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Marketing procurement earns its seat when it speaks the stakeholder's language. Melissa Saw, Consumer Health Marketing & Sales Procurement North America Lead at Bayer, came to procurement from a career in sales and marketing, and that background shapes how she partners with internal teams and agencies. Speaking with John at ProcureCon East, Melissa shares why trust with stakeholders has to be earned over time, why she asks agencies where AI fits in the value chain, and how Bayer’s Dynamic Shared Ownership model reshaped her team around 90-day priorities.  Topics discussed: - Speaking the stakeholder's language as a former marketer - Earning a seat at the table through early, small results - Asking agencies where AI fits in the value chain - Treating the marketing budget as the stakeholder's budget - Running procurement on 90-day priorities and retrospectives - Dispatching RFP work across global peers under DSO - Hiring for attitude over procurement pedigree - Balancing in-house talent with offshore and outsourced models Get in touch with Melissa Saw:   LinkedIn  Get in touch with your host, John Pavia:  LinkedIn  Listen to more episodes:  Listen on Smarter Sourcing Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify Watch on YouTube

Does every purchased service need to go out to bid? At Parkland Hospital, Pamela Bryant, SVP, Supply Chain Management and an incoming Bellwether League Hall of Fame inductee, uses evaluation committees on certain services to ask whether what's in place today is good enough with some tweaks. She also inherited a thousand-bed hospital designed to run just in time, with shadow supply chains creating overstock. Pamela tells Eric why every project order runs through a parent distribution center, why AI hasn't cut her staff yet, and what 800 clinics at Hanger taught her about skipping the big bang. Topics discussed: - Asking whether a purchased service needs a bid or tweaks - Finding the shadow supply chains that create overstock - Why a thousand-bed hospital can't run just in time - Running every project order through one distribution center - Winning OR inventory on the third attempt - Saying yes to new scope, then setting the timeline - Why AI hasn't cut Parkland's supply chain staff yet - Staggering an 800-clinic rollout instead of one big bang Get in touch with Pamela Bryant :   LinkedIn  Get in touch with your host, John Pavia:  LinkedIn  Get in touch with your host, Eric:  LinkedIn Listen to more episodes:  Listen on Smarter Sourcing Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify Watch on YouTube

Douglas Krieger, Sr. Director Global Strategic Sourcing at Herbalife, sees procurement's seat at the table differently than most. Getting it is the easy part. Keeping it requires showing up with value that goes beyond running the next RFP, and his team is investing in sales training over sourcing courses to make sure that happens. Douglas walks John through running a global center of excellence, how he pushes decision-making down to build strategic thinkers, and why law school logic reshaped his approach to every negotiation. Topics discussed: - AI-powered statement of work review against policy and precedents - Shifting sourcing from reactive execution to proactive vendor monitoring - Center of excellence vs. regional category management structures - Choosing sales training over sourcing training for team development - Applying legal reasoning frameworks to sourcing negotiations - Reinvesting time saved by AI into strategic relationship building - Back-office system transformation from on-premise to cloud Get in touch with Douglas Krieger:   LinkedIn  Get in touch with your host, John Pavia:  LinkedIn  Listen to more episodes:  Listen on Smarter Sourcing Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify Watch on YouTube

Mark Welch has led Novant Health's supply chain for 21 years, helping scale the system to $12 billion in revenue. Working without a dedicated medical director in supply chain, he built a model where sourcing managers facilitate clinical conversations directly with physicians across orthopedics and heart and vascular. Mark tells Eric how his distribution center runs its own price index, why he trains his team to think like a $20 billion operation, and how an AI chatbot called Aubrey generates variation analysis in minutes. Topics discussed: - Sustaining supply chain leadership over two decades of growth - Building physician engagement without a dedicated medical director - Turning the CSC into an opportunity center - Three team members went on to become CSCOs elsewhere - Embedding sourcing managers directly within pharmacy and IT - Creating a QSOC with distribution-level price index accountability - Launching no PO, no purchase for indirect spend data capture - Using an AI chatbot to run sourcing variation scenarios Get in touch with Mark Welch:   LinkedIn  Get in touch with your host, Eric:  LinkedIn Listen to more episodes:  Listen on Smarter Sourcing Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify Watch on YouTube

