Alumni Spotlight: Amy Rumford

Amy Rumford

Degrees earned: MBA ’06

Current Organization: Advance Auto Parts

Title:  Vice President, Supply Chain Operations

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-rumford-mba-pmp-22871a12/

Why did you chose Poole for your education?

The Poole College of Management was a great choice for me to leverage my technical background and learn cross-functional leadership skills, while collaborating and networking with other leaders from Raleigh and RTP.  I chose the part-time MBA program so that I could continue pursuing my career while also increasing my skills and knowledge.

How did your experience in your specific Poole Program at NC State contribute to your professional achievements and successes?

My Poole MBA enabled me to be competitive and move forward in my career. I was a new manager when I started the program, and moved into my first Director role shortly after graduation, leading a large global team across four continents.

What advice would you give for prospective and current students who are interested in your industry/profession?

Supply Chain leaders today rely strongly on conclusions drawn from data.  Analytics has emerged as a key competency in supply chain, and NCState and PCom have invested in this area.  Take the opportunity to participate in an internship or company project through one of your courses or through the SCRC (Supply Chain Resource Cooperative).  I’ve worked with the SCRC when I was at IBM, Lenovo, and now at Advance Auto Parts, and the student teams have consistently contributed to solving real-time business problems.

What advice do you have for prospective Poole students?

Once you make the decision that you’re ready to commit to an advanced degree, take the time to think about how you will prioritize your time.  You’ll still have all your existing commitments to work and family, and you’ll be adding additional commitments to your future and to your classmates.  Time management is one of the keys to your success.

Could you give a brief explanation of your current line of work, and what has led you to it?

My current role is Vice President of Supply Chain Service Excellence and Analytics at Advance Auto Parts.  Improving service to our customers is one of my passions. I enjoy facing daily challenges and utilizing data-based decision making to drive customer solutions.

What do you believe is your most interesting accomplishment since graduation?

I took a role at Google leading Planning, Program Management (PMO), and Analytics for Data Center Hardware Operations, deploying servers, storage, and network equipment through Google’s data centers globally.  I worked closely with Google’s supply chain and IT teams, and really flexed my technical muscles. It was a great opportunity outside of my primary functional expertise. Within supply chain operations, one of my proudest moments was at Lenovo where I was a key contributor to Lenovo becoming a PC market share leader, and  earning the Supply Chain of the Year award.