Andy Crichton

Growing up in Bordeaux (France) with an English father and a French mother, embracing different cultures, has given me the taste for travelling and living in cosmopolitan environments. Football and tennis have always played an important part of my upbringing (playing competitively for many years at the highest regional level).

I have lived in England for 6 years and in Spain and Holland for 1 year. Through these experiences, I believe I have become open-minded, able to mix in all kinds of environments, and acquired fluency in a third language - Spanish. Most recently, I was fortunate to have a very culturally enriching experience: travelling through Latin America - backpacking for 9 months through 7 countries from Mexico to Argentina.

In terms of personality traits, colleagues say that I am analytical with a creative edge, always enthusiastic, highly adaptable, and a focussed team player. In the workplace, I strongly believe that a highly motivated team is the key to success. Through my travels and an active social life, I feel like I am learning every day and I hope this will be the case for many years to come.

Taking on challenges and stretching one’s limits in order to achieve ambitious goals is what brings balance and satisfaction to my everyday life.

For close to 4 years I worked at Reckitt in a corporate, fast-paced, and strategic procurement role. The vast majority of my global portfolio (~£30Mio Spend) was part of the Nutrition division of Reckitt (scope of commodities: Starch, Minerals, Vitamins, Creamers, Pre- & Pro-biotics, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids). In this position, linking my food science background to my procurement knowledge allowed me to understand the technicalities of the product formula in order to develop project ideas supporting my procurement strategy.

High communication skills, strong technical understanding (at ingredient level) and a real ease with numbers were required to get projects approved by the various supply and innovation directors and therefore, financially resourced. In an FMCG sector where innovation and speed to market are vitally important, project implementation required a lot of engaging, influencing and challenging across the cross-functional teams (Marketing, Finance, Legal, R&D, and Auditing teams) as well as the external stakeholders (international suppliers) in order to exceed expectations and get outstanding results.

During my time in this role, my team and I delivered multi-million pounds savings, significantly increased business synergies and put into place the foundations of the medium/long term strategy. I also believe being able to speak English, French and Spanish enabled me to enhance my supplier relationship management and encouraged positive business outcomes.

Most recently, I am working in a recruitment agency specialised in purchasing. In this role, I am headhunting as well as expanding the business by prospecting clients and finding new communication tools.

Bsc in Food Science and Engineering. (University of Nottingham)

Masters in Purchasing and Innovation (Kedge Business School)