Biography for Joe Sandor
In March 2006, Joe Sandor was appointed as the Hoagland-Metzler Endowed Professor of Practice in
Supply Management at Michigan State University’s Eli Broad School of Business. This new Chair
was created to help drive the impact of the Broad School on supply management by focusing with
senior executives on the collaborative creation and dissemination of knowledge.
Effective September 1999, Joe Sandor formed Creative Procurement Strategies (CPS). CPS is a sole
proprietorship dedicated to help firms earn significant and sustainable supply management advantage.
CPS offers a suite of cost prevention, reduction and skill enhancement services to: train and facilitate
cost management strategy teams, apply supply management effectiveness screens, conduct supplier
perception surveys, develop supply strategies and “should cost” models, augment relationship
understanding and building, facilitate effective collaboration between buyers and sellers, and provide
procurement excellence benchmarking. CPS clients include: Harley-Davidson, Delphi, Rolls-Royce,
Whirlpool, Electrolux, Sara Lee, USAF, Hewlett-Packard, ConAgra, IBM and Motorola.
Prior to forming CPS, Joe was CPO and Director of Corporate Purchasing and Logistics for the Sara
Lee Corporation from 1984 to 1999. Sara Lee Corporation, headquartered in Chicago, is an
international consumer products and packaged foods company. Sara Lee Corporation’s sales exceed
$ 20 billion. In his Supply Management capacity, Joe was responsible for about $12 billion in annual
purchases, directly controlling $4 billion. Joe has over 25 years of Supply Management experience
with Sara Lee, General Motors, NL Industries and Beatrice.
Prior to joining Sara Lee, Joe consulted for 3 years with companies such as, Sara Lee, RCA, General
Electric, Kraft, TRW, Hallmark Cards with emphasis on Supply Management strategy development.
As a consultant, savings for client projects exceeded $250 million and were concentrated in the areas
of raw materials, capital equipment, packaging, logistics, maintenance supplies and various services
procurement. Additionally, Joe has expertise in the areas of Materials Management systems
development, business relationship management, leading-edge supply strategy execution, and
continuous improvement operating philosophy. Joe earned a BA in the Philosophy of Science from
the University of Miami and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Also, he is both a C.P.M.
(Certified Purchasing Manager) and a CPIM (Certified in Production and Inventory Management),
and was an adjunct professor at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business.