Marcelo Valdivieso has been selected as the university’s new director of procurement services. His appointment was effective Monday.
As the director of procurement services, Valdivieso is responsible for a variety of key universitywide functions, including purchasing, travel and expense, strategic sourcing, print-copy-mail, and property disposition. Procurement Services is part of U-M’s Finance Division, and Valdivieso was chosen for the positon after an extensive national search.
“This is an extremely important position for the university and I’m very pleased that Marcelo agreed to join Finance,” said Nancy Hobbs, associate vice president for finance. “He has more than 20 years of purchasing experience in large, complex organizations, which operate with a decentralized procurement model that is very similar to the university’s approach.”
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Since 2005, Valdivieso has held a number of leadership positions at Alcoa, a global leader in lightweight metals technology, engineering, and manufacturing. Most recently, Valdivieso held key director-level positions at the company and managed annual commodity spends of more than $1 billion.
“Marcelo’s extensive experience in working collaboratively with customers and using enabling technology to streamline procurement processes will allow him to have an immediate impact on Procurement Services and continue the momentum that has been established in these two key areas,” Hobbs said.
Prior to Alcoa, Valdivieso spent several years at General Motors, including an assignment as a global commodity manager with oversight of an annual spend of nearly $2 billion. He has a Master of Business Administration degree from Duke University and an undergraduate degree from the University of New Mexico.
“I’m very pleased to join Procurement Services in this important role and look forward to continuing the department’s focus on partnering with customers across the university to understand their diverse needs, and provide consistently high levels of service,” said Valdivieso. “We’re here to make their jobs easy from a purchasing perspective so they can focus on the university’s missions of teaching, research, and patient care.”
