Sanger Advisory Board

Karim Bitar is Chief Executive Officer of Convatec Group plc.  Convatec is a leading global medical technologies company focused on solutions for the management of chronic conditions, with leading market positions in advanced wound care, stoma care, continence care and infusion care. Convatec products and services provide a range of clinical and economic benefits including infection prevention, improved clinical outcomes and reduced total cost of care.

Previously, Karim was Chief Executive Officer of Genus plc, a leading agricultural biotechnology company. During his eight-year tenure, the company was transformed into a technology pioneer with leading global franchises in dairy, beef and pork genetics. Prior to this, Karim worked for over 15 years with Eli Lilly & Company and was President of Lilly Europe, Canada and Australia before joining Genus. An ex- McKinsey & Company consultant, he worked across Asia and in Europe and also held management roles at Johnson & Johnson and the Dow Chemical Company.

Karim has a Masters (Hons) in Business Administration, University of Michigan, Ross School of Business and a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin.

Tiffanie Boyd is the Senior Vice President & Chief People Officer for McDonald’s USA and a member of the US Senior Leadership Team. In this role, she leads the People function for the US business and is accountable for strategy, talent management, performance management, leadership development and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. By partnering with leaders, employees and franchisees, Tiffanie brings the McDonald’s mission and values to life for all employees and partners across the country.

Tiffanie joined McDonald’s in January 2021 after almost 23 years with General Mills. In her most recent role there, she served as Vice President, Human Resources, for North America Retail and led initiatives to upgrade talent, transform the organization design, drive culture change and improve employee engagement for 11,000 employees across the largest business segment of General Mills. She has extensive global experience through her role leading HR for the global supply chain function which had 18,000 employees across 50 manufacturing plants and offices around the world. She also held HR leadership roles in the Foodservice segment and General Mills Canada (based in Toronto).

Early in her career, Tiffanie worked in several manufacturing plants. Prior to joining General Mills, she was a consultant at Hewitt Associates advising clients on defined contribution plan administration. Tiffanie earned an MBA and BBA from the Michigan Ross Business School.

Tiffanie is deeply committed to youth education and serves on the board of Thrive Scholars, the Catalyst Advisory Board and is a member of the Executive Leadership Council.

Tiffanie lives in Chicago, IL with her husband Colbert and their sons, Evan and Ian. 

Tiffanie joined McDonald’s in January 2021 after almost 23 years with General Mills. “Leadership is the difference maker and great leaders are needed across every industry and field of work,” Tiffanie shared. “The Sanger Leadership Center is focused on building skills to help people become great leaders. I had the privilege of working at General Mills during Steve Sanger’s tenure as CEO.  He was inspiring. He cared about people. He led the company to accomplish amazing things. I want to support his vision and impact organizations through positive leadership the way he did.” Learn more >>

Tamika Curry Smith is a global HR and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) executive who is currently Chief Diversity Officer at Arm Ltd., the world’s leading semiconductor intellectual property company. Tamika has previous experience leading DEI at Nike, Inc., Mercedes-Benz USA, Target Corporation, and Deloitte. Tamika also is an advisor to Goldman Sachs’ asset management division, in addition to early-stage start-ups and venture capital firms, such as Talenya, Mathison, and SemperVirens Venture Capital.

As Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer, Derek is accountable for the effective governance of the company’s risk programs. As the leader of the independent corporate risk function, he oversees all financial and non-financial risks, including compliance risk management. Derek’s leadership team includes chief risk officers for each of the five business groups and Finance, and risk officers overseeing risk management programs by risk type. Derek serves on the Wells Fargo Operating Committee and is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Michigan provided me the tools, instructions, and alumni that helped build the foundation for a successful business and leadership career. I’d like to help current students in a similar way. Learn more >>

Edward Hightower is an electric vehicle OEM CEO, global automotive executive, entrepreneur, board director, and author. He is the founder and managing director of Motoring Ventures LLC, an investment, growth, strategy, and operations consulting firm focused on driving value + impact in the global automotive industry.

