John Blake is a Senior Research Director in the Consumer Retail team. John covers packaging, artwork and labeling in Gartner Supply Chain Research. He specializes in consumer and industrial packaging innovation and development process, packaging trends, packaging organization and talent management, packaging strategy across sustainability and e-commerce, IP, growth and cost optimization. He covers specification data management, label and artwork management vendors and best practices.

Matthew Wright is the founder & CEO of Specright, the first cloud-based platform for Specification Management. Specright has been recognized as a Gartner Cool Vendor, received the Salesforce Innovation Award and was named one of the Top Places to Work by the OC Register and Built in LA. Wright is also a published author and his book, “The Evolution of Products and Packaging”, was named to the Amazon Hot New Release List for Industrial Relations Business and has a five star rating. 

Prior to founding Specright, Wright spent more than 25 years in the packaging industry, holding leadership positions at International Paper, Temple Inland, and rightPAQ — a packaging company he co-founded. He has also been involved in leading multiple M&A deals in the packaging industry and sits on the Packaging Advisory Board at Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo.