Services Provided

Avicon Partners' Leadership

Each of our partners has over 25 years of practical experience with both consultative and industry expertise, Avicon Partners' leadership team is prepared to meet the diverse business objectives of our clients. Through their hands-on direction of our client engagement teams, Avicon's leadership helps our clients as they strive to achieve competitive advantage in their industry. Our management actively participates in steering current thinking, through leadership and participation in various industry councils and organizations.
I knew our current supply chain technologies and distribution operations could not change and grow with our strategic initiatives and be cost competitive. We hired Avicon as a strategic advisor to determine if outsourcing was the best model to attain the functionality and cost efficiencies we needed. Their expertise in the logistics industry was invaluable. They helped us select the optimal 3PL to meet Hard Rock's strategic and operational objectives. Avicon's proven outsourcing selection methodology and deep experience in transportation and global distribution has helped us make a very key, long-term strategic decision.
Tony Paladino, Director of Planning, Distribution and Logistics, Hard Rock Cafe© - World Wide Headquarters
Leadership Team
David Demers, Avicon Partners' Co-founder, is responsible for the thought leadership of the firm and its clients. Dave has a unique understanding of supply chain management discipline, allowing him to ensure that supply chain best practices are integrated with leading-edge technologies. He has led major initiatives involving the redesign of supply chain strategies on both a national and international basis.

Dave has broad, cross-industry expertise developed through his 30 years of successful consulting and industry experience. He co-founded the Performance Resource Group, a supply chain consulting practice, and held senior management positions at Digital Equipment Corporation, M&M Mars, and Ore-Ida Foods, a division of H.J. Heinz.

Dave is a member of the Supply Chain Council-North America Leadership Team. He holds an MBA in Business Logistics from Pennsylvania State University.

Bruce Arntzen Ph.D., Avicon Partners' Co-founder, provides Avicon's clients both real-world supply chain experience and the latest research findings in the areas of design, manufacturing, planning and logistics. Bruce’s extensive background includes the development of industry-specific tools, such as the Optimizer Supply Chain Modeling Software and the Logistics Decision Support Workbench. His expertise in supply chain design, logistics and manufacturing processes, planning and operations have been honed through his experience with Global Supply Chain Associates, a supply chain consulting firm he co-founded, senior management positions at Arthur D. Little, Inc., Digital Equipment Corporation, and as an economic analyst in the agriculture group of the World Bank.

Bruce, a frequent conference speaker, including the Council of Logistics Management, the Warehouse Education Research Council, Mass Telecommunications Council and INFORMS, also guest lecturers at MIT, Penn State, WPI, University of North Florida, University of Wisconsin, and Northeastern University. He holds a Masters of Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. in Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Tom Brunell, is an executive with experience that is both deep and broad in the Manufacturing and Distribution sectors where he has focused on creating, implementing and operating complex procurement and supply chain structures.  He is utilizing these skills as Managing Partner of Avicon Partners where his current activities are focused on the Pharmaceutical and Manufacturing sectors as well as working with various military organizations including the US Marine Corp Logistics Command.

He has held executive positions at Avnet (AVT-NYSE) a Fortune 500 listed company.   He was a member of the core executive team that grew the Integrated Materials Services operation from 200 million dollars to 2 billion dollars annually over a 5-year period.  He led a cultural shift that allowed this division to become focused on integrating their services into the manufacturing arena by integrating manufacturing disciplines into the distribution model.  During his tenure, Brunell’s leadership resulted in:

  • Improving inventory turns in the integrated Material Services organization from 3.55 to double digits.
  • Designing and implementing the first $100 million supply chain engagement for Avnet IMS, which became the model for much of the $2B business going forward.
  • Building the “non franchised” procurement business at Avnet to $150 million annually in support of the core franchised operation.
  • Creating “ Supply Chain Summits” to foster better understanding of requirements in this rapidly evolving market.

Tom’s leadership roles and experience in every part of manufacturing and distribution as well as Supply Chain consulting have yielded an unusual blend of skills, knowledge, and style:

  • He has international experience having lived and worked in the UK in 2000/01.
  • He consistently demonstrates the ability to intervene in troubled or challenged organizations.
  • He is a recognized expert in the areas of Procurement and Supply Chain Management having spoken frequently on these topics in the Americas, Asia and Europe and participated on the first North American Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI) supply chain mapping team.

Prior to his tenure at Avnet Brunell was associated with Honeywell-Bull in the computer manufacturing business (1969 - 1994) and General Electric Ordinance (1966 - 1969) in defense electronics.  He is a graduate of Massachusetts Maritime Academy with a BS in Nautical Science and participated in GE’s Manufacturing Management Studies Program (MMP)

Tom has served on the Board of Directors of the Supply Chain Council for 7 years serving as Chair in 1999.

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