Contributors

Headshot
Host

Nikki Mackay

Nikki is the Chief Development Officer for CCM Institute, where she is committed to advancing research that underpins responsible change. She is passionate about leveraging insights to influence policy and practice for the professional community.


With over two decades of global experience, Nikki has lived in seven countries, helping organizations develop strategies and curate shared learning experiences through research, events and multimedia campaigns. Her work spans diverse industries in both public and private sector, including Financial Services, Energy, Transportation, Telecommunications, Pharmaceuticals, and Healthcare.


Nikki thrives on building relationships and bringing people together to collaborate and innovate. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikki-mackay-ba932a9/

Guests

Headshot
Guest

Cinthia Nazario Martin

Cinthia es especialista en investigación e innovación comercial en WorldCC, con formación en Legal Engineering y Derecho Corporativo, y una maestría con distinción en International Business Law por la University of Leeds. Su trabajo se enfoca en analizar cómo la tecnología y los nuevos modelos comerciales transforman la contratación y las relaciones de negocio, traduciendo ideas complejas en insights prácticos sobre IA, negociación y transformación comercial. Cuenta además con experiencia en automatización y CLM.


https://www.linkedin.com/in/cinthia-nazario-martin-ab995413b/

Guest appearance on:

Headshot
Guest

Daniel Finkenstadt

Dr. Daniel Finkenstadt, an expert in public procurement and policy, supports the CCM Institute with over 23 years of acquisition experience across operational units, headquarters, and international roles in Italy and Afghanistan, including work with the intelligence community.


Formerly an assistant professor of defense management at the Naval Postgraduate School, he pioneered gamified acquisition training and founded the Simulation and Ideation Lab for Applied Science (SILAS), winner of NCMA’s 2023 Innovation in Contracting Award. Author of two books and numerous peer-reviewed and professional works, he is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, with his article “How Generative AI Can Augment Human Creativity” ranking as a best-seller. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/danieljfinkenstadtphd

Guest appearance on:

Headshot
Guest

Frederick Payne

Fred C. Payne is an international business executive who has successfully led Engineering, Project, Program, and Portfolio Management operations in corporate roles with leadership development, customer and client relationships, strategic planning, change and transformational management, and merger and acquisition integration by focusing on performance excellence in a variety of roles as Corporate Director/Vice President Engineering and Program Management in both Commercial and Aerospace & Defense businesses and as President of a non-profit focused on Complex Project Management.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/frederickpayne/

Guest appearance on:

Headshot
Guest

Jacqui Archer

Vice President, Commercial Management for Global Programme Management business, including commercial excellence, best practice, enterprise critical programmes, market management, supplier engagement, commercial solutions, contracting and commercial delivery, operations & delivery support, commercial performance, governance risk and compliance.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqui-a-archer-pic/

Guest appearance on:

Headshot
Guest

Jana Sukkarieh, PhD

Currently a Founder & CTO of a US-based business, "Noha-Z" ("Beautiful Mind") focused on developing an ecosystem for document content discovery & knowledge management, using natural language engineering, machine and human intelligence, with one patent already granted for our work. 

I am originally a Mathematician with an MPhil in speech recognition & natural language processing (NLP) and a PhD in AI, read at the University of Cambridge, on a full scholarship. I completed a 3-year postdoc at the University of Oxford before moving to industry. 
 
I was an advisor for a UK-based EdTech curation startup "Wakelet". I have been also a research scientist at the Educational Testing Service working on educational and content scoring technologies, with 3 granted patents, and an assistant professor at the American University of Beirut. Among my other credentials, I am a consultant, a teacher and forever a student.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jzsukkarieh/

Guest appearance on:

Headshot
Guest

Pepe Toriello

Pepe Toriello asesora a equipos legales de corporativos en Estados Unidos y Latinoamérica a innovar su operación implementando softwares de firma electrónica y CLM. Sus pláticas se han enfocado en innovación legal y es anfitrión del podcast Contract Heroes. También es miembro del consejo global de la World Commerce & Contracting. Estudio la carrera de derecho en el ITAM y su maestría en Northwestern University.

Guest appearance on:

Headshot
Guest

Rob Handfield

Rob Handfield is the Bank of America University Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management at the North Carolina State University Poole College of Management, and Executive Director and founder of the Supply Chain Resource Cooperative (http://scm.ncsu.edu) based in Poole College. The SCRC is the first major industry-university partnership to integrate student projects into the MBA classroom in an integrative fashion, and now provides real world supply chain/operations experiences for both undergraduate and graduate students. The SCRC currently has 15 major Fortune 500 companies participating as industry partners. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-handfield-939570/

Guest appearance on:

Headshot
Guest

Tim Cummins

Tim Cummins serves as the Executive Director of CCM Institute and as the President of World Commerce & Contracting. He has also lectured in Law at the University of Leeds. For 25 years, Tim has led research and the development of standards for the Commercial and Contract Management discipline, an achievement that was recognised by the Financial Times ‘Market Shaper of the Year’ award in 2019.

 

Over that time, Tim has been instrumental in developing the world’s only international not-for-profit association dedicated to commercial and contract management and continues to work with its 80,000 members in both public and private sector to improve the quality and integrity of trading relationships.

 

Tim’s inspiration came from a career in Finance and Commercial Management, spanning multiple industries and countries and providing insight to the critical role that commercial innovation plays in delivering business and social value.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-cummins-62248a/

Guest appearance on:

Headshot
Guest

Wes Bennett

Senior contracting executive with proven record of leading teams focused on unparalleled customer service and innovative acquisitions. Unique experience with a wide range of acquisitions to include research and development, services, and systems using the entire spectrum of contracting solutions such as other transactions, procurement contracts, and assistance vehicles. Believes acquisition leaders are responsible for empowering individuals to find innovative solutions to meet ever evolving warfighter needs at the speed of relevance.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wes-bennett-91825a228/

Guest appearance on: