THE JUDGING PANEL
Eric Beylier, VP & CPO, TETRA Technologies
Eric Beylier, VP & CPO, TETRA Technologies Eric Beylier has over 20 years of experience and expertise with many global companies' supply chain and procurement groups across industries such as Oil & Gas, Specialty Chemicals, High-Tech, Financial Institutions & Retail and has done extensive work in Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas.
Over his career, he has led and strategically sourced over $3 billions of various products & services and negotiated over $300 million in capital and operational savings for companies such as ChevronTexaco, British Petroleum/Atlantic Richfield, Bank of America, The Gap Inc. and Hewlett-Packard. He currently heads the supply chain & procurement organization of TETRA Technologies Inc., a $1B geographically diversified Oil & Gas Service Company.
Gill Cairns, Head of Procurement, Northern Rock
Gill Cairns joined Northern Rock as Head of Procurement in November 2009 to establish Procurement within the organisation.
She has over 25 years of Supply Chain experience across manufacturing and service industries including leadership roles in RBS, Citizens Bank USA, Pilkington and Black & Decker.
Gill has also been engaged in Change Management and Service Improvement roles and is a certified Black Belt.
Edward Fuchs, Group Procurement Director, United Biscuits
Ed started his career in the Mining Industry working in South Africa and Iran before moving his career into the Food Manufacturing Sector in 1993. After 10 years of manufacturing and supply chain roles in both Northern Foods and United Biscuits he turned his hand to Procurement
In 2006 Ed led the Procurement Function in United Biscuits European business based in Paris, where he sat on the operating board for the business unit. During this time Ed established an outsourcing procurement service provision in indirects, and initiated a sustainable sourcing programme which included introducing Fairtrade to UB's Verkade Brand.
This led to a further appointment in 2008 to Group Procurement Director at United Biscuits. As a result, the sustainable sourcing programme was expanded to; segregated sustainable palm oil and grower group development in potatoes and wheat farming. During this time he focussed the category teams to split supply risk from financial commodity risk, and in doing so established a robust commodity risk management approach along side a rich supplier relationship management programme.
Eric Germa, CPO & SVP, Ann Inc.
Eric Germa, SVP/Chief Procurement Officer for Ann Inc. is responsible for all non-merchandise spend and leads the effort to drive Operational Excellence into every aspect of the business.
Mr. Germa brings over twenty years of industry and consulting experience in strategy, supply chain integration, procurement transformation and a proven track record as a change leader in his field. He spent nine years with Philips Electronics in both Europe and North America, and seven years at A.T. Kearney driving supply chain and operations improvements. He then left the consulting arena to build a strategic procurement and sourcing organization at Gap Inc., and was recently in charge of procurement for HP Services. Over the years, he has managed billions of dollars in spend for well-known companies across multiple industries.
Kath Harmeston, Group procurement director, Royal Mail Group
Kath Harmeston was appointed Group Procurement Director at Royal Mail Group January 2009.
Formerly Head of Procurement Transformation and Defence Partner at Atos Consulting, Kath has significant experience in designing and leading procurement and supply chain transformation programmes in both the private and public sectors. Her commercial and strategic expertise has been evidenced in many successful programmes over the last ten years.
In her Group Procurement Director role at household name Royal Mail (which includes not just Royal Mail but also Post Office and Parcelforce Worldwide), Kath manages £2.4bn spend per annum and a centralised procurement team of circa 90 staff. She has extensive responsibility including leading key change programmes, most recently the “Managing our Costs” programme which has driven over £300m of costs from Royal Mail in 2010-11 as well as a continuous improvement programme “Journey to World Class Procurement”, which is ensuring that the Royal Mail Group Procurement team meets the future challenges of the company.
Heidi Landry-Chan, VP procurement & logistics, Dow Corning
Heidi Landry-Chan, Vice President Procurement & Logistics, Dow Corning: Heidi Landry-Chan joined Dow Corning in 2009. Prior to this, she worked for 20 years in the procurement and supply chain area in a variety of roles for companies like Kmart, IKEA and Novartis. During this time she worked for 10 years in Asia, including seven years in China and three in India, managing both procurement operations and joint venture manufacturing investments.
Heidi relocated to Switzerland following her years in Asia, and joined the pharmaceutical industry, where she worked in global procurement & supply chain roles based in Switzerland and Greece, before joining Dow Corning.
Simon Leigh, Director of Procurement & Strategic Supply Management, Tarmac Ltd
Simon Leigh was appointed as Director of Procurement and Strategic Supply Management in February 2011. Simon joined Tarmac Ltd in April 2010 where he held two roles in the procurement leadership team before being promoted to his current position.
With over 12 years management and leadership experience gained across multiple sectors he has worked for BAE Systems in both the United Kingdom and extensively in the United States, Reliance Infocomm, Royal Dutch Shell and most recently before joining Tarmac Simon was Procurement & Supply Chain Director for ISG Plc.
