STEM TRAILBLAZERS

Mary Beth Lang

TITLE: CHIEF SUPPLY CHAIN OFFICER

COMPANY: KAISER PERMANENTE

INDUSTRY: MANAGED CARE

LOCATION: USA

Mary Beth Lang is CSCO at Kaiser Permanente, an integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California. She has a pharmacy degree and a PhD in information systems. She says: “We work with suppliers that build similar infrastructures into the fabric of the way they conduct business.

Carol Tomé

TITLE: CEO

COMPANY: UPS

INDUSTRY: LOGISTICS

LOCATION: USA

Carol B. Tomé is the 12th CEO in the 115-year history of UPS. Before joining, Carol served as Executive VP and Chief Financial Officer of The Home Depot, one of the world’s largest retailers. She began her career as a commercial lender with United Bank of Denver.

Alice Williams

TITLE: VP, US SERVICES EXCELLENCE

COMPANY: SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

INDUSTRY: ENERGY MANAGEMENT

LOCATION: FRANCE contributing as highly.” Sectors such as supply chain.

Before her career at Schneider Electric, Williams spent almost nine years in the British Army. She served as an intelligence officer, an engineering officer and finally as a chief of staff. At Schneider she leads “operations execution functions” in the areas of project management and supply chain, as well as providing training support for employees and customers.

“I learned very quickly in the Army that I could use the principles of engineering to do whatever I wanted to do. I realised I was really good at taking complex components, building them into systems and understanding how they added value to a situation.

Engineering is a mindset, not just a word “I don’t pigeonhole myself as an engineer. The word ‘engineering’ is itself not particularly welcoming for women. Engineering is a mindset. It's about using transferable skills and combining these skills with creative thinking.” Williams believes that, if engineering was sold as being a discipline that is about “adding value by getting maximum outcomes from minimum requirements”, then far more women would be attracted into STEM careers such as supply chain.

In addition, Williams feels that organisations need to be more openminded about people’s – and not just women’s – existing skillsets when looking to fill STEM roles, particularly in AI and ML, which are huge growth areas for supply chain, procurement, and logistics.

“If you're looking for someone who can distil complex information and find the value-add, then editors and editorial writers are excellent at that. We need to begin looking at skills in different fields that could be useful to us in these kinds of areas.”