ALAN HOOVER, MBA, joined Kahiki Foods in 1999 as Senior Vice President of Sales& Marketing, and in November 2005, he was named President and COO. Prior to joining the team at Kahiki Foods, Hoover spent 21 years in the food packaging business with Sonoco Products, International Paper, and Pactiv. He has led the company’s adoption of Lean/Six Sigma manufacturing practices, the development of the Kahiki Performance System, and its entry into the Natural & Organic business. Alan served on Kahiki’s Board of Directors for several years. He also serves on the Board of Directors for The National Frozen and Refrigerated Foods Association and is Chair of the Small Business Manufacturers Committee. Alan received his MBA degree in Financial Management from Benedictine University and his undergraduate degree in Administrative Management is from Clemson University. Alan earned varsity letters while at Clemson University in both Baseball and Basketball and played in two College World Series while maintaining Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Honor Roll status.

CHRIS GLOVER has direct responsibilities for both Lean Enterprise and performance facilitation, process, project and cost management, instructional design, development and delivery and also the document control system and auditing of Milliken and Company’s Performance Solutions. Since 1985 when he began with Milliken as a Production Manager, he has become a fixture to the company, serving in a variety of roles from Senior Production Engineer to Plant Leader in the company’s Lean model plant in LaGrange, Georgia. Chris received his EIT certification and is a graduate of Georgia Institute of Technology.

DAVID KAISSLING, has 20 years with Proctor & Gamble’s Operations and Engineering leadership where he is responsible for providing leadership for the company’s work-system design and organizational development. David is the Global F&B SBU Performance System Implementation Lead in 17 plants and the Autonomous Maintenance NA Process Owner in another 38 plants. Prior to his work with P&G, David worked for Clorox for four years as their Corporate Leader in the company’s Manufacturing Center of Excellence and spent another three years with ConAgra Foods as a Supply Chain Leader with oversight of 100 plants.

CRAIG LONG, Vice President, Six Sigma and Quality, has been with Milliken & Company for more than 32 years. He currently has corporate wide responsibility for Six Sigma, The Milliken Performance System, and Milliken’s Product Management Improvement initiative. Craig has been involved in all aspects of corporate quality since being named Director of Quality in 1994 when he lead two study missions to Japan following Milliken receiving the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. His career has included leadership positions in Industrial Engineering, Product Development, Business Management, Corporate Education, and Recruiting. Craig has sat on Milliken’s Policy Committee and served as a Corporate Officer for the past 13 years and has been a member, and past chair, of the U. Quality Council of the Conference Board for the past 12 years.

PHIL MCINTYRE, MBA, is Milliken & Company’s Market Manager and Director of Business Development—Milliken Performance Solutions. His career with Milliken & Company spans 22 years and started with a co-op position while he attended Clemson University and earned his Industrial Engineering degree. Since 2002, Phil has served the company as Market Manager for a number of the company’s consumer products. Prior to that, Phil directed several Milliken divisions’ efforts in process improvement and cost improvement.

WAYNE PUNCH is Corporate Director of Safety & Health for Milliken & Company. Wayne has been with Milliken throughout his 34 year career when he started with Milliken in 1973 as a Research Chemist. Since then he has held a variety of positions within the company, including Plant Manager, Location Manager, Director of Manufacturing and Manufacturing Manager. He is a member of a number of professional organizations including OSHA Volunteer Protection Program Participants Association, SC Counter Terrorism Task Group and the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance. He also serves on several important boards, including the National Safety Council, SC Occupational Safety Council and the Homeland Security Taskforce.

JOE SALLEY, PhD, is President and Chief Executive Officer of Milliken & Company. Dr. Salley received his doctorate degree in Chemical Engineering at Stanford University in 1994 and has been with Milliken & Company since that time. He has held several positions within the company and started as a Research & Development engineer before assuming the Vice President and President position in several divisions. Dr. Salley is a member of the Young Presidents Organization, the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance Board of Directors and the University of South Carolina Research Foundation Board of Directors.

CARLY TEBBETTS, Plant Leader at Gilliland Plant, began her career with Milliken & Company in 1996 at the Gilliland Plant. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Business Administration from Presbyterian College and an MBA from Clemson University. Before moving into the plant leader role, Carly was one of the Textile Manufacturing division’s MPS directors leading plants in the area of MPS. She gained significant experience with a diverse career path with positions in process engineering, project management, production leadership, and new product development.

STEPHANIE WILDRICK is the Advanced Production Manager at Milliken’s Judson Plant. She started work with the company as in intern in 2005. After she graduated from the University of South Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, she started full-time with Milliken and served for a short while as a Process Improvement Engineer prior to moving into production as a Production Manager. Most recently she became an MPS specialist and moved higher up in production as an Advanced Production Manager.