Anthony (Tony) Abate
Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer
Cigna

Tony Abate is a nationally known and respected procurement executive in the Insurance and Financial Services industry with a track record of leading large organizational transformations to radically reduce the cost of operations across Fortune 100 companies. He has been able to combine his deep financial background and experience with his career in the Procurement discipline to create business partnerships that drive value across very complex enterprises.

Tony currently serves as the Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer of Cigna, a global health services company dedicated to helping people improve their health, well-being and sense of security. Since joining Cigna in 2010, Tony has lead Supply Chain Management’s journey to becoming a world-class procurement and supplier relationship management organization by building three key functions:

· Strategic Sourcing, responsible for category management and contract negotiations

· External Entity Management, responsible for managing Cigna’s strategic supplier relationships

· Global Center of Excellence, responsible for developing and maintaining supplier best practices, including risk management and analytics, as well as procurement technologies for Cigna’s global supply chain

Under Tony’s leadership, Supply Chain Management manages Cigna’s approximately 6,000 suppliers and $3 billion in annual spend across 31 countries.

Tony began his career at General Electric (GE), graduating from their Financial Management Program, and went on to hold various finance and procurement leadership roles within the services industry.

As a Vice President at Fidelity Investments, Tony drove cost out of the supply chain and managed supplier performance by implementing electronic sourcing processes and a playbook of supplier management best practices which contributed to reducing Fidelity’s key supplier risk in the 401K business by 90% over a 12-month period. As the Corporate Director of Global Sourcing at American International Group (AIG), Tony implemented global planning and budgeting processes and reduced operational costs by $36 million in one year.

Before that, Tony held the positions of Controller, Director and Vice President at Travelers, United Health Group and The Hartford, where he was responsible for managing various finance operations and IT procurement functions.

Tony maintains affiliations with procurement industry associations including Procurement Leaders.
The Covid-19 pandemic continues to disrupt the supply chain and has caused particular devastation within the minority business community. This session takes a deep dive into how minority businesses have been impacted and explore what leaders can do to help stabilize operations for diverse suppliers.