Leadership

Marrena’s career encompasses over twenty years of experience managing accounts and serving clients. She began focusing on recruiting and staffing in 2006, and quickly developed a passion for supporting procurement teams. For the past ten years, her concentration has been designing solutions that drive measurable outcomes for procurement. She enjoys collaborating with clients to tailor procurement services to meet their unique objectives and drive more value in their organizations.  

Although not a native Texan, Marrena and her husband have resided in the State for almost 15 years. They now call the Greater Houston area home. Marrena’s greatest reward in life has been raising two sons, now college-aged, and adopting a third in his young adult years. She enjoys helping them find and follow their passions. She and her family take pleasure in traveling, hiking, boating, and water sports and take their dogs on all their adventures. If you are in the Houston area, you may see Marrena drive by with a bloodhound in the back of her convertible which usually gets a rise out of other motorists.  

In addition to her work at Velocity, Marrena serves and holds board memberships at educational institutions and organizations in the creative arts. She has seen the positive impact the arts have had on her family and enjoys fostering learning and performance platforms for others to grow through creative expression.  

Favorite Quote 

“Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” – Robert Brault 

Terry Clark spent the past 14+ years working as a Strategic Sourcing Director and Manager for a global HVAC manufacturer (Lennox International Inc). During that time he assisted with several e-sourcing implementations, serving as the liaison between IT and the business needs. Terry also led many of the material cost reduction efforts for the company, utilizing a full suite of e-sourcing capabilities. Prior to his role at Lennox, Terry helped Blockbuster Inc transform their sourcing process through an e-sourcing implementation. His earliest involvement in procurement was at the telecom company Metrocall, where he progressed from Staff Accountant to Purchasing Manager, and never looked back from the supply chain turn his career took while working there. As Manager, Advisory & Digital Transformation at Velocity Procurement, Terry helps clients ensure their needs and expectations are met through his fundamental understanding of how to optimize the latest sourcing and P2P technologies.

Terry has always had a passion for bringing savings and process improvements to organizations. He’s been involved in all areas of spend, from indirect goods and services to direct materials to transportation and more. He appreciates the value technology brings, and has an eye for what is practical for adoption in real-world settings.

When he isn’t working with a client, he is either exploring nature, or remodeling the 100-year-old craftsman home he and his wife purchased earlier this year, which is nestled between the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina. Terry also enjoys golfing, writing, and playing electric bass.

Favorite Quote

“The mountains are calling and I must go” – John Muir

Dimitri has a decade of experience in procurement across multiple industries and companies. The categories of spend he has managed vary from hardware, software, and telecom, to maintenance, repairs, and travel. His inquisitive nature drives him to dig deep into the client’s business to understand their unique challenges completely. If something doesn’t work, Dimitri is not afraid to call it out and fix it.

Dimitri is an expert at providing solutions and recommendations on saving money and reducing waste by improving processes. In addition, he is an Excel and analytics expert, skills he uses to make sense of complex datasets and provide fact-based advice. If you ever need help with a formula, let him know, and he’ll gladly explain how to use it and teach you how to do it yourself.

Dimitri was born and raised in Belgium, and he has lived in multiple countries. One of the benefits of growing up in Belgium is that he speaks numerous languages fluently (English, Dutch, French). He understands the subtle (and not so subtle) difference of cultures. In 2015 Dimitri married an American, and one year later, they moved to the Philadelphia area. Dimitri and his wife now have two young daughters, who keep him busy and on his toes!

Outside of his day-to-day responsibilities with Velocity Procurement, Dimitri enjoys all sports (CrossFit, climbing, golf, snowboarding…) and having an active lifestyle. Dimitri likes to travel and explore new places and cultures with his family, and he has been to over 30 different countries. Because Dimitri believes it’s important to give back to the community, he is a volunteer firefighter at his local fire station.

Favorite quote

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” – Saint Augustine

Michele Harrison has significant experience in the procurement profession. She is a program/project manager with strong Procurement, Sourcing and Change Management experience. Responsible for all phases of program and project lifecycles from business case through to execution and post-execution results measurement. Proven performance in measuring, evaluating, and communicating program achievements with executives and steering committees.

Michele has extensive consulting experience in business requirements, process definition, gap analysis and training. Deep people, process and technology acumen across full spectrum of the supply chain lifecycle.

When she is not working with clients or striving to improve processes, Michele can be found lost between the pages of a book, cuddling with her cats, or planning her next travel adventure.

