Carol Ptak is currently a partner with the Demand Driven Institute and was most recently at Pacific Lutheran University as Visiting Professor and Distinguished Executive in Residence. Previously, she was vice president and global industry executive for manufacturing and distribution industries at PeopleSoft where she developed the concept of demand driven manufacturing (DDM). Ms. Ptak spent four years at IBM Corporation culminating in the position of global SMB segment executive.

A leading authority in the use of ERP and Supply Chain tools to drive improved bottom line performance, Ms. Ptak's expertise is well grounded in four decades of practical experience as a successful practitioner, consultant and educator in manufacturing operations. Her pragmatic approach to complex issues and dynamic presentation style has her in high demand worldwide on the subject of how to leverage these tools and achieve sustainable success.

She holds an MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology and completed the EMPO program at Stanford University. Ms. Ptak is a frequent educator at the university level and presents at many key technical conferences around the world including South Africa, France, Israel, Australia, Ireland, the Netherlands and eleven APICS International conferences. She is the author of numerous articles and the books DDMRP (Industrial Press, 2016) and Orlicky's Material Requirements Planning 3/E (McGraw-Hill, 2011) with Chad Smith, in addition to MR and Beyond and ERP, Tools, Techniques and Applications for Integrating the Supply Chain, Theory H.O.W. with Harold Cavallaro, Necessary but not Sufficient with Dr. Eli Goldratt and Eli Schragenheim. Together with Dean Gilliam she updated Quantum Leap, originally written by John Constanza.

Ms. Ptak is certified through APICS at the fellow level (CFPIM) and was certified in Integrated Resource Management (CIRM) with the first group internationally. Ms. Ptak was the President and CEO of APICS, The Educational Society for Resource Management for the year 2000. Prior to her election as APICS President, she served on the Society in a variety of positions.

Carol Ptak currently makes her home on a working cattle ranch in the Pinal Mountains near Globe, AZ with her husband, Jim, three horses and the largest fold of purebred registered Scottish Highland cattle in Arizona.

Chad Smith is the coauthor (with Carol Ptak) of the third edition of Orlicky's Material Requirements Planning (McGraw-Hill, 2011) and Demand Driven Material Requirements Planning (Industrial Press, 2016) and Precisely Wrong - Why Conventional Planning Fails and How to Fix It (Industrial Press 2017). He is also the coauthor (with Debra Smith) of Demand Driven Performance: Using Smart Metrics (McGraw-Hill, 2014). He is a cofounder of and partner in the Demand Driven Institute, an organization dedicated to proliferating demand driven methods throughout the world.

In 1997 Mr. Smith co-founded Constraints Management Group (CMG), a services and technology company specializing in demand driven manufacturing, materials, and project management systems for midrange and large manufacturers. He served as Managing Partner of CMG from 1998 to 2015. Clients, past and present, include Unilever, LeTourneau Technologies, Boeing, Intel, Erickson Air-Crane, Siemens, IBM, The Charles Machine Works (Ditch Witch), and Oregon Freeze Dry. Mr. Smith is also a certified expert in all disciplines of the Theory of Constraints, studying directly under the tutelage of the late Dr. Eli Goldratt.

Chad Smith makes his home in Wenatchee, Washington, with his wife, Sarah, and two daughters, Sophia and Lily.