Jill Rankin

My journey in procurement began when I was a kid - my mother owned a gift shop, and she took me with her to meet with all of the suppliers and the people that she bought all of her merchandise from. That was the beginning. She bought in a very interesting way, because she would buy steamship salvage, and it would be like one-of-a-kind things that she would put in her shop, so you never knew what was going to be there, and that made it very interesting for her customers. She was very successful, and I was a big part of learning the ropes. I've been in pharmaceuticals since 2005, working across multiple industry sectors including food, health, and garment industries. I also had my own business for 6 years, where I basically worked in sales and supported both independent companies as well as companies that had no purchasing departments. I provided them with guidance and my experience of best ways of working with third-party suppliers, and a couple of the companies actually were in need of financial guidance, so all of that was wrapped up into the work that I did. Today, as Associate Director of Strategic Sourcing, I focus on strategic sourcing and procurement. I just received a Finance Excellence Award for Strategy, Partnership, and Growth, where I was given the title of Game Changer. I find ways of being innovative not only for the business but in the work that I do. I get bored if I do the same thing over and over again in the same way, so I look for new ways to create opportunities. I challenge people, and with all the new technology we have now, it opens up so many lines of thinking and ways to communicate. I'm proud of being a really great trusted business partner and advisor - people come to me when they have challenges, and we are very good at coming up with solutions. I've saved millions of dollars, and part of that is because of staying engaged with the business. I think if you do that, then you have an opportunity to really see what's going on ahead of time versus not having the visibility.