It’s an unfortunate truth: In spite of significant gains, women only represent 40% of the total supply chain workforce and only 35% of managers. These sobering figures come from the “2024 Women in Supply Chain Survey” authored by the analyst group Gartner and AWESOME, a nonprofit focused on advancing women’s supply chain leadership.
But by dwelling on the negative aspects of this truth, we run the risk of overlooking the significant impact that many women leaders are having on the supply chain field today. Supply Chain Xchange’sOutstanding Women in Supply Chain Award seeks to shine a spotlight on women who are helping to reimagine and direct the future of supply chain management—not just for their own companies but for the profession as a whole.
The 2024 recipients are: Annette Danek-Akey, chief supply chain officer (CSCO) at Barnes & Noble; Sherry Harriman, former senior vice president of logistics and supply chain for Academy Sports + Outdoors; Leslie O'Regan-Yount, director of product management for distribution center systems and third-party logistics at American Eagle Outfitters Inc.; and Ammie McAsey, senior vice president of customer distribution experience for McKesson's U.S. pharmaceutical distribution division.
Danek-Akey joined Barnes & Noble as CSCO in September of 2024 after a long career at book publisher Penguin Random House, where she had also risen to the role of CSCO. Recently retired, Harriman guided Academy Sports + Outdoors’ logistics and supply chain operations after working for nearly 30 years at Walmart in distribution. With 20 years of experience in the supply chain and technology space, O'Regan-Yount is currently playing an integral role in the implementation of innovative technology for American Eagle’s distribution operations. McAsey is currently responsible for leading the distribution strategy across the U.S. for brand, generic, and specialty pharmaceuticals at health care distributor McKesson. In addition, she supports McKesson’s initiatives to provide COVID-19 vaccines and ancillary supply kits on behalf of the U.S. government.
The award winners were recognized at the CSCMP EDGE Conference in the Fall of 2024. The following is an excerpt from the subsequent panel discussion moderated by Supply Chain Xchange Executive Editor Susan Lacefield. (The full panel discussion can be view on our website under the video section.)
Can you talk a little bit about your career path, and how you got into the position where you are today?
Annette Danek-Akey: I have an interesting career path because I was for the last 28 and a half years on the publishing side at Penguin Random House, where I was the chief supply chain officer. So I'm looking forward to being on the other side of the supply chain [at retailer Barnes and Noble].
How did I get to where I am? My background is in industrial engineering. When you're an industrial engineer, you have to convince someone else to do a project. So at some point, I realized the best place to be was probably to be in charge, because then I could implement my own ideas. But what I didn't realize is that you still have to convince people and you have to do it in a collaborative fashion.
I started my career in retail at Sears in logistics, and at some point, I got a call from a recruiter. There was an opportunity to go to this very small book publisher distribution facility. If you're at a big company, sometimes you get pigeonholed into one job, and I wanted to do it all. That's just my personality type. So, I said, “I'm going to take the step.” I went to that smaller company, and I got to learn it all. And then we just happened to grow into the world's largest trade publisher.
Sherry Harriman: Before I retired, I had the opportunity to lead Academy Sports + Outdoor’s supply chain and logistics for six years. But before that, I worked 29 years at Walmart. I started out just needing a job, working my way through college. And so, I say, supply chain found me. I started out as a break-pack order filler, and when I left Walmart, I had responsibility for six distribution centers in the state of Florida and one in Puerto Rico.
When I look back on my career, what worked well for me was always accepting new roles and responsibilities and appreciating that maybe someone had more faith in me or more vision for me than I had.
Leslie O'Regan-Yount: So my career path was a little different. I am very much a go-getter. I'm going to go out and grab an opportunity. I'm not going wait for somebody to give it to me. I have never been promoted in my entire career. When I got promoted, it was because I took a different job with a different company. Essentially, I've talked my way into every career move I've ever made.
That has led me to here, where I am the person responsible for all the software and hardware technologies inside American Eagle to get all our products out to our customers or out to our stores.
Ammie McAsey: My career actually started during a college job at DSC Logistics. I worked second shift in the shipping and receiving window, and I just kind of fell in love with it. I was a marketing major. I wanted to move to North Carolina. I wanted to work on race car teams and work for one of those big Roger Penske teams out in North Carolina. Instead, I took my first job in North Carolina to get my foot in the door. And I never left logistics. So whether it's beverages, building supplies, apparel, or now pharmaceuticals, I've just stayed in love with the industry, and it's gotten me where I am today.
How would describe your leadership style and the skills and experiences that helped shape that style?
Ammie McAsey: It's about caring about people, bringing people together, solving problems, and having fun. If you cannot have fun at work, you're missing out. We start all of our team meetings five minutes late. A lot of people say they're going to end five minutes early. Never happens. But if you start five minutes late, those five minutes allow for everyone to just show up, and that's kind of our social, fun time. There's always a good story. So really, it's about understanding your team, caring about them, working together, and just inspiring the best in everyone.
Leslie O'Regan-Yount: I like to be empowering to the people underneath me. I'm not a micromanager. I don't want to know how you're going to get from point A to point B. I'm going to tell you where point B needs to be, and I'm going to empower you to make the decisions necessary to get there. If you fall along the way, that's fine. I'll pick you up. I'm here to guide you, to help you, to throw ideas off. But I don't want to be that micromanaging boss. I want you to make a decision, and I'm going to back your play, right or wrong.