Simon is a member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and a Fellow of the Institute of Management Specialists, he is 34 years old, married with 2 children and currently lives in Shrewsbury, Shropshire
John R. MacLean, VP purchasing, American Airlines
John R. MacLean has served as Vice President-Purchasing and Transportation and Corporate Officer for American Airlines since March 1992. He is responsible for the airline's acquisition of $8.5 billion of goods and services annually, including jet fuel, food and beverage items, aircraft spare parts, maintenance services, ground equipment, transportation services and airport services.
Under MacLean's leadership, American's Purchasing department was awarded the "Medal of Professional Excellence" in 1998 by Purchasing magazine, the first and only airline to receive that honor. Also, in 1998 American received the “Innovator of the Year” award from Aviation Week magazine for its supplier performance process. In 2006, MacLean was recognized as one of the Top 100 Leaders Impacting Supplier Diversity in the Nation by MBE magazine. In 2009, MacLean was recognized as the Supply Chain Executive of the Year by Purchasing magazine.
MacLean previously served as Vice President and Corporate Officer of Navistar International Corp. His responsibilities included the acquisition of $2.4 billion of production and service parts, as well as corporate EDI strategy and implementation, and supplier quality development. MacLean joined Navistar in 1979 and served in various financial positions, including Assistant Treasurer and Assistant Corporate Controller.
Prior to joining Navistar, MacLean held numerous financial positions at Ford Motor Co. from 1972 to 1979. MacLean has served on the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Board of Governors and has served as a board member on the DFW Minority Business Development Council. In addition, MacLean is a charter member of the Conference Board Purchasing and Supply Leadership Council, a member of the Advisory Board for Purchasing magazine; and he was a board member of the Michigan State University Center for Advanced Purchasing Studies. He has also served on the board of the American Indian Chamber of Commerce for North Texas and serves as the sponsor for the American Indian Employee Resource Group at American Airlines.
A native of New Hampshire, MacLean graduated from Boston University in 1972 with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration. MacLean and his wife, Jacqueline, live in Southlake, Texas. They have four children.
Marc Marini, CPO & SVP, American International Group, Inc
Marc Marini, Senior Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer for American International Group, Inc. (AIG), manages Global Sourcing & Procurement Services (GS&PS) for the firm. In this role, he is responsible for all vendor contracting as well as AIG's Procure-to-Pay processes and systems, Accounts Payable, Corporate Card Program, Travel Expense Processing and Supplier Diversity. This is a newly established function designed to lead organizational transformation by consolidating, strengthening and appropriately leveraging global resources, processes and buying power. Principle offices for the department are located in Tokyo, Singapore, London, Buenos Aires, New York and New Jersey.
Prior to AIG, Marc served as Managing Director, Chief Procurement Officer for Bank of America/Merrill Lynch. During his tenure, he launched and directed the Global Sourcing & Procurement Services organization, including the company's Procure-to-Pay systems and Accounts Payable department. Total spend under his management totaled approximately $6 billion, and spend processed through Accounts Payable neared $9 billion. Principal offices were located in New York, New Jersey, Jacksonville, FL, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore. In addition, Marc also served as Chief Financial Officer for GE Capital Services Technology Group. He also has 17 years of financial management experience with GE Aerospace, Lockheed Missiles and Space Co. and Lockheed Martin.
Marc earned a BS degree in Business Management from Penn State University and an MBA from Villanova University. His certifications include Certified Purchasing Manager (CPM), Accounts Payable Management (APM) and Six Sigma. Marc was named New Jersey Purchasing Executive of the Year by ISM in 2004. Marc and his family reside in Ocean Grove, NJ.
Kevin McCafferty, CPO, Qantas Airways Limited
Kevin McCafferty is currently the Chief Procurement Officer of Qantas Airways Limited in Australia, a role which he took over in September 2010. Prior to his role at Qantas, Kevin was the General Manager, Strategic Procurement and Supply for RailCorp NSW, the state rail authority for New South Wales and was responsible for transforming the procurement function at RailCorp, addressing some hard-hitting issues such as perceived systemic corruption within the organisation, an entrenched, traditional, heavy engineering culture, significant cost constraints across the supply base and conflicting priorities between the central government functions and the agencies. Kevin was awarded the CIPS Leadership Award by the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply at its annual awards in November 2010, and has recently become a Fellow of the Institute.
Kevin has lived in Australia for 7 years, settling with his family of 4 children in a village called Woonona, approximately 50 miles, south of Sydney, but originally hails from Stirling in Scotland – which, for those movie buffs, is the area of Scotland where Braveheart was set.
