Spotlight on Portfolio Operations: Kevin Barnes
In a new series shining a light on BC Partners’ approach to operational excellence, we’re sitting down with members of our Portfolio Operations team to find out more about their backgrounds and specialisms, emerging themes in their practice areas and how they work across BC Partners’ portfolio to deliver hands-on support and value creation.
In this week’s Q&A, we speak with Kevin Barnes, Managing Director and Portfolio Chief Procurement Officer at BC Partners. Kevin discusses BC Partners’ approach to portfolio procurement value creation with a partnership approach.
Kevin, thank you for taking the time to speak to us. Could you start by telling us about your role at BC Partners and experience before joining the firm?
Kevin Barnes: I lead our procurement specialist function within the portfolio operations team at BC Partners, working with most of our portfolio companies on related value creation. Prior to joining BC Partners, I spent over twenty years in procurement and supply chain leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies, including Schneider Electric, Disney, Mars, and Ford. This background allows me to collaborate with portfolio company procurement leaders, management teams, and suppliers - enabling strong alignment and impact.
How do you approach building and maintaining strong relationships with portfolio companies, and how does this contribute to portfolio value creation?
Kevin Barnes: A key priority is to ensure that our portfolio companies have strong procurement functional capability. This spans across people, processes, and technology. Over the past few years, I’ve partnered with management teams at several portfolio companies to assess procurement transformation opportunities across these dimensions. This strategic focus drives a truly collaborative relationship, where we work together on long-term procurement value creation enablement.
How do you utilize procurement technology to enable value creation in the portfolio?
Kevin Barnes: We leverage three primary procurement technologies across the portfolio: 1) Procure-to-pay (P2P) deployment: Automates and streamlines the end-to-end procurement process at the company level. 2) Advanced procurement analytics tools: Allow us to identify opportunities, assess supplier risk, track spend, drive compliance, and develop category strategies across the portfolio and at the portfolio company level. 3) E-sourcing technology: Utilized to run RFQs, RFPs, and auctions through a cloud-based platform, enabling improved impact and enhanced efficiency for portfolio company procurement teams.
Looking forward, what do you view as the main trends driving how BC Partners will approach procurement value creation and risk mitigation over the next 5 – 10 years?
Kevin Barnes: I see sustainability, compliance, as well as AI as the most impactful trends affecting supply chains in the coming years. 1) One major trend impacting procurement is the growing need to manage the supply chain in a responsible manner and to monitor and address compliance risks in the supply chain. I guide our portfolio companies on best practices and provide tools to monitor third-party risks and track compliance, leveraging partnerships like NAVEX and Interos. This aligns with BC Partners' commitment to responsible business practices. 2) We expect AI to help streamline portfolio procurement. We view AI adoption as a step-by-step approach, where the technology will progressively deliver more impact. We closely monitor AI developments and are starting to investigate AI solutions in the areas of advanced procurement analytics tools and contract lifecycle management.
Thank you for your time today, Kevin. We appreciate the opportunity to learn about your collaborative approach across the portfolio and how BC Partners drives procurement value creation.