Supply Chain Revolution

Supply chain is no longer a hidden career path. It is where strategy, technology, operations, consumer behavior, product management, data analytics, and resilience meet. In this episode of the Supply Chain Revolution podcast, Sheri Hinish sits down with Liz Raman, founder and CEO of Supply Chain Gals, Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree (Transportation and Mobility, 2025), MIT and Georgia Tech alum, and senior product manager in tech.

Liz built Supply Chain Gals because the community she needed early in her career did not exist. Starting as a transportation analyst, she navigated her way to becoming one of the youngest supply chain directors at Nike by age 26, ran a multibillion-dollar third-party sales division at Amazon, and founded a 501(c)(3) nonprofit professional network that now connects over 20,000 women across career stages through workshops, mentorship circles, networking nights, case competitions, and a Slack-based membership with 120+ active members.

Together, they explore why supply chain is the ultimate connector career for professionals who get bored easily and love learning new things, how Supply Chain Gals is building AI and technology fluency through hands-on workshops with leaders from Microsoft and Accenture, why community is career infrastructure (not just a nice-to-have), and how case competitions simulate executive-level decision-making that early-career professionals rarely get to experience. Liz closes with a lightning round that includes one of the most important career messages: go before you are ready.

Chapter Markers:

0:00 Introduction: supply chain as the career

0:51 Meet Liz Raman: Forbes 30 Under 30, MIT, Georgia Tech, Supply Chain Gals

1:07 The gap: why Supply Chain Gals was built

2:48 Supply chain as a connector field: twenty careers in one domain

4:28 Every job is a sustainability job, every job is a technology job

5:08 Community as career infrastructure: workshops, mentorship circles, Slack

7:11 Building AI fluency: Microsoft and Accenture workshops

8:56 Case competitions as executive simulation

10:08 Lightning round: misconceptions, skills, talent, and going before you are ready

11:17 Where to find Liz and Supply Chain Gals

Key Topics:

Supply chain careers, women in supply chain, Supply Chain Gals, community building, career development, mentorship, Forbes 30 Under 30, AI literacy, technology fluency, supply chain talent, career infrastructure, case competitions, next generation leaders, supply chain education, professional networking, career growth

Connect and Learn More:

Liz Raman: @itsLizRaman on Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn

Supply Chain Gals: supplychaingals.com

Become a member and join the Slack community at supplychaingals.com

Sheri Hinish (Supply Chain Queen): supplychainqueen.com

Subscribe to Supply Chain Revolution on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you listen.

AI workloads are forcing a reckoning. The mega data centers being built today will impact communities tenfold more than coal mines did during the Industrial Revolution, and most organizations still cannot answer a basic question: what is the carbon cost of their compute? In this episode of the Supply Chain Revolution podcast, Sheri Hinish sits down with Dan Versace, Senior Research Analyst for ESG Business Services at IDC, for a conversation about energy intelligence as the new operating discipline for AI, sustainability, and enterprise growth. 

Dan brings an uncommon origin story to corporate sustainability. He started in environmental science, studying the effects of large operations on watersheds in New Hampshire. He then moved to the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee to conduct invasive species and climate change research, where he spent a year working in a single four-square-mile plot. When he asked when they would move to the next area, the answer was ten years. That was the moment he decided to scale his impact, earned a sustainable innovation MBA from the University of Vermont, and joined IDC to lead their sustainability strategy and services research. 

Together, they unpack the cynical and the hopeful answer for why AI is forcing enterprise leaders to rethink energy and infrastructure. Dan explains why sustainability linked to business value operates on two axes (brand and market cap on one side, operational efficiency gains on the other), why the talent retention argument for sustainability is underappreciated, and why the measurement gap for data center energy consumption remains one of the biggest obstacles to credible sustainability commitments. He makes the case for small local models (SLMs) as a counterweight to cloud-dependent AI, argues that sustainability subject matter experts need to be physically present in data centers, and delivers a lightning round that includes one of the most important metrics enterprise leaders should understand: energy consumption per rack. 

Chapter Markers: 

0:00 Introduction: energy intelligence as a new operating discipline 

0:43 Meet Dan Versace: from environmental science to IDC sustainability research 

2:40 Where organizations are connecting sustainability to business value 

3:38 Two axes: brand/market cap and operational efficiency gains 

5:38 The talent retention argument for sustainability 

6:29 AI, automation, and the race for sustainability unicorns 

8:40 Why AI workloads are forcing a rethink of energy and infrastructure 

9:22 Mega data centers, community impact, and grid resiliency 

10:18 Energy security, energy inequity, and social license to operate 

10:42 Tenfold the Industrial Revolution: data centers in communities 

11:37 Small local models vs. cloud: a sustainability pivot point 

12:12 The measurement gap: why energy data is not granular enough 

14:16 Cross-functional accountability: who owns energy intelligence? 