Favorite Quote:

Actions speak louder than words

Peter knew from the moment he finished his first program on his Commodore 64 that career in technology lay ahead. Initially wanting to develop games and code all day, after getting his first full-time job as a software engineer, he has found himself fascinated and perplexed by the problems encountered within organizations and how they were using technology.

Over the next 10 years, he worked less as a software engineer and more as, initially, an integration consultant eventually becoming the solution architect, working directly with organizations to design and implement purchase to pay solutions. Client satisfaction is a key driver for Peter, who always aims to ensure the business and the users are happy at the end of project.

Increasing automation and seamless integration for clients became a passion for Peter, having witnessed the manual processes used by clients, even those who had “automated” systems, but users spent more time in data management than focusing of job specifics, he always targets to reduce user touch points for any process. Integration is almost always key to a successful technology implementation but often it is under appreciated by the business and end-users but when it isn’t great then the user experience is diminished. Therefore, Peter is often the liaison between the client business and IT departments, ensuring that integrations work seamlessly and invisibly to the end user.

Other interests

Peter is based in Scotland and is a family man, who enjoys living in a small village in rural Aberdeenshire. When not walking the dog or playing with the kids, he maintains a collection of “retro” games consoles, a home server and a collection of Raspberry Pi single board computers. Peter considers his greatest achievement (after his children) to be attaining his blackbelt in Tae Kwon Do.

Peter joined Velocity in 2020 and became the first employee of the Velocity Procurement European expansion.

Favourite quote

“Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to go to his class” -General Choi Hong Hi

David has spent his entire working life in the IT sector – initially programming software, building networks, and supporting customer IT systems – he went on to serve on the executive board of two software consultancy firms specializing in Purchase to Pay and Professional Service Automation. This was no accident. Fascinated by computer software during his formative teen years, he could be found coding games and database applications on a small home computer into the early hours. Hooked – there really was no other career path. He was a geek before he knew what a geek was.

A sworn enemy of duplicated effort and inefficiency, matching the right solution to a given problem has been his drive since before finding a career. Spending his days during the summer months chopping wood and landscape gardening, even there he was constantly looking for a more efficient way to accomplish a given task. That has been and remains his personal drive.

As the newest member of our expanding European P2P team, David brings to Velocity 36 years of experience in the IT industry with over 24 of those years working in CRM, project management, operations management, implementations, staff and customer training and 20 of those years directly involved in purchase to pay and PSA implementations for global organizations. A key strength that overarches this background is David’s ability to clarify, understand and explain things in plain terms, which means being on the same page from the start and every step of the way until the project is delivered.

Other interests

Based in Aberdeen, Scotland – when he’s off the clock, David can be found strumming his guitar (sometimes accompanied on the ukulele by his 13-year-old daughter), camping, cycling or hiking in the hills, swimming in the sea or finding reasons to buy more woodworking and landscaping tools. That is, if his daughter doesn’t hijack him to build a stick fort in the woods.

Favourite quote

“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.” – Oscar Wilde

Mike Jasper has spent the past 22 years working with organizations to enable and implement enterprise technology in the ERP, accounts payable / receivable, and global compliancy verticals. He has helped companies of all sizes and industries improve their practices and achieve best in class status. In addition to his day job, Michael brings these skills to his position on the Leadership Committee of the Business Payments Coalition (BPC), a volunteer group supported by the US Federal Reserve who work to make B2B electronic payments more efficient across the end-to-end process.

Professionally, Michael enjoys bridging the gap between business and technical worlds and holds a unique ability to effectively convey technical information and creative thoughts in the same conversation. He has been fortunate enough to have worked within Supply Chain and Finance technologies his whole career, allowing him to watch the market transform and mature. This on the job education gives Mike some unique perspectives on where the industry and technology can go, and what can be achieved.

Mike is a California native, who has been living in New England for the past 11 years. When asked what would make him leave San Diego, the typical answer is “the weather…. 70 and sunny gets old after a while!” Living on the East coast has opened Mike’s eyes to new adventures such as snow blowing and rooting for winning sports teams (Sorry San Diego!). These teams also include the middle and high school Lacrosse and Football teams where his two sons play.

Michael joined Velocity Procurement in 2019 because he believed that the organization’s people, vision, and methodologies were uniquely suited to address the glaring gaps that can be found in so many organizations Source to Pay processes. As luck would have it, it turns out that one of the managing partners was born in the same hospital where Mike’s wife manages the Medical Staff.

