Keynote Speaker
Russell D. Meller (PhD)
Dr. Russell D. Meller is the Principal Scientist at FORTNA, a company that designs and implements complex distribution centers. He oversees a group of 20+ researchers that develop all algorithms in the FortnaWES™ software, perform data analysis on design projects, simulation of designs, emulation of material handling systems and all modeling aspects of the FortnaDCdesign Suite™. Russ holds a B.S., M.S. & Ph.D. in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan. He’s been with FORTNA for over 10 years after an illustrious 20+ year career in academia, holding positions at Auburn University, Virginia Tech, the University of Arkansas and the Technical University of Graz (Austria). In 2020, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the highest honor for an Engineer in the United States. His election was due in large part to creating a scalable design methodology at FORTNA for distribution centers.
Speaker
Tyler Beneke
Tyler was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas and studied Industrial Engineering as an undergraduate at the University of Arkansas. She is now pursuing her MBA part-time at Berkeley Haas. She moved to San Francisco, California in 2016 following graduation and started her career in consulting at Accenture. She’s spent the last 5 years at Google and is now a product manager for Android focused on building software experiences for the Pixel tablet.
Speaker
Vance Clement
Vance has over 30 years of experience in the medical device space. He currently serves as the CEO and a member of the Board of Directors at Lineus Medical. He has raised over $10M and led the company’s efforts to obtain FDA clearance for the company’s first product, SafeBreak Vascular. Prior to Lineus Medical, he served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing at BlueInGreen, a developer and manufacturer of capital equipment for water treatment. Under his leadership, BlueInGreen went from $800K in sales to over $4M in his first full year. Prior to BlueInGreen, Vance was Sr. Director of Marketing and a key player in Mako Surgical’s growth from an orthopedic start-up with 17 installed surgical robots to over 156 installed robots and sales of over $100M. He was the developer of Mako’s strategic plan and the chief architect of Mako’s Total Hip Arthroplasty application. Vance spent ten years working for Smith & Nephew Orthopaedics in various senior marketing and sales roles, including a 2.5 year European assignment in Brussels, Belgium. Vance began his career at Wright Medical Technology in manufacturing as an industrial engineer and later moved into product management. Vance earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Arkansas and an MBA from Christian Brothers University in Memphis, TN. He is a past president of the Arkansas Academy of Industrial Engineers, a National Science Foundation Grant Reviewer, and was a 2022 Arkansas Money and Politics Tech Leader. Vance is the author of We Send Our Love to All: Life, Business and Adventure while Living Abroad, and is a frequent guest lecturer in Industrial Engineering and Biomedical Engineering classes at the University of Arkansas.