Food & Beverage Supply Chain Desk Reference

The era of the "gag rule," a necessary feature of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement settlements where defendants could settle without admitting wrongdoing but could not publicly deny the SEC’s allegations afterward, has now ended.

By 2026, “digital twins” and AI‑driven predictive analytics have become essential tools in supply chain and industrial manufacturing. Specifically, the digital twin in manufacturing represents a paradigm shift in how organizations manage production planning, supplier selection, capacity forecasting, inventory optimization, and quality control across global supply chains. For example, General Motors announced in March 2025 that it was working with NVIDIA Omniverse to create digital twins of assembly lines, and in March 2026 Delta Electronics announced a similar plan to monitor factory HVAC, lighting, and energy savings. As adoption accelerates, organizations should understand both the strategic advantages and the legal issues these technologies present.

This episode features a conversation with René Jovel, Assistant General Counsel at Versiti Blood Health, Inc. In this discussion, René reflects on growing up in Los Angeles, California, attending Northwestern University for undergrad and Marquette University School of Law.