wolf pack summit 2026 Agenda
tuesday april 14
pre-event
- 6:00 - 8.00 PM
Pre-Event Warm-Up - Southern Hospitality and Hony-Tonk Vibes!
Join us for an authentic Nasvhille evening as we head to a private space in Nudie’s Honky Tonk on Broadway — a legendary three-story live music hub where the pack can assemble, high 5 and enjoy food and drinks before the summit begins.
Sponsored by:
wednesday april 15
conference day one
Day 1
- 8:00 AM
Arrival, Check-in & Networking
Head to The Bridge Building to pick up your badge and ready yourself for the inspiring day ahead!
Day 1
- 8:45 AM
Welcome to the Wolf Pack Summit 2026!
- Main stage
Why are we here? Quick insights into the event format, highlights and objectives to ensure you get the most out of the next two days
Paul Nilsen, Pack Leader, Procurement Pack & Director of Procurement, Douglas Elliman Real Estate
Day 1
- 9:00 AM
Procurement at the Inflection Point: How to Elevate our Status in the AI Era
- Main stage
- Challenge the assumption that procurement maturity is linear — adapt your strategy as the market resets every two years
- Understand where your team sits on the procurement arc: free-money era → 2023 profitability reckoning → 2024 strategic rebuild → 2025 AI spending surge
- Build a case for why AI spend needs procurement’s scrutiny in 2026 — and position your team, even if it’s just one or two people, as the ones holding both sides of the ledger
- Walk away with three concrete ways to operate at the strategic partnership and value creation stages right now:
- Adopt AI in your own workflow first so you can advise your business from real experience
- Step into the build-vs-buy conversation before your business makes costly mistakes without you
- Audit legacy spend with enough rigor to free up budget for the AI tools that actually prove their worth
Michael Shields, VP of Procurement, Tropic
Day 1
- 9:30 AM
Modern Procurement – Tales from the Front Line
- Main stage
This session explores what modern procurement really looks like in practice through two contrasting but complementary leadership stories. One interview features Freya Hurwitz, who has spent many years at TripAdvisor and built procurement inside a large, established organization. The other features Rachel Pinto, who recently joined ActiveCampaign and is navigating the early stages of reshaping procurement in a different kind of mature business. Together, their stories show that while company size, maturity, and starting conditions differ, the real differentiator is not process alone, but the mindset, adaptability, and influence required to build a high-impact procurement function.
Both interviews center on the practical reality of building procurement as a strategic function: how leaders earn credibility, create change, build relationships, question legacy ways of working, and move from reactive contract management to proactive business partnership. The common thread is that modern procurement is less about rigid process and more about curiosity, commercial thinking, and the ability to help the business make smarter decisions.
Key themes to be discussed:
- Modern procurement is a mindset, not just a skill set
- Building procurement inside established companies requires change management
- Influence and internal selling are core to the role
- Moving from reactive contract management to proactive strategic partnership
- Practical examples matter more than theory
Rachel Pinto, Procurement Manager, ActiveCampaign
Freya Hurwitz, Director of Global Procurement, Tripadvisor
Interviewed by Mat Schulz, Founder, Pennywurth
Day 1
- 10:00 AM
Find Your Pack - Facilitated Connection
Find your zone, find your people, and grab a seat over coffee. These high-energy themed discussion areas are designed to connect you with peers tackling the same priorities, challenges, and opportunities in modern procurement. Join the conversation that fits you best and swap ideas, practical lessons, and fresh perspectives with others in your pack.
Themes include: AI & Automation, Intake & Orchestration, Vendor Management, Stakeholder Influence, and Building the Function.
Day 1
- 10:30 AM
Coffee Break + Pack Demos
The Pack Demo initiative was inspired by you! Hubs enable you to gather in packs and evaluate our vendors’ products and services – with live group demos, offering a unique opportunity to benchmark, critique and compare how peers might leverage the tech within their organizations.
10.30
DEMO A
Drive Real Savings Faster with AI
Ben Baca, Solutions Consultant, Tropic
DEMO B
Meet Sheldon: Your Renewal Backlog Has a New Owner
Alessio Tresanti, Co-Founder, Rivio
11.05
DEMO A
The Money You’re Already Owed: How AI Finds Hidden Value in Your Contracts
Diviyabh Mishra, Founder, AllCaps
DEMO B
AI-Native Procurement Orchestration: Fixing the Broken First Mile
Mahasweta (Shweta) Bhattacharya, Sales Head, Spendflo
Day 1
- 11:35 AM
Building Trust and Alignment with Key Stakeholders
- Main stage
- Building strategic, forward-thinking partnerships that push the business forward
- How to embed procurement right at the heart of tech planning and execution, working with internal IT so it supports procurement tech
- Actionable insight from those winning at cross functional intelligence
Jeff Lentsch, Director of IT – Strategic Sourcing, Travel + Leisure co.