Kevin has over 16 years experience in procurement, and in a career spanning 29 years, has spent 18 of these in a variety of public sector roles, and 11 in private sector and consulting role.
Farryn Melton, VP & CPO, Amgen
Farryn Melton, CPM, is the Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer for Amgen, the world’s largest biotechnology company, headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California. Amgen uses science and innovation to dramatically improve people’s lives by harnessing the powerful tools of cellular and molecular biology and medicinal chemistry to discover, develop, and commercialize naturally occurring proteins, antibodies, and small molecules, with the goal of extending the reach of science to unleash the body’s own powerful therapeutic responses.
As the global Chief Procurement Officer, Ms. Melton is responsible for leading the organization in leveraging the company’s external spend to improve productivity, optimize cost efficiency, and align with the overall business strategy to optimize value. With company revenues of ~$15B, her team is responsible for managing direct and indirect external spend in excess of $4B. In addition to Global Sourcing, she is also responsible for the Corporate Travel and Global Meeting Management organizations at Amgen.
Ms. Melton is a 20+ year procurement professional whose career includes key leadership and management positions with fortune 100 companies spanning multiple industries including: Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Warner-Lambert, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Boeing, and Rockwell International. Through the years, she has had the opportunity to lead the transformation of several procurement organizations to “best in class.”
Ms. Melton is a lifetime, Certified Purchasing Manager (CPM) and holds a BS degree in Business Administration. She received the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) 2004 “Rising Star” award, as well as the National Association of Purchasing Managers (NAPM) New Jersey Crystal Award for the 2004 Purchasing Executive of the Year. She was listed in 2001 “International Who’s Who”.
Ms. Melton is active in the industry, serving on the Board of Trustees for the Center for Advanced Purchasing Studies (CAPS) and for the Center for Strategic Supply Leadership (CSSL). She is a member of the Corporate Executive Board’s Procurement Strategy Council and the Institute for Supply Management (ISM). Ms. Melton also served as Member Chair for The Conference Board Purchasing and Supply Council and Vice-Chair for the Drug, Chemical and Associate Trade (DCAT) supply management committee and a founding member of the Rx360 healthcare association.
She is also actively engaged in small business/supplier diversity forums including; the National Minority Supplier Development Council (national Board Member), the Women Business Enterprise National Council (national Board Member) and the National Association of Women Business Owners (where Amgen is a board member of the Ventura County Chapter).
She currently resides in Thousand Oaks, CA, with her husband and two children.
Susan O’Farrell, CPO & VP of Asset Management, The Home Depot
Susan O'Farrell is the Chief Procurement Officer and Vice President of Asset Management at The Home Depot, the world's largest Home Improvement retailer. She leads a diverse team that is responsible for Procurement, Corporate Aviation, Facilities and Corporate Services, as well as Property Management. Her procurement team sources $6B a year in indirect spend, ensuring not only lower costs are negotiated, but that the best total value is delivered. This span of control includes professional services, marketing, advertising, store supplies and services, store maintenance, construction, fixtures, logistics, IT hardware, software and telecom, travel, procurement operations and e-Sourcing.
Ms. O'Farrell attended Auburn University, receiving her degree in Business Administration specializing in Finance. Upon graduation she joined Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). Ms. O'Farrell joined Andersen's Change Management practice, where she was promoted to Associate Partner. In 1996, she then joined AGL Resources - an Energy Holding company. In 1999, Ms. O'Farrell joined The Home Depot and assumed progressive levels of responsibility including Division Finance Leader, Senior Director of Financial Operations, Vice President Enterprise Asset Management and Chief Procurement Officer.
At Home Depot, Ms. O'Farrell has served on the Executive Board for the Diversity and Inclusion Council and Affinity groups. She is a founding member of the Velvet Hammers, an executive women's mentoring group at The Home Depot, and has recently serve as chairperson. She is also a founding member of the Atlanta Multi-Corporation Women's Network.
Ms. O'Farrell is Board Chair for the Atlanta Children's Shelter and is active with other organizations that promote the safety and well-being of women and children. She has also served on the Prevent Child Abuse Georgia Board, as well as served on the Auburn College of Business Advisory Council. In 2008, she was named as one of Atlanta's 25 "WOW women to Watch."
Ashley Readshaw, CPO, AstraZeneca
Ashley graduated in economics at the London School of Economics and is a CIMA qualified accountant and has held senior executive level Finance and Supply Chain positions in the Pharma and fast moving consumer goods industries with companies including Mars, Glaxo and Pharmacia in a variety of Financial and Operational roles.
Ashley joined AstraZeneca in 2008 from Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he managed 14 pharmaceutical manufacturing plants throughout North and South America. He was appointed Chief Procurement Officer for AstraZeneca in January 2011.
Ashley has spent 10 years in the US but is originally from the North East of England. He has also lived and worked in France.
Ashley is married with a son and a daughter.
