Megan Budnick

I've spent 12 years building my career in manufacturing and imports, always focused on making things better and more efficient. I started in imports while juggling school and a full-time job, helping my manager build up the import division at Quantix from a $10 million account to a $35 million account over 7 years. That experience taught me the foundation of process building and efficiency. I then moved to Malco Products as their planner buyer for the new product division, where I had the incredible opportunity to establish a brand new facility from scratch - bringing in equipment, new processes, new products, and new suppliers. After we launched that new product, I transitioned into master scheduling, running production and scheduling for facilities in both Annandale and Nebraska for 3-4 years. Now, as procurement manager at M&I, I handle all purchasing, negotiations, inventory management, imports, and compliance. My biggest professional achievement has been building new processes and procedures for each company - establishing policies for how inventory flows through systems, creating safety stock protocols that are repeatable, and developing automated processes so we're not spending hours doing the same work over and over. I approach every day asking myself: how can I make this better? Even if I can make something 10% better, that's still better than it was today. I apply this same logic at home with my two little kids and my husband, always looking for ways to make things run smoother.