32 DC VELOCITY JULY 2017
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As a former supply chain executive, Rick D. Blasgen, president and
chief executive officer of the Council
of Supply Chain Management
Professionals (CSCMP), is well positioned to understand his members’
needs, wants, and aspirations. Blasgen
began his career with Nabisco, working his way up through positions in
inventory management, customer service, order processing, and transportation and distribution center management at a time when the food
industry was undergoing an unprecedented period of
consolidation. After serving as vice president, supply
chain, at Nabisco; vice president, supply chain, for
Kraft; and senior vice president, integrated logistics,
for ConAgra Foods, he was named to his current
position in 2005.
Blasgen is a past president of the Warehousing
Education and Research Council (WERC) and past
chair of the Grocery Manufacturers Association
Logistics Committee. Currently, he is a member of
Northwestern University’s Transportation Center
Business Advisory Council and chair of the U.S.
Department of Commerce Advisory Committee on
Supply Chain Competitiveness.
QHow many members does CSCMP have?
A Currently, we have about 9,000 individual mem- bers in 50 countries as well as 125 corporate
members. We expect about 3,000 attendees from 40
countries at our annual conference, CSCMP Edge,
which will take place in Atlanta in late September.
Q You have a degree in business and finance. How did you get involved in logistics and supply chain
management?
A When I graduated college in 1983, I got a job offer from Nabisco as an inventory analyst. I
didn’t know a lot about it, but I thought, “Let’s see
where this takes me.” Little did I know that a career
had been born! I progressed through all kinds of jobs
and functions within the supply chain; along the
way, I learned a lot about logistics and supply chain
operations and strategies, became more financially
astute, and developed leadership experience. I think
this kind of career path has a lot of benefits. When I
talk to students, I often tell them there’s no substitute
for experience ... [and they should use it to] develop
leadership, managerial, and interpersonal skills.
Q How would you describe CSCMP’s mission and your own
role in furthering that mission?
A CSCMP promotes thought lead- ership, and it’s a place to make
connections and learn from each
other, challenge existing ideas, and
develop new ways of doing business. It
has always been a current you can plug
into when you need to develop your
skills, or when you’re looking for a new career path
or a solution for a problem, whether at the annual
conference or in your local roundtable.
I’m a consensus builder by nature, so bringing peo-
ple together is something I enjoy. A lot of my time is
spent on using our financial, human, and education
resources to deliver the best possible results for our
members and for the profession. I do that with help
from our staff and from our unwaveringly dedicated
volunteers.
Q Why is it important to become involved in industryandprofessionalgroups?
A These groups help you stay current in a business that’s always changing—it seems almost minute
by minute. They offer you a place to think about what
you’re trying to do and to test it, and to find out from
others who have gone down a similar path what made
them successful or what roadblocks they encoun-
tered. It’s a penalty-free place to get honest feedback
and acquire knowledge.
Q Are there any professional achievements you’re particularly proud of?
A In my professional career, I’d say it was navigat- ing through food industry mergers, acquisitions,
and divestments while staying focused on the cus-
tomer and also taking care of our employees. I had to
make decisions during a period of constant change,
knowing that the organization needed to be strong
coming out the other end, and I had to use what I
learned to drive the organization’s future success.
At CSCMP, it was evolving the organization to
make sure it maintains relevancy for supply chain
professionals in the future. That’s one of my most
important jobs. We can’t live or develop our profes-
sional lives online or in one-minute videos or sev-
en-second Snapchats. We want to make sure we con-
tinue to help supply chain professionals spend their
time in meaningful ways and to ensure that healthy
professional conversations continue to take place.
Rick Blasgen
