Richard Woodford, Global Procurement, Merck, Sharp & Dohme
Richard is the Marketing Regional Lead for Procurement for Merck, Sharpe and Dohme a Global Pharmaceutical company. He is responsible for all Marketing Procurement strategy for EMEA and also works closely with his US team to develop strategy and structure in the Marketing area, this includes working with Marketing to find more efficient ways of working, identifying potential partners, implementing commercial agreements and contracts, looking at how MSD can maximise the value of its marketing budget.
Richard came from Cadbury Schweppes where he undertook a similar role, but looked after the ATL spend across the Region where he managed the Agency relationship, worked closely with the marketers to ensure the quality of the creative and also implemented new ways of working with evaluation, production, remuneration and improving the capabilities of the marketing function in briefing, authorisation, prioritisation and return on investment modelling.
He graduated from Newcastle in Business and Marketing and then had a number of roles within Marketing and moved to the dark side after spending 2 years travelling globally for Granada Compass. Richard has only ever really concentrated on Marketing Procurement.
For the last 2 years Richard has been heavily involved in the industry and currently chairs a very active Group called the Communications Procurement Action Group (COMPAG), which is part of the UK Industry body ISBA (Independent Society of British Advertisers) which represents British Advertisers. He represents ISBA within the joint industry initiative with the IPA called 'Magic and Logic'. He regularly gives talks at industry events as he believes very passionately about the advertising industry and understands its importance to all parties and the role of Procurement within Advertising.
