Daron Gifford leads Plante Moran’s strategy consulting practice. With more than four decades of consulting and management experience, he has developed the reputation for versatility and thoughtful, strategic client insights as a trusted advisor to executive teams. His extensive experience includes financial, operations, and strategic management consulting with a wide range of organizations across automotive, manufacturing, distribution, and government.

Daron’s strategy expertise has encompassed business transformation, market analytics, operational planning, budgeting and organization change utilizing business processes and technologies. Prior to joining Plante Moran, Daron has been a partner in leadership roles with Deloitte, A.T. Kearney, and KPMG, as well as serving as a senior adviser to the U.S. Department of Energy on advanced technologies. 

Amanda Bundy is currently the General Manager of Factory and Public Warehouses at Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations. In her role Amanda oversees the operational execution of all tire factory warehouses in Mexico, Canada, and the United States. Additionally she is responsible for North American inventory deployment.

Through her fourteen years in supply chain management Amanda has held various leadership roles within logistics including transportation, service procurement, and distribution. She has experience working in the CPG, supply chain services, and automotive sectors. Prior to joining Bridgestone Americas, Amanda honed her experience through leading lean methodology driven change management projects and designing manufacturing support supply chain solutions within the industrial and automotive sector.

Amanda holds a Bachelor of Science degree in supply chain management from the Haslam College of Business at University of Tennessee.

Bryan Clem is a Senior Manager in the Purchasing Supplier Development (PSD) division of Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) located within Toyota’s R&D facility in Saline, Michigan. With more than 16 years of Purchasing experience across several buying roles and commodity responsibilities, his financial analysis skills and supply chain management acumen have led to him serving as manager of PSD’s Supplier Performance Management | Risk Management team since 2018.

Bryan and his team are responsible for coordinating with divisions across TMNA to oversee various Supplier management activities, supply chain risk monitoring and assessments, and providing coordination for PSD’s efforts to mitigate and resolve supply chain disruptions.

Planning: Volume Planning Forecasts

Managing: Supply chain mapping (SAVE), TMNA Direct Purchasing Terms & Conditions, ESG expectations

Assessing: New Supplier due diligence; Supplier cyber security evaluations

Monitoring: Supplier Organized Labor activities, USMCA legitimization, Supplier financials, Supplier Quality & Delivery KPIs, supply chain human rights legislation & emerging risks

Reporting: Conflict Minerals, Environmental Management

Coordinating: Response to supply chain disruptions – COVID-19 pandemic, North American labor shortages, port delays, extreme weather events, sub-tier supplier impacts, Supplier cyber attack response, Supplier financial distress and many other challenges.

Bryan’s past experiences include leading several customer groups for financially distressed suppliers, supporting development of TMNA’s systems for USMCA local content surveys and Supplier KPI system, and management and buying roles for seats, interior and exterior components. Bryan earned a B.A. in Finance from the University of Cincinnati and is a member of Automotive Industry Action Group’s (AIAG) Corporate Responsibility Steering Committee.

Bryan lives near Ann Arbor, MI with his wife and four children.

Dean Lee brings 30 years of experience in Automotive OEM Sales, Marketing and Supply Chain Management.  Mr. Lee is currently Vice President of Nissan Trading Corporation Americas, a subsidiary of Nissan Motor Ltd. He is responsible for all business units from standpoint of Sales, Purchasing, and Supply Chain Management.

Mr. Lee started his career with Hitachi Automotive Products where he began in Supply Chain Management and ended as Vice President Sales & Marketing for Japanese OEMs before his departure.

John Stewart is the Founder of the private equity firm, MiddleGround Capital. MiddleGround was formed in May 2018 by John and his two partners. John and his team have grown MiddleGround to over $2.7B of Assets Under Management and 71 employees in just 4 years. MiddleGround invests in mid-market industrial B2B and specialty distribution businesses headquartered in North America. MiddleGround Capital is headquartered in Lexington, Ky and has an office in New York City.

John started his career as an hourly worker installing bumpers on Toyota Camry’s. Over an 18-year career, John completed his undergraduate education while working and was successively promoted 6 times. In 2004, John was selected to enter Toyota’s Executive Development program before be dispatched to run Toyota’s largest Division in Europe, the Vehicle Assembly Division. In 2007 John was named one of the Top 10 Automotive Executives under 40 by Automotive News.

In 2007, John left Toyota and joined a New York based Private Equity Firm. Over a 10-year career at the prior firm, John expanded his role from Operating Partner, to Head of Operations, Managing Director, and Partner. John was a member of the Investment Committee in the firm’s latest fund.

John is the author of “The Toyota Kaizen Continuum: A Practical Guide to Implementing Lean” and is a frequent advisor to public and private companies.

