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Procurement and supply chain leadership in Australia has quietly produced a cohort of highly capable women who oversee some of the most consequential decisions in corporate life. Supplier relationships, sourcing strategy, logistics networks, and increasingly, supply chain sustainability all flow through these roles. The executives below hold senior procurement and supply chain positions at major Australian organisations, spanning retail, resources, infrastructure, financial services, and government.
Why procurement leadership matters more than it used to
Procurement has moved well past its historical identity as a cost-cutting function. Supply chain disruption since 2020 forced boards to treat sourcing as a strategic risk, and that shift has elevated the profile of the people running it. Many of these roles now carry board-level visibility and feed directly into ESG reporting, particularly on modern slavery obligations and Scope 3 emissions.
Women leading these functions bring procurement into the same conversation as other senior executive roles. For context on how executive appointments signal strategic priorities, the Feisty analysis of when the chief commercial officer title suddenly appears tracks a similar shift in corporate signalling. Procurement leadership is following the same arc: the title is gaining weight, and the person holding it is gaining influence.
The executives to know
Nicole Hicks, head of procurement, Woolworths Group
Woolworths Group operates one of the most complex supplier networks in the country, spanning fresh food, private label, and general merchandise across more than 1,000 stores. Hicks oversees the indirect procurement function, managing vendor contracts across technology, facilities, and professional services. The scale of indirect spend at a business the size of Woolworths Group runs into the hundreds of millions annually.
Karen Dobson, group executive, supply chain, Coles Group
Dobson leads the end-to-end supply chain operation at Coles Group, covering logistics, distribution, and the company's network of automated fulfilment centres. The Coles supply chain function has been through significant capital investment in recent years, with Witron-automated distribution centres in Queensland and New South Wales reshaping how the business moves goods. Dobson sits in the group executive team, giving supply chain direct representation at the highest level of the organisation.
Lisa Gay, chief procurement officer, Services Australia
Government procurement at scale is a discipline of its own, and Gay leads it at Services Australia, one of the largest federal agencies by budget and transaction volume. The CPO role at a federal agency requires navigating Commonwealth Procurement Rules, whole-of-government panel arrangements, and supplier diversity targets simultaneously. Gay's function directly influences how government money flows to small and Indigenous-owned suppliers.
Tracey Ah-Hee, head of supply chain sustainability, BHP
At BHP, supply chain sustainability is not a marketing function. It covers Scope 3 emissions from purchased goods and services, modern slavery due diligence across a global supplier base, and supplier diversity commitments. Ah-Hee leads this work at one of the world's largest mining companies, where the supplier network spans dozens of countries. The role requires procurement and ESG capability in equal measure.
Vanessa Wallace, chief supply chain officer, Toll Group
Toll Group is one of Asia-Pacific's largest logistics providers, and Wallace oversees supply chain operations across the business. The chief supply chain officer at a company like Toll manages both internal operations and client supply chain solutions, a dual mandate that requires commercial acumen alongside operational depth.
Renee Milbourne, director of procurement and contracts, Transport for NSW
Infrastructure procurement in New South Wales moves through Transport for NSW at a rate that few private-sector functions can match. Milbourne's role covers major construction contracts, professional services, and technology procurement across an organisation that manages roads, rail, buses, and ferries. Infrastructure procurement requires specialist capability in contract law, market engagement strategy, and probity obligations that differ significantly from commercial sourcing.
Common threads across these roles
Three patterns appear consistently across these leaders. First, all of them operate with a sustainability mandate layered on top of their core sourcing function. Modern slavery reporting, supplier emissions, and social procurement targets now sit inside procurement rather than in a separate ESG team. Second, several of these executives have moved laterally from finance, operations, or legal backgrounds rather than coming up through traditional purchasing roles. Procurement has become a destination role for commercially strong generalists. Third, board visibility is higher than it was a decade ago. Supply chain risk now appears in ASX annual reports as a named material risk, which means the person managing it fields board-level questions.
That visibility is consistent with a broader shift in how Australian organisations are structuring their senior teams, a pattern tracked closely in Feisty's coverage of Australian women leading corporate sustainability functions, where supply chain sustainability and ESG strategy increasingly overlap.
What to watch
Two forces will shape procurement leadership in Australia over the next few years. The first is AI-driven sourcing tools, which are changing how category managers analyse spend and qualify suppliers. The second is geopolitical supply chain diversification, as organisations reduce dependency on single-country manufacturing by building parallel supplier networks. Both require procurement leaders who can bridge technical analysis and executive strategy. The women listed here are already doing exactly that.
This list will be updated as new appointments are confirmed. If you know of a senior procurement or supply chain leader who belongs here, reach out via the Feisty contact page.