Podcast: Smarter Sourcing

EP 40 – Bon Secours’ Daniel Hurry on Industry Elevation over Retention in Leadership Development

Daniel Hurry, President at Advantus Health Partners & CSCO at Bon Secours Mercy Health, helped  justify building Advantus Health Partners to their board by calculating the admin fee equation, then proving they could negotiate better pricing at their scale. Their commercialization strategy was to skip the crowded commodity categories where another contract for gloves or EP 40 – Bon Secours’ Daniel Hurry on Industry Elevation over Retention in Leadership Development

EP 39 – Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Matthew Laud on Diversity in Team & Supplier Selection

Procurement at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center requires abandoning traditional sourcing language when working with physicians whose primary concern is patient outcomes, not optimization metrics, but Matthew Laud, Director of Strategic Sourcing & Supplier Management, has figured out the translation. Framing procurement’s value into clinical terms creates the trust necessary for physicians to delegate critical EP 39 – Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Matthew Laud on Diversity in Team & Supplier Selection

EP 38 – Northwestern Medicine’s Gary Fennessy on the Shift to Partnership-Based Healthcare Procurement

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Smarter Sourcing: Healthcare, with host Eric O’Daffer. Gary Fennessy, VP & Chief Supply Chain Executive at Northwestern Medicine, has been NM’s Chief Supply Chain Officer for over 20 years and brings 44 years of industry experience navigating the transformation from a single academic hospital to a multi-site health system. EP 38 – Northwestern Medicine’s Gary Fennessy on the Shift to Partnership-Based Healthcare Procurement

EP 37 – Eric O’Daffer on 3 True Norths for AI Investment, Indirect Spend, & Benchmarking

Most health systems report supply chain spend in the high teens while industry data confirms it’s actually 35-40% of operating expenses, a measurement gap that systematically undermines investment cases to the C-suite. Eric O’Daffer, Executive Producer for Smarter Sourcing: Healthcare, shares why he’s convinced the answer to indirect spend isn’t another platform but sustained center EP 37 – Eric O’Daffer on 3 True Norths for AI Investment, Indirect Spend, & Benchmarking

EP 36 – Supplier Data as a Compass, Not a Mirror with Aleck Matambo

Aleck Matambo’s approach to supplier relationships proved critical during Dell’s COVID-era factory relocations. When inventory shortages forced allocation decisions across the industry, suppliers prioritized Dell because of partnerships built long before the crisis. His framework moves beyond transactional cost negotiations to create symbiotic relationships focused on innovation, market insights, and long-term value creation. This partnership EP 36 – Supplier Data as a Compass, Not a Mirror with Aleck Matambo

EP 35 – Lucid Motors’ Kriti Jain on Maximum Chaos Creating the Best Transformation Conditions

Kriti Jain, Sr. Director of Indirect Procurement, walked into Lucid Motors to find an indirect procurement function that barely existed — a team in single digits without the infrastructure to support a scaling EV manufacturer competing against established players. Within a year, she built what she calls “indirect procurement 2.0,” growing to nearly 30 people EP 35 – Lucid Motors’ Kriti Jain on Maximum Chaos Creating the Best Transformation Conditions

EP 34 – Victoria’s Secret’s Former CFO Tim Johnson on Building a Cost-Centric Culture

LogicSource Board Chairman & Former CFO of Victoria’s Secret, Tim Johnson‘s three-pillar methodology for collaborative cost cultures centers on objective third-party benchmarking, transparent measurement systems, and positioning procurement teams as strategic partners at the decision-making table. His approach consistently delivered results by focusing resources on growth and innovation rather than headcount reduction. His organizational structure EP 34 – Victoria’s Secret’s Former CFO Tim Johnson on Building a Cost-Centric Culture

EP 33 – AMD’s Abhijit Kulkarni on Selecting 5-Year Growth Partners

Transactional supplier relationships weren’t working out, so Abhijit Kulkarni, Director of Manufacturing Strategy and Procurement at AMD, and his team shifted to identifying “growth partners” who can scale across AMD’s entire product portfolio over three-to-five year horizons. Abhijit also offer insight on crisis management: AMD runs supply chain stress tests every 3 to 6 months, EP 33 – AMD’s Abhijit Kulkarni on Selecting 5-Year Growth Partners

EP 32 – New Balance’s Duncan Scott on How Marketing Decisions Reshape Supply Chains

Duncan Scott, Sr VP of Strategic Sourcing & Quality at New Balance, manages sourcing and quality for a company that introduces thousands of new footwear and apparel products annually, each requiring specialized manufacturing capabilities that generic suppliers cannot provide. His approach rejects commoditization in favor of deep category expertise and multi-decade supplier partnerships. The athletic EP 32 – New Balance’s Duncan Scott on How Marketing Decisions Reshape Supply Chains

EP 31 – TripAdvisor’s Freya Hurwitz on Cross-Functional Experience vs Category Expertise

Freya Hurwitz, Director of Procurement at TripAdvisor, manages procurement for TripAdvisor’s 3,500 employees across four global brands with just one and half people on her team. Rather than trying to control every transaction, she built scalable systems that empower stakeholders to handle their own procurement while her team focuses on high-impact negotiations. Freya discusses how EP 31 – TripAdvisor’s Freya Hurwitz on Cross-Functional Experience vs Category Expertise