Board Of Directors & Officers

Dale Chrystie

BSC President and Chair

FedEx

Dale Chrystie is business fellow and blockchain strategist for FedEx. He also serves as chairman of the BITA Standards Council, is a member of the Blockchain Research Institute in Toronto and is also an Executive Advisory Board member of the University of Arkansas Blockchain Center of Excellence. He was awarded the inaugural Enterprise Blockchain Award in Enterprise & Industry Leadership and is a global thought leader on the business and strategy aspects of blockchain, web3 and emerging technologies. His focus on ‘coopetition’ in the blockchain space continues to challenge conventional wisdom and typical corporate and regulatory culture, and his perspective in that space appears in academic and other publications. He is a proud graduate of the University of Arkansas.

Mahesh Sahasranaman

BSC Secretary

UPS Supply Chain Solutions

Mahesh Sahasranaman works for UPS as a Principal Architect leading technology strategy, architecture and governance for applications supporting Supply Chain Solutions, International and Healthcare. He has over 15 years of experience in information technology and currently responsible for championing digital/data and technology adoption.

Scott Friesen

BSC Treasurer

Echo Global Logistics

Between an undergraduate degree in biology and a career start in the music industry, it was perhaps inevitable that Scott would bring a combination of scientific discipline and creativity to his career in corporate America. His career has thematically and increasingly focused on the creating a data-driven approach to decision making and he has built or enhanced analytic and insight functions five times. He is frequently sought out for expertise on applied analytics.

Scott is Executive Vice president, Strategic Analytics at Echo Global Logistics, (Nasdaq: ECHO) a leading provider of technology enabled transportation and supply chain management services. He serves as an advisor to an Artificial Intelligence startup company and is an active member of the expert network for the International Institute of Analytics. Prior, he led the Advanced Analytics and Insights unit at Quadratic, a Richards Group affiliate company. The AA&I team was responsible for measurement, analysis, and the extraction of value from marketing and other client data sources. Scott built and led the customer insights and marketing analytic team for Ulta Beauty, and spent 8+ years at Best Buy, holding a variety of positions including Customer Analytics and CRM capability development, Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, BestBuy.com and Enterprise Strategy, and Geek Squad services. Scott enjoys teaching applied analytics and fighting innumeracy wherever he can. He holds an MBA from Columbia Business School in New York and a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Swarthmore College.

Bart Boudreaux

BSC Director

BNSF Railway

Bart Boudreaux is Director, Technology Services at BNSF Railway.  In that role, he is responsible for identifying emerging technology trends that support BNSF’s business strategy and driving those technologies forward.  Bart has been with BNSF 28 years, and he has 33 years of technology experience.

Ken Craig

BSC Director

McLeod Software

Ken Craig is the CIO and VP of Special Projects for McLeod Software. Ken has nearly 50 years in the software industry. He began his career with IBM in software development for NASA’s Space Shuttle program. He was previously the North American SAP Practice Director for Dutch systems integrator, Origin/Atos. He served as the first President for SAP in Brazil, then became the Chief Information Officer and Vice President of Information Systems for Philips Consumer Electronics North America. Ken did Virtual CIO Consulting for over 10 years. He is the Co-Founder of the Blockchain in Transportation Alliance.

Craig Harper

BSC Director

J.B. Hunt Transportation Services

Craig Harper is the Chief Sustainability Officer and Executive Vice President at J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. He joined the company in 1992 as Vice President of Special Commodities and, after five years, was appointed to the role of Chief Operations Officer. In 2020, Craig was named Chief Sustainability Officer.  In his role, Craig is responsible for leading the company’s sustainability efforts including initiatives involving electric and autonomous vehicles and other emerging technologies. He also leads driver hiring, orientation and safety programs, as well as fuel purchasing for the company.  Craig serves on the board of the BITA Standards Council and the Alliance for Driver Safety & Security.
Craig is a graduate of the University of Arkansas with a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry and continued his education at the University of Tennessee where he earned a Doctor of Dental Surgery.

Dan Heinen

BSC Director

Kleinschmidt

Dan Heinen is the President and CEO of Kleinschmidt, an EDI and integration solutions provider whose capabilities power the supply chains of leading enterprises around the world.  With over 35 years of experience building real-time messaging systems across the telecom and financial services industries, Dan leads Kleinschmidt’s march toward next generation EDI and API integration technologies and spearheads the continued development of the reliable, robust B2B messaging architecture that underlies the day-to-day business operations of North America’s leading enterprises.  A Kleinschmidt veteran of over 20 years, you can still find Dan rolling up his sleeves and getting down into the trenches, assisting his teams in architecting complex solutions, writing APIs or debugging code.  Outside the walls of Kleinschmidt, Dan is an avid golfer and enjoys traveling the world with his family.

Bob Hitt

BSC Director

Salesforce

With 30 years of experience in the Transportation, Logistics, and IT industries, Bob is a proven leader driving improvement in IT innovation, web marketing, customer service, cash management, safety, claims management, acquisition integration, operations and outsourcing.  Prior to joining Salesforce in 2019, Bob led product development for the Transportation & Logistics group at EXL Service. He also spent 11 years working at Yellow Freight in a variety of roles including VP of Safety & Workers Comp, VP of Quality, and director-level roles in the project management office, marketing, and IT. Bob currently serves on the board of the BITA Standards Council.

Veneetia Johnson

BSC Director

Delta Air Lines

Dr. Veneetia Smith Johnson is the Director of Technology and Innovation Engineering (TIE), driving innovation across Delta Air Lines Technical Operations.  Veneetia brings over 20 years of human-centered leadership as an executive focused on innovation, strategy, and organizational change.  She is currently serving on the Board of Directors for BITA Standards Council and is a Professor for Georgia State University Robinson College of Business.  Veneetia holds a Doctorate in Business at Georgia State University, Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Georgia, MBA, and multiple certifications.  Her experiences and passions span various business domains: Aviation Engineering, Airport Customer Service, Cargo Systems, Warehouse Management, E-commerce, and H.R. Systems.

Mauricio Paredes

BSC Director

P&S Transportation

Mauricio Paredes has worked in technology for almost 30 years. He is currently VP of Technolo[1]gy at PS Logistics and is part of the team that has grown the organization from 600 trucks in 2012 to over 3,800 drivers in 2021. Throughout his career, Mauricio has worked to expand the use of analytics to improve all aspects of the supply chain.