October 2003 – today Group Procurement Manager
I am responsible for the company’s procurement spend (BOM/NPR) of approximately 50 Million Euro. My primary tasks are: managing the internationally located procurement team of (currently) 3 buyers and 4 assistants, professionalising the purchasing discipline in general and maximising the group’s buying power. Realising savings through price negotiations as well as through rationalisation of the product and supply base is part and parcel of my job. Amongst others I have negotiated group contracts on business travel, a new ERP system, office supplies, stationary, insurance, chemicals, culture media and laboratory consumables. Apart from the above, I also work as project manager on strategic, high priority projects. One of these was the design and implementation of the procurement and materials management modules of the new ERP system IFS in The Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and Ireland. Full implementation was achieved end of 2006. Since early 2007 I spend a significant part of my time managing the planned build of a new potable water testing facility in the UK. Over the past 3 financial years I have realised savings of 1.1 Million Euro. The implementation of IFS, and consequent changes to procurement processes and procedures, as well as the recent expansion of the procurement team in the UK, have enabled the team to spend time on realising savings and thus contribute another 300K Euro to this.

March 2001– October 2003 Senior Buyer Materials
I was responsible for a yearly spend of 75-90 Million Euro in silicon wafers, cylinder gases and subassembly products for all factories in Nijmegen. I had a purchasing assistant reporting to me. My manager and I jointly conducted the yearly negotiations with the silicon suppliers on behalf of all factories in the Semiconductors division, and consecutively negotiated the shares of the suppliers with the local buyers. We achieved savings of over 30 Million Euro. On a local basis I managed the supplier relationships with regards to logistics, technical developments, products and prices. Supplier performance measurement and management was part of this.
I helped define the needs of the factories together with the process engineers and, when necessary, convinced them of the need to change product, process or supplier. I chaired the monthly cross-functional silicon team meeting. Proposing cost reduction opportunities to the business was an integral part of my job. An example of this is the introduction of a second supplier for cylinder gases and the consequent cost reduction of 2 Million Euro (22%). In December 2002 I was also appointed Team Leader of the Commodity Team (CT) Cylinder Gases. The CT (team leader + 9 fellow buyers) acted in the interests of all factories of the Semiconductors division. This included the world-wide negotiations for the divisional spend of 15 Million Euro, the development and implementation of supply base strategies and supplier performance measurement.

June 2000 – March 2001 Commodity Purchasing Manager
I was project manager of several purchasing and organisational projects (ISO 9001, knowledge management), as well as being responsible for international contract implementation and contract management. I played an active role in the implementation of the e-procurement system (Ariba).

March 1999 – June 2000 NPR Sourcing Specialist
I was involved in the selection of and the negotiations with international suppliers in pneumatic parts, hand and machine tools, industrial clothing and clean room consumables. I ended up managing 6 European and 4 world-wide contracts that come out of these negotiations (11 Million Euro spend).