Nirvano Brans, CRO, Opstream
Jonathan Townsley, VP of Global Sourcing, Fiserv
Moderator: David McCarty, President & CEO – Contract Review Advisors
Day 1
- 12:10 PM
Interview with Susan Patrick Harris
- Main stage
The Gig Work Economy & the New Labor Model: What Procurement Must Do Next
- Today’s “new labor model” and what it means
- A lightweight procurement approach that works even if you’re a one-person function
- A practical playbook: intake questions, risk checks, contract clauses, and a simple vendor strategy for gig work
Susan Patrick Harris, VP of Procurement, R1 RCM
Interviewed by Ashley Kashmer, Procurement Manager, InvoiceCloud
Day 1
- 12:30 PM
Mat Schulz Hot Seat
- Main stage
Day 1
- 12:40 PM
Lunch
Day 1
- 1:30 PM
Choice of Workshops
A. Career Management Workshop – What Companies Look for in C-Level Executives
In this workshop, attendees will learn what companies truly look for in senior and C-level leaders, from the must-have mix of expertise, experience, and career progression to the leadership traits that signal long-term executive potential. The session also covers how to strengthen executive presence, shape a compelling personal brand, and build the candidate materials that matter most, including bios, LinkedIn profiles, and resumes. Participants will leave with practical insight into how to position themselves more strategically, get noticed by recruiters and headhunters, and navigate offer conversations with greater confidence.
Leader: Carlos Garcia, Executive Coach & Partner, ECB STAR Group
B. How to Vibe Code: Seeing the Cake Being Made
Come in with only the popular term “vibe coding” and walk out with the tools to create your own bespoke dashboard/app/process so bring your laptop or just listen in to get the lay of the land. We will be setting you up for successful deployment on your own by the end of the session!
Leader: Robert Nichol, Director Procurement, MidPoint Technology
Day 1
- 2:40 PM
Fireside Chat: Navigating Organizational Changes
- Main stage
Change may be the one constant in procurement—and leaders who thrive are the ones who turn disruption into momentum. In this candid fireside chat, two seasoned practitioners (Bobbi Bachynski, Head of Procurement at Mercury, Formerly Ramp, Buyer.co & Garner Blume, Founder of Procurement by Design, Former Head of Procurement at Lattice, Vendr) pull back the curtain on what it takes to steer a function through organizational upheavals: adjusting to executive leadership shifts, adapting new compliance and regulatory demands without losing speed, and keeping performance metrics moving in the right direction even when the ground beneath you is shifting. They’ll trade hard-won lessons on evolving procurement strategy in real-time, building credibility with new stakeholders, and, perhaps most critically, anchoring your team and your cross-functional partners to a shared mission when everything else feels uncertain. Whether you’re in the middle of a transformation right now or bracing for the next one, this is a conversation built for the realities of leading in a landscape that refuses to stagnate.
Garner Blume, Founder, Procurement by Design
Bobbi Bachynski, Head of Procurement, Mercury
Day 1
- 3:10 PM
Coffee Break
Day 1
- 3:30 PM
Pack Demos
DEMO A
Stay ahead of vendors, contracts, and risk with AI while helping your business move faster
Rose Punkunus, Founder, Sudozi / Zone&Co
DEMO B
Rethink your CLM
Mike O’Brien, Founder, ITKDocuments
Day 1
- 4:00 PM
Connecting the Dots Across High-Performing Organizations
- Main stage
- How to apply entrepreneurial instinct and operational discipline to drive transformation inside complex organizations, with a focus on legal operations, vendor ecosystems, and cross-functional collaboration
- Connecting the dots across departments, personalities, and workflows to drive measurable outcomes without creating friction or resistance
- How trust, clarity, and collaboration can turn internal experts into allies, and vendors into long-term partners
- Building systems that last – strengthening organizations long after the engagement ends
- How to lead from within, build trust across silos, and create whole-system impact in high-pressure environments
Jeoffrey Nathan, Director, Procurement, Kobre & Kim
Day 1
- 4:30 PM
Choose your Roundtable
- Spend analytics and leveraging your data to do better procurement – Nirvano Brans, Opstream
- Contract Rights Enforcement – everyone knows enforcing rights like discounts, rebates, credits in the contract is painfully manual. How AI can be involved – Divyabh Mishra, AllCaps
- Procurement Reporting When You Have No Data – Power BI starter patterns – Dimitri Desmet, Lyra Health
- Driving real ROI with agentic AI: How to measure impact & prove value post-pilot – Jason Powell and Grace Larrea, Zip
- How to Optimize Spend – and Why Bother? Michael Shields, Tropic
- Mat Schulz – Hot Seat
- (Sell-side only) Decoding the procurement mindset – and how to tap into it better – Tim Riordan, WIKA
Day 1
- 5:15 PM
Day One Download: Big Ideas, Bold Takeaways
- Main stage
To conclude day one, this closing panel will bring the room back together for a lively and insight-rich conversation that synthesizes the most important themes, ideas, and takeaways from across the program. Drawing on perspectives gathered throughout the day, panelists will share their hot takes on the sessions, speakers and idea which resonated, and share the key lessons attendees may have missed. With fresh perspectives, candid reactions, and a little spontaneity, this session is designed to help participants reflect, connect ideas, and learn from a range of viewpoints, this session will reinforce the day’s biggest conversations while offering a broader perspective on the trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping modern procurement.
