2024 Apparel Importers Trade & Transportation Conference

Liz Alessi has been in the fashion world as a supply chain executive for over 20 years, beginning at Limited Brands, then Coach, Marc Jacobs, and Tapestry, during the acquisition of Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman.

During her time as VP of Sourcing at Tapestry, she was a member of the Operations Executive Leadership Team and oversaw all materials from concept to production and an international team of developers.  Under her management, the Coach Repairs Department launched the ReLoved program which has become a model for revenue driving incremental sales using obsolete merchandise.  As a founding member of the Coachtopia team, she managed materials and circular solutions.  

In 2021, she began her own consultancy firm, fed by her passion for sustainability.  Her firm now studies and applies innovative materials to product development through disruptive supply chain models with a focus on circularity and sustainability across all fashion product categories.  Through a circularity lens, she advises brands and innovators on environmentally preferred design choices, extending a product’s life span and end of life solutions.  In the startup world she works on R&D, business development and supply chain to bring innovations to market.

Tyler Beckelman is a global policy and international affairs expert with over 20 years of experience in the public and private sector. He most recently served as the Deputy Assistant Administrator for USAID’s Bureau for Africa, where he oversaw the delivery of over $2.5 billion of annual foreign assistance to the East and Central Africa region.

Prior to joining USAID, Mr. Beckelman served as the Director of International Partnerships at the U.S. Institute of Peace and as a Senior Advisor with WestExec Advisors. From 2012-13, Mr. Beckelman served on the National Security Council, where he coordinated U.S. policy for 15 countries in East and Southern Africa, advised senior Administration officials, helped develop the Administration’s signature initiatives, and supported President Obama’s historic trips to South Africa and Tanzania.

Following his service at the NSC, Mr. Beckelman was the Director of the USAID/Somalia Field Office based in Nairobi, Kenya and Mogadishu, Somalia. He has also served as a Senior Advisor and Africa Division Chief in USAID’s Bureau for Resilience and Food Security, and managed the delivery of humanitarian aid across the Middle East and Africa. Mr. Beckelman began his career at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris.

Mr. Beckelman earned his B.A. in Political Science, International Studies, and Economics from Macalester College, and a M.A. in Government from Georgetown University.

Throughout her career, Tricia believes in ‘progress over perfection’.  As an advocate for innovation and circularity in the textile and apparel industry, she joined Renewcell to accelerate the commercial development of CIRCULOSE®, making fashion circular. With a vast global network, as well as experience in brand building, storytelling, and business development, she is an invaluable partner to close the loop and optimize the benefits of CIRCULOSE®.

For more than twenty years, Tricia held various commercial management positions at Lenzing Fibers to establish the TENCEL™ brand, build mill partners and set retailer specifications.  Her roles comprised marketing, Americas business development, and global denim segment expansion including the creation of the Carved in Blue platform and numerous collaborative collections with mills and brands.

Tricia holds a bachelor’s degree in Fashion Merchandising from The Fashion Institute of Technology, as well as certificates in Digital Marketing and Strategy from Cornell University and MIT.

Tricia serves as a founding board member of both Accelerating Circularity and Transformers Foundations.  She was Vice Chair at Textile Exchange from 2014-2018.  In 2020 she was nominated as B2B Content Marketer of the Year by Content Marketing Institute, as well as top 100 Denim Legends by WeAr Magazine.  In 2019 Tricia was awarded the RIVET 50 for influential denim industry leaders.  She has been a speaker at various industry events including the Conscious Fashion and Lifestyle Network at the United Nations, Transformers, Kingpins Show, Southern Textile Association, Texworld, Premiere Vision, Wear Conference, and more.

She lives in New York City and can be seen dashing on the Peloton leaderboard.  The best way to connect with Tricia is through LinkedIn.

Linked In:  @Tricia Carey  Instagram:  @trishcarey11

Mr. Giuseppe Gherzi has more than 30 years of international experience in the textile industry. His expertise includes business and market strategy, technology and investment. With his industry experience and wealth of contacts in leading international companies, OEM’s, institutions and brands, he has a global perspective of the textile value chain. He is among the founding members of the ‘ReHubs’ initiative launched by Euratex to upcyle textile waste and circular materials all over Europe. 

Mr. Gherzi earned his master’s degree in mechanical engineering (Dipl. Masch. Ing. ETH) from ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in 1988. Starting his career in the industry in 1994 as a management consultant in Arthur D. Little, Paris. In 1997, he joined Gherzi Organisation of which he is currently the Managing Partner, leading the consulting practice from Zürich headquarters. 

Gherzi is a leading industrial consulting company founded in Zürich in 1929 with a presence of 60 years in India. Gherzi Organisation (www.gherzi.com) has become a leading integrated and independent consulting and engineering company with more than 8’000 projects spanning nine decades in 80 countries. 

With its global presence, Gherzi offers integrated and independent advisory services to the textile and apparel industry in the fields of strategic management, policy, operations, engineering & logistics, cleantech & sustainability, digitalization and investment.

Brian is the director of the Forced Labor Division within the Trade Remedy Law Enforcement Directorate (TRLED) at U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Office of Trade where he leads a team to conduct forced labor investigations and enforce the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA).  Prior to his current position, Brian was the director of CBP’s Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) investigations of anti-dumping and countervailing duty evasion and managed its e-Allegation program.  Prior to joining the Office of Trade, Brian served in several roles providing planning and risk analysis support for CBP’s trade, global engagement, and border security missions.  Before coming to CBP, Brian worked at DHS Headquarters on border security planning and cargo and transportation security.  He also worked as a budget examiner at the Office of Management and Budget during the 2016 federal budget cycle.

Brian holds a Master of Public Administration and a Master of International Studies from the University of Washington, completed graduate work in Customs & International Trade from the University of Texas, and has undergraduate degrees in Political Science and Computer Science from the University of Washington.

Ms. Felicia Pullam is the Executive Director of the Office of Trade Relations, which serves as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) primary point of contact for private sector and stakeholder engagement.

Ms. Pullam has worked on trade issues from both the state and federal perspective: she has served at the Delaware Department of State, the Maryland Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Department of Commerce. During the Obama Administration, Ms. Pullam helped steer SelectUSA, a presidential initiative housed within Commerce, through a high-pressure start-up phase to promote the United States as the leading global destination for foreign direct investment. Ms. Pullam was then appointed to the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Textiles, Consumer Goods, and Materials, where she managed three offices to analyze and implement trade policy covering a large swath of the global economy.

Outside of government service, Ms. Pullam was recently the Director of Strategy at the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. Earlier in her career, she spent nearly a decade in China, leading the Asia regional corporate responsibility and sustainability practice for APCO Worldwide. She got her start as a Princeton in Asia Fellow, followed by a yearlong adventure as the tutor and translator for actress Zhang Ziyi. She graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University.