New month, quarter, and fiscal (for some) and all the CPO News that’s fit to print!
U.S. Steel Appoints Christine S. Breves Vice President And Chief Procurement Officer
In June, US Steel Corp. (NYSE: X) announced the appointment of Christine S. Breves to the position of vice president and Chief Procurement Officer effective today, July 1. Breves, who will be based at U. S. Steel’s Pittsburgh headquarters, will report to Larry T. Brockway, senior vice president and chief risk officer, and join the company’s executive management team. Breves will be responsible for the enhancement and execution of the global procurement and sourcing strategy for the company, with an early emphasis on driving business performance improvements by optimizing the company’s procurement spend.
Breves, 57, joins U. S. Steel following her January 2013 retirement from Alcoa Inc., where she served as its chief procurement officer since 2004 with responsibility for strategic materials, indirect materials and services and capital. She also led Alcoa’s global procurement organization, which included commodity management, regional procurement operations and the procurement center of excellence, which had oversight for technology and process support. Previously, she served in several procurement leadership roles within Alcoa. Breves was also director of purchasing for Alumax when the company was acquired by Alcoa in 1998. Procurement, under her leadership, has been recognized several groups [including Aberdeen in 2006, when I was leading the research practice there]. Prior to procurement, Breves held positions in accounting, maintenance management and strategic planning.
Says President and Chief Operating Officer Mario Longhi, “I am pleased to welcome Christie Breves to U. S. Steel, where her extensive expertise and demonstrated track record in leading procurement excellence will add immediate value to our company’s business performance improvement plans. She brings a wealth of strategic sourcing knowledge and practical application that will enable us to strengthen the alignment of our procurement function with our long-range business strategy and optimize the benefits of the Oracle enterprise resource planning platform we are implementing.”
From CPO to….. VP, Development and Real Estate
Continuing from above, we should note that Christie Breves succeeds Michael J. Hatcher, who has been US Steel’s Chief Procurement Officer since 2009 where he oversaw procurement, raw materials purchasing and real estate. Effective today, July 1, 2013, Mr. Hatcher will assume the role of vice president – development activities and continue to oversee USS Real Estate, the company’s real estate division. Hatcher, besides being well–educated [my business school], has been with U.S. Steel (starting with Marathon Oil which USS acquired) since 1980. Before becoming USS’ CPO, Hatcher held a series of financial roles including treasurer of Marathon Oil Company and later became general manager-business development. Hatcher also served as a director of the United States Steel and was a member of its Investment Committee. He represents U. S. Steel on joint venture management committees for Tilden Mining Company and Hibbing Taconite Company.
London 2012 CPO to Join Amey
Supply Management reports that Gerry Walsh, the executive in charge of procurement for the London 2012 games has joined Amey and “will manage an annual spend of around £1.5 billion and lead a combined procurement and fleet team of 150 people at the company. A significant part of the role will be working to integrate the operations of Amey with Enterprise, which it acquired in April and took the newly formed organization’s annual revenues to £2.3 billion.” Walsh was quoted telling Supply Management that “The Olympics showed what the power of procurement can be and how much value it can provide to an overall organization.”
Unilever “Partner to Win” Supplier Summit Hits Singapore
Over 350 representatives from Unilever’s strategic supplier partners attended Unilever’s Partner to Win Supplier Summit 2013 aimed at deepening relationships to drive consistently sustainable growth for Unilever globally while helping unlock more of the potential of developing and emerging markets.
Sales from developing markets represented 55% of Unilever’s business in 2012 with future growth likely to be driven by regions such as South East Asia. Unilever recognizes that continuing commitment through a strong program of investment must however, be coupled with a corresponding growth in sustainable supply chain capacity.
Speakers at the summit included Unilever CEO Paul Polman and Singapore Minister for Trade and Industry, Lim Hng Kiang.
The move to deepen supplier relationships will be formalized with the signing of further individual Joint Business Development Plans with strategic suppliers. These plans set out a clear framework of how suppliers and Unilever will work together to deliver sustainable growth over the long term. Unilever is investing in developing and emerging markets, including more than 50 new factory and warehouse facilities, to deliver Unilever’s sustainable growth ambitions. Unilever is also investing in its people and this week opened a EUR44m state of the art training facility in Singapore.
Marc Engel, Chief Procurement Officer, Unilever said: “We see Singapore as a global hub and a gateway to some of our fastest growing businesses, such as Thailand, Vietnam and Philippines. We are also investing in emerging markets such as Myanmar where we need our partners to grow with us after recently announcing a €500 million program of investment there.”
Partner to Win Awards
At the summit, Unilever also hosted the 2013 Partner to Win Awards to celebrate and recognize suppliers who have made a winning contribution in the areas of Innovation, Sustainability, Joint Value Creation, Capacity and Capability Building, as well as World Class Service through Operational Excellence. An award for Outstanding Contribution was also made. The winners: Dow Chemicals, BASF, Lindal, Varun Agro Processing Foods, Tata Chemicals Limited, Central Edible Oils, Borouge, Clariant International, WACKER Silicones, Exal Group, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhard, Giant Foods, Accenture, Salesforce, Manuchar, AHT Cooling Systems GmbH Austria, and IARP SRL.
Celestica Recognizes “Total Cost of Ownership” Supplier Award Winner
In June, ON Semiconductor (Nasdaq: ONNN) announced it was awarded a Total Cost of Ownership (“TCOO“) Supplier Award from Celestica in an awards program that recognizes suppliers that support Celestica’s “TCOO” strategy and demonstrate excellence in quality, delivery, technology, service, pricing and flexibility.
This marks the seventh year of Celestica’s TCOO Supplier Awards program. The program evaluates and recognizes the top performers in Celestica’s global network of over 3,000 suppliers. Celestica’s TCOO system is focused on evaluating supplier performance by measuring the total cost to produce, deliver and support products and services beyond the supplier invoice price.
“I am pleased to recognize ON Semiconductor with the Technical Compliance Award in 2012, which marks the seventh consecutive year we have honored the company with a TCOO award,” said Paul Blom, Chief Procurement Officer, Celestica. “I sincerely thank ON Semiconductor for their commitment to Celestica’s supply chain strategy and for delivering outstanding quality performance, helping us to enable our customers’ success.”
