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IE alum Kathy Kilmer installed as IIE Fellow
 Purdue's
School of Industrial Engineering would like to congratulate Kathy
Kilmer (BSIE '92), director of Worldwide Sales Planning and Development
for The Walt Disney Company, who became a Fellow of the Institute of
Industrial Engineers at the IIE conference in Orlando this past summer.
As director of Worldwide Sales Planning and Development for Disney
Destinations, Kathy Kilmer oversees two distinct groups that are part of
her organization. The Worldwide Distribution Planning team is
responsible for defining, developing and delivering technology to
support content and commerce solutions for all Disney Destinations sales
channels and businesses. This team works closely with Information
Technology, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts online, Ticketing and other
key groups to ensure they optimize the channels' connectivity and
performance. The second group, the Strategy and Planning team, works
alongside Sales and Travel Operations (SATO) senior leaders to evaluate
and translate channel and distribution strategies into business plans,
assess market trends in Sales, drive integration across SATO, develop
and administer sales incentive planning, set the third party nets and
commission structure, and provide decision support and analytics. Kathy
is also co-leading the program management of the CommercePlus project
focused on new strategy and tools for shopping and booking a Disney
vacation through all channels and at all sites.
Prior to her current role, Kathy was director of Industrial
Engineering for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts U.S., overseeing more than
120 industrial engineers who served as internal business consultants
applying the IE skill set to a multitude of business challenges. Her
role involved improving the effectiveness, efficiency and overall
profitability across all areas of the business from front-of-house
operations (e.g., six theme parks, two water parks, 20 resorts, two
Downtown Disney areas, Disney Cruise Line, etc.) to back-of-house
operations (e.g., four textile Plants, three distribution centers, asset
maintenance, energy management, etc.), as well as sales and marketing,
and new development around the world.
A graduate of Purdue University, Kathy received a B.S.
in industrial engineering. She also holds a master's of science degree
in operations research and an executive master's of business
administration from the University of Central Florida (UCF). She was a
keynote speaker at the Institute of Industrial Engineers' 2006 Annual
Conference; the 2008 Industrial Engineering Congress in Monterrey,
Mexico; the 2009 Canadian Operations Research and Lean Health Care
Conference in Vancouver; and the Mayo Clinic Conference of Systems
Engineering & Operations Research in Health Care in Rochester, MN.
Her leadership of Diversity and Community Service teams
at Disney demonstrates her passion and commitment to those efforts,
especially as it pertains to increasing K-12 students' awareness of the
engineering field. She also shows her commitment through her
participation on Purdue University's Engineering Advisory board and the
production of a video that describes Industrial Engineering at Disney.
Kathy is a recipient of the Institute of Industrial
Engineers' UPS Excellence Award for Minority Advancement, Disney's
Partners In Excellence lifetime achievement award, and Purdue
University's Outstanding IE Alumni Award. Kathy was recently inducted into Purdue Engineering's Co-op Hall of Fame.
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