Julie carlson
sourcing and vendor management consultant
Julie Carlson began working with Seprio in October 2019 and is a Sourcing and Vendor Management Consultant with 30 years of experience in the insurance and financial services industry- including more than 16 years of experience providing procurement consulting services and business solutions. Julie’s areas of expertise include professional services, event and travel management, marketing solutions, IT, XaaS, strategic sourcing, risk management, RFx development and management, contract drafting, negotiations, contract and supplier management, information and data security and regulatory compliance. Professional success includes roles with the Principal Financial Group and Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield delivering multi-million-dollar cost savings, reduced contractual risks, procurement leadership and training, operational improvements and regulatory compliance.
Major Accomplishments:
Successfully transitioned an in-house subrogation operation to a fully outsourced solution; conducted the RFP to select the third-party supplier, created the processes and procedures to manage and audit the supplier. Outsourcing the operation resulted in annual savings of over $20 million for both insured and self-funded clients.
Selected to create, implement and lead a training program for internal business clients and sourcing department employees and contractors, resulting in comprehensive awareness of contractual risks, terms and conditions, negotiation tactics, procurement policies and practices as well as identifying opportunities for risk management and consolidated services.
Assisted in the research, development and implementation of two end-to-end centralized strategic sourcing programs, resulting in streamlined workflow and administrative tasks while allowing more visibility of projects across all sourcing employees, including supplier management and contract administrators.
Provided project management to business units conducting RFxs and led successful facilitation of contract negotiations for internal and external parties; resulting in savings of millions of dollars annually.
Managed all contract employee negotiations, starting from project request to onboarding; managed RFx to identify preferred IT consulting firms and negotiate preferred pricing, resulting in over $1 million dollars in annual savings.
Drafted and negotiated thousands of contracts; resulting in material risk reduction, cost savings and the capability to craft and use valuable negotiating strategies that achieve corporate objectives and result in win-win relationships.
Julie graduated from Northeast Missouri State University (now known as Truman State University) in Kirksville, MO, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with an area of concentration in Management. After graduation in May of 1990, Julie began her career with the Principal Financial Group in Cedar Rapids, IA. Julie and her husband, Tyler, relocated with the company in 1992 to Des Moines, IA, where they raised two children and remain today. Julie holds FLMI, Fellow, Life Management Institute and ACS, LOMA’s Associate, Customer Service accreditations.