Karina Karassev

I have worked in procurement for the past 6 years at various organizations, including Davis + Henderson, WSIB and now CIBC.  In the past 6 years I’ve had the opportunity to learn and specialize in the entire procurement cycle. In my various roles, I have conducted market, trend and spend analysis which is essential to all sourcing initiatives.  I have also managed a broad variety of both goods and services categories. My current position involves auditing the direct operating expense savings (DOE) for all sourcing initiatives undertaken by CIBC.  In addition, I perform benchmark analysis of our sourcing organization’s efficiency and effectiveness based on numerous industry performance metrics.

I graduated from York University with a degree in Business Administration with a Specialized Honors in Accounting.  Currently, I am simultaneously pursuing the Certified Professional Purchaser (C.P.P.) designation together with the Certified Management Accountant (C.M.A.) designation. I enrolled in the C.P.P. program after graduating from university because I believe the program allows me to gain extensive academic knowledge of procurement that enhances my abilities and skills obtained through practical experience.

The Supply Chain Leadership Program has been extremely educational and beneficial to my career and has also been complimentary to my accounting education. We have thus far completed 2 modules and 3 workshops. The Negotiation workshop conducted in the summer of 2007 has thus far been my favorite part of the program. The 3 day workshop taught us negotiations skills that we can use in both our professional and personal life; skills that would be used when negotiating a business deal or when trying to buy a new car. The workshop allowed students to be involved in numerous negotiations simulations which were educational, exciting and fun!

The first 2008 semester is wrapping up and the final exam is only days away. This makes us officially half way through the PMAC Strategic Leadership program as we complete Module 3 –Logistics and Transportation. In the last 13 weeks we’ve done numerous case studies in which we’ve had to draw upon our university statistics classes in order to act as supply chain logistics consultants to various companies. We analyzed a Warehouse Management System (WMS) RFP and further applied our knowledge and composed an RFP for WMS as it relates to our current organizations. In addition we’ve explored the benefits of various 3PL and 4PL logistics providers.

Our workshop instructors, Phil and Louis ensure that classroom concepts are understood by all students and are always more than happy to lend a helping hand. They draw on their personal professional experience to assist when introducing new concepts and encourage students to participate and similarly provide examples from their organizations. This in turn allows the whole classroom to benefit from a cross industry analysis.