Leadership Team

Jeoffrey Burris, Founder and Principal of Advanced Purchasing Dynamics

With over thirty years of experience, Jeoff Burris has always possessed deep passions for understanding and reducing costs. Burris leveraged these passions to lead his purchasing staffs at Ford Motor Company, Metaldyne and Magna to successful records of substantially increased savings.

His successes in purchasing led him to the executive boardroom as a Chief Procurement Officer and General Manager of a P&L Group. A proven global manager, he can be credited with establishing supply and running profitable facilities and joint ventures in India, Korea and Mexico.

Always in possession of an entrepreneurial spirit Burris established Advanced Purchasing Dynamics in 2004 building it to feed his passion for understanding and reducing costs.

For 18 years, APD has helped manufacturers create competitive advantage through the application of knowledge-based cost management. APD uses proven cost engineering approaches, combined with extensive industry application experience, to help companies achieve lower costs while building stronger supplier relationships. Clients routinely achieve 8-18% savings on direct material purchases with project ROIs that return 5 to 15X consulting fees in first year’s savings. APD helps companies by:

• Implementing projects that improve the bottom line, including predictive pricing models, savings roadmaps and strategic sourcing implementations
• Unlocking savings with big data analytics for purchasing, including knowledge-based cost management software and services
• Enhancing the capabilities of their purchasing team through placement and buyer skill development training

Today Burris and the APD team are leading the way to Purchasing 4.0 where vast sums of cost and pricing data are leveraged with AI and machine leafing to provide predictive cost and pricing analytics.

An active alumna, Burris earned his bachelors of science in supervision at Purdue University and received a MBA in Operations from Indiana University. Involved in the industry community, he is a long serving member of the Board of Governors for the Original Equipment Supplier Association (OESA) Chief Procurement Officer Council and served a three-year term as a board member of the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Council.

He is a recognized industry leader, and frequently speaks to executives at industry events on the role of Purchasing, and how companies can maximize their purchasing ROI.

Burris lives in Salem, MI with his wife, Cheryl, where they stay close to their four grown children.

Karen Homovec, Senior Director

In her role as Senior Director, Karen leads Advanced Purchasing Dynamics’ Placement organization. This involves connecting leading manufacturing companies with the best and most appropriate Purchasing and Supply Chain talent in the market place. In addition, Karen works with the APD consulting division to provide Purchasing expertise on a variety of engagements focusing on delivering cost savings through identifying lower cost sourcing solutions and implementing procurement best practices.

Karen has over 30 years of experience in the procurement field with a record of success as a global sourcing strategist and tactician delivering consistent results on direct and indirect purchases. She held a number of Purchasing management positions during her career at Ford Motor Company serving in progressively expanding roles with increasing levels of responsibility. She’s held two overseas assignments (Japan and Thailand) including leading a global team to procure the interior of all Ford vehicles built in Asia. Her last position at Ford entailed managing over $2.5B implementing the strategy and procurement of the advertising, auto shows and marketing programs for both Ford and Lincoln. Her drive and experience in standardizing best practices as well as optimizing the cost and value of purchased materials, products and services gives her the background to fully understand customers placement and consulting needs in the areas of procurement and supply chain.

Karen earned both an MBA degree with a concentration in International Business and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Bowling Green State University.

Mike Wynn, Vice President

Mike Wynn leads the Sourcing Optimization practice for APD, where he ensures that our consulting teams deliver strategic impact and significant costs savings to clients. He brings more than 20 years of consulting experience guiding companies through strategic improvement initiatives in areas ranging from manufacturing efficiency to sales operations.

Mike has overseen projects at APD for commodities ranging from resins and steel to indirect materials. Prior to joining APD, Mike oversaw multi-year consulting engagements with a variety of companies, including Baxter, Chrysler, Hewlett Packard, Corning, Libbey, Trane, John Deere, U.S. Postal Service, Gerdau Ameristeel, Toyota, RR Donnelley and Caterpillar. He earned an MBA and a BSE degree in Industrial Engineering, both from the University of Michigan.

Denise Mattern, Director, Training Sales and Marketing

Denise Mattern is Director, Training Sales & Marketing for APD, where she leads all sales and marketing efforts for our training programs.  Denise has been a key contributor of launching the Cost Management Certification with great success.  Denise manages business opportunities and is responsible for building long-term relationships with prospects and clients.  Denise exceeds at juggling both client expectations and company goals while thriving to drive revenue growth.

Denise is an excellent addition to the APD team, bringing over 10 years of sales experience to create efficient and authentic customer relationships.  Denise has experience in the automotive, pharmaceutical, packaging, and staffing industries.

Denise received her BBA in Marketing from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Jim Dixon, Director, Consulting

Jim Dixon heads up the consulting division where he leads a wide variety of initiatives that assess and provide solutions for the procurement operations of the Purchasing Authority’s clients. He has led extended engagements with tier-one automotive suppliers to achieve accelerated and sustainable cost savings. For example, he identified 11.2% MRO cost reductions and service enhancements working with a purchasing services provider to handle a client’s MRO buying requirements. For another client, he developed a strategy and implementation plan to centralize and globalize the client’s indirect materials purchasing function, including benchmarking of industry BIC practices.

Jim has effectively utilized his non-production purchasing experience to the benefit of the Purchasing Authority’s clients. For example, he spearheaded a market study and rapid implementation of a third party procurement model at a tier-one automotive supplier, which resulted in more than $2 million of total cost reduction. He has Implemented purchasing strategies for commodities including packaging materials, plastic components and resins, telecommunications, IT software, etc. resulting in client savings of approximately $6 million.

As an automotive supply chain executive with extensive experience in the global procurement of production and non-production materials and services, Jim brings 30 years of experience to the Purchasing Authority. His ability to develop and deliver sound procurement strategies enabled him to move from buyer positions to Purchasing Director within Ford Motor Company. As a purchasing executive, he had global responsibility for machinery, tools, information technology and other indirect material spends.

Jim holds an MBA degree from the University of Illinois and a Bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University.

Adam Thor, Director, Cost Engineering

As a Cost Engineering Director, Adam uses his true cost modeling expertise to assist companies in understanding the cost structure of their material purchases. Clients, guided by his strategies, use this knowledge to control and contain expenses. An effective trainer, Thor teaches buyers to fully comprehend supplier cost structures. He is especially expert in the launch and detailed analysis of part cost modeling, specifically in support of purchasing cost reductions and make/buy analyses. Working with the cost engineering group, he develops data analysis models and quote summaries of RFQ market test data, including cost breakdown and cost driver data. The result is cost savings and greater transparency in the supply chain.

Before joining Advanced Purchasing Dynamics, Thor honed his purchasing and cost engineering skills at manufacturing giants Lear Corporation and General Motors. As a cost engineer at Lear, his work focused on providing data-driven cost analysis to support purchasing decisions. Similarly at GM, he served as a Supplier/Cost Development Engineer, regularly auditing supplier cost structures and determining multiple avenues for price reductions.

Adam is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering. He is bilingual in English and Hmong.