Project Description

Carmen Castillo, President and CEO, SDI International Corp.

Carmen Castillo
President and CEO
SDI International Corp.

Plenary Session:
Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017
9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Carmen Castillo is the President and CEO of SDI International Corp. (SDI), one of the world’s largest Hispanic- and Woman-owned companies in the procurement industry, with a portfolio of managed spend of over $3B. The company, which she founded in Florida in 1992, provides its clients with fully scalable global indirect procurement solutions centered on Procure-to- Pay and Source-to-Pay for the tail end of the supply chain.

These programs are designed to manage large numbers of small suppliers handling non- critical/non-catalogue transactions that are often untracked, resulting in inefficiencies in process times, compliance and costs.

“We make ourselves indispensable to our clients by building globally and acting locally,” Carmen states emphatically. Her mantra is evident in SDI’s global footprint, which includes Centers of Excellence in the U.S., Argentina, Belgium, Canada, China, India, Bratislava, Mexico, Poland, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. The company is opening operations in Russia and Singapore later this year, and soon in the UAE.

At its inception, SDI offered strategic recruitment, payrolling and Independent Contractor Compliance Programs. As the company evolved, Carmen and her team designed and launched programs and processes that allow companies to adjust deliverables to specific categories or to the entire indirect procurement cycle, from requisition to contract negotiation, and from onboarding to remittance and offboarding. SDI has distinguished itself as a provider of robust process efficiencies, driving repeatable hard cost savings through cutting-edge technology, risk assessment, quality policies and a dedicated team, fostering long-standing business relationships with its Fortune 500 customers.

Carmen worked hard to overcome the many obstacles that countless other emerging companies face. As SDI’s customer base and solutions portfolio grew, so did Carmen’s awareness and conviction that it was vital for smaller providers to become certified as Minority- and Woman-owned, to be more competitive when doing business with large corporations. SDI became certified as a Minority- and Woman-owned business enterprise by the National Minority Supplier Diversity Council (NMSDC) and the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) and its adjuncts. Carmen and SDI are pioneers in Supplier Diversity and Inclusion programs, which they are expanding worldwide.

Carmen is a staunch proponent of paying it forward and corporate social responsibility. As a business leader, Carmen takes on 8-10 mentees per year, among them women entrepreneurs (many of them Hispanic), to share her insights and experience, with special focus on hiring, retention, business development and international expansion. More importantly, Carmen

 

facilitates networking opportunities and introductions between her mentees and her extensive network of corporate contacts and peers.

From the advocacy perspective, Carmen acts as a Board Member of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) and leads their Audit and International Committees. She is also Vice Chair of the International Women’s Entrepreneurial Challenge (IWEC), an international organization that offers networking and cross-collaboration opportunities between leading women business owners, as well as education and guidance to help them expand their markets across borders. Carmen also collaborates with the boards of many other Minority- and Woman- owned business organizations. She recently signed an international Memo of Undertaking to cross-collaborate with the International Trade Centre, offering guidance, education and global networking opportunities for women-owned trade corporations. She is very active with the UN Global Compact, who featured her in their 2016 global Study of CEOs committed to sustainable development goals. Carmen is deeply involved in community affairs, corporate social responsibility, and business development organizations that further the entrepreneurial efforts of minorities and women worldwide. Furthermore, Carmen has also accumulated several industry awards throughout the years, most recently an induction to the 2016 WBE Hall of Fame.

Carmen is a native Spanish speaker and is fluent in English and Italian.