Advisory Board | NC State ISE

Tony J. Blevins oversees Apple Inc’s global supply chain as Vice-President of Procurement. Since 2000, he has supervised a large international and multi-disciplined staff that has enabled innovative Apple products that include the original and all later versions of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod. Before joining Apple, Blevins held positions at IBM in engineering, finance, production control, and procurement while doing many international assignments which culminated in a role as Program Director at IBM’s development lab in Greenock, Scotland. Blevins, a native of Ashe Country, NC was an undergrad engineering co-op at Burlington Industries and earned a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from NC State University in 1989.

Neil Brittain is currently the Senior Director, Human Resources at Gilead Sciences, based in Foster City, California.  Prior to joining Gilead in 2021, Neil spent 14 years with Novartis Pharmaceuticals – ten of those based in Basel, Switzerland – working in global roles across the Quality, Manufacturing, Finance and Human Resources functions. After graduating with his B.S.I.E. in 1994, Neil’s early career spanned roles in Industrial Engineering at Michelin Tire, manufacturing management and Lean Six Sigma deployment at AMP Inc. and Eaton Commercial Controls.  Neil is a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt.  From 2015 to 2018, Neil was the Vice President of Operations for Ennis-Flint, a global provider of pavement marking materials, overseeing 17 manufacturing plants, as well as, the corporate EH&S, Quality and Process Engineering functions.  

Damon Butler has been the President of Triangle Blvd – one of the leading digital creative services organizations in the South East – for the past 10 years. He’s been known to be an articulate and effective communicator leading hundreds of video production, web development, mobile applications, and major live events.

Before launching Triangle Blvd, Damon worked at Lenovo as a Business Transformation Lead focused on planning, forecasting and collaboration. Before that, he was at IBM as a Business and Marketing Analyst.

Tracy Doaks Tracy Doaks is President & CEO of MCNC, the technology nonprofit focused on delivering high-performance Internet technologies for communities throughout North Carolina. Prior to joining MCNC in August 2020, Tracy was state chief information officer and secretary for the N.C. Department of Information Technology, where she led the state agency. She joined NCDIT in November 2015 and served as chief deputy state chief information officer and chief services officer until her appointment as state CIO in February 2020. Before NCDIT, Tracy worked for Duke Medicine, serving as the senior director of service delivery.

Tracy earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering in 1990 and her CIO certification from the UNC School of Government. She is also certified as a Project Management Professional.

Candance Gingles is the Director of Quality Engineering at Pfizer. She leads a team of managers and engineers overseeing quality aspects in validation and change management activities throughout one of Pfizer’s largest manufacturing and distribution facilities.

Before joining the Quality organization, Candance experienced many disciplines often being the first or one of few women to lead each area. Her other notable roles include Plant Manager for a small molding operation of approximately $35 million of annual production and Operational Excellence Manager.

Candance is passionate about her work and always eager to mentor others, dedicating multiple hours weekly to share experiences and provide career insight to mentees at an internship through manager levels.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering in 1987 from NC State University.

Paul Griffin is director of the Consortium on Substance Use and Addiction and a professor in the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Penn State University, where he also served as the Peter and Angela Dal Pezzo department head. Before Penn State, Paul was the St. Vincent Health Chair and Director of the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering at Purdue University. Paul was also the Joseph C. Mello Chair and Professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech, where he started his career after graduating with a Ph.D. in industrial engineering at Texas A&M University.  He is a fellow of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

Tao Hong is the Duke Energy Distinguished Professor, NCEMC Faculty Fellow of Energy Analytics, Graduate Director, and Research Director of the Systems Engineering and Engineering Management Department at UNC Charlotte. Hong is the Director at Large of the International Institute of Forecasters (IIF), the General Chair of the Global Energy Forecasting Competition, the Founding and Past Chair of the IEEE Working Group on Energy Forecasting, and the Founding and Past Chair of the IIF Section on Water, Energy and Environment. He is a Department Editor of IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Associate Editor of the International Journal of Forecasting, and Associate Editor of Solar Energy. He received his MS in Electrical Engineering, MS with co-majors in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, and Ph.D. with co-majors in Operations Research and Electrical Engineering from NC State.

Jeff Johnson owns JWJ Energy, providing exclusive strategic and executive consultancy to EDF Trading Ltd and the EDF Group. EDF Trading is a leading energy risk management firm headquartered in London. He has led numerous strategic projects for EDFT in Europe and the US for over 20 years. He served as Interim President of EDFT’s wholesale trading business in Houston. He also served the EDF Group as a board member in its CENG nuclear generation joint venture with Exelon.  He developed and led the start-up of EDFT’s Paris trading operations as well as integrated EDF Group’s European natural gas activities with EDFT’s London operations.  Johnson was one of the founding members of EDF Trading Ltd in 1999.

