PMA Appoints Director of Strategic Sourcing
March 2008
David J. Welford joins PMA as the Director of Strategic Sourcing, with over 28 years of Purchasing and Materials Management experience. Following his graduation from Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA) in 1978 he has held positions of increasing responsibility with companies whose annual revenues have ranged from under $5 million to $3.3 billion. In his latest position Dave served as Director of Purchasing for Charming Shoppes Inc., a Fortune 400 company. There he managed a 10 Associate staff (including 3 Managers) and an annual spend exceeding $100 million.
As the Director of Strategic Sourcing, Dave will oversee procurement consulting services. Dave will be responsible for leading client engagements, as well as training and consulting service development.
Dave has been at the forefront of E Procurement and introduced it and the Reverse Auction process to Charming Shoppes in 2004. With the tool he saved the company up to $9 million per year.
Dave has extensive experience in Direct and Indirect, and Expense and Capital Purchasing. He has had great success and thrived in a number of industries, including Apparel Manufacturing, Retail and Chemical. He has managed up to 10 thousand SKU's in inventory.
He has traveled internationally to plants and suppliers for 20 years. Countries to which he has traveled and from which he has sourced with success include China, Korea, India, Turkey, Israel, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Canada.
Dave holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and has been trained in Six Sigma, Negotiation Skills, Vendor Certification and Time Management. He has been a member of The Purchasing Management Association since 1984 and is a past member of the MADV Purchasing Executives Roundtable. At his alma mater Dave is an active member of the Lehigh University Alumni Association and the Tower Society.
Michael Barcus, President & CEO of PMA said "We're very excited to have Dave on board. His strategic sourcing and executive level management experience are exactly what we were looking for. Our client base has tripled since last year, and having experienced professionals do the job right has always been the key to our success. Dave's a great addition to our team."
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PURCHASING MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATES GAINS DIRECT COST REDUCTIONS OF $55,000 PER YEAR, PRO BONO, FOR THREE AREA CHARITIES
Conshohocken, PA -- Purchasing Management Associates (PMA), a Philadelphia-area strategic sourcing consulting firm announced it has successfully completed a series of cost reductions totaling $55,000 per year on behalf of three of its not-for-profit clients, March of Dimes, YMCA and Neighborhood House. The most remarkable aspect of these savings is that PMA did them pro bono, contributing its entire fee back to the organizations.
Based on the 3-year projection, the savings total $165,000, plus another $20,000 in immediate vendor rebates. PMA’s contingency-based fees would normally have totaled upwards of $41,000. Instead, the charities will gain 100% of the financial benefit of the savings, which in these three cases, were achieved in the area of telecommunications. In the aggregate, the savings represent 41% of the total telecommunications cost of the three organizations.
The driving force behind PMA’s pro bono cost reductions is a most unusual woman, Carol Koerner. Ms. Koerner is a principal at PMA and her most outstanding area of expertise is telecommunications cost reduction. Why Ms. Koerner began performing this charity work, using her exceptional skills to contribute substantial money, is best told in her own words…
“My two children, now 8 and 6, were both born extremely premature, each weighing just over a pound at birth. Combined, my babies spent over 6 months in the hospital and my husband and I were given frightening statistics regarding their dismal chances for healthy survival. We spent those months praying that the countless monitors, machines and medicines would help sustain their lives.
What we didn’t know at that time was that the March of Dimes was the organization funding the research and development that made it possible for newborns like ours to have a chance. This funding included the development of a steroidal drug called Surfactant, a life-saving substance that aids underdeveloped lungs function in those with respiratory distress. Put bluntly, without the March of Dimes, our children would not be with us today.
When I learned of the March of Dimes’ life-saving involvement, I made a vow to myself that I would do everything I could to help them help as many other families as possible. I gladly volunteered my time to help them raise money and realized I could offer my professional expertise help them save money. When the “Y” and Neighborhood House were referred to me, I was happy to be a resource for them as well. They are great organizations with worthy causes and I wanted to help them too – in the most tangible way I know how.
While our client base includes a variety of ‘for profit’ as well as ‘not for profit’ entities; everyone at PMA holds the same regard for our charities, and we frequently donate additional resources to them.
The overwhelmingly important thing for me to keep remembering is that its not faceless charitable organizations that we’re helping, but that we are helping actual human beings we’re helping – some of whom would be far, far worse off without this help.”
Susan Elder, Director of Development at the March of Dimes, said, “ Not only has Carol made herself and her family available for speaking and fund-raising engagements on our behalf, she has made, through PMA the most tangible of all contributions: reducing our telecommunications costs by tens of thousands of dollars. This is a ‘gift” that repeats itself every year.”
About Purchasing Management Associates LLC - A company focusing directly and measurably on reducing the hard dollar costs of the products and services its clients purchase, PMA has put together a management team rich in experience. Having serviced more than 100 clients, and dealt with thousands of suppliers on behalf of those clients, the PMA team has never failed to create savings for a client, and has averaged in excess of 12% in reductions overall. For more information, contact Philip Kane at 610 628 4144, or pkane@pma-llc.com.