Since 2013, when Ann Drake founded AWESOME to advance and transform the future of supply chain leadership, the organization has been bringing together senior women leaders in supply chain for connecting, learning, collaboration, recognition and inspiration. The AWESOME community is now more than 1,500 women in diverse senior supply chain leadership roles across a broad spectrum of organizations. The impact of the organization extends to leaders in all areas of supply chain, the business community, and beyond. Ann continues as AWESOME Chair.
In 2020, Michelle Dilley became AWESOME’s first CEO, bringing more than 25 years of experience spanning the full range of supply chain leadership roles. These include, most recently, serving as Chief Supply Chain Transformation Officer and then Chief Operations Officer of DSC Logistics.
Within the COVID environment preventing in-person events, AWESOME has expanded and energized virtual programming. Since March of 2020, more than 40 virtual events have been presented and the line-up continues throughout 2021. In addition to attracting AWESOME leaders, some of the events invite professionals outside of supply chain to participate, extending AWESOME’s influence and insights to the business community at large.
In addition to continuing with events that involve women leaders throughout supply chain, AWESOME is…
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- raising the visibility of women’s leadership by engaging leaders to serve as expert speakers and panelists
- recognizing outstanding women with the AWESOME Legendary Leadership (ALL Award)
- expanding the AWESOME Excellence in Education Scholarship Program to award 20 scholarships each year (previously 5 each year) for women attending university supply chain management programs and add a $5,000 tuition award to the experiential component
- continuing to provide additional programs for Scholars: the AWESOME Scholar Forum that provides career and leadership development content, and AWESOME Scholar CONNECT!, an initiative designed to build a community of future women leaders
- partnering with MIT on the Advancing Women through Education (AWE) Fellowship for women to pursue a supply chain master’s degree at MIT
- collaborating with other organizations, such as Gartner Research, C200, and Deloitte, on key initiatives to advance women’s leadership.