
421: Tap Into A Shared Source of Truth for the Global Supply Chain, with Altana
Evan Smith is the co-founder of Altana, driven by a lifelong passion for solving large-scale global problems. Growing up in Alaska, his early experiences in a fish processing plant instilled a powerful work ethic, and he has been an entrepreneur since age 23, initially in renewable energy. Smith believes that the promises of globalization have failed, creating opaque and fragile value chains with significant geopolitical, social, and environmental risks. His mission with Altana is to "fix" this by creating a shared source of truth—a dynamic map of the global supply chain—that enables businesses and governments to build more transparent, resilient, and collaborative networks.

Today I’m joined by innovative software brand, Altana.
Altana is the world’s first Value Chain Management System – a unified, comprehensive approach that goes far beyond supply chain risk management, with unprecedented visibility, contextualized netrt across business areas, and a collaborative network with end-to-end workflows to get jobs done. With a vision of global commerce rebuilt around collaborative, resilient, secure, and sustainable value chains, they’re on a mission to fix globalization.
Today Evan Smith, Co-Founder and CEO at Altana, joins me to talk all about Altana and what they do; their mission to fix globalization and improve global commerce for everyone; the role of AI in making data accessible and actionable; and how Altana are delivering more than twice the supply chain visibility of any other provider.
Guest bio:
Evan Smith has worked his entire adult life on solving difficult, world-scale systems problems in order to benefit the environment, national security, and economic development. Prior to Altana, Evan served as a founder, investor, and leader in supply chain, clean technology, and renewable energy businesses.
Evan’s early fascination with global issues, and how that curiosity, combined with his unwavering work ethic, ignited a passion that has driven his career and led him to co-found Altana.
From geopolitical consequences to environmental and social impacts, how globalization has gone wrong; and Altana’s mission to fix it.
Exactly what a value chain is; an overview of Altana and what they do; and how Altana’s Value Chain Management System is helping them to work towards a vision of better global commerce for everyone.
The ideal client for Altana, and how a variety of different organizations can leverage Altana’s data and tools to meet their needs.
The changing face of supply chain and logistics visibility; how Altana are achieving more than twice the supply chain visibility of any other provider; and how organizations can translate that data into actionable insights.
AI; its vital role in making data accessible and actionable; and how Altana utilizes active learning to make connections and create a single source of truth for customers.
A case study showing how Altana helped a global apparel brand tackle a huge issue with detained imports, helping the brand to reveal a hidden forced labor problem, take action to fix it, and collaborate within their organization to optimize and develop ways to manage their whole value chain, not just their buyer-supplier relationships.
The future for Altana.
Resources & Links Mentioned
- Head over to Altana’s website now to find out more and discover how they could help you too. You can also connect with Altana and keep up to date with the latest over on LinkedIn or X (Twitter), or you can connect with Evan on LinkedIn.
- If you enjoyed the show, and want to hear more about the power of data, check out Women In Supply Chain™: Procurement Leader, Stephany Lapierre on Using Supplier Data to Empower a More Connected, Diverse Supply Chain, Why Data, Focus and Follow-Through Are Shaping the Future of Supply Chain, or How To Leverage Your Logistics Data to Drive Demand.
- Check out our other podcasts HERE.
