Data Driven Procurement: The SMBC Strategy

Frank Wadsworth is Managing Director and Chief Procurement Officer of the Americas division at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). He has spent his career in financial services, having worked at some of the biggest names in banking: Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Bloomberg and now at SMBC. Beginning his career in technology, Wadsworth gradually transitioned to assume a variety of vendor management leadership roles. 

Prior to joining SMBC, he led global supply chain operations for Bloomberg, while also establishing a third-party risk management programme for the firm, transforming a fragmented, reactive approach into a cohesive programme. This role at Bloomberg was preceded by a position leading strategic vendor management for J.P. Morgan’s investment banking division (IBD), as well as procurement professional services for the bank globally, with several billion dollars of spend under management. 

Several leadership roles at Merrill Lynch, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley followed, where Wadsworth was responsible for driving multi-million-dollar savings, improving process efficiencies, and reducing risk by identifying and establishing outsourcing, offshoring and shared services opportunities.

As the Chief Procurement Officer for SMBC, Wadsworth is leading the development and implementation of a multi-year target operating model for SMBC to provide a centralised, strategic, and value-driven procurement function that enables the timely delivery of quality goods and services to SMBC businesses.