Kristen Coar, Vice President of Global Procurement at Ferrara, stopped measuring savings on the direct side. Her procurement organization targets on-time delivery, supply chain flexibility, and market-beating pricing, aligned to what her CEO and CFO actually prioritize. Kristen tells John why most procurement organizations rush to digitize before their foundational data is ready, how a Navy career shaped her servant-leadership approach, and why she applies a "snake oil" filter to AI procurement vendors promising the world. Topics discussed: - Why Ferrara measures procurement value differently for direct vs. indirect - Aligning sourcing strategy to what senior stakeholders actually prioritize - Running centralized global strategy with local procurement teams - Stakeholder buy-in through pairing trust-building with top-down policy - Why digitizing before fixing master data governance wastes resources - Using energy hedging as a baseline risk management practice - Filtering AI procurement tools through a "snake oil" detector - How GLP-1 drugs are reducing demand across the sugar industry Get in touch with Kristen Coar:   LinkedIn  Get in touch with your host, John Pavia:  LinkedIn  Listen to more episodes:  Listen on Smarter Sourcing Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify Watch on YouTube

Noah Dunlap, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Emory Healthcare, walked into a federated, fragmented supply chain and built a three-tier transformation framework: foundation, optimization, innovation. Eighteen months in, the results are backed by a strategic plan he presented during the hiring process itself. Noah breaks down his approach to data infrastructure across multiple ERPs and GPOs, why he calls GPOs "a tool in the box, not the box," and how a new capital equipment program is unlocking long-term supplier partnerships across billions in asset value. Topics discussed: - Building a foundation-optimization-innovation framework for supply chain transformation - Unifying a federated supply chain operating model across a health system - Creating agnostic data infrastructure across multiple ERPs and GPOs - Treating GPOs as a tool in the toolbox, not the entire strategy - Launching a capital medical equipment intelligence and governance program - Applying Bloom's taxonomy and teaching principles to supply chain leadership - Investing in workforce development to bridge team capabilities for the future - Establishing clinical alignment with an engaged physician community Get in touch with Noah Dunlap:   LinkedIn  Get in touch with your host, Eric:  LinkedIn Listen to more episodes:  Listen on Smarter Sourcing Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify Watch on YouTube

Cleveland Clinic performs 300,000 surgeries a year and processes 80,000 instrument sets. Stephen Downey manages the supply chain behind all of it through three words: centralize, standardize, automate. That means enterprise-wide procedure cards, one knee tray, and off-site sterile processing modeled on facilities in Denmark and at Walmart. Stephen also breaks down how a monthly CEO review of indirect spend changed supply chain's standing, why healthcare capital utilization lags behind hotels, and what cross-industry benchmarking looks like when you're sourcing window washing. Topics discussed: - Centralizing, standardizing, then automating supply chain - Enterprise-wide procedure card standardization across all sites - Monthly CEO review of indirect spend as governance lever - Embedded sourcing experts within clinical and IT teams - Cross-industry benchmarking beyond healthcare for services spend - Capital utilization efficiency lessons from hotels and robotics - Building automated central service centers modeled on Walmart - AHRMM leadership and national supply chain case competitions  Listen to more episodes:  Listen on Smarter Sourcing Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify Watch on YouTube

Eric O'Daffer speaks with Burton Fuller, Vice President and Chief Supply Chain Officer at Johns Hopkins Medicine. Burton's team is connecting case schedule data from the EHR to their demand planning forecast, what Eric called the "holy grail" of demand planning. With a new cloud-based WMS, a replaced point of use system, and a new ERP all coming online within 18 months, Johns Hopkins is laying the foundation for intelligent automation across its operation. Burton shares how his team is rethinking what clinical integration means on the operations side, shifting from sourcing-only engagement to reliability-focused conversations with nursing and quality partners. He also breaks down how multi-tier supplier mapping helped Johns Hopkins navigate pandemic disruptions and continues to inform inventory adjustments and contract awards today. Topics discussed: Connecting EHR case schedule data to demand planning forecasts Implementing cloud-based WMS with automated demand planning modules Shifting clinical integration from sourcing events to supply reliability Using multi-tier supplier mapping to get ahead of disruptions Building case cart services in a clean room at the consolidated service center Tackling indirect spend through finance alignment and capital planning linkage Measuring supply chain performance through real-time data monitoring Partnering with suppliers to reduce consignment costs and solve shared problems  Get in touch with Burton Fuller:   LinkedIn  Get in touch with your host, Eric:  LinkedIn Listen to more episodes:  Listen on Smarter Sourcing Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify Watch on YouTube

When over 250,000 patients are mortally injured by medical error annually, supply chain has a direct stake that most organizations underestimate. Charlie Miceli, Former VP Network Chief Supply Chain Officer at University of Vermont Health Network, spent over 15 years in a role that reached well beyond procurement.  Charlie and Eric O'Daffer cover AI as healthcare supply chain's new ERP inflection point, why CFO reporting creates real strategic advantage, and how the 40% of non-clinical spend that went largely ungoverned is now fair game. Topics discussed: Why supply chain should report to the CFO Building supplier trust that holds during a crisis Managing AI as healthcare supply chain's new ERP moment Using non-healthcare procurement frameworks inside healthcare supply chain Production rate awareness and continuity of supply fundamentals Cybersecurity as supply chain's patient safety responsibility Pursuing non-clinical spend that has gone largely ungoverned Building flexible teams before technology makes pigeonholing costly  Get in touch with Charlie Miceli:   LinkedIn  Get in touch with your host, Eric:  LinkedIn Listen to more episodes:  Listen on Smarter Sourcing Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify Watch on YouTube

