As the head of global information technology vendor management Mark’s mandate is to set up and manage a new vendor management office in McCain. Objectives include optimizing costs, consolidating vendors and holding vendors accountable to performance. This is done through establishing a strategic vendor management approach to managing the technology vendors in McCain Foods.

Link – Sage is a boutique consulting firm specializing in organizational change management, strategic sourcing, vendor relationship management and sustainable sourcing strategies. I am the owner of the firm providing consulting and staff augmentation services for multiple clients in the financial and high tech industries.Led the implementation of a demand management program in consulting services to bring what was year over year increasing spend under control with a large Canadian Bank.Allowed a client to receive greater value for money through contracting process with suppliers. Saved $50MM by moving performance accountability to client's suppliers reducing change requests. Led the roll out of a social responsibility program within strategic sourcing enabling client to measure and influence suppliers from a social responsibility perspective. Assisted a client with the development of a supplier management centre of excellence program to proactively manage supplier relationships delivering on continuous improvement. Developed a master contract agreement for a client and led the negotiations of the agreement with key suppliers. Taught the Supply Chain program at Trios College.

Responsible for a team of Category Managers managing Logistics, IT and E-Commerce categories. Strategic Sourcing is a new team within Sobeys where I was part of the leadership team which developed the department and made it a valued contributor to Sobeys key objectives. This was done through centralizing strategic sourcing to leverage scale within all the Empire Company banners. This includes Sobeys, Safeways and IGA.

As the Senior Manager in growth and strategy my role was to support the sales organization in growing revenue in Canada. This involved bringing intelligence of the competition, client and market to shape the solution providing Accenture with a strong position to win the project. I worked with the internal project teams, sales teams and Managing Directors to provide insights into the market space to identify the “order winners” which sets Accenture apart from our competition.

Leadership role on the Procurian team which implemented an outsourced strategic sourcing function within BlackBerry. Was responsible for strategy development pertaining to sourcing and category management related to BlackBerry's indirect spend with a focus on supporting manufacturing operations and Research and Development. This included leading sourcing initiatives, negotiations and supplier relationship management for BlackBerry to drive greater value through OpEx and CapEx spend.Part of a larger program to develop and implement an indirect spend management and procurement function within BlackBerry.

Worked with clients to help bring management solutions to opportunities through leading class supply chain practices. The solutions were developed and implemented through leading of highly motivated and capable teams of consultants within Deloitte. Bruce Power - Introduced new demand management process and supplier management process with collaboration and two way communication.Bayer - Led the development of a scope of work along with required work processes and service levels. Incorporated into an RFP and score card. Ran RFP, vendor evaluation program to select appropriate supplier.Canada Post - Recommended to client to reorganize structure to less management and more technical people on the ground doing the work. Reduce the reporting to a smaller list of strategic key performance indicators.Wind Mobile - Leveraging leading class practices developed business policy related to procurement. Once accepted by business units built processes from policy and conducted training on policies and processes.Greater Toronto Airport Authority - Recommended strategies to deliver savings on operations and procurement through ease of implementation and size of spend. GTAA implemented many of the recommendations reducing the landing fees.

Led a group of Category Managers and Contract Managers to manage an annual spend of several hundred million dollars. This included developing Sourcing Strategies, semi annual pricing reviews and negotiations and negotiation of Master Purchase Agreements. Managed the spend in conjunction with internal Rogers business partners taking leadership and offering professional services in spend management. Also worked with senior Rogers executive management communicating risks and opportunities within the suppliers and sourcing.

Responsible for the souring of electronic components for all Divisions of Harris. This was through leading a company wide Category Council in a hybrid strategic sourcing model with representation from multiple divisions. Also responsible for outsourcing Leitch Division SMT manufacturing to contract manufacturers. As the project manager, I set up the contract and led the team which moved the production to the contract manufacturer while ensuring that the transition did not impact the ability for Harris to continue producing product and meeting customer needs.

Developed the procurement function within Leitch from an administrative function to a strategic leading function supporting Leitch in the objectives of gross margin improvement, inventory reduction and increased sales through a more responsive supply chain. This was accomplished through the use of global sourcing through low cost country sourcing strategies, vendor managed inventory programs and most importantly, developing the internal department skills to think and act strategically based on corporate objectives.