- Inclusive Leadership Development Programs: Implementing tailored leadership development initiatives that address the unique needs and challenges faced by women in the supply chain sector
- Mentorship and Sponsorship Opportunities: Establishing mentorship programs pairing aspiring female leaders with seasoned professionals to provide guidance, support, and advocacy within the supply chain realm
- Promoting Work-Life Balance and Flexibility: Championing policies and practices that accommodate the diverse needs of female leaders, such as flexible work arrangements, parental leave, and childcare support, to foster a conducive environment for career growth.
- Cultivating a Culture of Inclusion and Recognition: Creating a culture that values diversity and inclusivity, where achievements and contributions of women in supply chain leadership are acknowledged, celebrated, and rewarded, fostering a sense of belonging and empowerment
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Paul Gallagher
Chief Supply Chain Officer
General Mills
Paul Gallagher is the Chief Supply Chain Officer at General Mills. He is responsible for all facets of supply chain strategy & execution, including Sourcing, Planning, Manufacturing & Engineering, Logistics & Customer Operations, and Healthy, Safety & Environment.
Paul joined General Mills in 2019 as VP of North America Supply Chain, where he was accountable for operations in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. with 30+ sites and 10,000 employees. His responsibilities for North America – and his focus on transforming the network to drive competitive advantage for the business – continue in his role as Chief Supply Chain Officer. Paul is also the Executive Sponsor for General Mills’ Black Champions Network.
Prior to joining General Mills’ in 2019, Paul worked for Diageo for 26 years in a number of senior leadership roles, building an end-to-end global supply chain and procurement experience. Originally from Ireland, Paul started his profession brewing Guinness and grew his experience to taking on global supply chain roles across Europe, Africa, Latin America, North America, and Asia Pacific.
Paul is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin in Ireland where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Engineering. He has a passion for sports, especially soccer, and spends his spare time restoring classic cars. He lives in Minnesota with his wife and has four children.
Becky Crane
Vice President, Manufacturing & Engineering
General Mills
Becky Crane has 20 years’ experience at General Mills working across the company’s end-to-end supply chain, in multiple U.S. and international locations. Highlights include plant manager at one of our largest facilities (Hannibal, Mo.), as well as standing up a global procurement organization in Switzerland as an expat. She’s known for leveraging her breadth of experience to build bold strategies and highly effective cross-functional teams to solve problems and create long-term advantage for our businesses.
Crane leads manufacturing, engineering and global safety teams with accountability for over 9,000 employees (approximately 30% of the company’s employee base). This includes responsibility over $1B in capital across the enterprise, standardizing processes and establishing strong business partnerships to enable advantaged agility and accelerate innovation. In less than one year, her team stabilized line performance, reduced open headcount to less than 4% (industry leading), while delivering the capital plan.
Becky Crane joined General Mills in 2003 as a Distribution Management Associate at the Buffalo, N.Y., Flour Mill. Over the next 10 years, she held various roles with increasing responsibility moving around the U.S. in the process. Roles included Logistics Operations Planner (Minn.) for Yoplait, implementing a new planning system (Minn.), Logistics Manager (Avon, Iowa, and Buffalo, N.Y.), Operations Manager (Hannibal, Mo.) for Progresso Soup and Chewy Bars, and Supply Chain Development Manager (Walmart Sales; Bentonville, Ark.).
Crane stepped into two Plant Manager roles – first in Vineland, N.J., and shortly thereafter was approached to lead one of General Mills’ largest facilities in Hannibal, Mo. Continuing to broaden her experience, Crane embraced a unique opportunity as Director of Global Sourcing Packaging for Sourcing in Nyon, Switzerland. Upon her return stateside, Crane joined an executive leadership team, leading Supply Chain Transformation and Business Performance Management (BPM) for the North America Retail segment. Crane then stepped into an executive business leadership role as the Supply Chain Leader for the Morning Foods Operating Unit where she had accountability for the end-to-end supply chain.
Crane grew up in Golden Valley, Minn. and attended the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management where she holds degrees in Marketing and Supply Chain Management. She and her family currently reside in the Minneapolis.
