The Industry Advisory Board (IAB) ensures that the Tauber Institute stays at the forefront of operations and responds quickly to industry needs. Offering guidance and support consistent with the program's mission and objectives, the IAB actively assists Tauber in achieving its academic and research goals through industry leadership, cooperation, feedback, and acquisition of financial support. The industry leaders below serve on the IAB.
Conagra Brands is an approximately $8 billion company that combines a rich heritage of making great food with a sharpened focus and entrepreneurial spirit.
Craig Weiss is the Vice President of Supply Chain at ConAgra Foods (NYSE: CAG), a packaged food company with 26 consumer brands in the top two in their categories and a business-to-business presence that supplies a multitude of well-known restaurants, foodservice operators, and commercial customers. Its annual revenues exceed $17.7 billion, and the company employs more than 26,000 people.
Known for his strategic vision and ability to execute at a tactical level, Craig took charge of ConAgra’s supply chain operations in 2012 during the $6.8 billion acquisition of Ralcorp, which created the largest private-label food manufacturer in the U.S. As the face of ConAgra’s supply chain to the new business, he headed up a team of 40 people that successfully onboarded and integrated 10,000 new employees, personally welcoming them and leading due diligence efforts during 42 plant visits in less than eight weeks.
Balancing the need for immediate results with the need to build innovation, he implemented a multidimensional analysis that included organizational design and optimal go-to-market approaches in developing the company’s supply chain strategy. His three-year Selling, General, and Administrative Expenses (SG&A) glide path by function supports a new end-to-end distribution network that has the capabilities of meeting the company’s growing needs for the foreseeable future. In restarting ConAgra’s Network Optimization Program in FY14, he built a pipeline of $85 million in approved projects, and his new synergy pipeline delivered $70 million in synergies in its first year alone.
Before becoming Vice President, he served for eight years in a variety of leadership roles. As Senior Director of Program Management, he headed a team that saved the company more than $150 million and spearheaded one of its largest, highest-profile, and most successful projects to date: the Slim Jim Recovery, a total transformation from disaster recovery to new site startup. During that time, he also led end-to-end project management for numerous strategic initiatives across the Supply Chain organization, including mergers and acquisitions integration and the network optimization of more than 100 manufacturing plants and distribution centers. In taking over a Wisconsin site needing a culture shift, he created the playbook for restructuring salaried teams and departments, creating cost savings of 40 percent and improving year-over-year performance across all eight safety and financial metrics.
Before joining ConAgra, Craig served as Director of Operations for Olson Logistics (now ODW) and held roles at Total Logistics Control (now Ryder [NYSE: R]) and Ernst & Young.
Craig earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, with majors in Supply Chain and Marketing and a minor in Finance, from Central Michigan University. Craig serves on the Industry Advisory Board of the Tauber Institute for Global Operations at the University of Michigan.
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