Read Thierry Jaffry’s farewell post, and you’ll see 273 reactions — mostly celebrations and hearts. Seventy comments wishing him well.
And he deserves every one of them.
Sixteen years in ProcureTech. Built Fluxym North America from scratch — 60+ implementations. Launched Ivalua’s Canadian office. Led SOVRA through a KKR acquisition, integrated Periscope, unified the brand, and built what he calls “the best Growth team EVER.” Pro to Know 2023.
This is exactly the kind of practitioner our industry needs — someone with real implementation scar tissue, who understands both the vendor side and the buyer reality.
And he’s leaving. Not retiring. Not moving to a competitor. Leaving ProcureTech entirely.
His own words: “18 months with KKR truly feels like five years anywhere else… in learning, pace, and grey hair.”
The Pattern Nobody Wants to Name
Thierry isn’t alone.
Sarah Scudder — nearly two decades building her reputation as a procurement thought leader, Rising Star award winner, ProcuRising magazine founder, Forbes contributor — left for IT Asset Management last year.
Ryan Meonske — the Head of Strategic Procurement at Databricks who championed their ZIP implementation and served as the human face of that success story — departed less than a year after go-live to join Freshworks on the vendor side.
And in private conversations, other recognized names have told me they’re prepared to leave if things don’t change.
This isn’t an exodus — not yet. But the warning signs are flashing.
The Data Behind the Discomfort
The statistics paint a picture the industry would rather not examine:
- 55% of procurement professionals report elevated levels of stress or burnout
- Nearly 20% are projected to leave their roles
- Only 14% of procurement leaders believe they have the talent to meet future requirements
- 50% of executive hires fail within 18 months
- 72% of procurement organizations invest less than 2% of their operating budgets on training
We’re burning out our best people, failing to develop replacements, and then celebrating when they announce they’re moving on.
The Carousel Effect
Here’s what the industry doesn’t want to acknowledge: the damage isn’t just from people leaving entirely. It’s from the constant churn — practitioner to vendor, vendor to consultancy, one implementation to the next.
Every move takes institutional knowledge with it. Every departure leaves what I’ve called a “champion vacuum.” The scar tissue — the pattern recognition that comes from watching what works and what fails — never accumulates at any single organization.
When Ryan Meonske left Databricks, ZIP’s platform didn’t stop working. But the orchestrator who made it deliver value was gone. The question isn’t whether the technology still functions. The question is whether the initiative can sustain momentum without the person who built the coalitions, navigated the politics, and bridged the silos.
History suggests the answer is often “no.”
This is why 70-80% of ProcureTech implementations fail to meet their objectives — and why that failure rate hasn’t improved in over a decade despite billions in technology investment.
The Question We Should Be Asking
So here’s my question:
Why is nobody asking what’s driving this instability — at precisely the moment we need experienced practitioners most?
We’re entering the most complex technology transition in procurement’s history. AI. Agentic systems. Platform consolidation. Readiness gaps that the industry still refuses to measure.
And the people with the experience to navigate it? They’re burning out. Moving on. Walking away.
This isn’t about Thierry. He’s earned whatever comes next.
This is about an industry that exhausts its best people, underinvests in developing the next generation, and then posts celebration emojis as if each departure is a graduation instead of a warning sign.
How many more “congratulations” posts before we recognize the pattern?
-30-
From the Procurement Insights Archives: We’ve Seen This Coming Since 2007
The Procurement Insights archives tell a story the industry has refused to hear.
In 2007, I wrote about a CPO Agenda roundtable where one executive asserted that truly talented individuals “should move out of purchasing after five or six years and do another job.” Another panelist admitted: “I come from business and when I leave procurement I’ll go back to business.” Even then, procurement was being treated as a waystation, not a destination.
By 2015, despite increasing professionalization — 84% of procurement professionals holding college degrees versus 67% in 2003 — the fundamental instability remained. As one commenter on my post observed: “Many procurement leaders continue to frame the role of procurement based on a world that will not exist in a few years.”
In 2018, a survey revealed that 50% of procurement professionals would have chosen another profession if they had to do it over again. Half our industry wished they were somewhere else.
By 2023, the data had only worsened. People were changing jobs every 2.73 years on average, with 42% changing every one to two years. Forbes reported that “companies are bleeding leadership talent” — and procurement was no exception.
And here we are in 2025, watching Thierry Jaffry walk away after 16 years, celebrating his departure as if it’s a graduation rather than the latest confirmation of a pattern we’ve documented since this blog began.
The warning signs were there in 2007. They were there in 2015. They were there in 2018 and 2023.
