Women in Supply Chain 2022 Award Winner: Kathleen Smith

The Supply & Demand Chain Executive's third annual Women in Supply Chain Awards recognize female supply chain leaders and executives whose achievements, mentorship, and role models have laid the foundation for women at all levels of the company's supply chain network. Their accomplishments have had a significant impact on the supply chain this year.

For over 20 years, Kathleen Smith has served as the Global Service Operations Leader for Converge at Arrow Corporation, leading a team of supply chain experts to support major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in addressing global inventory challenges. She has been involved in some projects for over 10 years, and to these customers, she is not just a part of their supply chain; she is part of the foundation. In fact, she is known as the backbone of Converge's vendor-managed inventory program, providing customers with the confidence they need to outsource their business to Converge. While most companies had to resort to extreme measures to cope with the electronics component shortage market, Smith expanded her global hub program by adding facilities, equipment, personnel, and additional process controls to meet the needs of revised plans and rapid expansion. She successfully made changes to support thousands of trays of materials that had already been stocked from customers' electronic manufacturing service providers, with no other place to place the products. The projects managed by Smith enabled customers to reduce their total operating expenses while supporting buffer inventory for multiple contract manufacturers.