ProcureCon IT Sourcing 2025
June 02 - 03, 2025
The Westin Copley Place, Boston, MA
DAY 2: Tuesday, July 19 Innovation And Transformation: Becoming An Effective Change Agent
7:20 am - 7:20 am
Breakfast In The Solutions Zone
7:20 am - 8:15 am
Diversity and Inclusion Breakfast
Yan Yan Zhang -
Principal, IT Vendor Relations,
American Airlines
Diversity can bring a different perspective to all organizations and is increasingly becoming an integral part of many IT Procurement teams. Our Diversity and Inclusion Breakfast will provide an intimate setting for executives to discuss relative challenges in the industry.
8:15 am - 8:20 am
Announcements and Remarks
8:20 am - 9:00 am
Panel: Driving Innovation When Everything Costs More: Unique Ways That IT Procurement Can Provide Additional Value
Pierre Mitchell -
Managing Director, Strategic Research & Development,
Spend Matters
Lavanya Palaparthy -
Global Director of IT Procurement,
Kimberly-Clark
Mike Rossi -
Director of Procurement,
Hub International Limited
Joel Kelly -
Vice President, Procurement & Vendor Management,
Maximus
The recent onslaught of inflation requires a shift in mindset for all organizations – and procurement is not immune. Our panel of experts will delve further into this topic, providing insight into how they are not just adjusting but thriving in this challenging environment. Key takeaways are expected to include
• Protection against inflation – how to negotiate to ensure short term and long term success
• Unique ways to address inflation specific to IT hardware, software, services, etc.
• Managing expectations vs. reality regarding cost savings
9:00 am - 9:20 am
Presentation Riddle Of The Day: If You Have A Procurement Process But Nobody Follows It, Then Do You *Really* Have A Process At All?
Ed Sawma -
VP of Marketing,
Zip
Miles Campbell -
Account Executive,
Zip
Procurement has created policy, documented it, and held informational office hours all in an effort to help reign in shadow IT. Yet, teams still go outside the process, leading to both non-PO backed spend and more software as a surprise that IT ends up having to help manage. With the changing economic climate and business costs rising, the issue is getting more critical to address by the day.
Getting adoption of your processes is often the starting place in solving downstream financial and efficiency issues for the business. Adoption with a complex, cross-functional procurement workflow is a common challenge for many procurement and IT leaders.
Join this session to learn about how you can work towards 100% employee adoption and reign in shadow IT.
9:20 am - 10:00 am
Workshop: Improving Your C-Level Presence: Key Tactics For Successfully Selling Your Ideas To Leadership
Gaston Alvarado -
Global Category Manager,
Materion
This workshop will give you the takeaways you need to initiate and maintain effective partnerships with your C-level executives. You won’t want to miss the key takeaways surrounding.
· Assessing the ask – determining how and when to ask for resources from your executive team
· Improving your executive presence
· Managing organizational constraints
10:00 am - 10:40 am
Energize Morning Break
Stay energized throughout the conference! Grab a smoothie & enjoy some apple fritters before heading back to the General Session room!
10:40 am - 11:20 am
Panel: Helping Your Stakeholders Help Themselves: Managing IT Contingent Labor In Today’s Unpredictable Environment
Pierre Mitchell -
Managing Director, Strategic Research & Development,
Spend Matters
Andrew Russell -
Senior Manager, Indirect Procurement, IT,
CommScope
Drake Paben -
Head of Global Procurement,
Siemens Digital Industries Software
DInesh Balasubramaniyan -
AVP Digital Transformation,
Turing
Given a host of external factors, the market of IT contingent labor continues to be a challenge for both IT procurement and their respective stakeholders. This engaging panel will talk through some of the overall trends facing the IT contingent labor category and shed some light on what IT procurement can do to help tackle this challenge head on. Key takeaways from this panel are expected to include:
• As workers' demands shift, how are organizations using new and existing resources to meet a sudden demand spike or fill urgent talent needs?
• What are some best practices as it relates to evaluating MSP/VMS suppliers?
• What actions can procurement take now to improve their IT contingent labor programs?
11:20 am - 12:00 pm
Panel: Staying On Top Of Software License Renewals: Key Actions Procurement Should Take
Trace Lewis -
Senior Procurement and Vendor Manager,
Transamerica
Brad Veech -
Sr. Director IT Sourcing,
Walmart
Alan Poulin -
Manager, Procurement and Third-Party Management,
Transamerica
12:00 pm - 12:30 pm
Interactive Roundtables: Industry Meet and Greet
Jeffrey Hu -
Associate Director, Category Lead, IT Software,
Bristol Myers Squibb
Charles Hoop -
Global Lead- IT Platforms Category Management,
Aon Service Corporation
These interactive industry roundtable sessions take a deep dive into the specific areas you came to talk about. Sit and learn in an intimate format from the speakers who have had an impact on their company and industry. Take control of your own event experience and don’t be shy! Ask questions (or answer them!) alongside other conference attendees who are dealing with the same challenges as you network with industry peers with very similar challenges, interests and responsibilities.