Paul Nilsen, Pack Leader, Procurement Pack & Director of Procurement, Douglas Elliman Real Estate
Stephanie Buntine, Sr Manager, Category Management, Bausch + Lomb
Rob Nichol, Director of Procurement, MidPoint Technology Group
Michael Leiken, VP, Procurement Strategy, InMarket
Day 1
- 5:45 PM
Close and Regroup at Day One Evening Event
Day 1
- 6:30 PM
Let’s Party!
To cap off Day One, we’re heading to Puttshack – Nashville for a lively evening of tech-infused mini golf, great food, drinks, and friendly competition in the heart of Music City.
Thanks to our sponsor 
thursday april 16
conference day two
Day 2
- 8:15 AM
Arrival, Breakfast & Networking
Day 2
- 8:45 AM
Choice of Workshops
A. Benchmarking: License, Service & Pricing Optimization
In an era where AI is making data-driven decisions the norm, benchmarking has shifted from a nice-to-have for major contracts to a must-have across your entire portfolio. This hands-on workshop takes you beyond price — exploring how to achieve the right price, uncover hidden savings, and rationalize spend across your vendor landscape.
Working in small groups, attendees will tackle real-world scenarios: looking at true optimization from the angle of sourcing, license utilization and identifying downgrade or consolidation opportunities, building a “top five asks” for their next renewal, and running a diagnostic to catch SOW and services leakage. A featured procurement leader will share how their team approaches benchmarking in practice, before the group comes together to co-create a crowd-sourced contract checklist. Think of this as a practical tool attendees can take straight back to work and, for the forward-thinking teams, load directly into a contract review agent.
Leader: Michael Shields, VP of Procurement, Tropic
B. Intake & Orchestration: Building the Business Case and Getting the Rollout Right
An interactive workshop designed to help procurement leaders think through stages of the intake and orchestration journey, from early evaluation to incorporating AI to long-term adoption. The session will explore how to build a strong internal business case, define and communicate ROI, approach vendor selection and RFP development, and avoid common implementation pitfalls. Through facilitated discussion and shared experiences, attendees will examine what successful rollout and maintenance look like in practice, what drives stakeholder adoption, and how teams can sustain value over time. Participants will leave with practical ideas, peer insights, and tangible takeaways they can use to assess next steps or strengthen an existing approach.
Leader: Rose Punkunus, Founder, Sudozi / Zone&Co
Day 2
- 9:40 AM
Welcome to Day Two
- Main stage
Paul Nilsen, Pack Leader, Procurement Pack & Director of Procurement, Douglas Elliman Real Estate
Day 2
- 9:45 AM
Purposeful AI – Use Cases for Lean Procurement Teams
- Main stage
This session brings together procurement leaders for a practical conversation on how lean teams can turn AI from a promising idea into a useful tool for execution. Rather than focusing on hype or long-term visions, this session will explore real use cases, lessons learned, and the decisions that matter most when time, resources, and capacity are limited. Attendees will hear where AI is already delivering value, what often gets in the way of adoption, and how to prioritize initiatives that reduce manual work, improve decision-making, and support smarter procurement operations. The session will leave participants with a clearer view of where to start, what to avoid, and how to make AI work in the real world.
