Introducing Procurement Leader 2019: Órla King

We are honoured to announce that Órla King will be the recipient of the Procurement Leader 2019 award.

Órla will address the crowd at the tenth annual National Procurement Awards ceremony on Thursday, November 14th, at the Ballsbridge Hotel, Dublin.

Órla is a Procurement Professional with more than 30 years of industry experience across direct and indirect categories. She is an experienced Procurement Manager with a demonstrated history of working across the manufacturing, food, information technology and services industry.

From Telly’s (Munekata Ltd) to Jellies (Clara candy Ltd), her Supply Chain experience has drawn on a Diversity of Cultures and Industries, before finding a home in the indirect space and with various US Multinationals.

Throughout her career, Órla has managed high spend categories across the Direct and Indirect space from Packaging to Professional Services, Technical Resourcing to Managed Service Outsourcing, Print & Media to HW, Telco & Mobility to HR Services.

She recently joined Eaton Corporation at their International HQs on Pembroke Road to manage their Global Professional Services spend and strategy and expand and leverage the International Procurement Office. But this is not her first time looking out onto Pembroke Road…

Formally an IBM building, this is also where Órla started her IBM career back in 1997. A graduate of IMI, IIPMM and APICS, Órla initially joined IBM as a Buyer for ‘The IBM Technology Campus’, supporting startup operations and sourcing the first set of ‘local’ suppliers for the new manufacturing site.

A Trusted Business Advisor on Procurement best practice and delivery, Órla quickly rose to lead on key strategic projects and held a variety of Leadership Roles within Global Procurement, supporting Procurement Sourcing; Policy, Practice & Audit as well as New Mission and Acquisition Support. In 2008, Órla led the transformation of the Services Procurement Team in Ireland, bringing them from a tactical organisation to a world class Sourcing and Client Services team, with an annual responsibility of $150M+, later expanding her remit to also include significant UK scope and spend.

From 2014, with Regional responsibility across Ireland and UK projects, Órla promoted ‘Brand Procurement’ to collaborate, develop and deliver best practice SC strategies for Internal and Corporate Clients.

Órla is a strong advocate of Networking, Business Integrity and D&I: In 2015, Órla was Host to a Global Women of the ISC, an IBM one day event to mark International Women’s Day. In 2016, she was Host of ‘Ethics & Integrity in our Supply Chain’, for Suppliers and Business Partners with the IBM Global Ombudsman as guest speaker. In support of Diversity and Inclusion within the Supply Chain, she has achieved great success promoting new Suppliers in this segment in both Ireland and UK.