14:54 Sustainability SMEs in the data center 

16:56 Lightning round: biggest misconception, energy metrics, and optimism 

18:14 Where to find Dan and the United in Green podcast 

Connect and Learn More: 

Dan Versace: linkedin.com/in/danielversace 

IDC Sustainability Research: idc.com 

United in Green Podcast (sustainability + soccer): available on podcast platforms 

Sheri Hinish (Supply Chain Queen): supplychainqueen.com 

Subscribe to Supply Chain Revolution on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you listen. 

Key Topics:  

Energy intelligence, AI sustainability, data center energy consumption, AI workloads, grid resiliency, energy equity, small local models SLM, ESG, sustainability ROI, talent retention, carbon measurement, energy consumption per rack, IDC, sustainable digital transformation, community impact, cloud sustainability, embodied carbon, Dan Versace, United in Green

Industry 4.0 is not a tool set you buy. It is a business transformation that requires the right strategy, storytelling, change management, and credible execution across both business and the plant floor. That is the thesis Jeff Winter has been refining for years, and it is why he has been ranked the number one global thought leader for Industry 4.0 by Onalytica, named the number one global influencer in manufacturing by Manufacturing Digital Magazine, and has amassed over 100 million views across more than 1,300 LinkedIn posts.

In this episode of the Supply Chain Revolution podcast, Sheri Hinish sits down with Jeff, now VP of Commercial Strategy at Belden, for a conversation about what it actually takes to make Industry 4.0 real inside a manufacturing organization. Jeff traces his career from sales engineer to safety PLC turning point to the moment he stopped selling products and started selling visions, and how LinkedIn and storytelling transformed not just his career but his identity.

Together, they unpack why manufacturers struggle to turn proven technologies into a clear path forward (most start with nouns like AI and IoT when they should start with verbs like reduce, accelerate, and standardize), the five prerequisites that must be true inside an organization before technology creates value, and the emerging concept of the "two factories" model where a physical factory makes the product and an AI factory produces the intelligence that runs it. Jeff also shares his framework for understanding Industry 4.0 as both an era and a destination, why every plant thinks it is special (and why that kills scale), and what connected intelligence looks like when done right.

Chapter Markers:

0:00 Introduction: making Industry 4.0 real

1:03 Meet Jeff Winter: origin story and career arc

2:07 LinkedIn, storytelling, and 100 million views: building a movement

3:41 The safety PLC turning point: from selling components to selling the safe machine

8:40 Selling the product vs. selling the problem vs. selling the vision

10:21 Industry 4.0 defined: era vs. destination (and why both are right)

13:32 Why manufacturers struggle: starting with nouns instead of verbs

14:17 Cross-functional value, functional budgets, and the ownership gap

15:20 Industry 5.0 vs. 4.0: is 15 years enough for an industrial revolution?

19:27 What real digital transformation requires: five prerequisites

21:25 Every plant thinks it is special (and why that kills scale)

23:21 The next manufacturing operating model: from connected equipment to connected intelligence

24:51 Jensen Huang's two factories: the physical factory and the AI factory

25:14 Making intelligence operational: the real competitive advantage

26:19 Final words and how to find Jeff on LinkedIn

Key Topics:

Industry 4.0, digital transformation, IT/OT convergence, manufacturing strategy, smart manufacturing, physical AI, connected intelligence, NVIDIA two factories, Belden, change management, human centricity, cross-functional KPIs, manufacturing operating model, automation, IoT, digital twin, business case for transformation, plant floor to enterprise, operational technology, Jeff Winter

Connect and Learn More:

Jeff Winter: linkedin.com/in/jeffreyrwinter

Belden: belden.com

Sheri Hinish (Supply Chain Queen): supplychainqueen.com

Subscribe to Supply Chain Revolution on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you listen.

Simulation is the missing layer in supply chain talent development. That is the thesis of this episode of the Supply Chain Revolution podcast, where Sheri Hinish sits down with Rada Lazarova from Inchainge, the company behind The Fresh Connection and The Blue Connection, the world's leading supply chain business simulations used by over 40% of the world's top 100 manufacturers and nearly half a million learners across more than 100 countries. 

Rada, based in Utrecht in the Netherlands, brings a perspective shaped by her own journey from Bulgaria to Wisconsin to the Dutch experiential learning ecosystem. She explains why traditional supply chain education falls short: it teaches theory without context, creating professionals who understand frameworks but freeze when confronted with the cross-functional complexity of real supply chain decisions. Inchainge's simulations drop participants, whether university students or Fortune 500 executives, into virtual companies where they take on VP-level roles and discover, often painfully, that optimizing their own function can bankrupt the entire business. 

Together, they explore why silos are the root cause of supply chain underperformance, how the human behaviors of students and C-suite executives are remarkably similar when placed in simulation environments, why sustainability thinking only takes hold when every decision is linked to impact metrics, and how Inchainge's new AI tutor responds like a teacher (with more questions, not answers) rather than a chatbot. Rada closes with a challenge to every supply chain leader: stop saving the day, start solving the problem. 

