An inspiring call to action for women entering supply chain technology, revealing how systems thinking, empathy, and questioning the status quo are the true competitive advantages in a rapidly evolving industry.
Her Story
About Teresa
Teresa (Teresa Bauer) Williams is a Director of Strategic Accounts with approximately 12 years of experience in the supply chain and global standards industry. She specializes in driving cross industry collaboration and advancing the adoption of global data standards that improve visibility, efficiency, and interoperability across complex supply chain networks. GS1 US, a not for profit organization responsible for developing and maintaining the global standards behind barcodes and product identification systems used worldwide. In her role at GS1 US, Teresa works closely with large, highly influential enterprise organizations across retail, healthcare, and food industries. These partnerships are critical because major retailers and brands often drive widespread adoption of global standards across entire ecosystems. She focuses on ensuring that GS1 standards are properly understood, implemented, and embedded throughout organizations, not only at the executive level but across operational teams. Her work emphasizes education, alignment, and adoption so that businesses can fully realize the value of standardized product identification, improved traceability, and more efficient supply chain operations. Prior to GS1 US, Teresa spent three years in the RFID industry working with radio frequency identification technologies used for automated tracking and data capture in supply chains. She also worked for a company that manufactured labels and RFID tags, further strengthening her technical understanding of product identification systems. Her career began at Best Buy, where she worked for eight years in retail operations, including hands on inventory cycle counts conducted overnight. That early operational experience shaped her appreciation for efficiency and transformation, as she now works with organizations to replace manual, time intensive processes with modern, automated systems that enable real time visibility and smarter decision making across the supply chain.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Teresa
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to a blend of structured discipline and a deep investment in others. My background in fitness taught me that consistency is the only way to move the needle, a lesson I’ve applied to every technical implementation at GS1 US.
However, drive and ambition are hollow without community. I’ve found that my greatest wins have come when I stopped focusing on how I could help others succeed. My success is a reflection of the ecosystem I’ve built—one supported by a mastermind of peers, a resilient family, and a genuine desire to see everyone in the chain thrive.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice I ever received was to 'be the curriculum.' Early in my career, I thought I had to wait for a certification or a title to lead. But I learned that my own experiences—the chaos of a global supply chain, the discipline of CrossFit, and the patience required in motherhood—are the real lessons. This shifted my perspective from seeking answers externally to trusting my internal 'Three Principles' of mind, consciousness, and thought. It taught me that leadership isn't about having all the answers; it’s about having the presence to listen and the humility to stay curious when things get messy.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Own your expertise — you’ve earned your seat at the table. Lead with confidence, and never let uncertainty silence you. Ask the questions that need to be asked, and embrace the grace of not having all the answers; that humility will draw people toward you, not away. It signals safety, and people open up to those who make them feel heard.
You were chosen for a reason. Mastery comes with time, but presence comes from within. The most powerful thing you can do is lead in service of others — listening deeply, staying curious, and remaining teachable.
For women especially, there’s a particular tightrope to walk — being firm without being perceived as forceful, commanding respect without stifling connection. The sweet spot lives between conviction and openness. When you find it, people don’t just respect you — they trust you.
Stay coachable. Stay grounded. And go for it.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The greatest challenge in my field isn’t competition — we are, after all, the only global standard used across supply chains to identify products, locations, and companies worldwide. The real challenge is adoption. It comes down to whether brand owners are willing to invest in doing things the right way.
We rely heavily on major retailers to make global standards a non-negotiable requirement for doing business with them. Without that mandate, we can’t compel a brand owner or emerging company to license a Global Trade Item Number — the unique identifier encoded in every barcode. A company can absolutely use an internal numbering system, but that data won’t translate seamlessly into enterprise platforms. Interoperability breaks down, and inefficiency follows.
So our work is really about education and empowerment — helping brand owners understand how standardization enables smarter, more scalable business operations.
And the need is significant. So many entrepreneurs launching new ventures simply aren’t thinking about product identification. They’re focused on getting their product to market — selling their t-shirts, launching their line — and the nuance of assigning a unique identifier to every size, every color, every variant is the last thing on their minds.
That’s exactly where we come in. Our mission, at its core, is educating the marketplace — one brand owner at a time.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The value that anchors everything for me is interoperability—not just in the technical sense of supply chain standards, but in how we show up as humans. In my work, I advocate for systems that 'talk' to each other to create efficiency. In my life, I strive for that same alignment between my ambition and my compassion. I believe in radical transparency and cognitive flexibility.
Whether I’m navigating a 2D barcode rollout or coaching someone through a fitness plateau, I prioritize the 'human standard'—ensuring that our growth never comes at the expense of our well-being or our integrity.
Her Content Hub
Articles by Teresa
Moving Mountains (and Microchips): Why Supply Chain Needs Your Magic
Why women are the missing piece in supply chain technology innovation.
If you had told me a few years ago that I’d be spending my days thinking about “last-mile delivery” and “automated warehouse logic,” I probably would have assumed I had accidentally joined a very specific type of marathon.
But here we are.
Supply chain—specifically the technology side of it—has long been viewed as a world of dusty clipboards, heavy machinery, and men named Tom. But there is a quiet revolution happening. The clipboards are now tablets, the machinery is driven by AI, and the “Toms” of the world are realizing they desperately need a broader range of perspectives.
If you are a woman looking at the tech side of supply chain and wondering if you belong, let me give you the short answer: you are the missing piece of the puzzle.
The “Soft” Skills Are Actually Hard Power
In supply chain tech, we are not just moving boxes—we are solving complex, interconnected systems problems.
Women often excel at “multithreaded thinking”—the ability to see how a delay in a microchip factory in Asia affects a retail shelf in Ohio. That is not just intuition; it is advanced systems thinking. When you combine that with the empathy to understand the human being at the end of the data point, you are not just a worker—you are a strategist.
Don’t Fear the “Tech” in Tech
Here is a secret: no one knows everything about blockchain or predictive analytics on day one.
Most of “tech” is simply the willingness to ask:
- Why is this broken?
- How can we make this faster?
- What is not working that everyone has normalized?
If you can organize a family vacation or manage a complex project at work, you already have the foundational logic for supply chain architecture. The rest is vocabulary, tools, and time.
Build the Table You Sit At
This sounds heavy, but it is actually a superpower.
You see gaps others miss.
You ask questions others are too conditioned—or too comfortable—to ask.
And in supply chain systems, those questions are often where the real innovation begins.
Final Thought
To the women considering this path: the water is fine.
It is fast-paced. It is occasionally chaotic. And it is the backbone of how the world actually works.
We do not need more people who simply follow the process.
We need people who look at the process and say:
“I think there is a better way.”
So take your seat at the table.
Or better yet—help design the systems that build the table in the first place.
The industry is already waiting for you.
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