John Leahy
Summary
Global Supply Chain Executive with over 29 years of experience across multiple Supply Chain disciplines including: Supplier Management, Global Sourcing, Engineering, Operations, Product Management, and Merchandising. Strategic leader skilled in building, developing and leading teams that drive profitable growth. Results-driven manager, known for building high performance teams and utilizing innovation and creativity to achieve company goals. Persistent leader eager to lead and grow organizations. Skilled in strategic planning, problem-solving, and communication with good understanding of business principles, project management and team leadership. Collaborative with relentless work ethic.
Overview
29
29
years of professional experience
Work History
Divisional Vice President, Merchandising
True Value Company
05.2021 - Current
- Responsible for the development and implementation of merchandising strategies and tactical plans for the products offered at True Value
- Also, responsible for developing and managing merchandise assortments that consists of high-quality products at prices that compete against the major competitors
- The key metrics are sales, margin, and inventory turnover objectives.
Vice President, Global Sourcing
True Value Company
05.2021 - 03.2023
- Responsible for setting the strategic direction of True Value's private label and direct import sourcing efforts
- Oversee both domestic and internationally based employees and ensure the day-to-day operations and governance of the private label and direct import programs across all merchandising categories
- Responsible for comprehensive quality assurance programs from a product, industry and governmental regulatory perspective.
Vice President, Supplier Management
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
05.2019 - 04.2021
- Strategic responsibility for the supplier relationships and cost of goods sold across the full Grainger assortment of national and private branded products
- This includes the management of $4.0B+ in COGS across ~4,500+ suppliers.
Senior Director, Supplier Management – National Brand Suppliers
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
05.2018 - 04.2019
- Strategic responsibility for the supplier relationships and cost of goods sold across the full Grainger assortment of national brand products
- This includes the management of $3.3 billion in COGS and +3,500 suppliers
- Design a price/cost management strategy, which provides market competitive pricing, minimizes cost inflation, attracts new customers, drives top-line sales growth and improves return on invested capital.
Interim Role - Acklands Grainger
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
01.2018 - 05.2018
- Leading North American COE Product Management and COGS optimization
- Leveraged scale (processes, resources, best practices) - Approximately 70-80% shared suppliers
- Optimized cost structure – Proposed 30% Opex reduction, created career progression
- Drove Increased Demand Generation – 70-80% shared assortment with GUS
- Improved the customer and team member experience – leverage shared resources, i.e
- Product Information, Analytics, Operational processes and Pricing
- Achieved $5.0 million cost reductions by Dec
- 2018.
Senior Director, Grainger Global Sourcing
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
10.2011 - 12.2017
- Provide leadership and strategic direction for Grainger Global Sourcing activities in the US, Canada, Europe, India and Latin America
- Lead global sourcing and engineering, product information, analytics, processes and compliance
- Key impact to the organization: Achieved $1.1 billion in sales milestone in 2016
- Manage $770 million of gross margin dollars, 700 suppliers and 85k items
- Product cost deflation of -3.46% ($9.8m) December 2017 YTD
- Direct leadership over a budget of $20.1 million, including 2 engineering labs (Shanghai and U.S.) and 165 employees, globally
- Establish global product portfolios - Fasteners (25k items) and Hand Tools (15k items)
- Employee Engagement - Achieved 5% higher than company and 12% higher than department
- Develop, lead and executing corporate project - Product Procurement Optimization
- Value engineering and “should cost” processes developed
- Negotiated savings of $80.0m, since Jan
- 2015
- Realized savings of $67.0m through 2017 and $13.0m in 2018
- Engineering accomplishments
- Achieved 0.77% warranty return rate, lowest in company history
- Accountable for all aspects of Engineering, Quality, Product Compliance and Sourcing
- Establish new strategic initiatives for product strategies and cost optimization.
Director, Product Portfolio – Hand and Power Tools, Product Management
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
02.2011 - 10.2011
- Developed and executed the portfolio strategy to provide customers the most attractive and profitable product offering in the industry
- Managed $552m in revenue, 324 supplier relationships, 36,000 items, 10 employees, and 311 catalog pages
- Key accomplishments: Sales were 7.0% above plan and Gross Margin dollars were 7.3% above plan
- Led Global Tools Summit- achieved $2.2m of savings and developed pipeline of $2.6m of savings
- Converted $10.1m of incremental business to exclusive brands with a 75% conversion rate compared to department average of 65%.
Category Manager – Hand Tools, Product Management
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
08.2010 - 01.2011
- Developed and implemented the portfolio strategy which provided customers an attractive product offering supported by complete and accurate information
- Achieved $235m in revenue, 130 supplier relationships, 19,000 items, and 170 catalog pages.
Product Line Expansion (PLE) - Project / BP Oil Spill
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
01.2010 - 08.2010
- Developed concept and process to streamline current and future PLE plans for the department
- Centralized resources for the department to use in building PLE plans, i.e
- Sourcing data, Grainger.com null search, Brand input, Specialty brands, Competitive cross reference, and Acklands-Grainger
- Represented the Product Management department to support BP oil spill and its cleanup efforts in the Gulf of Mexico
- Created a process for BP to report Grainger available inventory to include all business units
- This led to sales of approximately $100m.
