Rick Hughes began his work career in the US Army, attending Airborne School and Ranger School, and serving in the US and abroad. He was also certified as a Federal Procurement Officer and attended the Officer’s Advanced Course in Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. After six years of active duty, Rick remained with the US Army Reserves until 1991, attaining the rank of Major.

In 1982, Rick began his career with P&G as a Purchasing Manager for the company’s Baby Care and Feminine Care businesses. He then served in a variety of roles in Purchasing and in a Customer Business Development role over his 31+ years. In 2001, he was appointed to lead the P&G purchasing organization as Manager, Corporate Purchases, and was appointed Vice President of Global Purchases in 2004, and Chief Purchasing Officer in 2005, serving as CPO until Februrary, 2014.

Rick is now advising C-Suite executives on how to grow their business, transform their supply chains and obtain greater value from their external supply base. He is also a speaker on a variety of topics, like leadership, strategy development and execution, talent enhancement, supply innovation and risk management. He is also the Chairman of the Billion Dollar Roundtable, an organization of 20 Fortune 100 companies who annually spend over $1B on supplier diversity. He is working with GEP Consulting in an advisory role to help grow and develop their procurement consulting business, and helping several other mid-market companies with strategy, growth and expansion.