Carole Wendt (Past Speaker)

Carole Wendt is the Vice President of Global Procurement and Logistics, as well as the Chief Procurement Officer at Ascend Performance Materials. Ascend is a premium provider of high-quality chemicals, fibers and plastics. In her current role, Carole is responsible for aligning procurement and logistics with business requirements focused on value creation. She is also a member of the Ascend Leadership Team and reports directly to the CEO.

She began her career with Ascend in 2010 as Senior Director of Global Procurement, where she was responsible for more than $2 billion of materials, goods and services, and moved the organization from plant-centric support groups to a global Category/Commodity Manager structure, which drove more than $80 million of year-over-year productivity in the first two years. She also created cash flow in excess of $50 million by moving payment terms from fewer than 20 days to an overall average of 35 days and developed a propylene strategy for the company that increased supply flexibility and security while simultaneously improving the average discount structure by 150 percent, a move that created $30 million of value.

Prior to joining Ascend, she served 28 years at The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (NASDAQ: GT) in roles of increasing responsibility, including Director of North America Purchasing, where she developed cross-functional procurement councils to allow purchasing to capture and impact 80 percent of North America Tire Business Unit spend; this spend included advertising, transportation, marketing, services and plant maintenance repair, and operating equipment. She also created more than $62 million of indirect spend savings in the first year of introducing the councils. In 2003, the company named her General Manager of Global Synthetic Rubber/Monomers and New Source Development, where she led the corporation through the decision process resulting in retaining an integration versus divesting, which created $300 million in savings. In 2008, she accepted the position of Director of Supply Chain, Chemical Products, where she established the sales and operation process cycle, which linked the chemical division to the global tire business. In addition, she reduced inventory days by 50 percent while maintaining service levels, reduced inventory dollars by more than $50 million and championed the execution of vendor-managed inventory by moving to a replenishment model.

She is a member of Class XV Leadership Akron, as well as the Assistant Treasurer for the Goodyear Good Government Fund. She has also previously acted as Goodyear Chairman for the 2005 United Way Campaign. In addition, she served on the board for Goodyear’s 2001 Women Initiatives in Leadership and continues in the organization as a member. In 2000, the Summit County YMCA named her a “Woman of Professional Excellence.”

Carole holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering with Co-Op from Cleveland State University. She has participated in the Mahler Advanced Management Skills Program, the General Manager Leadership Training at Thunderbird School of Global Management and the Six Sigma Introduction for Executive Sponsors, as well as programs at the Center for Creative Leadership and at Penn State University. She also holds a U.S. patent for the partial fractional distillation of acrylonitrile from when she was at Goodyear.