Paul Finley, Brian Pollack, and David Wedekind Named 2026 Pros to Know by Supply & Demand Chain Executive

Intelligent Audit is proud to announce that Paul Finley, COO; Brian Pollack, CPO; and David Wedekind, VP Strategic Accounts, have been named recipients of the 2026 Pros to Know award by Supply & Demand Chain Executive.

The annual Pros to Know awards recognize supply chain leaders whose work is driving innovation, operational excellence, and industry impact across the global supply chain sector.

Paul Finley Recognized in Leaders in Excellence Category

Paul Finley was recognized in the Leaders in Excellence category for his operational leadership at Intelligent Audit, where he oversees the company’s day-to-day operations and cross-functional execution across implementation, customer success, operations, finance, and technology teams.

As COO, Finley has played a key role in scaling operational processes and strengthening collaboration across departments to support Intelligent Audit’s continued growth and customer success.

David Wedekind Recognized as a Top Transportation Innovator

David Wedekind was recognized in the Top Transportation Innovators category for his work supporting enterprise shippers through strategic transportation optimization initiatives and long-term customer partnerships. Over the past year, he helped expand Intelligent Audit’s enterprise customer base by securing four new strategic accounts across retail, apparel, and manufacturing sectors.

Wedekind’s customer-first approach and transportation expertise continue to help organizations uncover efficiencies, improve visibility, and drive measurable shipping cost savings.

Watch David Wedekind’s Pros to Know interview:

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David's Interview Transcript:

Supply & Demand Chain Executive: My name is Marina Mayer, Editor-in-Chief of Food Logistics and Supply & Demand Chain Executive, and I am here with David Wedekind, Vice President of Strategic Accounts at Intelligent Audit. David is a recipient of this year's Pros to Know Award in the Top Transportation Innovators category. David, congratulations, thank you so much for joining me today. Let's talk about you. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey, and how you got to this current stage in your career.

David Wedekind: I've been fortunate to work in supply chain transportation for about 17 years now. When I started, I was really on the operational end of the process, and got really in the weeds on how shippers are effectively leveraging transportation providers to drive cost savings, improve visibility, deliver packages to their customers.

I've also got a lot of experience in the consulting world, so helping shippers execute transportation through TMS software, as well as just getting in the weeds on what are the right products for their end solutions.

And was very fortunate to get exposure across a lot of industry verticals, and frankly, to have resources around me who helped teach me what really are shippers looking for when they're leveraging transportation tools, or they're working with third-party providers, so that you could tailor solutions to each client's specific needs.

Supply & Demand Chain Executive: One of the things outlined in your submission is how you work closely with executive leaders and key stakeholders to deeply understand their operational challenges, priorities, and their success criteria. What are some of the common challenges and priorities that you're seeing today's clients face, and what do you attribute these challenges and priorities to?

David Wedekind: If anything, transportation is often cyclical, especially with rates, but in the last 5-6 years, it's been very volatile in light of a lot of the macro conditions that are outside of these executives' control. And so, for transportation leaders, they're really looking for partners who can help them understand ways to be dynamic and to address a lot of these changing priorities that often take place when you have a plan, and then that plan gets interrupted. You know, what are you supposed to do? And so these executives are looking for partners who can help them understand what are other shippers doing today.

That will effectively mitigate exposure to some of these larger issues. What kind of tools can they implement to improve their own operations, both internally and then externally with their transportation partners?

And then, what are some of the things strategically they can be thinking about to offset and become a shipper of choice when the market does swing back to, in this case, the carriers, which today we're starting to see. And, I think those shippers who took a proactive approach to managing relationships have been more successful securing capacity, certainly having the tools their teams need to operate effectively, and altogether, just improving what they're doing day-to-day.

Supply & Demand Chain Executive: Over the past 12 months, you've played a pivotal role in expanding Intelligent Audit's enterprise customer base by securing 4 new strategic accounts across retail, apparel, and manufacturing sectors. Kind of walk us through some of the key elements in being able to secure a new business in new sectors, especially in today's day.