Also [my leadership style involves] understanding what associates want to get out of their career and trying to help them get to those positions, get to those assignments. That’s what makes people want to come back and work for you.
Sherry Harriman: One of the things that I've learned over my career is, it's a circle: lead with support and follow up for accountability. I've been put in positions in my career where I wasn't the expert, and that [philosophy] just became even more valuable. If you've transitioned into a new department or into a new company, focus on finding out what the teams need to be successful at their job and how do we achieve goals together. Then you follow up to make sure that they did what they said they were going to do. I think that's the best leadership model that you can have.
For talent development, it's caring about people, not just what they do, but who they are, and valuing the diversity of thought. Diverse teams sometimes can have the most controversy, because not everyone thinks alike. But if you can learn to absorb and welcome that feedback—whether it's good feedback or challenging feedback—then you will come up with the best solution.
Annette Danek-Akey: If you ever want to learn about your leadership style, work at a company for 28 years and then leave, because that's when people tell you what they're going to miss about you. So as I left [Penguin Random House], I took it as an opportunity to say, “Well, what was it about me?” I really asked for that direct feedback.
What I found is that there's three things. The first thing for me is that people say I'm visionary. And I was trying to think, “Well, why am I visionary?” And I think it’s because I am an avid reader. I read about a book a week, and I read a lot of fiction. If you read fiction books, you have to have an imagination.
The second is that I'm very collaborative, and that’s because you can't get that vision done on your own. You need other people to bring that vision to life.
The third thing is people would say I’m very scientific with a methodology to get things done. I think that's true, because the way that you put that vision or supply chain model out there is to say, “Here's our steps.” I personally like having a process to do something, because then people know what to expect.
How do you help mentor people into leaders who maybe don't have what are seen as traditional leadership characteristics?
Leslie O'Regan-Yount: You're going to find that this new generation coming in, Gen Z and Gen Alpha, have a very different take on social skills. A lot more of them are much more introverted than you would want them to be. So to coach them into a leadership role, you have to look for the strength that they have and then figure out ways to allow them to practice to be confident in a safe space (I know that's a terrible way to put it).
For example, I’ve had a lot of folks who were very nervous about getting up in front of people and presenting. Then you need to practice until you're not, whether it’s practicing presenting to yourself, or to the dog, or to another leader who you're comfortable with. It's a different kind of coaching.
The other technique I always teach them is, you better fake it until you make it. So if you're nervous and uncomfortable, that's okay. Pretend that you're not, and one day you won't be. It worked for me for in consulting for many years.
Sherry Harriman: Something that I found successful is, if you know who's going to be in the meeting, then getting them exposure to those individuals previous to the meeting. So that you're not the only sponsor in that meeting. That’s part of building that confidence quietly through one-on-one conversations with some of the key influencers in the meeting. I’ve found that to be very successful as well.
Annette Danek-Akey: One of the things that I encourage people to do if they're trying to practice leadership skills and especially influencing is to go be on a board at a nonprofit organization or help at CSCMP. Because you have to lead through influence, and no one really knows you. It's not the job; so go practice. I try to convince people to do that when they have the time. You have to have the time to do that, but if you do, you'll get so much out of it.
What can we do as an industry to develop and inspire more women to take leadership positions in the supply chain?
Leslie O'Regan-Yount: My vote is always to start younger. To be fair, if you tell a bunch of fifth graders that there's a career in distribution, they're going go, “What's that?” So, I think in this age of robotics, let’s bring all of this cool technology to the younger generation so they get excited about the shiny toy. And then as they get older introduce them to the rest of the topics.
Sherry Harriman: To tag on to that it's not just moving boxes and driving trucks. Logistics and supply chain is so much more than that. You can have any career that you want to have in supply chain. It's analytical. There's a financial piece, there's a marketing piece. You can find your way in it. We need to get the message out that if you want a career that you can have multiple opportunities, there's no better field than supply chain. You can move from one area to the other and grow your career effectively by doing that.
How do we then help them get up to those higher leadership roles? What sort of programs work, and what doesn't work?
Ammie McAsey: It's finding that diverse talent—women, men, it doesn’t matter. Find good talent and bring them along. Bring them through the door that they don't even know exists. They may not have the subject matter expertise, but bring them along. I love all of the employee resource groups that we do, but sometimes leadership is one person at a time, and then multiply that effect. That person that you pulled through, have that person pull somebody else through. It really becomes the multiplier effect that then starts to create this energy.
Sherry Harriman: One of the things I would add is whatever the diversity, you can never look at yourself as a victim. You've already lost the battle if you're thinking from a victim mentality. Victims oftentimes behave defensively, and you have to take your career offensively to make sure that you make it your own.
And then, it can't be men against women. It has to be men with women and women with men. We have often complementary skill sets, and the only way that we can improve the industry is to have it be all of us working together. It can't be women trying to create our own path of success. It has to be bringing others up, bringing others along, all of us together.
Annette Danek-Akey: I always go really pragmatic on this. I think vacation time and paid time off is just key for everyone. The last two years I've worked in England, and so I now see the difference for real. I've been in your shoes, listening to people saying, “we need more vacation” and thinking well it's different [here]. Yeah, it's different, and two weeks just doesn't cut it. So if you want to have a more diverse workforce, add more vacation time, and I know that's easier said than done.
