Sandy Kiernan

About Sandy Kiernan

As a Global Category Manager at Lenovo with over 4.5 years of experience, I specialize in sourcing, purchasing, and managing spend across Real Estate, Business, and HR services categories. My focus is on aligning procurement strategies with stakeholder goals by leveraging industry best practices, conducting market trend analysis, and evaluating supplier capabilities. I ensure competitive sourcing, negotiate impactful supplier contracts, and drive performance improvements using stakeholder feedback and performance-based metrics. My expertise includes utilizing the Ariba tool to streamline procurement processes and strengthen business controls. With certifications like CPSM and CCWP, I bring a solid foundation in collaborative problem solving, data analysis, and written communication to deliver value and mitigate risks. Dedicated to fostering innovation and operational excellence, I contribute to Lenovo\'s success by ensuring compliance and maintaining robust supplier relationships.

Experience

1. Global Category Manager

   Lenovo

   Jan 2021 — Present · Morrisville, NC, US

   Responsible for sourcing, purchasing, and managing spend for Real Estate, Business and HR services categories. Working with business unit/budget owner (internal stakeholders) on appropriate spending strategy, including industry best practices, category/market trend analysis, and supplier capabilities. Appropriately select supplier resources based on driving competitive sourcing activities; Forming contracts with selected Suppliers to help ensure deliverable and risk avoidance; Managed supplier performance via stakeholder feedback and performance based metrics; Ensure appropriate business controls are in place. Lenovo utilizes the Ariba tool. This was rolled out in January 2017. My experience has been actively working in the system to create sourcing projects, including RFPs, creating contract workspace to include completing contract terms, savings documentation, and uploading all contractual documents, getting approvals, and publishing the final workspace which allows PR/PO creation.

Education

• Marshall University

  BBA, Finance

Skills

• Project Management
• Procurement
• Strategic Planning
• Contract Negotiation
• Business Process Improvement
• Analysis
• Negotiation
• Troubleshooting
• Leadership
• Program Management
• Strategic Sourcing
• Vendor Management
• Change Management
• Purchasing
• Process Improvement
• Cross-Functional Team Leadership
• Management
• Team Building