About Howard Richman, Managing Member of LFE
Since earning his MBA in Finance from Columbia University, Howard has spent 40 years in finance, supply chain, and procurement roles for major multinational corporations, including Air Products & Chemicals Inc., United Technologies Corp. (now part of Raytheon), M&M/Mars (now Mars Wrigley), SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline), GSK, Merck & Co., and Citrix Systems, Inc. (now private and part of Cloud Software Group).
Howard's responsibilities have included:
Howard's responsibilities have included:
- Capital Expenditure and Risk Analysis
- Production Control
- Plant Purchasing
- Supply Chain Business Development
- Raw Material Commodities Hedging and Trading
- Leading Global IT/Technology Procurement Functions
- Leading All Global Indirect Procurement Spend Management, including Procurement Operations and Systems
Howard has led the execution of a number of global procurement transformations for multinational companies, including as a consultant, and integrated or separated procurement functions in several major corporate mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures.
Howard first launched his procurement consultancy, Levelfield Enterprises, LLC, (LFE) after serving as head of Marketing and Commercial Services Procurement for Merck & Co., Inc., with responsibility for $5 billion in global indirect spending. He also served as Chief of Staff to the CPO and head of Procurement Change Management, where he helped lead the transformation of Merck’s Global Procurement function into a highly integrated, best-in-class organization.
Howard also took the reins of Global Indirect Procurement at Citrix Systems, Inc. in late 2013, building a strategic sourcing team from scratch and implementing a multi-stage sourcing management process, category management, and supplier diversity program while centralizing Procurement Operations and installing a complete Procurement suite of tools.
After only three years, Citrix Systems' procurement was recognized in 2017 as a finalist in three areas of excellence by the global organization, Procurement Leaders, and won the prestigious Cross-Functional Transformation Award for developing strong internal relationships. Throughout his professional career, Howard has advocated for building supplier diversity capability in the corporate, IT, and commercial services functions. Through this advocacy and leadership, he helped establish GSK, Merck, and Citrix Systems during his tenure as premiere organizations in the use of diverse-owned businesses.
Howard also served on the boards of the USPAACC, which promotes the use of Asian-American-owned firms, and Telerx Marketing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck that provides outsourced value-added business services and customer-facing solutions to packaged goods, healthcare, and other clients.
Howard also took the reins of Global Indirect Procurement at Citrix Systems, Inc. in late 2013, building a strategic sourcing team from scratch and implementing a multi-stage sourcing management process, category management, and supplier diversity program while centralizing Procurement Operations and installing a complete Procurement suite of tools.
After only three years, Citrix Systems' procurement was recognized in 2017 as a finalist in three areas of excellence by the global organization, Procurement Leaders, and won the prestigious Cross-Functional Transformation Award for developing strong internal relationships. Throughout his professional career, Howard has advocated for building supplier diversity capability in the corporate, IT, and commercial services functions. Through this advocacy and leadership, he helped establish GSK, Merck, and Citrix Systems during his tenure as premiere organizations in the use of diverse-owned businesses.
Howard also served on the boards of the USPAACC, which promotes the use of Asian-American-owned firms, and Telerx Marketing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck that provides outsourced value-added business services and customer-facing solutions to packaged goods, healthcare, and other clients.
.jpeg)