Young Talent Award
Ashleigh Turner takes out the 2019 CIPS Young Talent Award
On July 17th 2019, Ashleigh Turner, Procurement Analyst at Hastings Deering, took out the Young Talent award at the CIPS Australasia Supply Management Awards.
Respected as a benchmark for excellence, a CIPS Australasia Supply Management Award is the most prestigious recognition a company or individual in the procurement and supply chain profession can receive.
The Young Talent award recognizes the most influential up and coming procurement talent and nominations come from all over Australasia, New Zealand and Malaysia.
Ashleigh’s nomination was due to her work on the Blackwoods Aggregator program. This program looked to partner with a key supplier, using Hastings Deering premise of “partnering for a better future.”
Ashleigh said that she is still trying to get her head around the win and is grateful for all the support she has received.
"Winning the award made me feel so grateful for all the support I have received during my short time in Procurement. This award has reinforced my desire to excel further in order to make my company, my industry and my family proud." Said Ashleigh.
The Young Talent award is the only individual award given on the evening and is presented to the profession’s ‘one to watch’ with the judges looking for evidence of achievement that is significant and beyond what is normally expected from managers of this age and experience.
Ashleigh Turner’s talent was spotted by Geoffrey Brown, Chief Financial Officer at Hastings Deering, when she regularly stepped beyond her administrative role.
Starting as a branch personal assistant, she joined the group procurement team and in less than three years had moved from analyst to senior category manager in a major transformation project.
Loving all things procurement, Turner’s motto is ‘Don’t waste time or money’. She showed her leadership skills on the Blackwood Aggregator Program, consolidating 500 industrial consumable vendors to one provider, saving more than 15% and increasing partnering to boot.
As well as investing in her own development, she chairs Hastings Deering’s Change Network of 25 leaders across the business. Internal plaudits are plentiful, with C-suite executives praising her determination, drive to better herself, ability to create mutual value initiatives and integrity beyond her limited experience.
A first-class young leader. Other major winners on the night were BHP, Santos, Westpac and Air New Zealand.
Congratulations Ashleigh.