# Katie Shaw

Katie Shaw works on open-data tools and initiatives focused on supply-chain transparency. The posts describe launching Open Supply Hub, which expanded supply-chain data beyond apparel, and joining the team behind Supply Trace, a platform tracing supply-chain risks. They have also described freelance work with the Plastic Solutions Fund on efforts to end plastic pollution and support a just transition.

- Profile: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/creators/katie-shaw/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiealexandrashaw
- LinkedIn followers: 2,578
- Topics: supply-chain
- Based on 13 dated posts, latest 2026-08-20

## Summary

Katie Shaw is most useful for explaining open-data supply-chain transparency tools and their practical uses.

- Best for: Supply-chain transparency or responsible sourcing campaigns needing a named open-data advocate.
- Not for: Consumer product drops, high-reach social promotion, or fast-fashion conversion campaigns.
- Check first: Confirm their employer, role, availability, audience demographics, and any speaking or advisory terms.

### Takeaways

- Open Supply Hub expanded from apparel to beauty, consumer goods, electronics, furniture and sporting goods.
- Supply Trace pilot focused on forced-labour risk in US-bound shipments.
- Risk data needs machine learning plus human-led investigation.

## Main ideas

- **Open supply-chain data should be public infrastructure, not only a compliance tool**: Katie Shaw argues that equitable access to data can be transformative, and that opening insights into supply-chain conditions to anyone can change outcomes. Free, open data lets different groups act on the same picture: workers' representatives can pursue remediation, organizations can coordinate improvements, and researchers can study how climate change affects production regions. The posts frame transparency as a public benefit rather than a private compliance product.
- **The same open-data approach can expand from apparel to other sectors**: Katie Shaw presents cross-sector expansion as demand-driven rather than imposed. After the Open Apparel Registry launched in 2019, a consumer goods company asked whether the approach could cover multiple sectors, and similar requests kept arriving over the next three years. One open mapping approach can serve apparel as well as beauty, consumer goods, electronics, furniture, and sporting goods.
- **Risk data needs machine learning plus human investigation**: Katie Shaw argues that Supply Trace stands apart by combining machine learning with expert, human-led investigative research. Automated tracing can cover scale, while human investigators provide judgement and context; open access lets anyone examine the resulting risk picture.
- **Transparency projects need institution-building and shared credit**: Katie Shaw describes launches as coalition work: funders, partners, designers, boards, and staff make the infrastructure possible. Durable open-data projects require organizational capacity and a widening set of expertise, not just a product. The posts name contributors and explain governance moves alongside technology milestones.
- **Technical transparency becomes useful when it is told through a story and paired with an ask**: Katie Shaw often opens with a personal story, explains why the launch or change matters, and then gives readers concrete ways to participate. A reason to care comes before product details, and a clear next step turns attention into contribution or use.
- **A wider change agenda: practical support for a big vision, now including plastic pollution**: Katie Shaw says what motivates them is a big vision for change and the practical support they can provide toward it, not loyalty to one sector. Recent freelance work with the Plastic Solutions Fund extends that focus to ending plastic pollution and supporting a just transition.

## Work to read

- [Open Supply Hub launches: open supply chain data moves beyond apparel](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/katiealexandrashaw_tldr-the-day-has-come-open-supply-hub-is-activity-6993476576856186880-4620)
- [One month out: framing the Open Supply Hub expansion](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/katiealexandrashaw_doesnt-time-fly-its-just-one-month-now-activity-6983452036591673345-QbNT)
- [Supply Trace goes live: machine learning plus human investigation on forced labour risk](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/katiealexandrashaw_supplychaintransparency-responsiblesourcing-activity-7176628304911683584-7CLE)
- [Open Supply Hub adds nine board members as the organisation grows](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/katiealexandrashaw_supplychain-opendata-nonprofit-activity-7077222487440150528-AClu)
- [A freelance move into plastic pollution funding work](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/katiealexandrashaw_having-revelled-in-a-couple-of-months-of-activity-7348303548683567105-PkGH)

## Brand relationships

- **Open Supply Hub** (mention)
- **Supply Trace** (mention)
- **Plastic Solutions Fund** (client)

## Partnerships

Katie Shaw's posts set out no sponsorship menu, rate card, or partnership package. They write as part of the Open Supply Hub team, as a member of the team behind Supply Trace, and as a freelancer with the Plastic Solutions Fund. These are projects they are attached to, not offers they advertise to brands. A company interested in working with them should approach the organisation behind the relevant project or start a direct conversation about an advisory or speaking engagement. Ask about availability, scope, deliverables, and disclosure terms; the posts provide no general inquiry route or commercial terms. For a campaign focused on supply-chain transparency, a funded advisory or keynote engagement tied to open-data projects is a more realistic fit than a standard package.

## Alternatives

- Patrick Olszowski: For a supply-chain transparency technology company seeking a named advocate for open-data initiatives in a keynote or advisory role, Patrick Olszowski is the stronger choice if the goal is to reach apparel and active-lifestyle product leaders. The posts show direct, interview-based work with Product VPs on product leadership, franchise products and consumer insight. The 12-interview post lists the pressures those leaders face and names a Treasure Hunters model for cross-functional teams; the franchise-products post diagnoses why sporting apparel and active-lifestyle brands struggle to build enduring products. Those posts are useful if the keynote or advisory needs to reach people who choose product ranges, not only sustainability or data teams. Olszowski is also building an audio and video interview channel, giving the placement a format beyond a single talk.
- Adele Nasr: For a supply-chain transparency technology company seeking a named advocate for open-data initiatives in a keynote or advisory role, Adele Nasr is the stronger choice if the goal is to reach marketing leaders at CPG, home goods, beauty, sporting goods, wellness or DTC brands who are making budget and messaging decisions under tariff and inventory pressure. The posts analyse CPI and inflation effects on high-consideration purchases, brand loyalty, ad-spend efficiency and discounting. Another post asks marketers directly how they are adjusting channel mix, forecasts and spend during tariffs and paused container shipments. That is close to the commercial conversation a supply-chain transparency vendor may need when the buyer is a marketing or growth team rather than a data or sustainability team.
- Mark Bidgood: For a supply-chain transparency technology company seeking a named advocate for open-data initiatives in a keynote or advisory role, Mark Bidgood is the stronger choice if the open-data initiative is positioned as an enterprise AI and data-foundation play inside consumer goods, rather than as a public transparency platform. The posts argue that AI failures in CPG are often definition failures: marketing, supply chain, finance and retail partners use different meanings for product, customer, promotion and margin, so AI scales fragmentation instead of solving it. Another post makes the same point about trusted data and AI agents, concluding that AI will expose who understands their own business. For a keynote or advisory role aimed at CPG executives who need to connect open data to AI readiness, retail media, trade spend and data governance, this is a direct executive-language match.

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AI-assisted summary of public posts. Audience demographics are not available. Engagement appears only where we checked recent posts. Method: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/methodology/