John has been a Board member for 35 companies and currently serves as chairman of the board for eleven companies and one non-profit.

John was named a Top Thought Leader in the Middle Market by Axial in 2020 and has been the subject of numerous business articles including the cover story for BusinessWeek, April 30th, 2012.

John is a member of the Standing Committee for Traffic Control Devices for the Transportation Research Board, a division of the National Academy of Science.

John serves as a Advisory Board Member for the Finance Department at the University of Kentucky Gatton College of Business and Economics.

Most recently, John was recognized as the 2022 He for She Atlas Awards recipient.

Jonathan Miller, the Member-in-Charge of Frost Brown Todd’s Washington, D.C. office, also leads the firm’s multi-state, multi-discipline hemp practice.

Jonathan has emerged as one of the nation’s leading hemp lawyers, while serving as one of the industry’s leading advocates for legalization. Upon leading successful lobbying efforts that laid the groundwork for the current hemp program regime, Miller now serves as trusted counsel to dozens of companies in the industrial hemp space. In 2014, Miller helped lead the successful battle against the DEA’s efforts to ban importation of hemp seed, and he now serves as general counsel to the US Hemp Roundtable, the industry’s leading business trade association, which led the fight to securing permanent federal legalization of hemp and continues to address the development of hemp-friendly state regulation. Jonathan’s work was recognized by the prestigious National Law Journal which named him to its inaugural class of “Trailblazers” among government relations professionals.

Prior to joining FBT, Miller spent nearly two decades in public service, where he held numerous senior positions in state and federal government, including two terms as Kentucky’s State Treasurer, in addition to serving as Kentucky’s Secretary of Finance and Administration, Deputy Chief of Staff of the U.S. Department of Energy, and Legislative Director for Congressman Jim Cooper.

Jonathan assists his broad client base – ranging from Fortune 500 firms, to aspiring entrepreneurs, to non-profit associations – in navigating complex local, state and federal government institutions through his counsel on legal, public policy, political and public relations matters. Jonathan leads teams of lawyers, lobbyists and economic development specialists in helping his clients win and retain government contracts and incentives, develop and execute public-private partnerships, and survive and transcend crisis management episodes.

Joanna Foust has over 25 years of experience working in Washington, D.C. in the public and private sector.  She is the Vice President of Government Affairs in the Washington, D.C. office of North American Subaru, Inc (NASI) where she helps develop policy positions and directs advocacy efforts.  In her role, she represents Subaru’s policy interests in meetings with government officials, external advocacy groups and industry representatives.

Prior to joining NASI in 2019, Joanna spent over 10 years in the Washington office of Daimler North America.   As General Manager-Federal Affairs she was responsible for advocating for the company on various issues before the U.S. Congress.   Joanna began her career in Washington on Capitol Hill where she served in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.    Joanna received her undergraduate degree at the Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.

Joanna earned her graduate degree in public policy at the George Washington University, in Washington, D.C.    Joanna is from the State of Michigan and is an avid fan of Detroit sports teams.

Brian Daugherty is the Chief Technology Officer for the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA) and its divisions including OESA. Brian serves as a senior advisor to MEMA’s executives and members relative to vehicle technology.

As MEMA’s CTO, Brian’s role is to advance member’s business interests related to the advanced vehicle technologies that are transforming opportunities and business models within our industry. He works to understand member’s technology needs and actively advocates on their behalf with regulators – such as NHTSA – as well as with legislators and OEMs.

Brian also provides thought leadership on the business impact of technologies, shares knowledge through forums and networking, and advances the supplier industry’s interests in areas such as safety systems, fuel economy, data access, cybersecurity, connectivity, and vehicle automation. He participates on several SAE committees focusing on these areas and is also MEMA’s representative for the Auto-ISAC.

Brian has extensive experience in existing and emerging vehicle technologies. Before joining MEMA, he was the Director of Global Intellectual Property for Visteon Corporation and managed intellectual property and advanced development programs, including advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and vehicle-to-vehicle communications (V2V). Prior to that, Brian was Visteon’s Director of Global Advanced Development.  During his 16-year tenure, he was also responsible for blind spot detection (BSD) systems for Honda and Chrysler and led the team that developed a FlexRay-based, failsafe steer-by-wire (SBW) system for GM’s Chevrolet Sequel.

Prior to Visteon, Brian spent ten years at Ford Motor Company where he worked on robotics and advanced manufacturing as well as the development of electric power steering systems (EPS) and anti-lock braking systems (ABS). He received a B.S. from the University of Texas at Austin and a M.S. from Stanford University, both in mechanical engineering and holds 8 US patents.

