827: Lessons in Resilience From a Procurement Change Journey W/ Tanya Roach

There is no template for transformation. You have to build transformation for the organization that you're in. Go and learn as much as you can about the organization and then pivot where you need to.”
- Tanya Roach, Director of Procurement, Federated Co-operatives Limited

Building procurement from scratch is never easy… let alone within a 90-year-old organization, during a pandemic, and with business demands changing faster than ever. Resilient, adaptable team members are the key to overcoming challenges and creating lasting transformation.

In this episode, Tanya Roach, Director of Procurement at Federated Co-operatives Limited, speaks to Philip Ideson at the 2025 Supply Chain Canada National Conference.

Tanya shares her transformation journey: from assembling a new team during COVID to designing processes with flexibility, and the lessons learned from steady, people-centered change.

In this candid conversation, she details how picking the right talent, using technology as a true enabler, and upskilling for AI set the stage for procurement success in a complex cooperative model.

Whether you’re leading a transformation or shaping day-to-day change, Tanya’s story offers practical strategies:

• How to build and scale procurement teams amid uncertainty
• Why adaptability, curiosity, and resilience trump job titles in transformation
• How to introduce technology and AI in ways that add lasting value
• The essentials of aligning stakeholders in a distributed organization

Links:

• Tanya Roach on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement
• Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube