Procurecon Indirect West 2026
March 09 - 11, 2026
JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort and Spa
Day 3: Fighting For Excellence: Empowering Your Procurement Team To Deliver Knockout Results
8:00 am - 8:50 am
Continental Breakfast In The Solutions Zone
8:50 am - 9:00 am
Chairperson’s Remarks
9:00 am - 9:40 am
Panel: Strengthening Your Backbone: Getting Your Team To Stand Up To Your Toughest Stakeholders
Cecil Plummer -
President,
Western Regional Minority Supplier Development Council
Rendi Miller -
VP Strategic Sourcing and Procurement,
Zendesk
Jeff Amelse -
Director, Procurement: Strategic Sourcing and Category Management,
Best Buy
While we all recognize the importance of stakeholder relationships, it’s all too easy to maintain a status quo relationship with all of the business units and suppliers you interface with on a daily basis. This engaging fireside chat will help you elevate those relationship and set you and your sourcing team up for continued success. Key topics to discuss include:
- Tools and techniques for understanding stakeholders, aligning motivations, improving communication and helping your projects succeed
- Methods and techniques to prepare your stakeholders and suppliers from a change management perspective
- Tip and tricks on how best to prepare your business to become a strong member of your negotiating team
9:40 am - 10:10 am
Panel: Opening The Ring To Everyone: Addressing Diversity & Inclusion With Your Internal Team
Peter Melanson -
Director, Marketing Strategic Sourcing,
Intel
Melly Tillinghast -
Director Global Indirect Procurement,
onsemi
Ann Fleishell -
Managing Director, Head of Global General Procurement (G2P),
Applied Materials
Rodney Northern -
CEO/Founder,
Multimerica Media Ventures
This panel will showcase how leading procurement teams are addressing diversity, equality & inclusion head on and arm you with knowledge from the pros who are championing change on this important subject.
10:10 am - 10:20 am
Presentation: Welcome to the CertaVerse!
Jared Ezzell -
Chief Customer Officer,
Certa
Leveraging Emerging Tech Intelligently - TPRM in a centralized ecosystem that works. One system, all workflows, all technologies, one provider
10:20 am - 10:50 am
Interactive Workshop: Bringing The Brightest And Best: Staffing Your Procurement Team In The Era Of The Great Resignation
Jason Cammorata -
VP of Operations,
Independent
Aaron Cleavinger -
Managing Director,
Murdoch Mason Executive Search
This interactive session will begin with audience polling to fully understand where we all stand in terms of staffing our procurement teams, allowing remote work, and general frustrations with the overall hiring process. Once we get the venting out of the way (and there will be venting) we’ll discuss some success stories, and key ways your team can move forward in this challenging time
10:50 am - 11:10 am
Final Networking Break In The Solutions Zone
11:10 am - 11:30 am
Presentation: Actions To Cast The Net Wider: Installing A Procurement-Like Mindset Outside Of Procurement
Bergen Erickson -
Strategy Technology & Innovation Lead, Supplier Management & Governance,
Standard Insurance Group
Looking for a way to evangelize the Procurement mindset throughout your organization? This session will discuss pointers on how to enable and empower your stakeholders to help you achieve and surpass your goals. Key takeaways include:
- Determining goal posts for ‘high touch’ categories such as marketing/creative services
- Enabling stakeholders to perform vendor management
- Encouraging shared goals between procurement and your stakeholders
Bergen Erickson
Strategy Technology & Innovation Lead, Supplier Management & GovernanceStandard Insurance Group
11:30 am - 12:10 pm
Panel: Actions To Take To Make The Case For Change And Get Your Championship Belt…In Uncertain Times
Cheron Lessmeister -
Business Development Manager – North America,
CIPS
Ashe Patankar -
Vice President, Procurement,
Booking Holdings
Martin Shreffler -
Director, Indirect Sourcing,
Tempur Sealy International
Given the rapid change and demands facing your stakeholders, you can’t afford to keep your program at a standstill. It’s a matter of when (not if) you move your program up the maturity curve in today’s environment. But how do you get yourself out of the day-to-day execution of your program to focus on long-term improvement?
- How to develop and communicate the business case for improvement
- Defining program maturity milestones
- Leveraging and strengthening relationships with your staffing partners
- Developing and implementing program KPIs to measure success
