Procurement Professional is the official publication of CIPS Australasia

Aussies make procurement 'young guns' list

02 Dec 2009

Source: SupplyManagement.com, 2 December 2009

A special feature in Supply Management magazine (the official publication of CIPS, based in the UK) profiles some of the
brightest and best young people in the procurement profession today.  Marissa Brown at BAE Systems in Adelaide and Alexandra Goffey, a category manager at Parmalat Australia have both been recognised as talent to watch by their inclusion in this list.

The magazine asked for nominations of prospective CPOs of the future. Coming up with a list of 35 was tough, but over the course of feature you can see who was selected and why.

All aged 35 or under this year, they work in all sectors, for organisations of all sizes – and all around the world.

Marissa Brown

This rising young star loves procurement so much she’s trying to get more graduates into the profession. Marissa Brown joined the regional committee of CIPSA SA/NT branch in February 2007 as its “future talent forum co-ordinator”, and has also delivered lectures for final year commerce students at the University of Adelaide.

Brown, who was recently named CIPS Australia’s young procurement professional of the year, has been in the profession for just four years, all at BAE, but in that time she has achieved improvements for procurement and the overall business. These include successfully presenting a business case to the management board for a graduate conference, which is now an annual event. She also co-developed the BAE Systems procurement “Developing You Reach Program”, which offers a clear career path and core purchasing training.

In her current role Brown is responsible for a spend of about $30 million.

Alexandra Goffey

At 24, she is one of purchasing’s youngest rising stars, but Alexandra Goffey already has an MA in business and is one of the youngest purchasers in Australia to hold the MCIPS qualification.

“Supply management offers growing opportunities as more organisations recognise the value a strong procurement function can deliver,” she says. She began her career as a procurement officer at the Department of Emergency Services in Brisbane on the Queensland Government’s procurement professional graduate programme. She joined milk and dairy producer Parmalat Australia as a procurement officer before becoming category manager for direct materials. Her projects included developing a strategy to determine whether to manufacture juice in house, saving AUS$250,000 by improving packaging and ingredients sourcing.

She has won strong praise from Stephen Rowe, CPO of Parmalat Australia, who praises her skill in working with senior executives internally and at vendors, as well as with factory production managers and planners, which “reflects our vision of Alex as a future leader”.

Click here to read the full feature.