Heads Up on Tail Spend: findings from The State of Tail Spend report

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.

Walter Charles, formerly Chief Procurement Officer at Biogen—and former CPO at Kraft, Kellogg’s, and J&J—has the unique perspective of serving on supply-chain leadership teams and leading procurement transformations across biotechnology, consumer packaged goods, pharmaceutical, and medical device businesses. Walter holds an MBA from Columbia University and an M.Eng. from Stevens Institute of Technology.

SVP of Strategy & Procurement at Fairmarkit. Former CPO & VP, Corporate Services at VSP Global (2013 to 2021). Prior CPO and VP S2S at salesforce.com (2008 to 2013) and Oracle Corporation (1998 to 2008). M.Sc. Management from Saint Mary’s College of California with professional credentials from SIG, NAPM and NCMA. 2018 Hall of Fame inductee into SIG. 2019 CPO of the Year, Ardent Partners.

Kevin Frechette is the CEO and Co-Founder of Fairmarkit, the autonomous sourcing platform. Since starting Fairmarkit as a tail spend automation solution, he has met with and learned from thousands of supply chain and procurement executives to understand where technology can transform procurement. Kevin’s current focus is on exploring the possibilities for AI and automation across procurement and supply chain processes, most recently Generative AI. He notably has led Fairmarkit to being ranked 159th fastest growing company in America by Inc5000. Most importantly, he’s a girl dad to three “spirited” daughters and one son.