CPO News – June 5, 2014

Posted by Ardent Partners Analyst Team on June 5th, 2014
Stored in Articles, Chief Procurement Officers, General, People

TSYS Names New Global Chief Procurement Officer

TSYS, a provider of payment processing solutions located in Columbus, Ga, recently announced that Walter Taylor will join their executive team as Chief Procurement Officer for procurement, vendor management, and supplier management. Taylor returns to TSYS after more than 30 years of working in technology and operations in the payments and financial services industry.

Currently, Taylor serves as the Executive Vice President of Strategy at Genesis10, “where he was responsible for the firm’s overall strategy for information technology staffing and consulting with clients in the financial services industry.” Taylor has also worked for some heavyweights in the financial and payment processing industry, notably Pariter Systems – the now defunct Bank of America-Wells Fargo joint venture, Bank of America, and Delta Airlines.

M. Troy Woods, President and Chief Operating Officer at TSYS, worked with Taylor 30 years ago when Taylor began his career as a project manager. “Walter brings a tremendous depth of procurement, vendor and supplier management knowledge in the financial services industry to his new position at TSYS.”

Taylor is a Desert Storm veteran, having served in the U.S. Air Force as a pilot and officer for seven years. He is also a graduate of Mercer University and the University of Georgia.

Tyco Announces New Senior Vice President for Global Sourcing & Procurement and Real Estate

Tyco International, Ltd., the world’s largest pure-play fire protection and security company, has hired Andrea Greco as their Senior Vice President for Global Sourcing & Procurement and Real Estate. He will report to George Oliver, Tyco’s Chief Executive Officer, and will work alongside Colleen Repplier, President, Fire Protection Products. Together, they will co-lead the company’s logistics and distribution operations.

“We are pleased to have Andrea join us in this critical role, which will have broad impact on our operating costs globally,” said Oliver. “We have a real opportunity to accelerate our progress in managing our supply chain spend and matching our physical footprint to our more focused company. Andrea’s impressive record of leadership in sourcing and operations will enable us to more holistically align our operations with the needs of our businesses.”

Greco brings nearly 20 years of experience to Tyco, beginning his career with Ernst & Young as a senior manager responsible for numerous supply chain projects. Since then, Greco has held executive and C-level positions in sourcing, procurement, and real estate for Fila, HP, and Unisys.

Greco earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Management from Università L. Bocconi in Milan, Italy, and a Master of Science degree in Management from Purdue University in West Lafayette, In.

Companies Race to File First Conflict Minerals Report

Monday, June 2 was the official deadline for publicly-traded companies in the U.S. to report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) whether they source conflict minerals (tantalum, tin, tungsten, and gold, aka “3TG minerals”) from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and neighboring countries. While many of the roughly 6,000 affected companies in the U.S. were hoping to forego the reporting requirement in light of a forthcoming Appellate Court mandate (click to read our review of this recent ruling) that may overturn the requirement, less than a quarter met the deadline. Here are just a few of the companies that have reported. So far, it’s a mixed bag.

Intel was the first technology company to submit its report to the SEC on May 22. Intel has previously taken a strong stand against the use of conflict minerals and pledged to do all it can to keep them out of its supply chain. As described in its report, Intel’s “Client Microprocessor and Chipset products are DRC conflict free,” while all of their other products “are DRC conflict undeterminable.” Intel’s reporting covered the year 2013, and saw 83% of their suppliers respond to their supply chain surveys. Ernst & Young performed the requisite third-party audit of the report, but could not make a determination of Intel’s conflict minerals status.

Like Intel, Hewlett-Packard has publicly come out against the use of conflict minerals, even compiling a list of its sources of 3TG minerals a year before the SEC deadline. However, HP claims in its 2014 SEC report that of the 201 facilities that ultimately supply HP with 3TG minerals for their products, just 60 of them (30%) are “compliant with the Conflict Free Smelter Program or having been certified or accredited by a similar assessment program.” HP leveraged the Conflict Free Sourcing Initiative as their third-party auditor. Lastly, HP is one of several companies to report that gold from the Central Bank of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (aka, North Korea) is in its supply chain.

Apple, like Hewlett-Packard and Intel, touts its commitment to corporate social responsibility and early efforts to map its 3TG mineral supply chain. In its report to the SEC, Apple found that of the 205 smelters and refiners that supply it with 3TG minerals, just 21 originate in or around the DRC. Of these, 17 have been found to be “DRC conflict free,” while the other four have yet to undertake their audit. Apple reportedly commissioned a third-party audit of its supply chain and “found no reasonable basis for concluding that any of these smelters and refiners sourced Subject Minerals that directly or indirectly finance or benefit armed groups.” Apple states that it will push the four remaining refiners and smelters to certify their compliance, and if they can’t, Apple will push their suppliers to drop them from their supply chain.

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