David Gray Email & Phone Number

Overland Park, Ks

Responsible for developing strong Business strategies in support of our Colgate goals regarding cost, service, digitalization and sustainability. Strengthen relationships and collaboration with NA and Hills NA Divisional and Hub stakeholders and in particular support their teams with tenders, market intelligence and priority negotiations. Work to develop the external perspective both with our suppliers and the wider market in order to drive our Funding the Growth targets.

Overland Park, Ks

Topeka, Kansas, United States

Manage $234MM of indirect spend for freight and warehousing in North America by working collaboratively with key stakeholders and other functions to continue developing and supporting our strategy to grow the business while delivery FTG.

Greenwood, South Carolina, United States

Responsible for Inventory and Warehouse Management, specifically focused on driving Absolute Material Losses (AML) down at the Greenwood facility. I managed an Inventory Team Leader and a team of Inventory Technicians which are responsible for clearing inventory consumption issues, cycle counting inventory and investigating material losses.I established a new structure for the Inventory Team formalizing the Inventory Technician role and in the process selecting the right profiles that will be critical to support Greenwood's overall AML Reduction strategy through 2025. I successfully delivered results by driving AML reduction in Q3 of 2021 to 2.6%, a 25% reduction from the previous low set in Q2 of 2021. This reduction has resulted in an annualized spend reduction of $1.7MM for Greenwood and setting a new baseline for the plant in material loss.

Greenwood, South Carolina, United States

I managed a team of 16 palletizer operators at our Greenwood, SC Personal Care facility. I successfully identified key areas of opportunity for continuous improvement in the palletizer cell and utilizing FP&R principles have led projects reducing unplanned downtime 13% in the cell by the second half of 2020. I also led and coordinated activities with OEM suppliers, engineering and operations team to bring the automation of HU labels from 40% to 70%, with additional work currently being done to increase automation from 70% to 89%.

Piscataway, Nj

I led the stabilization of a new copacking supplier responsible for over half of the assembly business in the United States. Planned, coordinated and led the execution of continuous improvement workshops, whiteboard sessions and monthly reviews which contributed to the successful implementation of over $5.75MM in FTG projects in 2019. Successfully piloted the Mexico Customization Hub leveraging low cost sourcing for North America copacking projects where base stock is produced in Mexico.Responsible for developing, aligning and executing the sourcing strategy for the category in North America. Responsible for driving FTG projects and reporting (2019 goal of $5.75MM achieved). I expanded innovation and automation in the category through key cost savings initiatives. Additionally, I engaged suppliers to develop a plan to support CP sustainability goals in packaging through 2025.

Piscataway, Nj

I successfully planned, led and executed RFP’s for warehousing in North America, representing over $15MM in spend. During a tough labor market, I negotiated savings via continuous improvement guarantees and rent reductions. I led a very difficult negotiation with a current supplier which resulted in over $1MM in cost avoidance over 2 years. I led contract negotiations for several warehousing agreements, including short term commitments, contract amendments and letters of intent. I negotiated an innovation test and learn at one of our warehousing locations to increase productivity. I developed the long term warehousing strategy for the next 3-5 years.I was responsible for providing the strategic sourcing and spend management leadership for US, Tom’s, COP, and Canada, managing the warehousing category. I collaborated closely with the North America Logistics team to leverage synergies and identify further opportunities to drive efficiency and savings.

Greater Atlanta Area

I led the successful pilot of the 4PL/Lean Logistics Provider initiative in 2016 and led the successful launch and integration in early 2017. I led cross-functional teams and managed two different 4PL service providers at different locations and ensured best in class services to our customers while managing a very complex environment on a day to day basis. I played a key role in the change management necessary to integrate the 4PL into our day to day operation and ensured success in developing a strategic collaborative partnership with our new 4PL partner. This included working on freight procurement events and developing a strategic routing guide for all modes of transit for the 4PL model.I was responsible for providing oversight of day to day operations and strategic execution of customer and replenishment freight. I supported all critical transportation projects to achieve best in class services to customers and develop Colgate’s transportation processes to be agile and efficient. I managed a team that included one direct report and an additional 12 third party employees. In addition, I provided oversight and leadership to the Transportation team at Colgate Business Services in Mexico.

Greater Atlanta Area

I was the Project Manager responsible for closing the Portland Distribution Center in 2015. This was a cross-functional project that required close coordination between many areas in CS&L, the Supply Chain and Colgate Business Services in order to execute without business disruption. Under my leadership, the Portland Distribution Center was closed on time and there was no business disruption to our customers as a result of the careful coordination among all key stakeholders and functions in the organization.I was responsible for leading the development and delivery of Customer Service & Logistics (CS&L) Funding the Growth, Cost to Serve Initiatives and capability development utilizing Project Management tools, processes and methodologies and Lean Six Sigma Principles. This entailed working closely with CS&L leaders to understand strategies and goals across functional teams and ensure the appropriate number and types of resources are secured for projects supporting them.

Greater Atlanta Area

I led the network modeling project for the North American network utilizing Llamasoft's Supply Chain Guru. This was a 9+ month project where the entire North American Supply Chain was modeled which resulted in several network recommendations, including transitioning from a push to a make-to-stock (pull) network. The North American design project resulted in $5-6MM dollars in savings over five years. Additional network modeling projects I worked on realized $540M in logistics savings over 12 months. I led the monthly close process and was the key process owner where the analysis team works with our finance team to close the financial numbers each and every month.A large part of this role included leading a group of three to five analyst interns by mentoring and managing their time and effectiveness on projects and analysis. I led the way in training our interns as they rotated through their program every six months on key systems and tools such as Crystal Reports, MS Visio, Tableau and MS MapPoint.

Greater Atlanta Area

Designed and executed the consolidation of five terminals in the Holland network, which resulted in a yearly savings of $70M dollars. Developed process maps for delivery process and wrote new ISO documentation. Analyzed statistical data on new business density and adjusted routing at each individual location as needed. Developed business case for handheld device integration in operations, which was successfully implemented across the network. Implemented the integration of the two operating companies Yellow and Roadway Express into YRC which resulted in substantial increase in productivity throughout the YRC network. Demonstrated ability to work with many different internal customers across multiple corporate cultures while focusing on the key strategies to implement the integration of the two operating companies into one cohesive unit. Influenced local Teamster union members to buy into improvement ideas and execute accordingly.