We just kept ignoring them.
Procurement Insights
Why Are We Congratulating and Celebrating the Loss of a Key Member of Our Industry?
Posted on December 2, 2025
0
Read Thierry Jaffry’s farewell post, and you’ll see 273 reactions — mostly celebrations and hearts. Seventy comments wishing him well.
And he deserves every one of them.
Sixteen years in ProcureTech. Built Fluxym North America from scratch — 60+ implementations. Launched Ivalua’s Canadian office. Led SOVRA through a KKR acquisition, integrated Periscope, unified the brand, and built what he calls “the best Growth team EVER.” Pro to Know 2023.
This is exactly the kind of practitioner our industry needs — someone with real implementation scar tissue, who understands both the vendor side and the buyer reality.
And he’s leaving. Not retiring. Not moving to a competitor. Leaving ProcureTech entirely.
His own words: “18 months with KKR truly feels like five years anywhere else… in learning, pace, and grey hair.”
The Pattern Nobody Wants to Name
Thierry isn’t alone.
Sarah Scudder — nearly two decades building her reputation as a procurement thought leader, Rising Star award winner, ProcuRising magazine founder, Forbes contributor — left for IT Asset Management last year.
Ryan Meonske — the Head of Strategic Procurement at Databricks who championed their ZIP implementation and served as the human face of that success story — departed less than a year after go-live to join Freshworks on the vendor side.
And in private conversations, other recognized names have told me they’re prepared to leave if things don’t change.
This isn’t an exodus — not yet. But the warning signs are flashing.
The Data Behind the Discomfort
The statistics paint a picture the industry would rather not examine:
We’re burning out our best people, failing to develop replacements, and then celebrating when they announce they’re moving on.
The Carousel Effect
Here’s what the industry doesn’t want to acknowledge: the damage isn’t just from people leaving entirely. It’s from the constant churn — practitioner to vendor, vendor to consultancy, one implementation to the next.
Every move takes institutional knowledge with it. Every departure leaves what I’ve called a “champion vacuum.” The scar tissue — the pattern recognition that comes from watching what works and what fails — never accumulates at any single organization.
When Ryan Meonske left Databricks, ZIP’s platform didn’t stop working. But the orchestrator who made it deliver value was gone. The question isn’t whether the technology still functions. The question is whether the initiative can sustain momentum without the person who built the coalitions, navigated the politics, and bridged the silos.
History suggests the answer is often “no.”
This is why 70-80% of ProcureTech implementations fail to meet their objectives — and why that failure rate hasn’t improved in over a decade despite billions in technology investment.
The Question We Should Be Asking
So here’s my question:
Why is nobody asking what’s driving this instability — at precisely the moment we need experienced practitioners most?
We’re entering the most complex technology transition in procurement’s history. AI. Agentic systems. Platform consolidation. Readiness gaps that the industry still refuses to measure.
And the people with the experience to navigate it? They’re burning out. Moving on. Walking away.
This isn’t about Thierry. He’s earned whatever comes next.
This is about an industry that exhausts its best people, underinvests in developing the next generation, and then posts celebration emojis as if each departure is a graduation instead of a warning sign.
How many more “congratulations” posts before we recognize the pattern?
-30-
From the Procurement Insights Archives: We’ve Seen This Coming Since 2007
The Procurement Insights archives tell a story the industry has refused to hear.
In 2007, I wrote about a CPO Agenda roundtable where one executive asserted that truly talented individuals “should move out of purchasing after five or six years and do another job.” Another panelist admitted: “I come from business and when I leave procurement I’ll go back to business.” Even then, procurement was being treated as a waystation, not a destination.
By 2015, despite increasing professionalization — 84% of procurement professionals holding college degrees versus 67% in 2003 — the fundamental instability remained. As one commenter on my post observed: “Many procurement leaders continue to frame the role of procurement based on a world that will not exist in a few years.”
In 2018, a survey revealed that 50% of procurement professionals would have chosen another profession if they had to do it over again. Half our industry wished they were somewhere else.
By 2023, the data had only worsened. People were changing jobs every 2.73 years on average, with 42% changing every one to two years. Forbes reported that “companies are bleeding leadership talent” — and procurement was no exception.
And here we are in 2025, watching Thierry Jaffry walk away after 16 years, celebrating his departure as if it’s a graduation rather than the latest confirmation of a pattern we’ve documented since this blog began.
The warning signs were there in 2007. They were there in 2015. They were there in 2018 and 2023.
We just kept ignoring them.
Share this:
Related