APICS Santa Clara Valley Instructors

Mark Hudson, CPIM, CIRM, CSCP, C.P.M., MBA

Mark Hudson is a past Director of Finance/Administration for the Chapter and is currently the Sr. Director, Logistics & Operations Systems for NVIDIA Corporation, responsible for global distribution, transportation & inventory management, import/export compliance and Supply Chain B2B. Mark's previous positions include P&IC Manager at Silicon Valley Group and Manufacturing Methods Specialist at Mektec Corp. He received his BA degree in Business Management from Saint Mary's College and his MBA from San Jose State University.

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Patti Kaneda, CPIM, CIRM, C.P.M, MBA

Patti Kandea has a Bachelor's of Science in Commerce Management from Santa Clara University and an MBA in Production Operations Management from Golden Gate University. In her twelve years at Varian Associates in Palo Alto, Patti held positions in Human Resources and Finance, with the last ten years in Materials Operations Management and various roles of Materials Planning, Production Planning, Purchasing, Master Scheduling, and Management. In her four years at National Semiconductor, Patti delivered the CPIM curriculum to NSC locations worldwide, in Thailand, Malaysia, Israel, Scotland, and the U.S. Recently, Patti has worked independently delivering Team and Management classes, and CPIM classes for our chapter.

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Mel Nelson, CFPIM, CIRM

Mel Nelson is currently the Region 10 Vice President (responsible for the 10 Western States), a Past President of SCVC, Director of In-House Education and a Strategic Advisor for the Santa Clara Valley Chapter. He is president of M.N. Nelson & Associates. Prior to starting his firm in 1980 Mel worked for such companies as Exxon, Perkin-Elmer, FMC, General Dynamics. Mel has presented at 19 APICS International Conferences; the JIT Conference; Congress For Progress; National Association for Purchasing Management Conferences and is a frequent keynote speaker at Universities and User Group meetings. Mel also teaches all CPIM and CIRM Certification Preparation Workshop courses for APICS. He is co-author of the APICS Train the Trainer course. He has been published in scores of Business Magazines and Journals. In 1994-95 Mel was Vice President of Region 10, and the 1996 was the Executive Vice President of APICS International.

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Sue Nelson, CFPIM, CSCP

Sue Nelson is Past President and VP of Marketing for Pacific Northwest District. She has been an associate of M.N. Nelson & Associates since 1993. Her background includes ten years in Sales, Marketing and Distribution followed by over fifteen years in Computer Operations and Manufacturing/Inventory Management. With a degree in Computer Programming, she has been instrumental in the successful implementation of a variety of ERP systems. Sue has been an active member of APICS for over ten years, serving as President of the Portland, Oregon Chapter and Region Ten Staff. She is certified in CPIM at the Fellow level and is currently in the process of CIRM certification. Sue has presented at 4 APICS International Conferences, multiple professional society dinner meetings, numerous universities and teaches all CPIM Certification Preparation Workshops for APICS.

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Rick Merritt, CFPIM, CSCP, C.P.M.

Rick Merritt, CFPIM, CSCP, C.P.M., currently serves as President for the APICS-Santa Clara Valley Chapter. A certified APICS instructor, Rick teaches courses for the CPIM certification and helped develop the first CSCP classes in Northern California. He is recognized as a CSCP Subject Matter Expert (SME) by APICS. He has also provided training internationally.

He has more than thirty years of operations and materials management experience in the public and private sectors with such companies as Applied Materials, Hexcel Corporation and JDS Uniphase. He has managed groups responsible both direct and indirect materials. With a focus on waste reduction, he has managed and piloted programs in outsourcing, supplier consigned inventories, strategic contracting, Continuous Process improvement and lead time reduction.

Rick completed his undergraduate studies at San Jose State University receiving a B.A in Public Relations with a minor in Business Administration. He earned his M.S. in Procurement and Contract Management from Saint Mary’s College of California in Moraga. He has been a guest lecturer for several organizations including Council for Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), Institute of Managerial Accountants (IMA) and Arizona State University.

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Dale Anderson, CFPIM, CIRM

With prior experience from materials manager to VP operations for small companies and members of the Fortune 500, Dale has a broad range of experiences which he shares with his classes. Dale is an independent consultant specializing in system specification and implementation, training, forecasting; and is a Past President of APICS SCVC.

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Kerry Depold, CFPIM, CSCP is currently the chapter's Vice President of Finance, having served on the board since 1997. He is a Past President and has also held several other V.P. positions on the Board. He has been in the Silicon Valley for over 40 years, holding various positions in manufacturing, finance, distribution, and warehousing. He is currently the VP of Operations at Trazar Corporation. Kerry holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from San Jose State University.

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