By any measure, Plan4Demand's CEO, Lisa M. Kustra, followed a nontraditional path to the corner office. She started out driving a forklift as a storeroom clerk for Westinghouse, then enrolled in college at the age of 24—a time of life when many others are already entrenched in their careers.

After graduating cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh, with bachelor's degrees in business management and psychology, Lisa quickly began making up for time away from the white-collar world—first as a successful recruiter, then as an award-winning sales executive. Within 10 years, she was the founding CEO of eJiva, a subsidiary of iGATE Corporation, and had paved the way for many other women managers in the organization.

Then she founded Plan4Demand.

Making Her Own Mark
Starting with a small team of cofounders working from her home, Lisa secured $3.5 million in venture capital funding within just 90 days. Today, Plan4Demand employs more than 75 supply chain consulting professionals throughout North America and has a multinational base of Fortune/Global 500 and mid-market clients spanning a broad range of industries, with a primary focus on food and beverage, chemical, and life sciences.

A federally and Pennsylvania-certified Woman Business Enterprise, Plan4Demand remains privately held, with majority employee ownership.

An Ongoing Legacy of Business Leadership and Growth
Lisa has served as a guest speaker for the Women's Small Business Association and as a panel presenter for WITI (Women in Technology International).

In 2007, Plan4Demand was listed in the article "10 Coolest SCM Boutique Consultants" as the favorite company focused on North America for supply chain system implementation, according to the manufacturing/supply chain research firm ARC Advisory Group. And for the second year in a row, Plan4Demand was named among Pittsburgh's 100 fastest-growing private companies.

In 2002, Lisa was named director of the Greater Pittsburgh chapter of WITI. Plan4Demand was certified by the commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a pre-qualified vendor of IT services and honored by the Pittsburgh Technology Council as one of the top 50 technology companies in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

In 2001, the Pittsburgh Business Times named Lisa to its list of regional Changemakers, and the commonwealth of PA honored her as one of Pennsylvania's Best 50 Women in Business.