Two women supply chain leaders received the AWESOME Legendary Leadership (ALL) Award for their outstanding achievements at the “Accelerate AWESOME” Symposium on May 15 in Park Ridge, Illinois. They are Heather Sheehan, Vice President, Indirect Sourcing and Logistics, Danaher Corporation, and Kathryn Wengel, Vice President, Johnson & Johnson Supply Chain.
The Award was presented for the first time to recognize women who have achieved extraordinary professional excellence and success, addressed challenges impacting opportunities for women in the supply chain field, and advanced the changing landscape of women’s supply chain leadership.
These accomplishments are key priorities for the leadership initiative, AWESOME (Achieving Women’s Excellence in Supply Operations, Management and Education), launched in early 2013 by Ann Drake, CEO of DSC Logistics.
“These outstanding women have advanced to supply chain leadership roles that were once virtually ‘out of reach’ for females,” said Drake. “And by ‘once,’ I don’t mean long ago. The leadership strengths of women have gone untapped in the supply chain field for many decades, and that situation is just beginning to change. These women were far ahead of that wave.”
As Danaher’s co-Chief Procurement Officer, Heather Sheehan has worldwide responsibility for non-production and logistics sourcing, strategy, and implementation across the corporation’s 40-plus operating companies with operations in 125 countries. She currently also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), the industry’s leading professional organization. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Science degree from Carnegie Mellon University.
In her role as Vice President of Supply Chain, Kathryn Wengel is responsible for the entire supply chain across all of Johnson & Johnson’s businesses worldwide, and a member of the Johnson & Johnson Management Committee. She has been with Johnson & Johnson for 25 years, serving in diverse quality, operations, technical and business leadership roles in Europe, Asia and elsewhere. She has a BSE in Civil Engineering and Operations Research from Princeton University.
The “ALL” awards were presented on May 15 at the conclusion of the second annual AWESOME Symposium, a day of panel discussions and networking designed for senior level supply chain women.