For readers of Sourcing Innovation, I am probably best known for my time as a marketing executive at Ariba. I was there during that company's turnaround years when we introduced the concept of "Spend Management" to the market during a period of significant M&A and strategic reinvention. I managed a great team and worked closely with three different CEOs while wearing many different functional hats. I was instrumental in getting the spend management messaging created and rolled out globally, and I co-founded a pioneering business blog that is still going strong today.

With over 20 years of software marketing experience, and over ten of those years in supply management, I bring a relevant perspective to the issues being explored on Sourcing Innovation. I was an early adopter and proponent of social networking and blogging for business benefit and an early advocate for green supply chain analytics and capabilities.

After Ariba, I ran marketing at Apexon and TrueDemand Software. I've seen the challenges and opportunities for better sourcing and procurement, the promise of improved supplier performance management, and the cutting edge capabilities coming on-line around sales operations and demand forecasting in the consumer goods industry. You could say I've got an end-to-end perspective on supply management, the solutions that are available, and the benefits that can be realized by increasing collaboration and visibility across the supply chain.

I'm also the product of a liberal arts education, so I'm as likely to reference Goethe as Gartner when I tackle a subject. I received my Bachelor of Arts (in English) degree from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where I also delivered the commencement address for the graduating class.