Although technically born in Arlington Heights, IL, I moved to Phoenix at 6 weeks old and consider myself an Arizona native. I attended Horizon High School through 2007 before moving on to Arizona State University, where I graduated in 2012.

While at ASU I studied several different areas, including computer science and finance, before falling in love with supply chain. My love of technology and money management has helped provide differentiating skills throughout my career, and something that I still consider to be extremely important to who I am.

After graduating, I accepted a position at Safeway driving for their eCommerce fulfillment team, as a close friend had shared that they were launching a dispatch department at their corporate office and were recruiting drivers for the role. Within a few weeks, I was working in dispatch managing a team of drivers in northern Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC. I learned a great deal about tactical problem solving and dealing with unexpected issues quickly and effectively. I equate my time spent at Safeway to coming into the office and picking a puzzle at random; sometimes I’d get an 8 piece puzzle that would only take a minute to solve, and other times I’d have a 1,000 piece seascape.

I then moved on to Epic Web Solutions, a local web design and SEO firm, which aligned with my interest in technology and project management. I developed skills in HTML, PHP, and general knowledge of front and back end development. I also learned how to manage a remote team; we had local content writers, overseas developers, and designers who were stateside but not in-office. In addition to leading this group effectively through projects, I was responsible for all sales, both for new customers and conversions of existing customers into ongoing maintenance and support. My experience on the sell side of contracts has played a huge role in my success in procurement; having been on the other side of the negotiation table, I have a keen sense for what is important to the vendors I work with.

After Epic, I accepted a position at Centuri Construction Group, a subsidiary of Southwest Gas responsible for pipeline replacement and repair projects. I was brought on board to lead their implementation of Coupa as their procure-to-pay solution. This involved developing technical expertise with the system, and subsequently training employees and vendors on processes and best practices. This role strengthened my change management skills; having such a disparate group of vendors and stakeholders, especially “old school” construction folks, was challenging to manage effectively.

Most recently, I have spent the last 6+ years of my career at PetSmart. I consider PetSmart to be where I “grew up”, professionally. I was originally onboarded to take over their vendor master data responsibilities; their current process was riddled with inefficiencies and generally poor processes. Within a few months, I had converted what was previously a full-time associate’s sole responsibility into less than 20 hours worth of my work week. This allowed me to quickly take on additional responsibilities. The first area that I expanded into was travel procurement; our previous travel manager suddenly left the company and I volunteered to take on their responsibilities. Throughout my time shifting categories within procurement, I continued to keep corporate travel as my “side hustle” and grown the category from an afterthought to an area of focus within the team.

I eventually accepted a position as a category manager after outgrowing my analyst position within 8 months, assuming responsibilities supporting our store operations and services group. I was primarily responsible for supplies/MRO procurement, which was somewhat unique for a retailer with over 1,600 locations and unique needs for supplies. I negotiated contracts for highly commoditized items, such as corrugate and LDPE plastics, to extremely niche items, such as fish system chemicals and dog shampoo.

As I progressed through the procurement team, I supported many different categories, including contracted services/facilities, construction, capital equipment, finance, HR, and distribution, before accepting responsibility over the team’s newly formed role supporting proprietary brands. This was the procurement group’s first experience working with goods for resale, focused on our overseas global sourcing team in addition to brand development and quality/compliance.

COVID somewhat derailed the PB role, as commodity prices skyrocketed and new needs emerged within the business. I began supporting supply-based needs again, this time responsible for buying severely constrained products necessary to maintain operations, such as cleaning chemicals, masks, hand sanitizer, physical barriers, and COVID testing kits. Not only was I able to ensure continuity of supply for critical operating supplies, but also received company-wide recognition from our CEO, CFO, legal team, safety team, amongst many others.

Most recently, I have joined PetSmart’s legal team in a newly created role of Senior Contracts Manager. I am responsible for the end-to-end contracts process, including intake, review and repository. In addition, I also review approximately 25% of all contract submissions, leading the redline process from the Legal end. This has given me a holistic perspective on negotiating contract terms, now having experience in both legal and commercial terms. I have also been able to grow my project management skills, leading the initiative to implement a contract lifecycle management (CLM) platform, and to make short-term improvements to the current intake process.

Outside of work, I have a busy life as the parent to two wonderful girls, Heidi (4) and Dottie (7), husband to my wonderful wife Stephanie, and pet parent to 3 dogs (Ruby, Winston and Lincoln), 4 cats (Ty Lady, Starla, Clark Gable and Opie), two cockatiels (BB Peep and Beaky), a bearded dragon (Lizard Lil), and 3 fish tanks (too many to name!). When I’m not tending to our menagerie, I enjoy my vintage video game collection, weekend poker nights, hiking/camping with the family, and any strategy games that I can share with Dottie.