GARETH THOMAS 167 Candlewyck DriveAvondale, PA 19311

Mobile: 610 883 3572Home Office: 610 268 9010

gareththomas60@gmail.com

EXECUTIVE PROFILE

Business Transformation • Strategy Development • Global Sourcing • Supply Chain • Strategic Partnerships • Change Management • Process Engineering • Re-structuring • Outsourcing • Complex Negotiations •

Senior Executive with more than 15 years of successful executive leadership delivering in various functions and roles in diversified industries from manufacturing to entertainment / media to non-profit. Most recently COO of Autism Speaks, brought in by the Board to drive operational improvement, organizational change, strategy definition and implementation. Previous roles include Global CPO for Universal Music Group’s (UMG) $3b direct and indirect spend. Successfully implemented strategies resulting in increased savings of 30% over a 12-month period. Prior to UMG, member of the Executive Committee for EMI Records with responsibility for Supply Chain and Procurement ($1.5b spend). Personally recruited to EMI by the COO of a private equity company to drive operational improvement, successfully delivered both global and regional strategies to significantly reduce costs, improve cash flow and position Procurement to be the champion of supplier innovation delivering sustainable competitive advantage. Also led the business transformation program to move EMI from a physical focused business into a high margin global rights management enterprise by driving consumer focus and digital innovation. When EMI was sold to UMG it had materially the best margins in the industry with growing market share. Prior to EMI held senior global roles in Procurement and M&A at Imperial Chemical Industries PLC (ICI), the UK’s largest manufacturing company ($6b spend).

Achievement Summary: Demonstrated high achievement in a wide range of industries, international businesses, geographies and roles:

Successfully restructured the worlds largest autism non-profit organization to bring it back into surplus. Transformed the procurement functions in three global multi billion dollar companies materially

increasing performance and savings. Developed and implemented global and regional sourcing strategies for over $10b worth of spend. Transformed supply chains in Europe, North America and Asia resulting in industry leading performance. Business ownership of the Global Rights Management strategy to support and drive the music industry

from outdated and analogue-focused into a successful global rights management enterprise delivering higher margins than its competitors.

Defined key strategies at CEO / COO level and led both the projects and negotiations for global outsourcings in IT, BPO & shared service (deal values of over $3 billion).

Led divestments and acquisitions of diverse businesses. Integrated the procurement function and spend of major businesses post acquisition. Management of global teams of over 400 people in procurement and supply chains within diverse

companies and cultures to greatly increase their performance.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

COO: Autism Speaks: The worlds largest autism related non-profit August 15- Present Brought in by the Board Chair to restructure the organization, define and implement strategy, drive process improvement and cost management:

Materially improved the financial position from a loss to a projected surplus in 16 months. Drove the strategy process through to Board sign off to define the organizations priorities, deliverables

and implementation. Restructured the organization to reduce costs whilst implementing the required infrastructure, processes

and controls to support both short-term financial management, growth strategies and mission delivery.

Chief Procurement Officer: Universal Music Group (UMG) June 13 – July 15 Responsible for the definition and implementation of the procurement transformation for $3b spend. Reporting to group EVP and CFO: 120 reports. Delivery included:

Development of the procurement organization and capabilities across countries and labels to optimize the procurement process and insights to maximize UMG’s global category spend, reduce costs and maximize value from suppliers (reports: 10 direct and 110 indirect in US, Europe and Japan).

Creation of a multi-pronged strategy to link procurement into business processes, allowing new levers to be used to drive both savings and value from demand, supply and process improvements. This has resulted in increasing EBIT savings by 30% in 1 year (from 2% to 3%, forecasts moving to 4% in 2015 across the relevant categories, significantly more in targeted areas).

Changing the culture of the organization to facilitate working across country, label and functions to identify new areas for procurement to become active and deliver cost savings (including increased sourcing from Asia, professional services, legal etc.).

Increased visibility of the direct impact that procurement decisions have on EBIT for the business.

President Group Procurement and Supply Chain: EMI Music Group March 08 – June 13 (Acquired by Universal)Responsible for global Procurement and Supply Chain transformation for $1.5b spend plus Business owner for the Global Rights Management strategy. Reporting to the CEO and a member of the Executive Committee: 180 reports. Delivery included:

Setting up a new global Procurement organization based on category management principles (30 staff) Definition and implementation of sourcing strategies in all key spend areas to deliver 15% reductions in

total 3rd party spend over 3 years (excluding volume reductions) savings delivered in all key geographical areas (contributing £45m to EBIT).

Re-engineering of U.S. and European manufacturing and distribution to deliver industry leading supply chains with the lowest cost base in the industry; European end-to-end savings were 32%. Significant savings in Japan and S. America (400 reduced to 150 staff).

Implementing group payment polices to materially increase EMI’s cash position by over 25%. Procurement policies to increase span of control whilst maintaining the creativity of the music business.

Over the 4 years I worked at EMI it became the most profitable of the majors in terms of EBIT and cash generation. In an industry with declining revenue, procurement and the supply chain were recognized as a key driver of profit and competitive advantage.

Led the organizational change program to embrace the opportunities from exploitation of our global Rights. Deliverables included organizational restructure, workflow changes and the development of supporting architecture to collect and give transparency for our Rights and deal parameters governing the use of our artists’ work, a key enabler for the transformation of the business into a high margin global rights management enterprise

VP Group M&A: Imperial Chemicals Industries PLC 2007 – March 08

Responsible for the negotiation of acquisition, divestment and mergers for a global $6b turnover business, examples include acquisition of an adhesives business in the U.S. and the divestment of a wine business in Argentina.

Director: ICI PLC Global Procurement 2001 - 2007Responsible for the definition and delivery of global sourcing strategies in a wide range of spend areas, strategies developed at Group EVP level. Delivery includes:

Packaging ($250m p.a.): Managed cross business global teams to increase incremental savings from 2% to 8% p.a. plus generated over $7m cash in 2 years (in particular, focus on sourcing from China).

Raw Materials ($300m p.a.): Defined global sourcing strategies for the largest raw material spend. HR / Finance & Accounting ($250m): Led negotiations to deliver a global change management

program to move HR and F&A into a shared service environment (saving 33%).

Director IT Procurement: ICI Global Contracts Group 1998 – 2001Definition and delivery of sourcing strategies for the global IT spend ($100m p.a.) and key elements of ICI Americas Human Resource commercial strategies to increase incremental savings from 3% to 10% p.a. Responsible for all commercial aspects of a complex deal which delivered a standardized operating and support environment throughout the 23,000 users in North America and Europe. Deal value: $500m.

Regional Purchasing Manager: ICI Americas 1997 – 1998Developed the North American procurement organization post the acquisition of new businesses from Unilever. Doubled incremental savings to 6% p.a.

Project Director: ICI PLC 1996 – 1997Responsible for the management of all aspects of the outsourcing of ICI’s Chemical and Polymers division Help Desk environment to IBM. Deal value: £40m.

Commercial Project Manager: ICI PLC 1993 –1996 Lead negotiator and project management for the outsourcing of ICI’s European mainframe, ICI’s and

Zeneca’s Virtual Private Networks: Deal values of over £100m. Responsible for contract negotiation of ICI’s worldwide telecommunication contracts.

Regional Sales Manager & Marketing Roles – ICI Acrylics 1987 – 1993

Qualifications & Courses

Royal Institute of Marketing - Diploma in Marketing 1985

Manchester University - BA Honors in Business Studies 1982

Wharton University of Pennsylvania: Mergers and Acquisition 2008

IMD International - Switzerland: Orchestrating Winning Performance 2008

British and US Citizen