March 2010 - Sigaria prepares to welcome a sell-out audience to the inaugural Procurement Leaders Forum in Chicago on the March 28th, supported by a world-class line up of  speakers.

The event will see the Chief Procurement Officers (CPO’s) of some of the world’s largest companies, including Dell, Harley Davidson, Honeywell, Microsoft and Heinz, share their knowledge of sourcing during the event. The event will be chaired by Don Klock, the former CPO of Colgate Palmolive.

The theme of the Chicago conference is Beyond Borders: The expanding role of the CPO, recognizing the growing skill requirements of modern procurement executives. Speakers will focus on topics such as driving efficiency through cross-functional collaboration, increasing visibility in the supply chain and building stronger relationships with suppliers to drive innovation.

Commenting on the event, Alex Martinez, Managing Director, PLN said “The Procurement Leaders Forums act as an important platform for our community to showcase success stories and best practice. They also provide a completely unique networking experience where individuals share knowledge in a non-competitive environment. I am delighted that our first US based conference has attracted such a world-class speaker line up and am looking forward to the event”.

London - 3rd December 2009 - Sigaria Ltd, owner of the Procurement Leaders Network, an international membership-led community for executive level procurement, sourcing and supply chain management professionals, has this week reaffirmed its place as the leading industry body for procurement by scooping two awards at this year's IPAC Independent Publisher Awards.

The prestigious annual awards, which took place on the evening of 1st December 2009, were presented by serial entrepreneur, James Caan. Sigaria took the awards for both 'Business Magazine of the Year' and 'Brand Extension of the Year'.

Commended for its professional image and high-quality editorial, Procurement Leaders magazine was praised for its intelligent industry analysis and reviews from Fortune 500 executives. The judging panel also highlighted Procurement Leaders' outstanding attractiveness to advertisers, citing the publication's increase in advertising revenues of over 100% from 2008 to 2009 as a "remarkable financial performance in difficult times".

In an environment in which publishers are facing increased financial strain, as well as pressure caused by the fast-evolving social media landscape, Sigaria also scooped the top prize in the 'Brand Extension of the Year' category, a category that it was highly commended in at the 2008 awards. The judges noted that Sigaria had successfully recognised the need for a publishing business to offer a broad array of services to survive, commending the Procurement Leaders Network for its large portfolio of complimentary brands including the Procurement Leaders Forum, it's annual awards, blog and the weekly newsfeed.

The judges also highlighted the huge potential brought about by the launch of the Procurement Intelligence Unit (PIU). The PIU was launched in June this year to work with procurement departments across the world, providing independent market intelligence, research and benchmarking. The PIU analyses and researches market data, trends and hot topics in order to define procurement best practice and innovation for the future.

"We are delighted that Procurement Leaders has been recognised by our industry peers at this year's Independent Publisher Awards," says David Rae, Editor of Procurement Leaders. "We pride ourselves on being able to offer our readership intelligent, high quality and topical news and analysis and this award reflects this commitment. This accolade has shown that Procurement Leaders is seen as the most valuable resource by industry professionals and we look forward to continuing to build this resource for all those involved in the function."

"In the current economic climate, it is critical that businesses make the right strategic decisions to ensure their survival," says Mark Perera, CEO, Sigaria. "Both the Procurement Leaders Network and PIU provide a source of information and data that greatly helps organisations take the right steps in managing risk, reducing costs and improving performance in these highly-competitive times. We are really excited about this award win and 2009 has been a great year for all involved. Moving into 2010 and beyond, we will endeavour to work with the best contacts in the industry to ensure members are always up-to-date with the most critical issues to help them navigate these challenging economic times." 

The latest Procurement Leaders Forum in Amsterdam on 14 October 2009 was a huge success and significant milestone with more than 190 senior procurement executives and innovators sharing ideas and best practice.

Presentations by sourcing professionals from global giants such as Diageo, Schindler and Akzo Nobel were complemented with panel discussions and presentations from finance professionals and economists, making it an extremely rounded day’s learning.

Grace Puma, CPO of United Airlines; Lothar Steinbach, executive VP and CFO of Henkel; and Guy Verberne, head of economics and investment strategy at Fortis Bank, all added to the quality of the programme. The event was chaired by Sammy Rashed, head of global sourcing, global sites, Novartis, who pointed out the truly global nature of the audience which was represented by 25 countries, 19 languages and 38 industries.

“The Procurement Leaders Forum in Amsterdam really touched the next level with excellent presenters and networking on a global scale,” said Forum delegate Gert van Beek, global procurement category director at Reed Elsevier.

The chief procurement officer of Microsoft is one of the keynote speakers at the 2010 Procurement Leaders Forum to be held in North America.

Tim McBride, CPO of the Redmond-based software giant, will be joined by Frank Crespo, VP and chief procurement officer of Honeywell, in delivering keynote presentations to an audience of senior US purchasing, sourcing and supply chain executives. Delegate passes will be allocated on an invitation only basis.

The Forum, which will be held on 24 March 2010 at River East Art Center, Chicago, is being supported by some of the most prestigious consulting firms in procurement, with Accenture, CapGemini and BrainNet all sponsoring the event.

“North America is an extremely important market for us and it was imperative that we got the timing and approach right,” said Alex Martinez, managing director, publishing at Sigaria. “Following the widespread success of the PLN in Europe, we have conducted extensive research with US based CPO's this year and feel that March is perfect timing for our first major conference in the region. With the global economy recovering it offers the perfect opportunity for procurement executives to step back and think about the long term again.”

Procurement executives now have access to world-class executive and operational research, critical market intelligence and competitor benchmarking following the launch of the Procurement Intelligence Unit.

The PIU, launched by Sigaria earlier this year, is a vendor-free membership community that provides a single destination for understanding the market conditions, best practices, cross-industry approaches and hot topics in procurement from all corners of the world.

With some of the largest companies in the world already signed up as chartered members, the PIU promises to differentiate leading companies from followers and help strategic sourcing executives make better decisions in innovative areas such as supply chain finance and demand management.

Mark Perera, chief executive of the PIU, explained just how crucial market intelligence is. “One of our clients experienced a rate of inflation in one of its commodities of 1100% in a single year,” he said. “Proper intelligence allows you to prepare for such events.”