Lara Nichols

Lara. Nichols, senior director of IT sourcing and assets strategies at Tyco International, has a strong background in technology management, business process improvements, program design, change management, global project leadership, supplier management, budgeting, risk management, financial analysis, performance metrics, regulatory compliance, and merger activities. She has held key executive leadership roles that have contributed significant value and ROI to multimillion-dollar organizations, including Fortune 200 companies. At Tyco, she is credited with founding and institutionalizing an inaugural IT supply management program. This role included both design and reengineering expertise for such initiatives as creating the company's first training program for supply management practices for IT and transforming the corporate culture to strengthen the impact of the new program. Results included a 10-50% return to the corporate bottom-line, supplier discount increases as large as 50%, and a single project operational expense reduction of more than $6 million. Previously, she was vice president/director of IT architecture competency centers and chief IT sourcing/procurement officer with Wachovia Corporation. She also held several executive and management positions in the Advanced Technology Group (ATG) of First Union Corporation.