Chapter Markers: 

0:00 Introduction: simulation as the missing layer in supply chain talent 

0:24 Meet Rada Lazarova: from Bulgaria to Wisconsin to Inchainge 

1:29 Why traditional supply chain education falls short 

2:21 Inside the simulation: VP-level roles, cross-functional decisions, and sandbox failure 

3:58 The power of going bankrupt with no consequences 

4:33 Context engineering in the age of AI and automation 

5:08 Silos as root cause: how one client restructured their KPI system after training 

5:57 40% of the world's top 100 manufacturers: students vs. executives in the simulation 

8:06 Recovery in a simulation vs. recovery in the real world 

8:26 New AI and circularity capabilities on the Inchainge platform 

9:12 The sustainability hands-up moment: before and after the simulation 

11:00 Circular metrics: return on material, circularity of inputs, alternative revenue models 

11:52 The AI tutor: why it asks questions instead of giving answers 

13:35 Rapid fire: the biggest misconception about supply chain talent today 

14:18 What every supply chain leader should unlearn 

15:29 Rotate, explore, get your hands dirty: career advice 

15:39 What excites Rada most about the next five years of supply chain education 

Key Topics:  

Supply chain talent development, simulation-based learning, experiential learning, Inchainge, The Fresh Connection, The Blue Connection, supply chain skills gap, cross-functional KPIs, silo breaking, supply chain education, AI in education, circularity simulation, supply chain sustainability training, core skills, context engineering, supply chain gamification, workforce development 

Connect and Learn More: 

Rada Lazarova: linkedin.com/in/radalazarova 

Inchainge: inchainge.com 

The Fresh Connection (supply chain simulation): inchainge.com/learning-solutions 

The Blue Connection (circular economy simulation): inchainge.com/learning-solutions 

Sheri Hinish (Supply Chain Queen): supplychainqueen.com

In this episode of the Supply Chain Revolution podcast, produced in partnership with the Innovation Forum, Sheri Hinish sits down with Christine Goulay, founder of Sustainabelle Advisory Services in Paris. Christine brings 20 years of experience at the intersection of sustainability and fashion, including operational roles at Pangaea and the Kering Group (the luxury conglomerate behind Gucci and Balenciaga), advisory work with UNEP and the Textile Exchange, and board positions with traceability and materials startups including Fairly Made.

Together, they unpack the honest state of sustainable apparel in 2026. Christine identifies three distinct tiers of brand behavior: the core leaders who are integrating sustainability as a risk reduction and customer engagement strategy, the compliance hedgers who are calculating whether to invest now or pay fines later, and the silent majority waiting to see which way the regulatory wind blows.

She explains why regulation was the decisive differentiator in scaling reuse in France, why the same dynamic is now playing out with the California Textile Recovery Act and Digital Product Passport requirements in the EU, and why simply checking the compliance box builds adequate supply chains, not extraordinary ones.

Christine introduces a powerful framework: the love language of sustainability. Borrowed from Gary Chapman's 1992 book, the concept is that sustainability leaders must speak the language of their audience, replacing terms like ESG with resilience when talking to procurement, framing impact as risk reduction for CFOs, and embedding sustainability KPIs alongside financial metrics so sourcing teams can make balanced decisions without career risk.

She shares how France's EPR eco-modulation bonus returns 70 cents per garment for certified materials versus a five-to-seven cent average EPR cost, and how forward-thinking brands are embedding CO2 emissions data directly into RFPs.

Connect with our guest: Christine Goulay, Founder, Sustainabelle Advisory Services LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinegoulay/

Our partner for this episode: Innovation Forum Website: https://innovationforum.co.uk/conferences/sustainable-apparel-and-textiles-conference-usa/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/innovation-forum-uk/posts/?feedView=all

Join us at the Sustainable Apparel and Textiles Conference USA New York City | June 3–4, 2026 | 230+ leaders | Chatham House Rules Register: https://innovationforum.co.uk/conferences/sustainable-apparel-and-textiles-conference-usa/

Connect with Sheri Hinish (Supply Chain Queen®): Website: https://www.supplychainqueen.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherihinish/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SupplyChainQueen Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/supplychainqueen/ Listen to Supply Chain Revolution on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/supply-chain-revolution/id1496639064 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2yfqyaA8FtAcwjUDi2nrhe

Key Topics: sustainable apparel 2026, textile regulation, EPR Extended Producer Responsibility, California Textile Recovery Act, Digital Product Passport DPP, circularity textiles, traceability, supply chain transparency, Kering Group, Sustainabelle, Innovation Forum, Sustainable Apparel and Textiles Conference USA, fashion supply chain, supplier de-risking, impact KPIs, love language of sustainability, Fairly Made, eco-modulation, total cost of ownership, procurement sustainability