Previously, he served as chief executive officer and president of Lordstown Motors Corp., an original equipment manufacturer of electric vehicles for the commercial fleet market. In 2022, he led the operational turnaround of the company, implementation of a new asset-light business strategy, and launch of its first vehicle – the Endurance battery electric full-size pickup truck. In doing so, over 700 jobs were saved, and Endurance was selected as a finalist for 2023 North American Truck of the Year. Of all the new light-duty electric vehicle manufacturers, Lordstown was one of the very few (Tesla, Rivian, Lucid, and Lordstown) to have successfully developed, certified, launched, and delivered its vehicles to customers. Crain’s Automotive News magazine recognized Hightower as the first African American CEO of a publicly traded automaker. Hightower also served as CEO of the electric vehicle design and engineering joint venture between Lordstown and Foxconn.

Earlier, Hightower served in several new-product development, engineering, strategy, brand marketing, and senior executive roles between Ford, BMW, and GM. If you stand on any busy street corner in America for 60-seconds, you will see at least one of the automobiles for which he had a leading role in creating and bringing to market. Hightower also worked as a hands-on growth, strategy, operations, and M&A consultant at AlixPartners, LLP. He has also served on several public, private, and not-for-profit boards of directors.

Hightower authored the book Motoring Africa: Sustainable Automotive Industrialization, published in 2018. Based on his industry experiences in China, India, South Korea, Mexico and Brazil, Motoring Africa makes the case and offers an actionable roadmap for economic development by building sustainable automotive manufacturing businesses in six of the 54 countries in Africa.

Originally from Chicago, Hightower earned a BS in General Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. He serves on the Ross School Advisory Board, Sanger Leadership Center Advisory Board, and chaired the Ross Alumni Board of Governors. He is a two-time recipient of the Alumnus of the Year award from the Ross Black Business Students Association; and a recipient of the Bert F. Wertman Ross Alumni Service award. He is a lifetime member of both Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. and the Council on Foreign Relations. An Eagle Scout, he previously served on the executive board of the Michigan Council of the Boy Scouts of America and is a recipient of the National Outstanding Eagle Scout award. Hightower is a 6th degree Master Black Belt and certified Sensei instructor in Isshinryu karate. He and his family live in metro Detroit.

Omer has experience advising global pharmaceutical and biotech organizations focusing on commercial strategy. His expertise areas include go-to-market, launch excellence, brand/portfolio strategy, insights & analytics, and promotional strategy & effectiveness.

During his tenure, Omer has held multiple marketing leadership roles, including brand lead with P&L responsibility for a $500M+ portfolio of immunology and GI products, 10+ years in Oncology commercial strategy, leading the launch and management of patient support services (HUB) for a Women’s Healthcare device, and helping to reshape the customer experience for an established player in the eye care space to confront a rapidly changing landscape.

Prior to joining Trinity, Omer was on the early leadership team at BluePrint Group helping to grow the firm from 15 to 100 people before its sale to Trinity in December 2020. Earlier, he was a Consultant at ZS Associates and holds a BBA with High Distinction and minor in Statistics from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

To support leadership and development programs for all Ross students, helping to prepare future leaders who can impact across industries. And, to help guide the growth and recognition of Ross and Michigan as a global leader in real-world applied learning.

Mr. Kaufman is the Founder and Managing Partner of Validor Capital. He is a senior private equity professional with more than 20 years of principal investing experience. Over the course of his career, he has led the execution of over 30 equity, debt and merger and acquisition transactions and has significant experience managing portfolio companies and turnarounds.

Mr. Kaufman was previously senior managing director with GSC Group, where he was a member of the investment committee of the private equity and distressed debt group. Prior to that he was director of corporate finance with NextWave Telecom and worked in private equity and M&A at The Blackstone Group and Bear Stearns.

Mr. Kaufman has served on the board of directors of numerous corporate and not-for-profit entities and has held steering committee positions in several bankruptcies. Select board memberships include Chairman of Pacific Aerospace & Electronics and Aeromet Holdings (both in the aerospace and defense industry), Burke Industries (commercial flooring), Day International Group (printing press consumables and chemical products), Safety-Kleen Corp. (environmental services) and Woods Equipment Co. (agricultural and construction equipment.)

