision-making tools.

• Key takeaways for building a sustainability strategy that delivers measurable business value, strengthens stakeholder trust, and advances organizational sustainability commitments.

Presenters:

Annie Steighner
Vice President of Growth & Partnerships
Sourcient

Annie Steighner serves as Vice President of Growth & Partnerships at Sourcient, where she leads strategic initiatives to accelerate growth, expand market opportunities, and build impactful partnerships. With a passion for driving sustainability transformation in procurement, Annie helps organizations align business objectives with responsible sourcing and environmental stewardship. She brings extensive experience in business development, relationship management, and strategic collaboration, combining a customer-centric mindset with a deep commitment to innovation and long-term value creation. Known for her collaborative leadership style and strategic vision, Annie is dedicated to helping clients and partners navigate the evolving procurement landscape while advancing sustainable business practices.

Mairin Glenney
Client Success and Technical Enablement Manager
Sourcient

Mairin Glenney serves as the Client Success and Technical Enablement Manager, delivering solutions for customers, vendors, partners and internal teams. She helps organizations and individuals get the most from Sourcient's platform by guiding clients through their enhanced procurement data to provide actionable insights. Mairin is passionate about assisting customers to truly understand the power of data-driven decisions provided by Sourcient's data platform and team of sustainability analysts to reach their sustainability and procurement goals. Mairin helps to provide the best experience for Sourcient's customers via technical innovation, continued user support, and exceptional data quality. Customer success and technical enablement is a pillar of our team’s business that Mairin readily delivers.