S03 E13: Joseph DeMarco, Chief Procurement Officer at ABM Industries
Meet Joseph DeMarco
Before Joseph DeMarco was overseeing more than ten digits in annual procurement spend, he was building a procurement function from the ground up, turning a tactical, transactional operation focused on office supplies and business cards into a “center-led” procurement organization.
Six years in, he thought that opportunity was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Then ABM Industries called with almost the exact same mandate — just bigger.
Today, Joseph is Chief Procurement Officer at ABM, the Fortune 500 facility services giant behind the buildings, airports, and hospitals that keep the world running. His team oversees more than $1 billion in annual spend across a company with 120,000 team members and more than 20,000 clients.
Since joining in 2023, Joseph has led a transformation across people, process, and technology — while navigating ABM’s expansion into new high-tech territory, including microgrids and semiconductor fabs, through recent acquisitions.
In this episode, we cover:
How Joseph built a “center-led” procurement model that partners with the business instead of policing it
The “invisible ledger” concept — borrowed from Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People — and how it shapes every stakeholder relationship Joseph builds
Why the Kraljic Matrix is central to how his team segments suppliers and calibrates leverage
How ABM balances aggressive cost control with the kind of supplier partnerships that actually hold up under pressure
The mindset shift Joseph had to make about being his team’s “safety net” — and why letting go made him a better leader
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