#SmealWeeklyRecap featuring Jordan Donmoyer '16 SC&IS

It's Friday! Make sure and continue to #lifelonglearn with us and follow along as we showcase other featured alumni in 2021. All webinars are free and registrations can be found on the?Smeal Alumni Events Calendar . For recordings of past webinars, visit our?Smeal Alumni Career Services Webinar library . Additionally, here is the link to our?Smeal Alumni Career Services Podcast? episodes on our website. Don't forget you can also download them on Apple, Castbox, Spreaker or most popular podcast apps and become a subscriber to get updates on releases!

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Featured Alum: Jordan Donmoyer '16 SC&IS, Manager of Direct Data Management at The Hershey Company

I graduated in 2016 with a bachelor’s in Supply Chain & Information Systems/minor in Management Information Systems and four years of memories playing varsity baseball for the Nittany Lions. After graduation, I took a chance on a company and an area of the country that I knew little to nothing about, accepting a position in the Professional Development Program (PDP) at Transplace in Northwest Arkansas (Go Hogs!).?

At that point in my career, I was uncertain about the area of supply chain in which I wanted to ultimately specialize, so the opportunity for exposure to various departments through this program made the PDP a perfect fit for me. For two years, I rotated through multiple internal accounts and service groups within Transplace, gaining well-rounded experience in the supply chain and logistics industry. Most notably, I spent time with our Engineering & Consulting group managing internal and external network transportation procurement events for some of our largest customers, co-creating and launching the Transplace ThinkTank that was developed to build and customize reporting suites for customers, collaborating with our Mexico cross-border logistics team to manage an international operations desk for Cummins Engines, and optimizing a multi-million dollar per year inbound freight network as part of the Office Depot profit sharing program. Through my experience in PDP, I was also fortunate to gain exposure to most of our Senior Leadership Team through an official mentorship program that I continue to participate in even now.?

Upon graduating from the PDP, I accepted a position as the Operations Manager for the Office Depot Inbound Collect Program, beginning my professional experience as a manager and leader within the organization. After about a year in the role, I was promoted to General Manger of Operations over the Mars Petcare Outbound Finished Goods and Inbound Raw Material accounts. This role granted me the opportunity to partner with a global, Fortune-500 organization in all things supply chain and transportation. I lead a Value Improvement Program that, in two years, realized over $12M in savings for Mars Petcare and had the honor of managing, mentoring, and developing a team of twenty associates. It is safe to say that the experience that I received from the PDP and the mentorship of Transplace Senior Leadership made me into the supply chain leader that I am today. I would not be in this position had I not taken the leap of faith a little over five years ago to move completely outside of my comfort zone for a job opportunity thousands of miles away from home.

Recently, I have had the pleasure and honor of accepting a position with The Hershey Company as the Manager of Direct Data Management (Bentonville, AR office). In this role, I will have the opportunity to expand my experience and knowledge within supply chain with a very reputable global snacking company that is near and dear to my heart, as I was born and raised 40 minutes from their corporate headquarters. I will have the pleasure of leading a team to help drive the Hershey brand further into the future with a focus around direct data and relationships with some of the largest retailers in the Bentonville area and world, including Walmart.

In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my wife and 11-month-old daughter going to baseball games, visiting family in the Northwest Arkansas area, attending concerts, serving in our church, trying new recipes on my Traeger smoker, reading, traveling, yard work, and really any activity that involves time with my family. Moving to this area has been a true blessing for me, both professionally and personally, and I would not change it for the world. Bonus, I love getting to bring my Southern wife and daughter back to Pennsylvania to visit as often as we’re able!?

My word of advice to current Penn State students and alumni would be to steal mentorship wherever and whenever you can. Take any and every chance you’re presented in your career and life in general to soak up valuable experiences from others more well-rounded, well-versed, and tenured than you are, regardless of title or position. Humble yourself to the point that you’re truly able to learn something from anyone at anytime, anywhere, and see how you come out of it better than you were before. No matter how high you climb or how far you go, you will always be able to learn something new, simply by always being on the lookout for it.