David is a results focused, strategic, and analytical Procurement thought leader who is passionate about elevating the role of Procurement to become a leader and create a competitive advantage for clients in their respective industries. For 15 years he has led teams of consultants that help market leading companies manage their most complex and strategic spends and supplier relationships. Pairing a technical background with his procurement expertise, he brings extensive experience sourcing, developing, and implementing source-to-pay technology. Most of all, David is genuinely committed to the people with whom he works. He has coached and mentored collaborators ranging from analysts to executives and deeply values the mutual growth derived from strong relationships.

An entrepreneur at heart, David always found ways to earn money from a very young age. He did things like setting up a trading card store and picked and sold wild blueberries to a local farmer’s market. Later, he ran his own business to pay his way through college by taking on odd jobs and subcontracting: landscaping, splitting firewood, refinishing railings, handyman work, etc. His discipline, determination and work ethic continue to drive improvement within himself, the teams with whom he works and his clients.

David lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and two dogs. He has far more interests and hobbies than he has time to pursue them. He enjoys traveling, hiking and camping, powerlifting, woodworking, metalworking, making noise with synthesizers, playing chess and creating art. He spends most of his free time in his workshop and has proudly built more of his furniture than he’s purchased.

Favorite Quote:

“The ultimate test of your knowledge is your capacity to convey it to another.” ― Richard Feynman

Brian adds 15 years of creativity, problem-solving, and executive relationship management experience to the Velocity Procurement team. His primary focus during that time has been on co-creating solutions with enterprise Procurement teams to automate redundant and manual processes, as well as finding opportunities to innovate within the Procurement strategy. Brian has worked alongside some of the largest Fortune 500 companies and their suppliers, while also sharing best practices with many mid-sized organizations during their transformational journey. Brian’s curiosity for life in general, coupled with his desire to constantly learn, has allowed him to build lasting relationships in both his personal and professional lives. He has also had some amazing teams, colleagues, and mentors to guide him along the way.

Brian lives in the Greater Pittsburgh area with his wife and kids where he spends most of his personal time with family and friends. He likes to travel, especially for big family vacations or to explore new cities with his group of long-time childhood friends. He enjoys meeting new people and hearing their stories as well. If and when he gets time to himself, Brian reads, writes, catches up on the DVR, binge-watches Netflix, or listens to music/Howard Stern. When his arm is twisted, he’ll go out and drink a few beers, or try new bourbons and ryes. If a 30-handicap counts as golfing, then he also likes to play golf.

Brian’s claim to fame (by association) is the “famous” Shuey Burger, found only in his hometown of Greensburg, PA, at Greensburg Hose Company #8, Greensburg Volunteer Fire Department. The burger, smothered in caramelized onions, is named after Brian’s paternal grandfather, Louis C. Shuey, affectionately known as “Pap” Shuey. It was created as a fundraiser for the fire station and can only be purchased less than a dozen times a year between April and October. Brian would encourage anyone within a 5-mile radius of Greensburg on the selected dates to go and enjoy a Shuey Burger!

Favorite Quote

The fragility of crystal is not a weakness but a fineness.” – Jon Krakauer (Carine McCandless), Into the Wild

Tim spent the past three decades working to better understand people’s needs as it pertains to technology. It started out with upgrading the family computer and changed into helping businesses solve problems through the adaptation of precise technologies, while working as part owner of an IT company. Now, as a leader at Velocity Procurement, Tim wears many hats, but his mission is to make sure that client’s needs and expectations are met.

Tim’s work ethic emerged from spending summers with his aunt and uncle in Vermont. There he would help his cousins heard the milk farmers’ cows to a pasture on top of the mountain behind their house. Hungry cows don’t care if it’s raining, you’re tired or you forgot to set your alarm all together. So, working in IT and Customer Service roles were a natural fit for Tim – to say the least. With over 15 years of experience in management and customer service Tim is driven by an entrepreneurial spirit that is self-motivated and process oriented. When he isn’t plugged into a project he is unplugged in nature, woodworking at home, camping and hiking with his wife. Tim also enjoys golfing and working on cars, more to make them faster than actually fixing anything. He shares these interests with both of the Co-Founders of Velocity Procurement.

In addition to dabbling into his variety of at-home DIY projects from IT to landscaping or spending time outside building campfires, he loves to be indoors watching sci-fi movies. When you get the opportunity to visit him in his office in Philadelphia, you’ll soon learn just how much sci-fi he likes. It goes beyond more than just Star Wars mugs and NASA tee-shirts. All of these life experiences and enjoyments make him a man of many hats and interests.

Favorite Quote:

“If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d live a lot differently” – Bill Watterson