When Kevin Gordon joined Grady Health System four years ago, he inherited a supply chain function that lacked credibility, documented processes, and modern technology. Before asking for a single dollar, he ran a structured assessment across four pillars: people, processes, finances, and technology. That sequence mattered. Everything that followed, including a full ERP migration from PeopleSoft to Workday, a new consolidated service center (CSC), and a warehouse management system (WMS) implementation, came from the credibility built by getting the basics right first. What makes this episode worth your time is the specific sequence Kevin used to turn supply chain into a funded, growing function inside one of the most operationally complex health systems in the country. He also shares how a chance hallway conversation with the VP of Pharmacy turned a CFO-rejected CSC proposal into a project with a projected $5-7M revenue upside for pharmacy. Topics discussed: Four-pillar supply chain assessment: people, process, finances, and technology Rebuilding credibility through consistent execution before pursuing major investments How a pharmacy space-sharing partnership rescued a rejected CSC business case Migrating from PeopleSoft to Workday while keeping operations running Implementing a WMS that ties into Workday as the "voice of truth" for supply chain Selling a 3-5 year vision to recruit directors in a high-change environment Advocating for a dedicated safety net collaborative and the first national convening Managing tariff volatility and Medicaid/Medicare reimbursement pressure as a nonprofit safety net Get in touch with Kevin Gordon:   LinkedIn  Get in touch with your host, Eric:  LinkedIn Listen to more episodes:  Listen on Smarter Sourcing Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify Watch on YouTube

Ben Haygood built his healthcare supply chain career from the ground up, starting on third shift stocking an ER at 19. Now, as Director of Strategic Sourcing at Piedmont Healthcare, the largest healthcare system in Georgia, he runs a centralized sourcing operation spanning 27 hospitals that has grown from 8 facilities in just 8 years. His perspective on supply chain is grounded in one consistent principle: every sourcing decision eventually reaches a patient. Ben walks through how Piedmont built its own 300,000+ square foot self-distribution center as a strategic buffer against supply disruption and what it actually looks like to integrate newly acquired health systems without breaking patient care continuity. He also gets into the real tradeoffs behind vendor consolidation, including a pacemaker programming story that illustrates exactly why "fewer suppliers, better price" is not always the right equation.   Topics discussed: Building a 300,000+ sq ft self-distribution model to weather supply disruptions Keeping acquired facility contracts whole during M&A integration to protect patient care Pacemaker vendor consolidation tradeoffs when supplier rep availability affects patient wait times Four-hours-sharpening-the-axe data preparation framework for clinician and C-suite negotiations Reducing data to binary choices (good/bad) to drive productive stakeholder conversations Clinical resource managers as embedded liaisons between supply chain and physician teams Why contract metrics and KPIs are "just words on a page" without technology to measure and monitor them Conference strategy, including reverse expos as a targeted tool for identifying new suppliers Early warning signals on helium and nitrile supply disruptions tied to current global trade pressures Upstream supply chain visibility in domestic vs. offshore manufacturing as a real supply assurance factor

Regine Honoré Villain spent 30 years inside complex enterprise environments watching brilliant strategies get handed off and quietly die. Not because the strategy was wrong, but because nothing was built to catch it. That gap between execution and organizational adoption is now the core focus of her advisory firm, REHVÉAL, and it reframes how she evaluates everything from AI readiness to vendor partnerships to where the next dollar of margin actually comes from. Regine Honoré Villain, Founder & Principal at REHVÉAL™ and Former SVP, Supply Chain & Support Services at Ochsner Health, tells Eric why the traditional conference pitch of "save another 10% on supplies" is table stakes, not strategy. With an engineering background in industrial and systems engineering, she approaches organizational change as architecture, and makes the case that indirect spend categories like HR, facilities, food/nutrition, and legal services have been treated as sacred cows for too long. She warns that leaders who view AI as a passing fad will be in a difficult position within one to two years, and lays out exactly which internal teams supply chain leaders need to partner with now to get ahead of it. Her parting challenge: if you're spending 90% of your energy on sourcing activities and 10% on adoption, flip that ratio. Topics discussed: The execution-to-adoption gap that quietly kills good strategies Indirect spend categories treated as sacred cows for too long AI readiness as a one-to-two year urgency, not five Partnering with IS, legal, and innovation teams for AI readiness Going deep with two or three vendors to co-build solutions OR/periop optimization and care-at-home as investment priorities Operator-level relationships as the real key to adoption Flipping the 90/10 sourcing-to-adoption ratio Get in touch with Regine Honore Villain:   LinkedIn  Get in touch with your host, Eric:  LinkedIn Listen to more episodes:  Listen on Smarter Sourcing Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify Watch on YouTube

