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Moving Procurement from Administration to Activation: Unlocking Procurement’s Potential as a Strategic Tool

In many governments, procurement is undervalued or misunderstood by leadership, leading to purchasing offices that are overworked, under-resourced, and underutilized. In a government where procurement is elevated, valued, and properly resourced, leadership views the purchasing office as a core strategic function, rather than as a transactional, compliance, or administrative office – and that’s what enables governments to leverage procurement to achieve policy and strategic goals.

In this roundtable, we heard from Chief Procurement Officers and other government leaders about how they elevated their procurement function to be more strategic and innovative. We also learned about how to communicate the importance of what you do within your government so that senior leaders and customer departments take note.

Speakers

Michael Owh — Michael Owh is the Chief Deputy Director of Los Angeles County’s Internal Services Department, which provides facilities management, information technology, environmental, administrative, purchasing, and contracting services. Previously, Michael served as the General Manager for Purchasing & Contract Services for the County. Prior to his roles in the County, Michael served as the City of LA's first Chief Procurement Officer and the City of New York's Chief Procurement Officer.
Michelle Wilson — Michelle is the Purchasing Agent at the City of Long Beach. She began her career with the City over 25 years ago. Michelle rose through the ranks to become Superintendent of the City’s recreation programs. In this role, she used data-driven approaches to expand the City’s portfolio of recreation programs, increasing revenue by 50% while expanding free programs in low-income neighborhoods. The past 3 years Michelle has led The Extreme Procurement Makeover in Long Beach, transforming procurement
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