Transforming the perception of procurement from back-office “order processor” to valued business partner is Tina Richards’ mission and passion — from reimagining Science Applications International Corp.’s Strategic Proposal Team and merging it with Strategic Sourcing to hiring nontraditional hires for key roles to bring a new lens to the department.
She’s also passionate about fostering a relationship with the University of Tennessee’s Haslam School of Business to build a pipeline of new supply chain talent.
“I am striving, along with my very talented leadership team, to elevate the value-add contribution of our department to support the mission and enable growth,” Richards said.
In 2020, Richards and her team made several advances in its procurement modernization journey, which originally encompassed four pillars: supplier performance management, source to contract automation, electronic invoicing and digital document management.
Working closely with stakeholders and ITO partners, SAIC moved procurement from a paper-based function to an automated, secure and digital partner.
“With better data, we can reduce risk, optimize our spend and rationalize the supply base to support our growing enterprise,” Richards said.
Why Watch
In the next year, Richards is focused on ensuring procurement can scale for growth by finding efficiencies through optimizing SAIC’s tool kit, maximizing strategic agreements and partnerships and developing its staff to align with sector priorities while protecting the approved purchasing system.
“Reducing and mitigating risk in the supply chain is another key priority to protect our company and our customers and requires a close collaboration with our cyber team and program execution partners,” she said.
See the entire Top 10 Contracting Execs to Watch in 2020 list here.