What is the Worldwide Supply Chain Federation?

The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation (WSFF) is an international organization that provides collaboration, education, and leadership opportunities to professionals in the supply chain industry.

The WSFF has chapters in Canada, Europe, and the U.S., expanding into Latin America and Asia soon. Founded by global executives from various industries, it focuses on developing the supply chain community leaders through networking events and mentorship programs.

Expanding to South California:

“The goal is to allow logistics providers to come together and share ideas,” said Rich Filippi, director of business development at TEC Equipment Inc., which is hosting the event. “We’re hoping that we can get everyone together so they can learn from each other.”

The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation launched a West Coast branch, The SoCal Supply Chain Meetup group (#TSCSCM), to unite supply chain experts, technologists, startup founders, and other innovators across Southern California. 

Why did the federation expand its presence to Southern California?

As one of the world’s largest economies, Southern California was a prime target area for expansion. The region is home to many large companies with significant supply chains, such as Amazon, Boeing, and Disney. Furthermore, the area’s proximity to Mexico gives it easy access to one of the United States’ most important trade partners. In 2018 alone, California exported $35 billion worth of goods to Mexico alone — more than double what it exported to China.

A key reason for expanding into Southern California was that no organizations specifically catered to supply chain professionals in that region. A couple of other groups exist in Los Angeles County and Orange County, but their primary focus is on transportation rather than all aspects of supply chain management.

The leading Industry Giants and their Representors:

On the organizing committee for the chapter, Toni Ann Carpaccio, Mike Bush, and Kevin Meredith represented industry giants PortPro, NEXT Trucking, and 4th Sector Innovations.

The inaugural meeting of the chapter mainly focused on the two aspects: 

• status of the ports
• forms of partnership required to reduce congestion through technology and infrastructure. 

Speakers of the meeting

Eric Johnson, Senior Technology Editor of the Journal of Commerce, hosted the conversation.

Following speakers from all parts of the supply chain were featured.

1. David Libatique, Deputy Executive Director of Stakeholder Engagement at the Port of Los Angeles
2. Matt Schrap, CEO, Harbor Trucking Association
3. Luis Molina, Founder, KONTAINEROZ
4. Michael Mecca, CEO, PortPro
5. Vipul Shah, Chief Product Officer, NEXT Trucking
6. Adil Ashiq, Executive North America – West Coast, MarineTraffic

The event was hosted at Long Beach, California, and the meeting began at 4:00 pm PT. 

Author: Sharjeel

Sharjeel joined Startempire Wire as emerging technologies editor. Earlier, he worked at Silicon Canals, a leading English language technology media source for the Benelux and wider Europe. He covered the European technology and startup ecosystem digging into latest funding rounds of startups.