As our CPO at WellPoint, Tony built an outstanding team of procurement professionals.  With a keen focus on integrating his team into the business and developing robust and impactful category strategies, he was quickly able to provide a very significant impact to WellPoint’s profitability.  He set high goals, then motivated his team to deliver at the highest level.

My company and I worked with Tony at Bristol-Myers Squibb and at Wellpoint.  The SRM programs that Tony led with their key suppliers were outstanding and offered us the opportunity to better understand their business and partner to solve their problems. We developed a trusting and interactive relationship that helped both parties benefit, and go well beyond a typical supplier customer relationship.  We felt like we had become an inner circle advisor to HR Staffing and Procurement.

Tony Santiago has been a transformational Procurement professional since I started my purchasing career in the mid 1990’s. At that time he was a trailblazer of modern best practice at Bristol Meyers Squibb. He was one of the very first CPO’s to understand and better define Procurement’s role in improving indirect specifications by altering both demand and consumption in a groundbreaking program started in 2001 with support from AT Kearny (at BMS). Later, what he accomplished at Wellpoint is nothing short of remarkable. If your trying to upgrade your Procurement organizations’ ability to deliver benefits to your company, Tony is clearly a person you should contact.

I have worked with Tony and his teams many times and have found him to use leading edge and efficient sourcing processes. Tony brings in a strong consultative approach that has helped us deliver win/win outcomes. He provided my company with the opportunity to share our best ideas and collaborate to develop leading edge category strategies. It has been a pleasure to know and work with Tony.

As a coaching leader, Tony drives his team forward, never accepting the status quo. He positively impacts the lives of those who work with him, not just at the office, but for life. I’m inspired by his commitment to each individual on his team, his community and his family. Tony knows how to make it work! It’s a pleasure to know and work with him.

There are three words that I believe describe Tony Santiago. They are Leader, Commitment, and Teacher.

In the three years that I worked for Tony I witnessed first-hand how a single individual committed to what he/she believes in can accomplish the most amazing things. He, singlehandedly and in very short order, transformed a small, relatively immature procurement operation into a high functioning strategic asset that was able to deliver incredible business value. His drive and commitment inspired everyone around him. He expected quite a bit but never more than he was willing to commit to himself. Tony raised the bar at WellPoint and in doing so raised all that worked with or for him.