1. Silicon Valley Refugio Fernandez, Head of Supply Chain, Dropbox
2. Pharmaceutical/Health Jeffrey Hu, Associate Director, Category Lead, IT Software, Bristol Myers Squibb
3. Finance/Insurance Charles Hoop, Global Lead - IT Platforms Category Management, Aon Service Corporation
12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
Lunch For All Attendees
Track A: Managing Your IT Procurement Career (Open To All Attendees)
2:00 pm - 2:40 pm Panel: Managing Your Career In IT Procurement: Setting Goals For Success Andrew Speakes - Supplier Relationship Manager, Global Strategic Sourcing – Software, Kyndryl Brandi Mahurin - Sourcing Category Manager, Technology, American Cancer Society Dimple Trivedi - Director, Technology Procurement, Blucora Ryan Habich - Sourcing Manager, Kirkland & Ellis LLP Yatzibet Avila - Director, Procurement for HW/SW and Telco, Fannie MaeThis workshop, led by various practitioners at different stages in their careers, will talk through their goal setting process and related successes/achievements. You’ll leave this session with a clear understanding of
• What it takes to get to that next level (in your current role or outside of it)
• Tools and techniques to actively manage your career
• How to better leverage your annual goal setting process
Track A: Managing Your IT Procurement Career (Open To All Attendees)
2:40 pm - 3:20 pm Workshop: Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls: Developing A Unique Approach Towards Agile Development Contract Andrew Russell - Senior Manager, Indirect Procurement, IT, CommScopeAs agile software development and hybrid-agile implementation methods becomes more popular, it’s never been more critical for IT Procurement to understand the inherent risks to agile development/implementation and its related terminology when negotiating with related suppliers. This session will give you key insights into how to address the following attributes of agile development into an effective contract
· Product vision
· Agile development roles (Product Owner, the Development Team and the ScrumMaster).
· Sprint Process
· Defining Completion
· Governance and OCM
· Developing an Agile SOW template
Track B: Getting Your House In Order: Procurement Enabling Technology (Open To All Attendees)
2:00 pm - 2:40 pm Panel: IT Procurement’s Involvement In Internal Procurement Initiatives: Best Practices In Planning and implementing P2P/Procurement Tools Brian Anderson - President, The Judge Group Alan Poulin - Manager, Procurement and Third-Party Management, Transamerica Clayton Thomas - Manager, Category Management & Systems, HF Sinclair Yan Yan Zhang - Principal, IT Vendor Relations, American Airlines
Track B: Getting Your House In Order: Procurement Enabling Technology (Open To All Attendees)
2:40 pm - 3:20 pm Workshop Big Data 2.0 – Getting Your IT Spend Data Under Control And Actually Using It Marc Gerdy - Technology Strategic Sourcing Manager, PacificLife
Track C: IT Procurement Negotiation Deep Dive (Procurement Practitioners Only)
2:00 pm - 2:40 pm Workshop: IT Procurement Unplugged: Negotiation Strategies For Small-Midsized Organizations Gaston Alvarado - Global Category Manager, Materion Kimberly Master - Technology Sourcing Leader, Netflix Sameer Syed - Global Director IT Porcurement, ADMThis interactive workshop will give you an opportunity to meet with your peers to get down to the ‘nitty gritty’ details you need to succeed in your next negotiation.
Track C: IT Procurement Negotiation Deep Dive (Procurement Practitioners Only)
2:40 pm - 3:20 pm Workshop: IT Procurement Unplugged: Negotiation Strategies For Fortune 500 - Global Organizations Clayton Thomas - Manager, Category Management & Systems, HF SinclairThis interactive workshop will give you an opportunity to meet with your peers to get down to the ‘nitty gritty’ details you need to succeed in your next negotiation.
3:20 pm - 4:00 pm
Sweet & Salty Afternoon Break (Last Chance To Visit Solutions Zone)
4:00 pm - 4:40 pm
Keynote Panel Moving From Tactical To Strategic: Key Takeaways To Move Your Program Up The Maturity Curve
Ashley Cashwell -
Senior Manager, IT Vendor Management,
The Clorox Company
Dimitrios Manolopoulos -
Senior Director, Strategic & IT Sourcing,
National Bank of Canada
David Johnson -
Head of Supplier Management,
Zoetis
Sy Henderson -
Senior Director, Global Procurement,
Kimberly-Clark
Nisreen Bagasra -
Chief Procurement Officer,
Tufts University
Given the rapid change and demands facing your stakeholders, you can’t afford to keep your program at a standstill. It’s a matter of when (not if) you move your program up the maturity curve in today’s environment. But how do you get yourself out of the day-to-day execution of your program to focus on long-term improvement?
• How to develop and communicate the business case for improvement
• Defining program maturity milestones
• Leveraging and strengthening relationships with your staffing partners
• Developing and implementing program KPIs to measure success
