Valerie Thompson Email & Phone Number

Wilmington, De, Us

Wilmington, Delaware

Lead global procurement team that manages $400 million in spend for purchase of these categories: R&D equipment, R&D research services (laboratory and field) and consumables for Corteva's global Research and Development organization. During 2023 lead major strategy review of key suppliers to determine if companies aligned with Corteva R&D growth strategies. Drove improvement processes to reduce cycle for the setup of new suppliers -- a key enabler and measure for the R&D organization. Met with key R&D stakeholders to identify key challenges in the Procurement and R&D relationship and then developed solutions to addresses these concerns which included '1-Point of Contact' for inquiry and accountability to resolve issues; Rebalanced team work load to enable category managers to have more time to engage with researchers and scientist to establish a smoother / easier process to purchase equipment and created a cross-functional team to drive process improvements.Worked directly with various suppliers to implement Corteva financial goals by improving our working capital position and negotiating pricing agreements that continued to maintain competitive pricing and avoids price increases on key items.

Wilmington, Delaware

Lead Global Procurement Team for Corporate Services and managed over $500 million in spend in four categories: Human Resources, Consulting, Contingent Labor and Professional Services. The global team negotiated agreements (contracts) to purchase employee benefits (e.g. medical, pharmacy, dental, vision) as well as Employee Assistance Programs (EAP), employee reward programs, etc. Team generated savings opportunities via RFP's and moved spend to lower cost providers and smoothly managed the transitions with our HR partners. The Procurement Team managed recruiting agreements (contingent & retained) and negotiated savings on contingent fee by reducing the rate structure through benchmarking. Team handled complex multi-million consulting agreements across all functions except IT. Savings opportunities identified through benchmarking and improving our working capital position.Co-Led Corteva corporate contingent labor project with HR that designed and implemented a US, Canada and Puerto Rico 'Managed Service Provider/Vendor Management System' (MSP/VMS) program that enabled Corteva to seek contingent labor competitively (e.g. via RFP's), generate savings to market where applicable, and generate comprehensive metrics about our contingent labor programs for senior leadership.

Wilmington, Delaware

Category Manager for Professional Services including management and strategy consulting, functional consulting needs (except Engineering) and Human Resource services (e.g. recruiting agreements). Responsibilities include development of category strategy, contract management, internal client relationship management, and supplier relationship management.

Wilmington, Delaware

Manage Supply Chain 'Early Career' talent development program with employees working in corporate functional areas in Wilmington, Delaware and six manufacturing sites across the U.S.Led planning and implementation of DuPont Supply Chain Summer Internship Program, identifying high potential candidates for full time positions resulting in 62 hires and 55% conversion from interns to full time employeesManage developmental early career rotation program with 28 full-time direct reports, providing tailored placements and coaching to each individual to accelerate development of knowledge, skills and abilitiesLead developer of functional competencies requirements for supply chain standard roles and assessment tools.

Wilmington, Delaware

Managed Supply Chain Center of Excellence summer internship program and created a pipeline of top talent for full-time positions.Led design of a simplified quality compliant complaint process for DuPont Packaging Graphics Business, reducing complaint resolution time by 60% by integrating requirements from Manufacturing, Technical Service, Customer Service, Sales, Product Management and Equipment Service. Led operations team redesign of material movement process enabling material recycling resulting in $75,000/year of income and a $100,000 reduction in warehousing and landfill expenses.Improved supply chain transaction reliability for two businesses through data management and maintenance optimization

Wilmington, Delaware

Led cost reduction projects for supplier switch that enabled over $1 million in savings for a key raw material; Assured new supplier met quality requirements and customer specificationsLed improvement projects to reduce laboratory redundancies and perform testing at lowest cost facility to enable revenue growth in Asia Pacific;Designed and implemented new laboratory test request and data storage database, reducing cycle time to resolve customer complaints by over 25%; Provided metrics that tied testing to application development, new product introduction and key growth initiatives.

Wilmington, Delaware

Provided technical support for two product families for the Performance Polymers Sales & Marketing organization; managed creation of product data literature, resolved customer processing issues; supported product portfolio stream lining initiatives to improve profitability of product lines.Collaborated with Research & Development and Manufacturing to evaluate new products to validate customer requirements were achieved and enable successful product launches; Led successful technical launch of over 10 new products to support the automotive connector and appliance handle markets.

Masters Of Library Science, Library & Information Science With Concentration In Competitive Intelligence & Knowledge Management

Activities and Societies: Beta Phi Mu, Special Libraries Association (SLA)

Bachelor'S Of Science, Industrial Engineering

Activities and Societies: Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineering (IIE), Society of Women Engineer s (SWE) and National Society.

Masters Of Engineering, Industrial Engineering

Activities and Societies: Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineering (IIE), Society of Women Engineers ( SWE) and National Society.