The clock is ticking on digital transformation

Chris Sawchuk is a Principal, Global Practice Leader and advisory leadership team member with The Hackett Group, an intellectual property-based strategic consultancy to global companies. He has over 20 years of experience successfully advising hundreds of Fortune 500 as well as midsized companies across all industries globally. Mr. Sawchuk has provided operational and transformational guidance in strategy and organizational change as well as process design and digital technology enablement to significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of these companies. He is globally recognized (and won several awards) in his specialty of supply management including strategic sourcing and risk management. He is cited regularly in business publications, a frequent presenter at industry and academic events, author of numerous research papers and books, and a current and past member of the advisory boards of several developing companies as well as the supply chain degree program at the University of South Florida. Mr. Sawchuk’s background includes engineering, operations and sales roles with both United Technologies and IBM. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Union College and a Masters in Business Administration from Binghamton University (State University of New York). He is currently pursuing his Doctorate in Business Administration from the University of South Florida.

Holly Miller-Downour is a VP and Group Product Manager for Sourcing and Procurement at JPMorgan Chase. She and her team are responsible for all of the software applications that are used by Sourcing and Procurement to do their daily jobs, which includes Ariba. She has over 30 years of sourcing experience and has been with the bank for almost 10 years and served as the Sourcing Liaison for the Ariba Implementation in 2017. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business from Ohio University as well as the Institute of Supply Management Certifications of C.P.M. and CPSM.

Erik Meader, Ph.D., is Vice President, Pfizer, and is responsible for Sourcing Operations and Enablement, including the following functions: source-to-contract operations, systems and tools, working capital, decision support, supplier diversity, supplier relationship management, third-party risk management, supply assurance, communications, professional development, procurement policies, and compliance programs. Erik joined Pfizer in 2001 and during his tenure has led organizations that focused on strategic sourcing, supplier relationship management, contract management, business process outsourcing, shared service centers, business process reengineering, and procurement compliance programs. Prior to Pfizer, he worked in the management consulting, food and beverage, automotive, and oil and gas industries. Erik holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership from Eastern University, M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Pittsburgh, and B.S. in Industrial Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University.

Since January 2018, Chris has held the position of Vice President, Global Procurement for Thermo Fisher Scientific in Waltham, MA. He joined the company to lead their efforts in leveraging scale in the marketplace, develop capability and processes across the company, while transforming the supply base. Prior to joining Thermo Fisher Scientific, he served as Senior Vice President, Global Procurement/Global Real Estate & Facilities for Becton Dickinson. Chris served in leadership positions in procurement, supply chain operations and materials management with Smith Kline Beecham, Sterling Drug and Essilor based in Ireland.

Erin McFarlane is the VP, Operations for Fairmarkit, the leading autonomous sourcing platform. Erin has over twenty years of experience in procurement and supply chain technology and is passionate about sourcing, contract negotiation, and spend analytics.