Michelle Livingstone, who served as Vice President for Transportation for The Home Depot for more than 13 years, has announced she’s leaving that position and moving into a new phase she calls “rewirement.” In her VP role, Michelle and her team were responsible for the movement of shipments into and within The Home Depot‘s multi-channel supply chain, including inbound shipments from domestic vendors, all direct imports, and customer deliveries of appliances and store merchandise.
Michelle has served as an AWESOME Advisor since the Advisory Board was created in 2014. In 2019 she was selected to receive the AWESOME Legendary Leadership (ALL) Award for her professional accomplishments and her strong advocacy for advancing women’s supply chain leadership.
“Michelle’s service to AWESOME, her companies, and the entire supply chain industry has been inspiring,” commented Ann Drake, AWESOME Founder and Chair. “She is an extraordinary leader and has always actively reached beyond her company role to share her knowledge as she mentors and encourages others to reach new levels of leadership. We will continue to look to Michelle as a source of wisdom and as a role model for what a woman in supply chain can achieve.”
Michelle has frequently been a speaker or panelist at AWESOME events, university forums, and other industry programs, including being interviewed by former AWESOME Executive Director Heather Sheehan for the “Transportation Talks” series presented by the Transportation Institute at the University of Denver. Internally at The Home Depot, Michelle served as the VP Advisor to Velvet Hammers (female directors and above) and the Women’s Link, an associate resource group.
As we’re interested in what comes next for Michelle after this high-powered career with so many commitments in different areas, we asked Michelle to tell us what’s next.
AWESOME: Why are you calling this chapter “rewirement”?
ML: When Home Depot’s former CFO, Carol Tome, chose to leave after 24 years, she used the term “rewirement”. I have decided to go down the same path. I plan to stay actively involved in the industry by joining a board of a public company, as well as supporting my favorite non-profits, including AWESOME, the Transportation Institute of the University of Denver, Indiana University’s Transportation Executive Board, and Rainbow Village, an organization focused on eliminating homelessness, domestic violence, and poverty for families in need in the metro Atlanta area.
AWESOME: As you reflect on your career, what do you consider “the best” in terms of experiences and accomplishments?
ML: I have been blessed with so many opportunities over the years, and thanks to a superstar team of associates and terrific business partners, we have accomplished so much. From being able to travel internationally which is also eye opening, to educating influential leaders in Washington DC, to helping two retailers revamp their supply chain, it has been an incredible journey.
AWESOME: What’s your vision for the future of women in supply chain?
ML: I am passionate about attracting and retaining more women in supply chain, especially in transportation. There are many women coming up through the ranks and we need to continue to work together to more women to the top. AWESOME is a great venue to accomplish that goal.
AWESOME: What are you doing now and what’s “next”?
ML: It has been a very interesting transition working like crazy and then moving to a lifestyle that moves much too slowing for me. I learned I excel in vacations, but manual labor is truly not my thing, despite my husband’s encouragement. I certainly don’t have it all figured out, but I’m working on it! I anticipate this to be the best summer ever as we entertain friends and family at our lake house, which we refer to as the Livingstone Bed, Breakfast, Beer and Wine Lodge. In the interim, I continue to reach out to colleagues to ensure I remain relevant and knowledgeable on all things supply chain.
More career history
Michelle joined The Home Depot in October 2007 with more than 25 years of transportation supply chain experience. Prior to joining The Home Depot, she served as the Senior Vice President of transportation for C & S Wholesale Grocers, where she led the transportation function supporting 70 distribution centers throughout the United States. Michelle gained much of her retail and dot com experience at JCPenney, where she served as the Vice President of transportation for four years. Prior to JCPenney, Michelle spent the bulk of her career at Kraft Foods in transportation and supply chain roles. She most recently served as the Senior Director of Transportation and Supply Chain for Kraft Foods North America. While at Kraft, Michelle was actively involved with the Food Shippers of America (FSA), an organization dedicated to improving supply chain efficiency in the grocery industry. She served as a director on the board from 1990 – 2001 and was elected to serve as President of FSA for two terms.
For more than three decades, while performing supply chain leadership roles, Michelle has been active throughout the industry. She has served on the boards of the Transportation Institute of Denver, Indiana University’s Transportation Executive Board, and the Coalition for Responsible Transportation. Michelle was appointed by former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx to the National Freight Advisory Committee.
In 2015, MHI Solutions featured Michelle as one of “The Magnificent Seven Women Supply Chain Leaders.”
She earned her M.B.A. with high honors from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. She holds a B. S. degree in Business, with a concentration in transportation, from Indiana University.