I'm happy to be here today and talk a little bit about my career path. Um, I've been, uh, in this procurement supply chain role for the past 20 years or so. Um, before that, I was a student at Carnegie Mellon temper School of Business and received my MBA. Before that, I worked in politics and public affairs and communications here in Washington D c. So really, um, if I think about my journey in business, it really started when I left Pepper on distorted with IBM. Um, as ah, member of the procurement services team. Eso let let me talk a little bit about that. Um, you know, procurement has historically done, you know, more of an administrative back office function. But companies started to think about procurement in a different way, starting in the nineties and the two thousands when I joined IBM, you know, they had gone through a massive transformation as part of their You know, Lou Gerstner's turning around IBM and procurement was a big part of that under the CFO at the time, Jerry York and a person named Jean Richter, who was the chief procurement officer on. So they got really good at procurement. In fact, 1999 IBM one. The supply chain purchasing Gold Medal award for best in industry. And so I joined a team of really folks from internal IBM procurement that started to do external consulting, outsourced procurement services, e procurement in a wide range of industries. And so that's kind of how I started in procurement. Um, I was at i b m. For four years, we worked on a lot of different engagements across the commercial and federal space andan. Subsequently, I went to a couple different companies. I went to a company Equity Office Properties, whereas director of procurement regionally. And then I went to Discovery Communications and Media Company, where I was the head of the procurement function. Strategic sourcing function there globally for a little roughly a little little less than 10 years. Um, and most recently I was with the Leo Satellite Communications startup called One Web that's based in the UK that went bankrupt back in March on right now with Bloomberg Industry Group, which is an affiliate of the larger Bloomberg Media Company. You know, leading their procurement organization s Oh, my backgrounds really been, you know, around this journey of procurement, becoming more strategic, becoming an important corporate function on DNA, navigating that path across a bunch of different industries, mostly in technology or media. Andi, that's kind of how I got where I am right now.

sure So I mean, the way procurement works across different industries. There's really three models. There's centralized procurement, really and more of a command and control of manufacturing environment, a heavily industrialized environment. Then there's decentralized where, really the business owners and various people across in the lines of business have authority to kind of do do contracting, do sourcing, do procurement themselves. And then there is the model that's emerging really across. Many industries include, including what we're doing at Bloomberg Industry Group, which is center led, where we partner with the business partner with business owners across different lines of business and other corporate functions such as engineering and technology to source procure manage assets that we've acquired. Um, that's also what we did it. One Web. Um eso center lead is really the model Andi. It's really about being able to partner and effective way with functions to make sure that you're getting that were competitively bidding procurement, that we're following all the rules in terms of compliance that we're partnering with legal on DSO. My job is really about ensuring we're competing things aggressively per our policy and our strategy, um, that we partner effectively with legal, accounting and other corporate functions from a compliance perspective on day, then really kind of trying to advance the function from something administrative. There's something that's more strategic. Um, my work week hours. They're usually, you know, pretty standard 50 ish, sometimes mawr, I think e reflect. When I was at one Web, it was a global start up. We were in over 50 countries building massive infrastructure, teleport infrastructure, uh, Global Network Global I, P based network and the launching of satellites around the world. That was a round the clock job that was 24 7. So this is a little bit different in terms of the industry. It's not, um, quite like a startup, given the pace and volume of that prior experience, so

I think the big thing is, you know, this is just my experience in business overall. Which is how well can you build relationships and partner with people both within the company, within the organization and then, externally, with suppliers and partners that you have around the world? I can't stress enough how important those relationships are building those relationships, maintaining them. Sometimes you're trying to impact or influence the business in a way that perhaps they're, you know, not necessarily thrilled with, to be honest. And you're trying to take the best interest of the company. Um uh, to, you know, make sure you're taking the best interest of the company when you're going through the source to contract process and ensuring the best approach and best solution for the company. So there's always that tension, I think externally, there could be a lot of conflict with suppliers through heated negotiations and other types of processes, and you have to be able to build relationships. So I mean, I think back Teoh, you know, like my time a tepper and as an undergrad. It's like, how do you build those relationships with their classmates? Your friendships similar in business It's all really about that on being able to gain people's trust on being able to push them and influence them in a way that's in the best interest of the company.