Bhavesh Shah, Group VP & CPO, Firmenich
Bhavesh joined Firmenich in January 2011 as Group Vice President and Chief Purchasing Officer reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer.
He joins Firmenich after spending 19 years with Procter & Gamble across a broad range of key positions that include operations, purchasing and executive management, and most recently was located in Guangzhou, China as Director of Global Media and Marketing Purchases for the Greater China and Asia Region.
Bhavesh holds a Masters in Engineering, Manufacturing and Management from the University of Birmingham and has completed a Harvard Business School executive education course in strategic negotiation.
Robin Shahani, SVP, global business services & CPO, American Express
Robin Shahani joined American Express as Senior Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer in April 2010. In this role, Robin is responsible for all procurement, expense management, and central supplier management activities on a global basis. As a member of the Global Business Services Leadership Team, he is also directly involved in developing shared services at the Company.
Prior to joining Amex, Robin worked at Citigroup as Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer, and Global Head of Strategy and Planning for Citi Shared Services, with oversight of thousands of staff worldwide in key aspects of finance and risk reporting, human resources, procurement, accounts payable, anti-money laundering, and general services operations, as well as right placement (location strategy). In September 2009, Robin was further named Citigroup’s Global Co-Head of Procurement.
Previously, Robin held various senior positions at EquaTerra (now KPMG), Deutsche Bank, and Silver Oak Solutions (now CGI), which he founded in 1999. Robin began his career as a consultant at Mitchell Madison Group, in Summer Analyst roles at Morgan Stanley and H.C. Wainwright Economics, and as an Intern for U.S. Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II.
Robin graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in History. He has been based in New York and London for most of his career, but has also worked extensively across Continental Europe and Asia. Robin resides in Manhattan and is involved in a range of youth-related charitable causes, such as serving on the board of directors for Asian Professional Extension (APEX) New York, developing Central Queens Academy as a trustee of its governing board, and as co-chair of the Children’s Health Fund’s 2011 annual gala.
Hari Sundaresan, CPO, BT
Hari Sundaresan was appointed chief procurement officer in September 2010. Before this he was BT Global Services’ Vice President – Global Telco & Access Management where he was responsible for the cost, delivery and performance of the circuits and services BT Global Services buys from telecommunication service providers worldwide to connect customers to its network and otherwise meet their needs.
Hari began his career at BT’s Adastral Park technology centre where, as a research scientist, he pioneered the development of the tuneable lasers that have become essential components of BT's optical networks.
Keen to broaden his experience, he moved into a strategic consultancy role, taking responsibility for a team developing IT frameworks for BT's international joint ventures. He played a personal role in the development of the joint ventures BT set up in Holland and France in the 1990s – Telfort and Cegetel.
In 1996, Hari joined BT’s solutions business. Responsible for its provisioning and billing systems, he introduced significant off-shoring to India.
Subsequent moves took Hari into business and contract management. After managing a number of contracts with clients in the travel and leisure sector, he took responsibility for business planning for BT Global Services’ finance, government and wholesale sectors and was chief operations officer for BT Global Services in the UK, responsible for contracts and delivery across the business.
He holds a PhD from the University of Sheffield, is married with two children and lives in Buckinghamshire.
Hari’s leisure interests include cricket and golf.
Thomas Udesen, CPO, Johnson & Johnson Consumer EMEA
Thomas joined Johnson & Johnson in 2003 after having gained 12 years of invaluable experience from global sourcing and trading operations with The East Asiatic Company across Europe, West Africa and South East Asia.
He holds a MBA from Cranfield School of Management and has since joining Johnson & Johnson Procurement led multiple teams across Direct Procurement, Contract Manufacturing as well as Commercial Procurement. Thomas is originally from Denmark, is married to Yasuyo and is the proud father of Maya and Mark.
David Rae, Editor, Procurement Leaders magazine
David was the deputy editor of Financial Director in June 2005 and has since been short-listed for three major journalism awards* for his profile interviews and regular columns. During his time on the magazine he managed the redesign and relaunch of FinancialDirector.co.uk to wide critical acclaim as well as being responsible for all aspects of the magazine's production in addition to editing a regular supplement.
Prior to Financial Director, he enjoyed a successful period on Accountancy Age, latterly as deputy news editor, where he was responsible for breaking a number of important stories.
He has interviewed some of the most important figures in UK financial circles, including the group finance directors of British Airways, Wolseley, GUS, BHP Billiton, AstraZeneca and the BBC as well as the then-shadow Chancellor, Oliver Letwin.
- 2007 PPA Awards, Columnist of the Year, business and professional - Highly Commended
- 2006 Press Gazette Magazine Journalism Awards, Columnist of the Year - Short-listed
- 2006 Press Gazette Magazine Journalism Awards, Interviewer of the Year - Short-listed