Tim Engstrom

Tim Engstrom is SVP, Supply Chain for Essendant based in Deerfield, Illinois. He is part of the executive leadership team responsible for supply chain management across 30+distribution centers and liaison to Staples supply chain operations. Additionally, Engstrom is a Adjunct Professor at Elmhurst University where he extends the classroom with businesses and teaches courses in the Supply Chain Master’s program. Each year, in addition to teaching classes, Engstrom mentors a group of graduate students in implementing a capstone project that analyze and implement solutions to supply chain challenges for local businesses.  It is here that the idea of creating a handbook for disability hiring was born looking to solve staffing challenges as well as support a business’s social responsibility program.  The result was the creation of the H.O.P.E. Handbook - A Guide for Disability Hiring. Prior to joining Essendant in 2019, Engstrom served as Head of Supply Chain at LA -CO Industries from 2016 to 2019, where he transformed the operation utilizing LEAN methodologies and won an award for implementing a disability hiring program.  Before then, he was Group Vice President of US distribution for Walgreens from 2012 to 2016, Senior Director of operations for Lawson Products in Chicago, Ill. from 2010 to 2012 and Director of operations for OfficeMax in Itasca, Ill., where he also held other positions. Engstrom received his master’s in supply chain management from Elmhurst University in 2003 and his bachelor’s in transportation & physical distribution from Western Illinois University in 1993.  He was also selected as Distinguished Graduate Alumnus from Elmhurst University in 2019.   

Topic: Better Than Yesterday

PMI Talent Triangle: Business Acumen (1 PDU)

Abstract: The design of community management for internal and external members that is inclusive in implementing alternative hiring and the support system to be better than yesterday. The support system includes the implementation of the LEAN methodology where associates have a method of identifying barriers preventing them from performing their best work and a PMI approach of removing those barriers. Inclusive is our build the bench methodology of developing future leaders through education, participation, and job rotation.

Learning Objectives: 

• Understanding how the pandemic showed the fragility of the global supply chain 
• Understanding how chaos can create opportunity  
• How LEAN and DEI can create an inclusive environment in removing barriers preventing you from performing your best work 
• How project management is the glue to managing and tracking improvements

Social Media:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/timrengstrom/