Mark Johnson currently serves as the Vice President for Government Affairs for Toyota in their office in Washington, D.C. where he manages a team of 5 Federal lobbyists.

Prior to coming to Toyota, Mark served as Chief of Staff for Representative Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV). As Chief of Staff, he managed Representative Capito’s three Congressional offices and served as her chief legislative and political advisor.

Before joining Representative Capito’s office, Mark served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Representative Ed Bryant (R-TN) and as a Legislative Assistant for Representative Don Sundquist (R-TN), who later went on to become the Governor of the state.

Mark also spent a brief period of time as Director of Government Affairs for Fluor Corporation, a major construction and engineering company headquartered in Texas. Mark was responsible for legislative issues related to product liability, tax policy, health care, and trade.

Before beginning his career in government service, Mark spent two years as a high school Latin and government teacher at Foxcroft School in Middleburg, Virginia.

Mark is active in his community having served as a member of his Home Owners Association Board for 7 years and a vestry member of Trinity Episcopal Church in Manassas, Virginia. Currently, Mark serves on the Board of Directors for the Congressional Sports for Charity, the House Chiefs of Staff Alumni Association and the Augustana College President’s Board of Advisors. Mark currently resides in Fairfax Station, Virginia with his wife Lisa.

Mark graduated from Augustana College in 1991.

Tomoshige Nambu is the Special Advisor for the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) in Japan. He is also the Director of Industrial Research at the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) New York Office. He is directly reporting to the Prime Minister’s Office and METI Minister on economic, trade, and technology policies. Prior to this post, he was deeply involved in the formulation of Japan’s economic policy in 2018-2021 as the Director for Macroeconomic Policy at METI.

Nambu also assumed the duty of Cabinet Counselor, drafting policy proposals on economic growth strategy and social welfare reform under the direction of the Prime Minister’s office. He was stationed in Washington D.C. as the Trade Attaché at the Embassy of Japan in the U.S. from 2012 to 2015 and worked on several bilateral trade issues such as TPP and energy exports from the U.S. He joined METI in 2002 after receiving a Bachelor of Law from the University of Tokyo.

Nambu holds an L.L.M from Harvard Law School (class of 2009), writing a thesis on hedge fund activism. He also served as the Asia Program Fellow at the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia in Harvard Kennedy School in 2009-2010. He currently lives in New York with his wife.

Yugo’s practice focuses on intellectual property infringement litigation in the high-tech and manufacturing technology industry. He works with American and Asian companies in the IP arena. He has litigated before the U.S. International Trade Commission and Federal District Courts. He is also experienced with assisting and advising Japanese companies and foreign-owned subsidiaries in the U.S. with various legal needs.

Yugo’s practice focuses on data privacy, data security, and intellectual property issues involving cutting-edge electronics and computer software. Yugo is a member of Frost Brown Todd’s Data Services Team, focusing primarily on international and domestic data privacy issues involving international data transfers, GDPR compliance, U.S. federal regulations, and CCPA/CPRA compliance issues for domestic and international clients. This includes automotive first-tier clients with data breach and data privacy issues.

Yugo is also experienced in privacy issues involving the intersections of privacy and fintech and blockchain issues. Yugo works with clients across the globe to assist and advise domestic, Asian, and foreign-owned subsidiaries in the U.S. with various legal needs in the emerging manufacturing, healthcare, and financial technology space.

Yugo is an attorney admitted to practice law in Japan who litigated before the Tokyo District Court and Tokyo High Court. There, he represented technology companies on matters ranging from patent and trademark licensing agreements to international mergers and acquisitions.

Brenda Brickhouse is a thought leader in energy and environment. As a Technical Executive at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), she leads EPRI’s Equitable Decarbonization Initiative and supports EPRI’s Strategic Sustainability Science program, Energy Sustainability Interest Group, and Sustainability Assessment Services. Brenda is involved in research efforts characterizing priority sustainability issues, on the intersection of sustainability and enterprise risk management, optimizing sustainability in decision making and investments, and understanding the equity implications and opportunities associated with decarbonization and the clean energy transition.

Passionate about making a difference, Brenda also volunteers with the Tennessee River Gorge Trust, currently chairing its board; Green|Spaces, serving on its board; Vermont Law School, leading the Masters’ Committee of the VLS Alumni Association; and NC State University, serving on the Board of Visitors.

Prior to joining EPRI, she worked as Chief Sustainability Officer at the Tennessee Valley Authority and held various environmental, operational and leadership roles in the utility industry and in consulting. She received a Bachelor of Science in Forestry and Master of Public Affairs from NC State University and a Master of Energy Regulation and Law from Vermont Law School where she focused on energy and environmental justice.