#13 - A Surprising Love for Procurement with Lesley Garafola at Barings

On this episode, Lesley Garafola, Managing Director, Global Head of Procurement and Vendor Management at Barings, joins Mary to talk about her career history and how it led her to fall in love with procurement, much to her surprise. Lesley began her career at Wells Fargo as a paralegal, with the intention of going to law school. Then she started analyzing data and organically growing the operations side of the legal department and fell into legal ops. Now she heads up procurement, which she finds both fascinating and exciting. The biggest challenge she faced in her transition to procurement was learning how to handle the stakeholders. It takes strategic thinking — an approach she has now instilled in her team. Lesley was personally asked to join procurement. Despite her objections, she finally gave in and is thriving in her field. She takes us through the process and the improvements she and her team have made to the company’s systems and processes, building from the ground up. Lesley Garafola - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesley-e-garafola-22146210/

Barings - https://www.linkedin.com/company/barings/ If you enjoyed today’s show, please leave a 5-star review. You can find more information, as well as the resources mentioned in this episode, at ironcladapp.com.

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