Team

Lisa Reisman is co-founder and executive editor of MetalMiner, the largest metals website by traffic, and CEO of parent company Azul Partners, which owns and operates multiple websites dedicated to the field of procurement. As one of the nation’s foremost metals experts, Lisa and her team have developed innovations in metal price forecasting, pricing and benchmarking. In addition to past roles at Arthur Andersen and Deloitte Consulting, she has also owned and operated her own aluminum trading company. Lisa earned her MPA from New York University along with a BA in political science and journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a Six Sigma Black Belt.

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Pierre has 25 years of experience in the procurement and supply chain industry, and is a recognized procurement expert specializing in supply processes, practices, metrics and enabling tools and services. He is a regular contributor to business publications, a frequent presenter at industry events around the world and counts himself fortunate to have served and interacted with so many CPOs and future CPOs.

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Jason is the founder of Azul Partners and co-founder of Spend Matters. He spends most of his time contributing to building Spend Matters SolutionMap. Prior to Azul Partners, Jason got his on-the-job education in procurement technology working at FreeMarkets. Before that, he started his career in consulting and merchant banking. Jason holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.

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Peter has been around procurement for 30 years as a manager, CPO and consultant. He has an MA in mathematics from Cambridge University, and is a Fellow at the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, of which he served as president in 2003. Peter is a regular speaker at conferences and workshops, and his first book, “Buying Professional Services: How to get value for money from consultants and other professional services providers,” co-authored with Fiona Czerniawska, was published in June 2010 by The Economist Books.

In addition to his near-decade at Ariba as corporate webmaster and senior manager of online marketing, Scott has worked with web properties at several tech companies including Hyperion Solutions, PGP Corp. and Accept Software. Scott also has been involved with network and systems management organizations, working with the burgeoning internet at Novell in the mid-nineties. Early in his career, Scott worked for the FBI as both an illustrator and exhibits specialist before giving up the East Coast’s drastic winters for the more moderately dense fogs of the West.

With over 10 years in production, delivery, sales and client management experience, Sheena runs the commercial and client services team with a focus on innovative program design and delivering top quality results. Her client-first mindset leads to collaborative and engaging programming across the spectrum of Azul Partners sites. Sheena holds a BA in english literature and political science from the University of Washington and an MA in english literature from DePaul University.

Carina has rich experience creating B2B events and high-impact integrated marketing programs. At Azul Partners, she leads marketing across all brands with a customer-first mentality. Previous positions include head of marketing, events and operations at IACCM and head of ProcureCon events at Worldwide Business Research. Carina is a Dutch native and holds a BS in economics and management from Stenden University.

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As Special Projects Editor, Nick collaborates with clients to develop new programs, create compelling content and facilitate project delivery across teams. He has also served since 2015 as the site editor for Spend Matters, where he first cut his teeth in procurement writing and editing the latest news, research and thought leadership on the sector. A two-time graduate of Northwestern University, he holds an MSJ from the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications.

Brianna serves as a liaison between the Azul Partners analysts and clients. Bringing five years of marketing and editorial experience, she helps shape creative strategies and programs with clients across the Azul Partners spectrum, including MetalMiner. She has been with the Azul Partners team since 2011 and is rewarded by the friendships and business partnerships she makes. Brianna holds a BA in english literature from the University of Northern Iowa and an MA in English literature from DePaul University.

Stuart has over 30 years of international metal supply experience, including 20 years running a metals distribution business with sales on five continents. He is considered an expert in global metals trading and sourcing. After a career as managing director of the international trading arm of a major British distribution and engineering group, Stuart set up and continues to run his own companies trading, stocking and distributing aluminum in Europe and Asia. Stuart holds an Honours degree in Applied Science from Kingston University. He is also a graduate of Ashridge Management College’s Strategic Business Management Program.

Irene had visions of spending the summer of 2017 taking in the sights and sounds of her home country, Spain. Unfortunately for Irene, the metals world beckoned her to Chicago so that she could watch commodity and industrial metal price charts on a 13-inch computer screen. Irene has joined the research team at MetalMiner as the procurement forecast analyst, having completed a dual master’s degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering. Here’s the best part — Irene spent the better part of six months helping a U.S. manufacturing company identify the root cause of a quality program. Get this … it all came down to steel wire! When not in the office, Irene loves going to the beach (even if that is a complex process in Chicago) and boy can she bust a move!

Andrew has over 30 years experience working as an analyst, executive, and adviser at the business intersection of technology and services. His first brush with procurement came early in his career when he was a network planner for a Ford Aerospace telecom services subsidiary, responsible for leasing high speed digital bandwidth facilities from emerging suppliers. In his long career, he followed the thread of information and communications technology (ICT) across a number of different service industry verticals and small to large companies in a variety of analytical planning and management roles (both buy and sell side). In more recent years, beginning as a research analyst at Staffing Industry Analysts, he has become focused as an analyst, writer, and adviser researching the rapidly changing services and labor supply chains (especially the impact of technology). Andrew holds an MS in Policy Analysis from Carnegie Mellon University, where he first learned to code in FORTRAN and developed a deep appreciation for the value of data and statistics He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he enjoys time with his family and volunteering as a Pet Assisted Therapy dog handler.

David has served as the founder and president of Global Business Intelligence (“GBI”) since 1996. For almost 20 years, David has been running a global research and advisory practice centered on helping banks, vendors and corporations with trade services, trade credit and financial supply chain matters. His formal education includes an Information Systems and Economics degree from Carnegie-Mellon University, an MBA from Purdue, and a Chartered Financial Analyst designation. Along with Jason Busch and the Spend Matters Network, he is also the co-founder, editor and Managing Director of Trade Financing Matters.

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Michael Lamoureux is one of the most prolific writers and experts in the procurement and supply chain areas. He is joining forces with Spend Matters to contribute to SolutionMap and related projects. He also continues to serve as “the doctor” of sourcing innovation, a leading resource for education on supply management best practices, technologies and trends. Michael’s path to procurement falls outside the box. After leaving academia upon completing his Ph.D. he worked for a few early e-commerce companies where he designed online databases and virtual shopping carts before most people even knew what the World Wide Web was. During these activities, he stumbled onto a startup that wanted to change procurement forever by bringing optimization to strategic sourcing. His job at this firm, as the first hire, quickly morphed from building the data model, to feed the optimization model, to building the sourcing model itself. After this, he worked on next generation online marketplaces, large-scale global supply and distribution models as well as next generation strategic sourcing decision optimization technology. In 2006, he started his own blog, and since then, has always enjoyed – well, almost always – the banter with Jason Busch and company at Spend Matters. Michael, Jason and the rest of the team are thrilled to be finally collaborating on a formal basis.

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Xavier has over15 years of professional experience in IT and Management Consulting Services for Supply Chain, Procurement Transformation and Strategic Sourcing (Accenture, Bearing Point and D&G); Procure 2 Pay SaaS & Analytics solutions (Coupa & Ariba), ERP solutions (SAP & Peoplesoft).

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Arturo landed in Chicago to complete his dual master’s degree in industrial engineering and operations. This Spaniard now serves as the principal procurement data analyst (aka “my two screens quant guy” by his boss) at MetalMiner and Spend Matters. He holds a BSc in Industrial engineer (concentration in Electronic and Automation engineer) from the Technical University of Madrid, though he also studied abroad in Denmark. Originally from the best city in the world (Madrid), Arturo spends now some fantastic years in the best summer city in the world (Chicago), where he has had the chance to fully integrate in the American culture. When not biking to the office, Arturo is either hanging out with his friends or working out.