Category Manager - Electrical, Product Management
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
05.2007 - 12.2009
- Key accomplishments: Improved sales by 7.4% compared to company growth of 6.0% in 2008
- Contributed gross margin dollars of $230.8m, an increase of 11.8% over 2007
- Negotiated cost avoidance of $9.0m in 2008
- Achieved cost inflation of 0.15% vs
- Plan of 1.60% and price inflation of 4.73% ($10.9m) vs
- Plan of 1.37% in 2008
- Grew Product Line Expansion sales to $39.5m vs
- Plan of $34.3m in 2008
- Catalog: Improved catalog page density by 91%, added over 12,000 catalog items, improved sales per page by 15% ($1.3m to $1.5m), and reduced the Electrical catalog section by 48 pages
- Added 3,200 catalog items, $18.0m of incremental sales, and increased catalog page density from 84 to 107
- Operational Excellence: 5 Partners in Performance award winners, including Hubbell Wiring Device winning the Supplier of the Year award for 2008
- Developed the “Commodity Cost Clause” language
- This minimized Grainger's financial risk related to the fluctuation of raw material cost.
Category Manager – Motors / Ventilation, Product Management
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
01.2006 - 05.2007
- Managed 49 suppliers representing $323.7m in revenue and approximately 4,500 catalog items across 200 catalog pages
- Key accomplishments: Achieved corporate savings of $3.6m through a series of Line Reviews and cost negotiations
- Improved sales in the Motor category by 5.8%, for the 2nd year of positive sales compared to declining sales in the previous 7 years
- Improved gross margin by 2.9%, which was an incremental $1.6m.
Product Manager - Motors, Product Management
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
01.2005 - 01.2006
- Completed the largest Line Review process in company history and achieved corporate savings of $17.3m
- Reinvested a portion of these savings ($2.5m) into the addition of 21 field sellers and 3 inside resources supporting the category
- Developed and implemented a portfolio strategy to reverse a 7-year negative sales trend
- The category achieved 3.5% sales growth, incremental revenues of $5.3m and increased profit margins by 6.6%
- Managed 23 supplier relationships representing $150m in revenue, improved product availability by 18%, enhanced supplier operational metrics by 22%, and positioned the category for future growth.
Operations Manager – Motors / HVAC/R / Power Transmission, Product Management
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
01.2003 - 01.2005
- Managed the implementation, execution, contract management and maintenance of product processes including product information, supplier performance and technical service
- Maintained 225 supplier relationships representing $750m in revenue
- Successfully led and managed a team of 16 product experts, project coordinators, and support resources, who supported the strategic direction of the team and catalog responsibilities.
Various Roles – Grainger
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
01.1995 - 01.2003
- Operations Manager, Customer Specific Inventory (CSI) – Managed and evaluated the profitability of adding specific items into inventory
- Supply Management Specialist – Conducted analytics in support of profitability of CSI
- Supplier Development Manager – Maintained supplier relationships for Grainger Custom Solutions business unit focusing on the most complex Grainger customers
- Project Coordinator – Developed process steps to implement contracted services with National customers
- Sourcing Specialist – Assisted customers to support single source of supply for their MRO requests
- Accounts Receivable Specialist – Managed the reconciliation process for unresolved funds received.
Education
Masters in Business Administration -
Lake Forest Graduate School of Management
Lake Forest, IL01.2006
Master Certificate in Project Management -
The George Washington University
01.2002
Bachelor of Science, Mathematics and Secondary Education -
Western Illinois University
Macomb, IL01.1994
Skills
- Data-driven decision-making
- Vendor negotiation
- Trend Identification
- Pricing strategy
Timeline
Divisional Vice President, Merchandising
True Value Company
05.2021 - Current
Vice President, Global Sourcing
True Value Company
05.2021 - 03.2023
Vice President, Supplier Management
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
05.2019 - 04.2021
Senior Director, Supplier Management – National Brand Suppliers
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
05.2018 - 04.2019
Interim Role - Acklands Grainger
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
01.2018 - 05.2018
Senior Director, Grainger Global Sourcing
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
10.2011 - 12.2017
Director, Product Portfolio – Hand and Power Tools, Product Management
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
02.2011 - 10.2011
Category Manager – Hand Tools, Product Management
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
08.2010 - 01.2011
Product Line Expansion (PLE) - Project / BP Oil Spill
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
01.2010 - 08.2010
Category Manager - Electrical, Product Management
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
05.2007 - 12.2009
Category Manager – Motors / Ventilation, Product Management
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
01.2006 - 05.2007
Product Manager - Motors, Product Management
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
01.2005 - 01.2006
Operations Manager – Motors / HVAC/R / Power Transmission, Product Management
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
01.2003 - 01.2005
Various Roles – Grainger
W.W. GRAINGER, Inc.
01.1995 - 01.2003
Masters in Business Administration -
Lake Forest Graduate School of Management
Master Certificate in Project Management -
The George Washington University
Bachelor of Science, Mathematics and Secondary Education -
Western Illinois University