Gary Como – Vice President, Operations
As vice president of operations at Corporate United, the nation’s largest group purchasing organization, Gary Como is responsible for defining the sourcing strategies for new categories of offerings, overseeing the strategic sourcing process and developing relationships with key suppliers and partners.
A supply chain management veteran with more than 15 years of experience, Mr. Como is well versed in diverse sourcing and procurement operations. Prior to joining Corporate United, Mr. Como spent five years as the director of sourcing for PolyOne Corporation. While there, he built and led a corporate sourcing team for a post-merger environment and reduced total spend by $25 million in three years. Mr. Como also successfully directed supplier diversity efforts, increasing minority spending by 33 percent. Additionally, he drove e-procurement strategy and implementation, as well as introduced and implemented e-sourcing tools, consortium buying and new pay-to-procure policies throughout the organization.
Throughout his career, he has served as manager of supply chain development and manager of operations planning at The Geon Company, manager of procurement projects at BP P.L.C. and manager of materials management services at Amoco Corporation. Prior to Amoco, Mr. Como also worked at Medrad, Inc. and Anderson Consulting.
In addition to his certification in production and inventory management (CPIM), Mr. Como holds a business-to-business patent for electronically connecting the ERP systems of supplier and customer organizations. The technology is designed to improve forecasting and planning, as well as improve efficiencies in the order management process. He has spoken at several industry conferences, including: Eyeforchem Collaborative Demand Chain and Marketing Conference, Ariba Live and Synergy 2006. His topics of expertise include production planning and scheduling, B2B e-business, e-procurement, supply diversity, indirect procurement strategies and group purchasing organizations.
Mr. Como graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a bachelor of science in operations research and industrial management and an MBA in operations management and strategy.
"We have realized substantial benefits as a result of our membership in Corporate United. Joining Corporate United was once looked upon as a limited procurement initiative. Today, continued participation in Corporate United is part of our strategic plan."