Before working with the EDF Group, Johnson was senior vice president at Louis Dreyfus Corp, responsible for business development in the energy sector.  He previously spent 16 years in various engineering, finance and corporate capacities at Duke Energy. He also served on the Board of Visitors of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University and was active in developing the Energy and Environment program within the Nicholas School. Johnson earned his BS in Industrial Engineering in 1978 from NC State University.

Angela Lanning is the Chief Operating Officer for Premier’s Informatics and Technology Services Group.  Currently, she is responsible for product strategy, product development, product implementation, customer support, training and data management for Premier’s Quality and Population Health solutions.  Since joining Premier in January 1993, she has served in many roles.  She was Vice President of Client Management and was responsible for ensuring customer value and satisfaction with Premier’s performance improvement products.  She also had responsibility for the Healthcare Informatics capital budget and the program management office

Tim McMahon Tim has been with the global consulting company Accenture since January 1987.  He has performed many roles for Accenture including COO of Business Consulting, COO of Accenture Song (Accenture’s digital agency), and now Managing Director of Global Commerce Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) where he is responsible for expanding Accenture’s commerce services capabilities globally. 

He volunteers as an assistant varsity boys basketball coach at St. David’s School and is an active supporter of junior golf as a sponsor of the Webb Simpson Challenge event for high school boys. 

Patrick Murray earned his BSIE from NC State in 1988. Including his time as a co-op, he spent 30 years at Intel Corporation working as an applications engineer, managing several strategy and product planning teams, creating and managing Intel’s Global ISV Alliances Team, and closing his career managing Intel’s WW Retail Sales Development Team.

As a retiree, Patrick started volunteering for the ISE Department as an alumni-student mentor and working on special projects for the department head and the Advisory Board. In the Spring of 2020, he began serving as an Industry/Executive coach supporting ISE undergraduate students in their senior design engineering class.  In addition to volunteering with the ISE Department, he serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Raleigh Charter High School, is the Vice-Chair for the Town of Cary’s Information Services Advisory Board, and is a Coach for a Miracle League of the Triangle baseball team.

Stuart Nisbet is a Chief Data Scientist at Cadient Talent. Before this position, Stuart was the Senior Vice President, Head of R&D, at SAS. As the head of R&D, he oversaw all aspects of product research and development, monitored and assessed new technologies, and determined how best to incorporate new technologies into our products and solutions. He led a global team dedicated to delivering the highest quality products and fostered a culture of customer-driven innovation and excellence.

Stuart believes innovation can come from anywhere. Throughout his career, he has been inspired by the innovation around him -technology, people, culture, and business partners.

David Parker is the Co-founder and CEO of Dexios, a contract development and manufacturing partner with deep expertise in product development, manufacturing and supply chain services across a breadth of product technologies, manufacturing processes, and regulatory environments. 

David is also the president and CEO of Servemore, a charitable service organization dedicated to engaging individuals to serve more often and enabling organizations to serve more people. At the same time, he is a principle of Dedicated Partners, which capitalizes on decades of world-class operational experience to drive sustainable value creation within their Clients’ organizations.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1993 and in 1996 earned his master’s in management, both from NC State University.

Devon Person is the Vice President of Supply Chain for Hanesbrands Inc., leading their supply chain transformation initiatives for key brands such as Champion. Before joining Hanesbrands, he held director-level roles with three other Fortune 500 companies, including GE and Eaton.
He has been an ambassador for recruiting and retaining minority talent throughout his career, including founding members of several global employee resource groups within the companies he has worked. Person earned dual bachelor’s degrees (2010) in Industrial and Systems Engineering and Textile Engineering before earning a Master’s degree (2014) in Supply Chain Management from Penn State University. He has also acquired certifications in lean manufacturing, 6-sigma black belt, CPIM from APICs and executive leadership training from McKinsey consulting.

Juli Trexler is the Vice President for IBM Support as a Global Business Partner Channel Sales in IBM’s Global Technology Services Division. Trexler has been with IBM for 20 years and has worked in executive and leadership roles for over 15 of those years. Her experience spans many areas from Global Supply Chain, Manufacturing, and Logistics Operations to Engineering Management, Process Innovation, and Business Transformation. Most recently she has moved to client-facing business development and business line management. At the core, Trexler is a dynamic leader who prides herself in leading with integrity and results-driven innovation.

Trexler has a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from North Carolina State University, is a Certified Project Management Professional, and is a Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.