Congratulations to the 2022 Wisconsin ORBIE winners!
Leadership
Neal Sample
Global
Chad Steighner
Large Enterprise
Lois Brooks
Enterprise
Allen Smith
Large Corporate
Laurie Panella
Corporate
Steve Hannan
Healthcare
Jeri Koester
Global Finalists
John
Ische
Matt
Johnson
Chad
Steighner
Mark
Winger
Large Enterprise Finalists
Lois
Brooks
Martin
Christopher
Tim
Dickson
Anil
Tiwari
Enterprise Finalists
Steve
Cretney
Michael
Meinolf
Peter
Panagis
Allen
Smith
Large Corporate Finalists
Sam
Hilgendorf
Kim
Lueck
Laurie
Panella
Amy
Sterckx
Barb
Streubel
Corporate Finalists
Steve
Hannan
Derek
Hyde
Andy
Knauf
Michael
Rehberg
Erick
Schrier
Nickolo
Villanueva
Healthcare Finalists
Chero
Goswami
Angela
Johnson
Jeri
Koester
Amith
Nair
2022 Keynote
Brad Cowles , President, Core & Main
Brad Cowles is president of Core & Main, a leading distributor of waterworks and fire protection infrastructure products in the U.S, with net sales of $5.0 billion in fiscal 2021. Cowles leads several areas for the Company, including fire protection, water and wastewater supply, smart meters and geosynthetics and erosion control. Cowles was named chief operating officer of HD Supply Waterworks and Fire Protection in 2017 and helped carve out the division to become its own company, in partnership with private equity. Rebranded as Core & Main in late 2017, the company has experienced tremendous growth and became a publicly traded company (NYSE: CNM) in July 2021. Core & Main now employs 4,100 associates in 300 locations. Cowles has more than 25 years of leadership experience in growth-focused organizations. He joined HD Supply in 2005 to lead the information technology integration of more than 30 acquired companies, followed by a divestiture carve-out of the entire business from The Home Depot, and an eventual IPO. He progressed through a series of leadership roles including divisional chief information officer (CIO) for three business units, and ultimately, CIO of HD Supply. In 2016, Brad was recognized with the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Year Award from the Georgia CIO Leadership Association. Prior to joining HD Supply, Cowles spent 10 years with Michelin in the U.S. and France where he gained experiences in research and development, quality and manufacturing.
Leadership Award Recipient
Neal Sample, Northwestern Mutual (fmr)
Neal Sample was most recently EVP & Chief Information Officer and leads the Technology function at Northwestern Mutual. His key areas of accountability include technology strategy; data and analytics; enterprise information risk and cybersecurity; digital workplace solutions; and the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute. Prior to acquisition by Cigna, Sample was executive vice president, chief operating officer at Express Scripts where he was responsible for operations, technology, and enterprise transformation. He aligned overall information technology strategy and performance with pharmacy processing and fulfillment in order to create synergies that drove improvements to the member and client experiences