David Wedekind: I think it really does start with actively listening to the customer, and getting a better understanding of what types of problems they're trying to solve for. Each shipper is highly unique. They have similar profiles, they might be in the same vertical, but they all have unique challenges, whether they're network, whether they're carriers they work with, internal stakeholders who have their own priorities.

And I think it really starts with actively listening to the customer and trying to understand ways that I can bring in my product, the service we offer, and truly tailor that to solve that customer's challenges. And I think when you get close to the customer and you get a better understanding of really what makes them tick, how they're measured, what are their goals, right? You can truly take the offering that I'm able to provide to the market and tailor it to each client's needs. And I think clients appreciate that, taking more of a consultative approach.

And often, the results are a lot stronger than if you come in with a box and say, my box is going to be better than the current box you have, without truly trying to understand where there are the pain points, what are the goals and objectives and ultimately building a solution for each client.

Supply & Demand Chain Executive: You maintain about 17 years in the transportation and logistics industry. How have you seen this industry evolve over time, and what trends are you seeing ahead going forward?

David Wedekind: Companies are looking for strategic partners. I think one thing I've appreciated, especially about the freight audit and payment industry, is that, historically, it was a very tactical space. It was, we're going to provide basically back-office AP solutions. And it solved a problem, but it wasn't very strategic. And I've certainly appreciated the evolution in the space to be much more data-intensive, to be embedded within client systems as well as your external trading partners.

And being a resource to really help guide a customer to ongoing continuous improvements, cost savings, visibility to supplier performance, improved visibility internally for stakeholders in finance, in accounting.

And distribution taking a lot of what was a very tactical process and making it much more strategic and enhanced.

I think additionally, where I see this space evolving is, there's a lot of new technical innovation, certainly artificial intelligence. And I think most companies are focusing on running leaner, and so they're really looking for partners in this space who can one, address some of the technical improvements that are being required by corporate leadership. Leveraging artificial intelligence, leveraging things like machine learning and generative AI.

And then two, having a resource that can truly evolve with the business as the business grows, as they're going into different markets, as maybe they're distributing products different ways. You think about ship from store and pick up from store, it's not just fulfillment from distribution centers. You really need a transportation partner or intermediary, who can understand what each customer's trying to do. And then introduce technology, and then have the experience to help them leverage it the best way possible.

Supply & Demand Chain Executive: The Top Transportation Innovators category recognizes professionals in the transportation space. What advice do you have for the transportation professionals in the supply chain space?

David Wedekind: I think you have to continue to learn. I know everybody says that, but if you're really not focused on developing yourself, you'll fall behind very quickly. I was very fortunate when I got started that I had senior leadership and mentors around me who really spent time with me and helped me understand the things I needed to do to be successful, and challenged me.

And so I think beyond just learning, you really need to try to grow your network and to engage with others in the space that will challenge you both personally and professionally to improve and to try to gain the skills that you need so that you can really accelerate in your career. I've gotten a lot of opportunities across delivery roles and leadership positions and positions where I was growing a solution from basically bare bones to a market-viable product, and those opportunities, you have to take advantage of those as well. And so, when you do have the chance to maybe do something a little bit differently, it will only help you. And I think in my current role, being in a sales position, having that experience certainly helps elevate me with respect to who I'm talking to, and just having a deeper domain expertise than someone who's just trying to push a product or a service, if you will.

Brian Pollack Recognized in Rising Stars Category

Brian Pollack was recognized in the Rising Stars category for his leadership in product strategy, AI integration, and innovation across Intelligent Audit’s technology platform. Since joining the company in 2021, Pollack has led initiatives focused on embedding AI and machine learning into solutions that help shippers improve visibility, identify hidden costs, and strengthen shipping operations.

His work continues to advance Intelligent Audit’s AI-powered freight audit and logistics intelligence capabilities, helping shippers make faster, more informed decisions.

This recognition highlights the leadership and contributions of each executive as Intelligent Audit continues to help organizations improve transportation visibility, optimize shipping spend, and make faster, data-driven decisions through AI-powered freight audit and logistics intelligence solutions.