Speakers

Tamra Pawloski is a dynamic and innovative leader with more than 20 years of progressive experience spanning asset management, purchasing and procurement, strategic sourcing and contracting within the corporate and professional services industries. She has proven success in negotiating, uncovering and capturing efficiencies, driving process improvement and reducing costs and risks while increasing quality.

She has been recognized for consistently training, mentoring and cultivating individuals and globally distributed teams of Commodity Managers, Analysts and others to achieve peak performance and productivity. Capable of leveraging changes in the global marketplace and creative problem solving to adapt, she can harness and standardize new cost efficiencies, savings and best practices.

Tamra is valued as a program manager with a mastery of the metrics, KPIs and drivers essential to finding and capturing efficiencies and savings across direct/indirect spend and vendor base throughout the global enterprise. She aims to build productive, collaborative, long-term relationships with internal stakeholders, suppliers and vendors to better translate annual project plans and forecasts into specific needs and requirements.

With over 30 years of global experience in procurement, finance, and supply chain, Marc brings a unique ability to connect responsible sourcing with commercial performance, driving margin improvement, cost optimization, and climate-conscious procurement practices across the food and beverage industry.

As the Chief Procurement Officer for Kerry North America, Marc is currently leading Kerry’s efforts to mitigate the financial impact of evolving U.S. trade relations and tariffs, including the implementation of alternative sourcing strategies and supplier negotiations to reduce costs for both customers and the business. Prior to joining Kerry, he served as Chief Procurement Officer at Danone North America and held senior procurement and finance roles across Europe and Asia. He began his career as an accountant and has since become a champion of supplier collaboration and breakthrough innovation. Marc is a compelling speaker on the financial levers that enable sustainable growth, covering topics such as climate-aligned sourcing, circular economy, and the evolving role of procurement in food system resilience.

Marc holds master’s degrees in Biochemistry, Business Economics, and Business Administration. Originally from Belgium, he has lived and worked across Europe, Asia, and the United States.

Birchard Brooks Allen III serves as the Chief Procurement Officer for the U.S. House of Representatives. In this role, Mr. Allen leads the CAO’s team of procurement professionals, directing all strategic and operational efforts in acquisitions, purchasing, and contracting.

Mr. Allen joined the CAO in 2022, after decades of experience in procurement as a business analyst.

Mr. Allen has worked in both the public and private sectors, including Verizon, the DC Government, and the Library of Congress. At the Library, he improved communications to the House through the Congressional Research Service website redesign for the 111th Congress. Mr. Allen holds a B.A. from the American University and a J.D. from Catholic University Columbus School of Law.