Welcome to Procurement News, part of our ongoing aggregate news series covering recent supply management headlines and trends pertinent to Chief Procurement Officers and other procurement leaders. Contact us with your news story here.
CPO News
Melissa Nick Takes Helm as ShipBob’s First CSCO
CHICAGO — ShipBob, a leading global omnifulfillment platform designed for businesses of all sizes, announced the hiring of Melissa Nick as its first chief supply chain officer. She joins ShipBob with over 20 years of experience with the last 9+ years at Amazon, recently serving as Amazon’s VP of North America Customer Fulfillment, leading operations, planning, and engineering teams across over 250 fulfillment centers.
Prior to overseeing North America fulfillment, Nick helped build AMXL, Amazon’s global extra-large fulfillment and delivery service, from the ground up.
The company stated that with over 100 million orders shipped through their fulfillment network, Nick will help steer ShipBob’s next chapter of growth by leveraging her deep domain expertise in supply chain and operational excellence. Nick will manage ShipBob’s robust partner network of 50+ fulfillment centers across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. In addition, there will be a continued focus on unlocking personalization and a custom unboxing experience at scale, analytics and data ownership, and online and offline sales channel expansion for their customers across their owned website, direct-to-consumer, retail, brick and mortar, and marketplaces.
According to ShipBob COO and co-founder, Divey Gulati, “This new CSCO role will be incredibly impactful for the future of ShipBob, and I don’t know of anyone who has overseen a larger scope than Melissa, heading up North American fulfillment for Amazon and delivering on customer expectations during the most uncertain times due to the pandemic and subsequent years,” he said.
“We are focused on delivering best-in-class logistics to our merchants across all sales channels or however they want to handle their fulfillment, and we have the utmost confidence in Melissa to drive massive improvements to our operations while tying in our technology to drive incremental efficiencies across every part of the supply chain,” Gulati added.
Read the full announcement here.
Love’s Taps Eddie Burt as Company’s First CSCO
OKLAHOMA CITY — Love’s Travel Stops announced the hiring of Eddie Burt as the company’s first chief supply chain officer, according to PetroPlaza. Burton brings 30 years of experience in the areas of distribution, transportation, merchandising, human resources, loss prevention, real estate operations and store maintenance and repair.
According to Roger Ahuja, executive vice president of operations at Love’s, “Love’s completed a six-month executive search to find the right leader to guide our supply chain efforts into the future, and we’re excited to have Eddie Burt join our team,” he said. “Eddie will optimize Love’s existing supply chain network and help the company develop additional supply chain capabilities.”
Burt is based in the company’s Oklahoma City corporate headquarters.
Read the full announcement here.
Ivanka Janssen Appointed CSCO for Swarovski
AUSTRIA — Swarovski, a world’s leading jewelry and accessories brand, named Ivanka Janssen as its chief supply chain officer, overseeing the company’s efforts to increase speed-to-market, efficiency, automation, and innovation, according to Professional Jeweler.
Previously, Janssen was chief supply officer for Philips, the Swiss medical technology manufacturer. Prior to that, she was PepsiCo’s vice president of supply chain for Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.
Eric Fouts Named VP, Global Supply Chain for SureWerx
CHICAGO — SureWerx, a leading global supplier of personal protective equipment, safety products, and tool and equipment solutions, named Eric Fouts as vice president, global supply chain.
The company stated that in 2017, Fouts was recruited to one of the largest food and beverage companies in North America to re-build their customer supply chain capability from the ground up. Building upon his customer success from previous experiences, major retailers knew Fouts and his team as the “face of the supply chain.”
Leading the design of end-to-end supply chain initiatives, he and his team built platforms to improve service, lower costs, and improve cash flow. Fouts’ customer-centric approach challenged both sides to think as one company to identify value, driving overall mutual benefit. His value for culture enables him to put people first, including customers.
According to Chris Baby, CEO for SureWerx, “I am extremely pleased to welcome Eric to SureWerx. He brings extensive technical and industry knowledge coupled with a strategic mindset to our business. His demonstrated ability to set strategies and achieve results for customer service, improved efficiency, reduced costs, and incremental top-line growth will bring immense value to SureWerx operations,” Baby said.
“As we continue to innovate and deliver safety and productivity solutions for end users and communities around the world, Eric’s leadership will further strengthen our position as a trusted partner for our customers and suppliers,” He added.
Read the full announcement here.
Small Sliders Appoints Greg Swafford as VP, Supply Chain
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — Smalls Sliders appointed Greg Swafford as vice president of supply chain. The company stated that Swafford has held several supply chain roles within restaurant brands including Texas Roadhouse, Landry’s Inc and Fogo de Chao.
He has experience leading purchasing, planning, project management and international procurement strategies. Swafford will seek to provide cost-effective supply innovations and expertise in his new role.
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