APICS Santa Clara Valley Instructors

Mel Nelson, CFPIM, CIRM, CSCP

Mel Nelson is the Vice President of Education for the Santa Clara Valley Chapter. He has served as the Region 10 Vice President and as a Past President of our Chapter as well as a past Director of In-House Education and a Strategic Advisor for SCVC. Mel is the founder and president of M.N. Nelson & Associates. Prior to starting his firm in 1980, Mel worked for such companies as Exxon, Perkin-Elmer, FMC, and General Dynamics. Mel is a regular presenter of APICS International Conferences; including the JIT Conference; Congress For Progress; National Association for Purchasing Management Conferences. Mel is a frequent keynote speaker at Universities and User Group meetings. His flair and expertise are sought after across the country. Mel also teaches all CPIM and CSCP Certification Preparation Workshop courses for APICS. He is the co-author of the renowned APICS "Train the Trainer" course. He has been published in scores of Business Magazines and Journals. In 1994-95 Mel was the Vice President of Region 10, responsible for the 10 Western States, and in 1996 was the Executive Vice President of APICS International. Mel was recently accepted to the very distinguished APICS Instructor Development Program. As the current Vice President of Education, Mel's exceptional experience in all aspects of APICS teachings is helping elevate our Chapter to higher standards.

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

Rick Merritt, CFPIM, CSCP, C.P.M., is Director at Large and was the Past President for the APICS-Santa Clara Valley Chapter, serving from 2007 to 2009. 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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Sue Nelson, CFPIM, CSCP

Sue Nelson, CFPIM, CSCP is the Executive Vice President of the Santa Clara Valley Chapter. She has been an SCVC Past President and past Vice President of Marketing for Pacific Northwest District. Sue is an associate at M.N. Nelson & Associates since 1993. Sue brings to the Chapter an impressive repertoire of experience including Sales, Marketing and Distribution, 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 many years, having served as President of the Portland, Oregon Chapter as well as Region Ten Staff, an is a premier instructor for the SCVC Chapter who captivates her audiences with her sunny disposition. She is certified in CSCP and CPIM at the Fellow level. Sue has presented at many APICS International Conferences, multiple professional society dinner meetings, numerous universities and teaches all CPIM Certification Preparation Workshops for APICS. Her foundation of knowledge and experience brings a wealth of information to SCVC.

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Michael W. Gozzo

Michael W. Gozzo is President and Founder of THE TOTAL BUSINESS CONSULTING GROUP, INC., a firm specializing in counseling and education of all levels of management in the areas of Supply Chain, Lean Manufacturing, Demand Flow Technology, Just-In-Time, Total Quality Control, Manufacturing Systems Implementation, Inventory Control and Production/Operations Management.

Recent involvement with Silicon Valley leaders in Supply Chain Management, Lean Manufacturing practices and ISO include Cisco, Infineon, Sunrise Telecom, PerkinElmer, Philips Semi-conductor and SanDisk.  He has traveled to Germany to train operational personnel at Lufthansa Air Cargo. Mr. Gozzo has been associated with Lean practices: pull systems, quick change, 5-S, VMI, cell design and others.

He has traveled and worked extensively in Canada, England, Hong Kong, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Indonesia, South Africa and Taiwan.

He has an Executive Program Masters Degree from the University of New Haven, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Connecticut. He is certified as CPIM & CSCP by the Association of Operations Management (APICS).

Mr. Gozzo is the co-author of "Made In America – The Total Business Concept" and several other books and numerous published articles.

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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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Paul A. Long Sr., CPIM, CPPS, CM, CSCP, C.P.M.

Paul A. Long Sr., CPIM, CPPS, CM, CSCP, C.P.M., was the past President of APICS Santa Clara Valley Chapter. Paul is a Lead Buy Part Controller (Senior Staff) with Lockheed Martin Space Systems, and supports the Avionics group in Sunnyvale, California. Prior to joining Lockheed Martin, Paul was a member of the SAP Implementation Team at the Northrop Grumman facility in Azusa, California and responsible for developing processes for supporting SAP users. Paul has knowledge and experience which include Customer Service, Production Planning, Shop Floor Control, Capacity Planning, Expediting, Dispatching and Master Scheduling. Paul is an individual who is dedicated to life long learning and professional development. He has a B.A. in Business and his M.S. in Organizational Leadership. In addition to devoting his personal time and skill to APICS, Paul is a distinguished Member of NPMA, ISM, PMI and LMLA. He is CPIM certified and provides instruction for the Santa Clara Valley Chapter, as well as having taught Manufacturing and Inventory Management classes at the San Gabriel, California Chapter. Paul is certified in Systems Engineering (CalTech), Project Management (UnivCal Irvine), as well as ISO 9000 (Perry Johnson). Paul's worldly experience brings invaluable insight and direction to SCVC.

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

Patti Kaneda 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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