Jason Moulding, Chief Supply Chain Officer at MultiCare Health System, has spent 25 years building toward a supply chain function that leads M&A integrations, runs enterprise performance analytics, and holds its position at the executive table through leadership transitions. He walks through the strategic planning model he's been running since 2017 and how 3 iterations of a 5-year plan gave Multicare's supply chain the credibility and continuity to expand well beyond traditional cost and purchasing functions. Jason also gets into the operational side of resiliency, including a dedicated vertical staffed with FTEs running continuous environmental scans across distribution and first-tier manufacturers, a BI platform layered on top to compress response time, and a provider-to-provider SKU-sharing agreement he executed with a peer health system during the neurosponge shortage rather than competing for supply. His frame on the AI decision is the make-vs-buy question is live right now, and the organizations that answer it well will be the ones that already did the data infrastructure work.   Topics discussed: Building CEO and executive relationships through formal strategic planning, scorecard reviews, and a year-in-review process  Multicare's four-pillar strategic framework: people, process, performance, partnership  People development as a strategic differentiator, like number of internal promotions, support for certifications, degrees, & fellowships Building a analytics and business intelligence platform and expanding to lead enterprise performance analytics for the full organization Make-vs-buy decision point for AI agents, and how vendor partner selection ties to existing data governance and AI infrastructure Building a dedicated resiliency vertical with FTE staffing and continuous environmental scanning across distribution & first-tier manufacturing Provider-to-provider SKU sharing during a shortage as an alternative to competing for supply allocation Reframing resiliency investment around total cost of value rather than unit price  Governance over pharmacy and clinical spend without formal authority through structured quarterly partnerships

Yisa Wong, VP of Strategic Sourcing at Fossil Group, has spent over 20 years building sourcing operations across fashion and accessories, with stops at Liz Claiborne, Gap, Coach, and now Fossil Group, where she's based in Hong Kong managing APAC sourcing and procurement. She talks through how she thinks about supplier relationships, supply chain risk, and what it actually takes to build a sourcing function that holds up when things go sideways. Yisa also covers what a single-source failure taught her team about vendor base design, how she thinks about the difference between KPI measurement and relationship equity, and why product development experience makes her a sharper sourcing leader.  Topics discussed: Moving from single-source dependency to a qualified backup vendor strategy Building 10 to 14 KPI supplier scorecards across operations, costing, and R&D Why supplier relationships create value that performance metrics can't capture Understanding manufacturing processes as a core competency for sourcing leaders Cross-functional stakeholder alignment between sourcing, product development, and supply planning Managing global time zones and cultural differences in APAC supplier networks China-plus-one and supply diversification strategy in the face of tariff volatility Using data fluency to find cost efficiency and create value for the business AI's potential in contract management and procurement efficiency, and where the guardrails need to be set

Teresa Dail, Chief Supply Chain Officer Emeritus - President at Vanderbilt Health Purchasing Collaborative, spent 17 years as an ICU nurse and nursing leader before being hired back to Orlando Health to close what she describes as a "Grand Canyon" of disconnect between materials management and clinical teams. That background shaped her entire approach for Vanderbilt. The physician-led process she collaborated on with three physician champions ultimately established the capabilities of bringing physicians together to drive sole and dual-source contracts across physician preference items including total joints and cardiac rhythm management.  It also produced the price performance and compliance rates that became the foundation for the Vanderbilt Health Purchasing Collaborative, now operating across 48 states with acute and non-acute membership. Teresa walks through how that two-decade foundation culminated in a full restructuring of Vanderbilt's executive value analysis committee, where any product or technology with a negative contribution margin now requires sign-off from the Deputy CEO, CMO, CFO, and hospital presidents, shifting accountability for supply chain decisions to the people who can actually enforce them. Topics discussed: Why a bedside background accelerates credibility with physicians and surgeons in supply chain leadership Building healthcare's first formal value analysis processes by bringing competing community physicians together for technology decisions Driving sole and dual-source contracts on physician preference items via structured engagement with orthopedic, cardiac, and surgical specialists Commercializing an internal supply chain model into a purchasing collaborative now operating across 48 states  Standing up an offsite case card operations center for supply chain and sterile processing to support rapid OR and ICU expansion Launching and later divesting a wholly owned DME company to improve discharge velocity and patient satisfaction, then transitioning it to a joint venture Restructuring the MEOC committee to escalate all negative-margin tech decisions to the Deputy CEO, CMO, CFO, and hospital presidents Defining the next generation of healthcare supply chain leadership around technology fluency and financial acumen