Mr. Kaufman earned his BBA and MAcc degree from the University of Michigan.

Three reasons:

1) I have received so much benefit from my 35 year association with the University of Michigan and Ross that I wanted to give back and volunteer my time to an important cause that could have a meaningful impact to current and prospective students and their career paths.

2) I never received formal leadership training and, in hindsight, early in my career, I made mistakes and sub-optimized results while I learned leadership skills organically from observation and self-education. This drove home the value to me of leadership education sooner than later.

3) My current profession is buying sub $100 million revenue businesses in the manufacturing and industrials space. Most of the leaders we engage with in these markets have had little to no leadership training. We spend countless hours, days, and weeks coaching and mentoring our leaders. I wanted to get closer to the action on cutting edge tools to train leaders so I could be better at my job and have a more meaningful impact on the organizations we invest with.

Jessica Lieberman Quinn is Executive Vice President, Corporate Controller and Chief Accounting Officer of American Express.

She leads a team of 1600 colleagues to ensure financial integrity and a strong control environment through the delivery of financial accounting, reporting, compliance, and advisory services. Jessica has held a variety of roles at the company, including SVP, Corporate Planning & Analysis and SVP, Chief Financial Officer for several business segments.

Jessica is a member of World50’s Finance Executives network and the University of Pennsylvania’s Professional Women’s Alliance. She is the executive sponsor for American Express’ Women in Finance initiative and a member of its Executive Women’s Interest Network Steering Committee.

I want the opportunity to give back to the university and to share what I have learned about leadership with the team at Sanger and indirectly with students. Learn more >>

Stephen W. Sanger is chairman at Wells Fargo, a position he was elected to in October 2016 after serving on the board since 2003. He is also a director at Target Corporation (since 2001) and Pfizer (since 2009). Sanger served as chairman and chief executive officer of General Mills, Inc., during the final 13 years of his 34-year career with the company. During his tenure as CEO, the company’s net sales nearly tripled from $5 to $14 billion and its global workforce grew from 10 to 30 thousand employees. Perhaps his greatest legacy at General Mills was his fostering of a culture that attracted and developed great leaders. The company was regularly listed among Fortune’s Most Admired Companies and 100 Best Places to Work, and in 2007 and 2009 it was ranked No. 6 and No. 3 in Fortune’s list of the top global companies for the development of leaders.

Steve and his wife Karen Sanger extended that legacy of leadership development in 2015, when they donated $20 million to the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business to found the Sanger Leadership Center, which is dedicated to developing leaders with the mindset, skill set, and personal vision to make a positive difference in the world.

Jared Stadlin is the President and a Principal of Linden Warehouse & Distribution Co., Inc. with company headquarters in Linden, NJ. He is a past Chairman of the International Warehouse Logistics Association (IWLA), the founding Chairman of the Gateway Warehouse Association and an executive committee and board member of the New Jersey Motor Truck Association. He is also currently serving as the Chairman of the Gateway Chamber of Commerce and an officer of the Linden Industrial Association. Jared received his BBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and a JD from the New York University School of Law.

My Michigan Ross education provided a foundation for entrepreneurial leadership that has served me well in growing a vibrant logistics, real estate, and supply chain business. I am pleased to partner with Sanger to help the next generation embark on their leadership journey.

Dave Webb is Vice President & Treasurer of Ford Motor Company, a role he has held since 2019. As Treasurer, Dave is responsible for leading Ford’s global Capital and Funding Strategy, Risk Management, Affiliate Finance, Asset Management, and Treasury Operations. He also is a member of Ford Motor Credit Company’s Board of Directors and a Trustee and Treasurer of the Ford Fund. Dave reports directly to Ford’s Chief Financial Officer. Prior to this role, Dave was Ford’s Assistant Treasurer and held various other leadership positions.

Dave earned a B.A. in Economics from Wheaton College (Magna Cum Laude) and an M.B.A. in Finance (with Distinction) from Michigan Ross. Dave presently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with his wife and two daughters.

To help develop the next generation of future leaders and accelerate Sanger’s ambition to become the world’s best leadership center.