Afternoon Coffee: Coupa names lululemon exec as new CPO; Emergency airlifts for coronavirus crisis; Child labor in cocoa supply chains?; iPhone 12 production

Coupa announced today that it has a new chief procurement officer, Michael van Keulen, who managed global procurement for the workout apparel maker lululemon.

He will be responsible for the strategic direction of business spend management for the company, according to Coupa’s press release.

 Coupa CFO Todd Ford lauded van Keulen as a thought leader who gets results.

"With his strong perspective and innovative mindset, he represents the significance that Coupa, and all companies, should place on the strategic role of procurement,” Ford said in the press release.

Van Keulen led a procurement transformation at lululemon, and he also has experience in finance, according to the press release.

“As an experienced procurement practitioner, I viewed Coupa as my secret weapon to driving transformational change over the past eight-plus years,” van Keulen was quoted. “Given today’s economic environment, the opportunity has never been greater to help businesses spend smarter.”

Look for a Spend Matters interview with van Keulen next week.

Coronavirus news: U.S. launches emergency airlift with private cargo carriers

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has launched Project Airbridge to accelerate the delivery of critical supplies from international locations to distributors around the U.S.

As part of this operation, the first all-cargo plane from China landed Sunday morning at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, President Donald Trump said.

The freighter carried 80 tons of personal protective equipment, including 130,000 N95 respirators, 1.8 million face masks and gowns, 30 million gloves and thousands of thermometers for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

U.S. Customs seeks insights on child labor in cocoa supply chains

Reuters reports in an exclusive story that U.S. customs authorities had directed cocoa traders to report where and when they encountered child labor in their supply chains in Ivory Coast.

The report relied on three industry sources and said the move came in the wake of calls made by American lawmakers to ban some imports.

“Cocoa traders and chocolate companies including Mars, Hershey, Cargill and Barry Callebaut, have repeatedly missed internationally agreed targets for reducing the worst forms of child labor from supply lines in West Africa, all sides have acknowledged,” Reuters reports.

Foxconn production of Apple iPhone 12 is ‘on schedule’ though doubts on supply-chain remain

Bloomberg News reports that Apple’s Chinese-centric manufacturing was gradually coming back on track after coronavirus disruptions in China. The next iPhones with 5G wireless capabilities remain on schedule to launch in the fall. But it is also clear that the iPhone assembler is dependent on a massive upstream supply chain of components, and it’s not known whether they will all be able to cope with mass-production volumes.

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Read all of Spend Matters’ coronavirus coverage here.