News and Resources

• Articles relating to?the the DEI, entrepreneurship, food industry, holidays, mentoring, supply chain and Walmart :?Articles on these topics from publications like Business Insider, Harvard Business Review, Forbes, SCM Magazine, Vault, Fast Company, The Guardian, Gallup, Morning Brew, The Washington Post, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, The Economist, Entrepreneur Daily, Bloomberg and more!?? How does sharing our stories build inclusion? What are some tips for Black female founders looking to receive VC funding? What will meat factories of the future look like? Can you expect any gifts to arrive on time for the holidays? How do you mentor through challenging times? How is shipping's consolidation affecting the supply chain? What is Walmart doing to ramp up it's online grocery business? Check out these articles and more at the link above!
• In case you missed it, alumni CEOs Karla Trotman '98 B LOG and Antonio Nieves '03 ACCT, presented a webinar this week. You can view the live recording on Smeal's Facebook page!

???From Penn State to President - Alumni Diversity Entrepreneurship?

Congratulations to our Smeal lifelong learners!

#lilfelonglearner - Anyone who continues to learn and/or fosters learning in others by sharing their knowledge and experience!

1. Natasha Bansgopaul '10 MBA presented at the FinTech BLK Fest as an innovator and trailblazer.
2. Amanda Binkley '18 MIS earned a Designer Core Certification issued by Alteryx.
3. Brian Drury '12 SC&IS attended the The Overcome It All Virtual Speaker Summit to learn from people who have come through their greatest challenges.
4. Renee Fry '94 OPMGT presented a webinar titled "Tales from the Trenches: Startup Founders Share Their Stories and Successes" with three other entrepreneurs for the Harvard Business School Association of Boston.
5. Patrick Gilbert ?'13 MKTG spent two days speaking at the?Friends of Search?conferences in Amsterdam and Brussels presenting new material; specifically, a testing framework that has already proven to be useful for his?AdVenture Media Group?team.
6. Neal Herring? '13 FIN, '13 ECON earned a skill badge for Microsoft Excel from LinkedIn Skill Assessment.
7. Castleigh W. Johnson? '03 MGTIB attended the EY Strategic Growth Conference to connect with other founders, partners and business leaders.?His first travel conference in years!
8. Jeffy M. Joseph '14 MGMT earned a certification of completion for "Change Management Foundations ", "Leadership Tips, Tactics and Advice " and "The Future of Workplace Learning " all from LinkedIn Learning.
9. Geoff Kowalski '11 MBA participated in a panel at the OTT Executive Summit & Magazine discussing gaming, gambling and the intersection of esports and wagering within the expanding distribution across CTV lead by ESTV & partners.
10. David Lubert '00 FIN, 03 MBA is a certified Recognized Teacher/Educator issued by IBM.
11. Mia Moyer '21 MKTG earn certification as an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Foundations 2021 Associate issued by Oracle.
12. Santosh Sankar '10 FIN attended Founders Camp hearing founders adding several million in pipeline opportunity with multi-billion dollar corporates leaning-in with a host of venture-backed startups to solve problems and capture opportunity.
13. Molly Twohig '16 MKTG completed her Mental Health First Aid certification?from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing.

Smeal ACS Webinar - Secure your spot today! ???

Join us for our last lifelong learning event of 2021! The webinars are LIVE on Wednesdays at Noon ET. They're free and everyone is welcome!

Creating, Measuring and Communicating Value for Enterprise/Business Architecture ?featuring Dr. Brian H. Cameron, Associate Dean for Professional Graduate Programs and Executive Education and Clinical Professor of Information Systems, Smeal College of Business at the Pennsylvania State University -?December 8th #backbypopulardemand

Have a great weekend!????? #WeAre???