LOGISTICS MARKETING & SALES CONFERENCE

Christopher O'Brien joined C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. in 1993 and is currently the Chief Commercial Officer.  Chris is a member of the senior management committee and is ultimately accountable for all customer satisfaction, strategy and support.  In addition to strategy, Chris leads the corporate teams that support our customers and our offices in the functions of marketing, sales and account management.

Prior to this, Chris was Senior Vice President of the enterprise since 2012 and Vice President of the North American Division since May 2003.  Chris has served as the manager of the Raleigh, North Carolina office as well as the general manager and later president of the company's European division.  Chris started in sales and account management roles at our Chicago South office, and later was a C.H. Robinson on-site representative at a major global grocery retailer working as a consultant on a supply chain reengineering project focused on inbound transportation control conversion.  Chris has spoken at numerous industry events including CSCMP, Eye for Transport, Gartner’s Supply Chain Executive Summit, and in Europe at TMZ’s Forum on various subjects.  His areas of expertise include account management, sales, European transportation models, customer experience, global TMS technology, and inbound logistics programs.  Chris is a member and former track chair of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP). 

Chris is a champion of change that puts the customer more in the center of everything the company does.  He has led multiple transformational go-to-market changes at C.H. Robinson.  His push is to constantly invent new progressive change to support customers and the employees who serve them.  A few of those new programs have been: Global Account Centers, executive/customer alignment program, high performance rewards program, customer advisory board, an onsite employee program, structured outside sales program, and the creation and branding of Collaborative Solutions, a distinct part of C.H. Robinson’s dedicated outsource relationships. 

From a marketing standpoint, O’Brien is a passionate pragmatist who leads investments that can be proven with revenue.  He leads a global marketing team and initiatives with expertise in digital, brand management including a recent rebrand, lead development and account-based marketing, customer experience management, public relations and external communication and marketing automation.   

He leverages the Chief Commercial Officer role to uniquely connect his accountabilities for marketing, sales, and customer management.  And he drives changes using his deep knowledge of the company, the customer, and the marketplace learned over more than 25 years at the company.  

He serves on the Board of Trustees of the University of Minnesota’s Landscape Arboretum.  He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Alma College in Michigan, but is a die-hard fan of Michigan State athletics.  He stays active in the arts including American mid-century design, jogging slowly, mountain biking fast, skiing, and platform tennis.

Rachel Steinberg has over 13 years of experience in advertising, with the last decade focused on content marketing and digital/social media. In her current role she focuses on nurturing sales talent to enable business growth at scale and has done so for a wide variety of industries including Manufacturing, Transportation and Oil & Gas.

Meagan is known as a "Generational Humorist" challenges her audiences to think differently and act decisively when dealing with multiple generations.  Educating through entertainment since 1997, Meagan has worked with a variety of organizations and associations to build multi-generational effective relationships. In her presentation, Zap the Gap Generational Differences Reexamined, she explains how each generation developed its values and how these values creep into the workplace and marketplace.

Meagan and her Baby Boomer father, Larry Johnson are the authors of Generations, Inc - From Boomers to Linksters, Managing the Friction Between Generations at Work. She has written a variety of articles about the multiple generations and has been interviewed for many publications and audio programs. She has been quoted in The Chicago Tribune, CNNMoney.com, US News & World Report and many other publications.

Mike Kaput is a marketer, copywriter, and HubSpot expert. As Director of Marketing AI Institute, he helps companies grow using smarter marketing technology, including artificial intelligence.

Alex started life as a schoolteacher in the UK. In 2002 he moved into adult education joining a global management development organization. In 2005 he moved to Chicago to build and lead their Americas operation. There he spent 10 years leading and growing the business while consulting with many of the Fortune 500.

In 2015 Alex founded DX Learning. DX is a partner in progressive leadership and cultural development that taps into the powerful combination of behavioral psychology and experiential learning, to expose and eliminate bad leadership and prepare leaders to put people first. The workforce is changing before our eyes, and our organizations and leaders within, need to change with it or be left out.

He is now a leading force in disrupting the leadership development industry with
science-based methodologies that drive leadership self-awareness and psychological safety that solve organizational challenges.

Sara Black has always been curious about people; seeking to understand how they behave, the relationships they have, and how each person contributes to the world we live in. This curiosity led her to a career in talent development, and she has spent the last 15+ years working for Fortune 300 Companies in helping them to do more with less, achieve their business goals, and ultimately align their talent with the direction of the organization.  From the U.S. to Europe, Sales Training to Leadership Development, Process Improvement to Strategy Development Sessions - it's been an exciting adventure!  She loves helping others to solve their "people puzzle"! 

Holly LaBoda loves helping organizations, teams and individuals realize their potential; both understanding what they are capable of and making it a reality. She has spent the better part of her 15+ year career in the logistics industry, where she enables people, teams and organizations achieve their goals in the smartest and fastest way possible. Clients appreciate her pragmatic approach which allows her to quickly immerse herself in their business. She blends that with a diverse background in talent, strategy facilitation and change management and can create custom solutions that help them achieve their goals and get results quickly while they focus on running their business. She loves that every client, and every day, is different because it means she is always learning.

John Boyens is a Sales Productivity Expert and Business Strategist. He has dedicated his business life to learning all he could about sales, selling, the sales process and different buying behaviors. Starting in 1979 John has been a salesperson, managed a sales force, was an executive sales leader for three Fortune 1000 companies, and for the past 20+ years a business owner of the Boyens Group, a sales training and consulting firm. John is the author of two books: Creating a Productive Selling Zone®, and Real World Sales Strategies that Work. He is also a contributor to Forbes and Forbes.com. John is a graduate of North Central College, is an active member of the National Speakers Association, a Vistage Speaker, the Executive-in-Residence for the Jones College of Business at Middle Tennessee State University and has been named one of the Top 100 Productivity Experts to follow on Twitter. Learn more at www.boyens.com or www.boyensuniversity.com.

Brian Everett has over 25 years of experience in transportation, warehousing, and logistics, with special expertise in business strategy, B-to-B marketing, and association management. As Senior Partner of MindShare Strategies, Everett regularly provides marketing counsel to the firm’s key accounts. Currently, he is the Chief Executive Officer of the Transportation Marketing & Sales Association (TMSA) and Strategic Adviser for the Women In Trucking Association.

Everett is particularly well-connected to shippers as the former Executive Director of the National Shippers Strategic Transportation Council (NASSTRAC), a trade association that provides education, advocacy, and provider relations to shippers, 3PLs, and carriers. He also was Director of Marketing for C.H. Robinson Worldwide for 10 years.