Registration: 8:00 am - 8:30am

Program Starts: 8:30am

Lunch: 11:30am

Program Ends: 3:00 pm

Keynote Speaker:

Melinda McLaughlin tracks, analyzes, and forecasts logistics of the real estate fundamentals and structural industry trends, and translates insights into strategic decision-making for Prologis. Her other areas of specialization include supply chain reconfiguration, location differentiation, and econometric modeling.

Before joining Prologis in March 2015, Ms. McLaughlin was a Vice President at Rosen Consulting Group, a boutique firm that provides economic, housing and commercial real estate strategic consulting services to a diverse roster of clients.

Ms. McLaughlin holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a concentration in Real Estate. In 2020, she was deemed one of San Francisco Business Times’ Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business and the Prologis Research team was named one of GlobeSt.com’s Industrial Influencers. She is also a member of the Urban Land Institute.

Keynote Speaker:

Bill Mongelluzzo is a senior editor in Long Beach for the Journal of Commerce. The JOC is one of the longest-continuing publications in the U.S. It was founded in New York in 1827 and is considered the authority on international transportation logistics. Bill has served with the Journal of Commerce since 1980 and has reported over the years from JOC offices in New Orleans, New York and Long Beach. He is a native of Chicago and a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He has a master’s degree in history from the University of New Orleans.

Presentation: Supply Chain as an Ecosystem

Weston LaBar serves as Head of Strategy for Cargomatic, the leading digital brokerage and freight marketplace creating solutions for customers’ drayage, intermodal, and short-haul FTL/LTL needs in all the nation’s seaports, rail ramps, and most major metropolitan markets with over 35,000 trucks.

Prior to joining Cargomatic, Weston spent seven years serving as Chief Executive Officer at the Harbor Trucking Association, the nation’s largest drayage trucking association. He has more than a decade of experience as an investor, strategic advisor, and executive helping grow early-stage startups, managing trade associations, as well as large advocacy and external affairs projects. Weston is active in local, state, and federal policy making on goods movement and international trade and has led countless initiatives with other stakeholders in the global supply-chain to increase port productivity and the advancement of technology in freight.

Panel: State of the Supply Chain

David Libatique

David is the Deputy Executive Director of Stakeholder Engagement for the Port of Los Angeles, a position that oversees and manages all communications on behalf of America’s Port® via the Community Relations, Media Relations, Government Affairs, Trade Development, and Labor Relations and Workforce Development Divisions.

In this role, Libatique works with diverse stakeholders, including local communities, organized labor, beneficial cargo owners, terminal operators, international customers, shipping and cruise lines, railroads, the trucking industry, media, and regulatory agencies to advance the Port’s goals and initiatives. He also interacts on a broader scale with an array of local, regional, statewide, and national elected officials and stakeholders.

B.J. Patterson

B.J. is a Professional Logistics Executive and Navy Veteran, working throughout the world. Mr. Patterson spent the last 25 years working in the logistics field, working in every aspect of the business from Transportation to Warehousing. Mr. Patterson sits on several industry boards and the local county Workforce Development Board.

Rachel Michelin

Rachel Michelin is President of the California Retailers Association (CRA), the most significant voice representing the retail industry in California's public policy arena, at the State Capitol, in City Halls and with regulatory bodies across the state. Michelin oversees a diverse board and membership representing retail throughout the state and nation from small brick and mortar, to franchises to national retailers and on-line merchants.

Rachel has led associations for over 20 years with visionary leadership including strategic growth and engagement, increasing revenue, developing partnerships, statewide influence and public awareness. Rachel has demonstrated success through a strong bipartisan leadership network she has built with key influencers in the public and private sectors

Lena Kent

Lena Kent is BNSF Railway’s General Director of Public Affairs and serves as the company’s spokesperson for BNSF operations. In this role, she is responsible for directing media relations and community affairs, including strategic initiatives, proactive outreach, relationship-building and responding to community concerns. In addition, she is responsible for directing communications strategy related to environmental issues and facility permitting in California.

Ms. Kent and her team act as the intermediary between BNSF and the communities in which the company operates, working to effectively communicate the benefits of rail and demonstrate the company’s commitment to efficient goods movement and corporate citizenship.

Panel: What's Ahead

Thomas Jelenic

Thomas A. Jelenić is Vice President for Pacific Merchant Shipping Association (PMSA). As part of PMSA, Mr. Jelenić works with policy makers, regulators, industry leaders and other entities to help ensure that sound science and industry issues are part of the discussion as California continues to call for the increased use of zero and near‐zero emissions equipment at California’s ports and throughout the goods movement industry.

Mr. Jelenić has more than two decades of maritime industry experience, including 15 years in environmental and planning positions at the Port of Long Beach, the nation’s second busiest seaport, and senior management roles in private consulting and logistics development. His work includes leading successful efforts to manage complex air quality, transportation and greenhouse gas issues related to the shipping industry, and he developed the landmark San Pedro Bay Clean Air Action Plan and the Clean Trucks Program for the Port of Long Beach.

Eric Caris

As Director of Cargo Marketing for the Port of Los Angeles, Eric Caris is responsible for marketing, sales, and promotional programs designed to attract and retain shipping business to the Port. A significant activity involves the negotiation of container terminal leases in collaboration with the Cargo and Industrial Real Estate Division. On the efficiency side, Cargo Marketing plays an integral part of implementing the Port Optimizer™ program, which provides supply chain stakeholders with added visibility to the supply chain.

Caris played an active role in the research and development of the Port’s Alternative Maritime Power® (AMP®) program, a groundbreaking technology to reduce ship emissions, launched at the Port of Los Angeles in June 2004. Instead of burning diesel fuel while berthed, AMP ships “plug in” to shoreside electrical power, which results in the elimination of two tons of air emissions each day a ship is docked.

Dr. Thomas O'Brien

Dr. Thomas O'Brien is the Executive Director of the Center for International Trade and Transportation (CITT) at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) and the Deputy Director of the METRANS Transportation Consortium, a partnership of CSULB and the University of Southern California. He also serves as the Director of the Southwest Transportation Workforce Center (SWTWC), one of five regional workforce centers originally funded by the Federal Highway Administration. He previously served as CITT’s Director of Research. Dr. O’Brien is a member of the Executive Committee of the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) where he serves as Immediate Past President. He is Chair of the oversight committee of the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Supply Chain Automation and a member of the Transportation Research Board’s Intermodal Freight Transport Committee and Urban Freight Committee. He also serves on the Boards of the Los Angeles Transportation Club, Harbor Association of Industry and Commerce, and National Transit Institute. Dr. O’Brien has a Master’s degree in Urban Planning and Development and a Ph.D. in Policy, Planning, and Development from the University of Southern California. He is both a former Eno and Eisenhower Transportation Fellow.

About the Southern California Logistics Council

We bring together industry leaders from across the country in both the public and private sector focused on the goods movement sector for discussions on public policy, professional development, and exploration of key concerns that most affect this key Southern California industry.