Bridging Manufacturing, Operations and Logistics Expertise with Digital Transformation Technologies
Twenty-one years in a $27 billion enterprise with billions in revenue and thousands of employees, managing hundreds of people across borders, functions, operations, technologies, and product lines…and now I work for rapidly growing leading-edge digital transformation company? Does that seem like a big leap?
Some convert their youthful ambition into reality — fire-fighter, construction worker, musician. I never answered the standard career question in my youth with — “I want to be an executive in a wood-products and timber REIT!” Then an engineering degree, an engineering job, manufacturing, product development, sales, marketing and weighty Vice President role with half the revenue and supply chain for a hundred-year-old industry giant became my path. Each small step led me somewhere new and eventually to something big. I have a great company and great mentors to thank for that experience!
In considering my next step I knew I wanted to continue working collaboratively with smart people, in a great culture, solving complex problems. I also wanted the opportunity to innovate and transform businesses. Through numerous consulting gigs over the past six months with investment firms, hedge funds, and entrepreneurs, I knew my business knowledge transcended my industry. Where many investors and even business leaders lacked operations experience, I had led billions in revenue, a complex international supply chain, and driven significant organizational and cultural change combining multiple business while developing and implementing new strategies. Don’t get me wrong — I love the building products industry — but I also knew I wanted to be in a fast-moving company and on the leading edge of technology trends that are transforming markets and businesses today.
And that brings me to Valence. I met the leadership of Valence here in Seattle and was incredibly impressed with their passion and dedication to using new technologies to help companies transform and adopt to the new reality of industrial change. As many have heard time and time again: now “all businesses are software businesses.” I realized that my deep knowledge of how manufacturing, operations and logistics actually works combined with the practical technology experience of Valence would create a formidable group. So, I signed on and took up the challenge of leading our Digital Solution Strategy for Manufacturing, Operations and Logistics. And I can’t be more excited about it!
Twenty years ago I didn’t know where each step might lead. In Valence, I can clearly see how each step can lead to something much, much better — even if it isn’t apparent right from the start!
For more information, check out our website and contact us, or if you want to learn more about our technologies, visit our innovation playground (ionico.io) and see what we have done in Blockchain and Distributed Ledgers or Voice and Chat. And stay tuned for more to come!
About Matt Meyers
Matt Meyers liked to build things as a kid (and still does with “his kids’ Legos”). A degree in Civil Engineering led to twenty-one years across diverse functions in Weyerhaeuser Company. His early career in engineering, manufacturing, and product development ultimately led to Vice President of Sales, Marketing, and Supply Chain operations for nearly $4 billion of the company’s revenue across multiple product lines to customers across North America and Asia. At Valence, Matt leads our Digital Solutions Strategy for Manufacturing, Operations, and Logistics to enable our industrial business clients with digital transformation solutions to increase revenue, decrease cost, and improve productivity and safety in operations.
