An Interview with Warren Byrum, Strategic Sourcing at Truist Financial by Bill Duggan

Bill Duggan, ANA: Your career in strategic sourcing spans 25+ years at companies including J&J, American Express and now Truist Financial Corporation. What has changed most re: strategic sourcing in that time?
Warren Byrum, Truist: Over the past 25+ years, strategic sourcing has transformed from a tactical, price‑focused support function into a truly strategic and empowered business enabler. Early on, the work centered on competitive bids and basic cost reduction; today, it is deeply integrated with enterprise strategy, risk management, supplier innovation, and customer experience. Sourcing has evolved beyond contracts and savings to driving revenue, unlocking supplier‑enabled innovation, accelerating speed‑to‑market, and shaping healthy vendor ecosystems. The role now resembles internal consulting -- helping the business make smarter decisions about third‑party spend while balancing cost, capability, and long‑term value. At the same time, the complexity of risk, compliance, and due diligence has increased dramatically, making resilience and responsible stewardship just as important as financial outcomes. In short, sourcing is no longer about simply ‘buying better,’ but about enabling growth, building resilience, and creating value that extends well beyond cost.

Duggan: What are the key KPIs for your role? While measuring cost savings is straightforward, how does one measure the value added?
Byrum: The key KPIs center on driving both financial performance and strategic value for the business. While cost savings and efficiency gains are foundational measures, the real value added shows up in how well we improve capability, influence growth, and elevate decision quality across the organization. I look at KPIs such as supplier innovation contributions, time to market improvements, category health metrics, stakeholder satisfaction, and the incremental revenue or margin enabled through better choices. These indicators help demonstrate that our work is not just about reducing spend, but about building competitive advantage and creating long term enterprise value.

Duggan: How are you using AI today? And how are your agencies using AI?
Byrum: We’re still early in our AI journey, but we’ve already seen real impact -- our team began using Microsoft Copilot in October, and I’ve taken a lead role in shaping how it supports our sourcing work across agencies and professional services. Today, AI helps us accelerate everyday tasks like drafting emails, building RFPs, developing scopes of work, and preparing business ready summaries of complex contracts and key deals. It’s also improving the quality and speed of our evaluations by helping us synthesize supplier responses and highlight insights we might have missed. On the agency and professional services side, we’re seeing partners adopt AI for content development, rapid concepting, project workflows, and deeper analytics that improve recommendations and enable smarter decision making. What’s most exciting is that AI isn’t replacing judgment -- it’s creating space for more strategic thinking, better collaboration, and higher value partnerships between our teams and our suppliers.

Duggan: Do you have a role with media? If so, how … and what are some of your projects?
Byrum: Yes -- we play an active and ongoing role in media. We partnered with the business on the agency selection process about three years ago, and since then we’ve remained deeply engaged through monthly business reviews, performance discussions, and supplier management touchpoints. Our focus is on maximizing the value of the relationship -- making sure we have the right capabilities, the right commercial structure, and the right level of transparency to support strong outcomes. We work closely with marketing to optimize how we engage with the market, strengthen accountability, and ensure we’re getting both efficiency and innovation from our media partners. In short, we stay connected well beyond the pitch, supporting the business in managing the relationship, driving value, and keeping the partnership aligned as needs evolve.

Duggan: What’s one thing agencies should know about strategic sourcing that they might not be aware of today?
Byrum: Agencies may not fully appreciate that strategic sourcing is far more focused on enabling strong partnerships than simply driving cost decisions. We’re here to bring structure, transparency, and alignment so the relationship can perform at its best -- not to slow things down or reduce everything to price. We look at capability fit, innovation, accountability, and long term value creation just as closely as commercials. And when we’re engaged early, we can help the business and the agency shape the right scope, the right model, and the right expectations so everyone succeeds. In short, sourcing is not a gatekeeper -- it’s a strategic partner invested in healthy, high performing agency relationships.

Duggan: If you could “wave a magic wand,” what industry issue or problem would you fix?
Byrum: If I could wave a magic wand, I would solve the growing complexity in how brands, agencies, and sourcing teams work together -- complexity that’s only accelerating with AI. The industry is being reshaped by new technologies, new ways of working, and rising expectations around speed, transparency, and responsible risk management. Yet our operating models haven’t fully kept up. I’d love to see more standardized scopes, clearer pricing frameworks, and shared expectations for how AI is used across creative, media, and professional services. That would allow us to focus less on navigating process friction and more on partnering to create value. And importantly, a more modern, transparent engagement model would help all of us identify where cost can be removed, where work can be automated or streamlined, and where investment truly drives impact -- benefiting both the business and our agency partners. Ultimately, simplifying how we work together would unlock more time, more innovation, and better outcomes for everyone.

Duggan: You’ll be co-hosting the ANA Advertising Financial Management Conference in early May. What are you most looking forward to at that conference?
Byrum: I’m looking forward to the opportunity to be on the front end of a conference I’ve attended for more than 20 years. Being part of the ANA community for so long, I’ve always valued the learning, transparency, and collaboration this event brings -- but to now help co host it with Lauren Shukla of Astellas Pharma will be truly special. This conference brings together a unique mix of marketing, finance, sourcing, and agency leaders and creates the space for real, open conversations about where the industry is headed. It’s one of the few times we can step back from day to day execution and talk honestly about what’s working, what needs to evolve, and how we build smarter, more transparent, and more collaborative operating models -- especially as AI, data, and measurement continue to reshape how we work. I’m excited to engage with peers, hear fresh thinking, exchange ideas that drive value for our organizations, and connect with leaders tackling similar challenges. After two decades of attending, it’s an honor to help shape the experience and be part of the dialogue in a more visible way.

Duggan: See you in Orlando, Warren!

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