- Moving from ideal state thinking to practical execution
- Helping organizations get unstuck and actually activate AI
- Framing the right leadership questions
- Practical, real-world use cases
Jason Powell, MD of Enterprise Transformation, Zip
Ruth Hicks, Head of Procurement, Harvey AI
Christina Walton, AVP, Head of Procurement, Definitive Healthcare
Moderator: Amanda Prochaska, Chief Wonder Officer, Wonder Services
Day 2
- 10:20 AM
What’s Next? Navigating Career Growth and New Opportunities in Procurement
- Main stage
This interview-style session will explore what career growth in procurement looks like today through the lens of stepping into a new role, evaluating new opportunities, and leading through change. The conversation will examine how leaders approach the search process, assess the right fit, and navigate the transition into a new organization, while also reflecting on the broader shifts shaping procurement careers. Attendees will gain practical insight into career progression, leadership readiness, and what it takes to move thoughtfully and successfully into the next chapter of a procurement career.
Dimitri Desmet, Head of Procurement, Lyra Health
Interviewed by Rose Punkunus, Founder, Sudozi/Zone&Co
Day 2
- 10:35 AM
Take a Break - Coffee + Pack Demos
10.45 LIVE PACK DEMOS
DEMO A
Real AI Agents Built for Procurement
Jason Powell, MD of Enterprise Transformation, Zip
DEMO B
Wrangling AI Procurement with $30B of Intelligence
Gabriel Goldstein, Account Executive, Vertice
Day 2
- 11:15 AM
Live Agent Build - an interactive session focused on building an AI agents
- Main Stage
Meteb Alfayez, Procurement Director, Cribl
Day 2
- 12:00 PM
Room/Table Discussion on Build vs Buy
- Main Stage
For lean procurement teams, the build vs. buy debate is centred around the trifecta of cost vs. speed vs. control. Do you invest scarce time in building custom tools? Or deploy proven solutions that help you reach your destination faster without reinventing the wheel? What are the risks and benefits, and is there also a way to accommodate both approaches?
Hosted by James Meads, Procurement Tech consultant and Founder, Entrepreneurial Procurement with Meteb Alfayez
Day 2
- 12:50 PM
Lunch + Pack Demos
1.15 LIVE PACK DEMO
DEMO A
More Than Just Another Agentic Orchestration Solution
Nirvano Brans, CRO, Opstream
Day 2
- 1:45 PM
More Than Hiring: Rethinking Procurement Talent in 2026
- Main Stage
Procurement talent models are evolving in 2026, from traditional team structures to hybrid, extensible models that combine internal expertise, AI “employees,” and managed services. We’ll examine why hiring alone is no longer the answer, where the real skills gaps exist and how leading teams are redesigning roles to amplify judgment, negotiation, and strategic impact.
- Hybrid talent models that blend internal staff, AI employees, and external services
- Where procurement skills gaps are widening: digital fluency, consulting mindset and human judgment
- How AI reshapes work distribution – what machines do best vs. where humans win
- Why negotiation, influence, and decision-making are procurement’s most valuable skills
- How to attract and develop talent and what to look for
Host: Carlos Garcia, Executive Coach & Partner, ECB STAR Group
Shirelle Evans, Director of Global Procurement, Audible
Karen Hodson, SVP, Strategic Procurement & Workplace
Tim Riordan, Director of Procurement, Americas, WIKA
Day 2
- 2:15 PM
Why Change Management Matters More Than Technology
- Main stage
- Implementing a new ERP system – pitfalls and highlights!
- How to design and lead a change management roadmap that ensures the right skills, roles, and mindsets are in place to succeed
- Creating a learning culture that supports continuous adaptation and change
- Best practices
- What I did and didn’t think about
Dominic Battiston, Sr Director, Procurement, Infusystem
Interviewed by Amanda Prochaska, CWO, Wonder Services
Day 2
- 2:35 PM
Unlock opportunities through technology to create a better customer experience
- Main stage
Ryan Bradford, Head of Procurement, CCM
Day 2
- 1:20 PM
Champagne Roundtables
- Building / Refining a Category Management Strategy – Megan Brooks, SiriusXM
- Negotiation for lean teams – Nick Felver, Michigan Senate
- Building a High-Performing Procurement Team (Strategies for growth, training, coaching, and scaling) – Laura Barrett
- How intake system design can lead to better buying culture, not just purchases – Garner Blume, Procurement by Design & Mat Schulz, Pennywurth
- Engaging with suppliers to help drive strategic change – Christina Walton, Definitive Healthcare
- Cultivating custom tools – generalist platforms such as Intake & Orchestration and Source-to-Pay offer governance, workflows and broad coverage. Niche, category specific tools promise depth. Whether it’s SaaS, raw materials, MRO, or professional services spend, the question is whether specialist capability can unlock greater value that more broader suites simply can’t deliver – James Meads, Entrepreneurial Procurement
Day 2
- 3:45 PM
Wrap Up & Close of Summit
- Main stage
Thank you for joining!
Paul Nilsen, Pack Leader, Procurement Pack & Director of Procurement, Douglas Elliman Real Estate