Food Logistics Names Kaitlyn Wagner and Tim Cognata as Recipients of 2023 Rock Stars of the Supply Chain Award

HOUSTON, TEXAS—Feb. 14, 2023 — Food Logistics, the only publication exclusively dedicated to covering the movement of product through the global cold food supply chain, named Kaitlyn Wagner, Business Intelligence Manager and Tim Cognata, Director of Business Development with The BevPros (formerly Hillebrand), as two of the winners of this year’s Rock Stars of the Supply Chain award. This award recognizes influential individuals in the industry whose achievements, hard work and vision have shaped the global cold food supply chain.

“Not all rock stars are famous musicians. There are several rock stars right here in the cold chain, promoting workforce development, solving supply chain disruptions, mitigating risks and helping to heal the supply chain,” says Marina Mayer, Editor-in-Chief of Food Logistics and Supply & Demand Chain Executive.

Many of these winners are actively involved in understanding customers’ needs, creating problem-solving solutions, ensuring the safe transport of cold food and beverages and adopting sustainable measures. The words used to describe them range from strategic, motivated and dedicated to passionate, educator and transformative.

Recognizing Kaitlyn Wagner, The BevPros Business Intelligence Manager, for this award is a hallmark moment for the business intelligence profession and the dedicated teams who provide that service. The brain is a complex organ that controls logic, memory, motor skills, conscious and unconscious physiological processes. A business intelligence team serves as the neuro center of successful organizations, and serves to aggregate incoming data to formulize external strategies and processes. This award is testimony to the growing need and importance of having a dedicated business intelligence team, which through data analysis can balance the needs of all stakeholders of an organization. Kaitlyn successfully built a top performing business intelligence team from the ground up at The BevPros over the past five years and has been instrumental through two corporate ownership change integrations.

Tim Cognata, Director of The BevPros’s Business Development team, has leveraged his 30+ years of experience and long-term relationships in the beer business to advance and expand The BevPros’s solutions offerings. This has enabled him to gain access to thought leaders and beverage decision makers in order to comprehend their challenges and propose supply chain strategy improvements, especially over the past year in response to the global shipping challenges.  Tim’s peers know him as a tenacious advocate for clients of all sizes. He has brokered several nationwide services and agreements with both domestic and import brewers.

What separates Tim for others in his field of expertise is his genuine love of all things beer. He describes himself as a Breweriana Collector. His industry friendships span over three decades, which gives him an open chair wherever and whenever brewers assemble, and you will often find him in the middle of the fun.

 “These rock stars rock. Period. They’re shaping the future of our global cold chains. And, they’re doing so in a way that’s both humble and pragmatic. Every year, I’m honored to celebrate these go-getters, and this year is no exception,” Mayer says.

Recipients of this year’s award will be profiled in Food Logistics’ Jan/Feb 2023 print issue. Go to https://foodl.me/5rwho7 to view the full list of winners. Go to https://www.foodlogistics.com/awards to learn more about other Food Logistics’ awards.

About Food Logistics

Food Logistics reaches more than 26,000 supply chain executives in the global food and beverage industries, including executives in the food sector (growers, producers, manufacturers, wholesalers and grocers) and the logistics section (transportation, warehousing, distribution, software and technology) who share a mutual interest in the operations and business aspects of the global cold food supply chain. Food Logistics and sister publication Supply & Demand Chain Executive are also home to L.I.N.K. and L.I.N.K. Educate podcast channels, L.I.N.K. Live, SCN Summit, SupplyChainLearningCenter.com and more. Go to www.FoodLogistics.com to learn more.

About The BevPros

The BevPros (formerly Hillebrand), have provided keg management, beverage disposal, and beverage logistics/supply chain management services to producers, importers and distributors for almost 40 years.

The BevPros, a company of DHL Supply Chain Services, is a dedicated advocate for sustainability and environmental stewardship, demonstrated by the turnkey solution called EcoBev. EcoBev has managed the disposal (and applicable recycling) of unsaleable alcohol, cider, beer and spirits since the early 2000’s.

In addition to EcoBev, beverage producers also rely on The BevPros’s keg management services including keg leasing (KegFleet), new and used keg sales, fleet management, reverse logistics (Kegspediter), and asset tracking (KegID).