Susan Marty Joins ISM as Chief Product Officer, Tasked with Driving Member Engagement

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) recently shared with Spend Matters that Susan Marty has joined the organization as its first chief product officer, in charge of driving member engagement, market development and overall organizational growth.

“We are thrilled to have Susan join the ISM team,” says Debbie Fogel-Monnissen, chief financial officer at ISM. “She is a high-caliber talent with a wealth of experience to help us deliver superior products that are valued by our customers.”

Marty has an extensive background in marketing and product management, and prior to ISM, she worked at WorldatWork, Mitel and Voice Access Technologies, among other companies.

According to ISM’s press release, Marty will work to make ISM “a source for compelling, customer-driven content, including research, thought-provoking conversations with subject-matter experts, and issue-oriented articles.”

New technologies like artificial intelligence, analytics and blockchain are among the topics that ISM will explore more deeply, Marty tells Spend Matters. “We [will] bring forth multiple different perspectives from subject-matter experts through white papers, through education, through issue-oriented articles.”

“Technology is going to evolve, which will cause the profession to shift over and over [again],” says Marty.

Although ISM has recently put a big focus on young professionals with initiatives like the “30 Under 30 Supply Chain Stars Recognition Program,” Marty envisions ISM as a resource for all supply management professionals, from entry-level to the C-suite, who want to improve their skills and differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive world.

“ISM is the right resource for all of those people who are by nature curious. They want to be great at what they do, they want to help their organization, and they want to continue to advance in their profession,” Marty says.

“Susan is exactly the kind of product leader that ISM needs to fulfill the strategy of increasing engagement with the supply management professional,” Jim Barnes, managing director at ISM, says. “Her background in creating value offerings and communicating them clearly and through multiple channels will help today’s supply management professional [make use of] ISM’s vast resources.”

Indeed, engagement seems to be at the core of Marty’s new role at ISM. She is welcoming input from individual ISM members in order to better understand members’ needs, and she will be at ISM’s annual conference next week, May 6–9, in Nashville, Tennessee.

“Susan Marty is an exceptional leader with a talent for building strong customer, partner and industry relationships, and innovating in response to market shifts. At a time of rapid transformation for supply management, she will help ISM remain vital to our entire industry,” says Tom Derry, chief executive at ISM.