FAIR Institute Board of Directors
Raj Sharma - President of FAIR Institute and Co-chair, Board of Directors
President and CEO, Censeo Consulting GroupDr. Allan V. Burman - Co-chair, Board of Directors
President, Jefferson Solutions and former Administrator of Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP)David Litman - Member, Board of Directors
Former Senior Procurement Executive for the U.S. Department of Transportation and Former Chair of the Federal Chief Acquisition Officers’ Council Human Capital Working GroupPaul Novak - Member, Board of Directors
Chief Executive Officer, ISMDavid Nelson - Member, Board of Directors
Former Senior Purchasing Executive at Honda of America, John Deere, and DelphiJoseph Sandor - Member, Board of Directors
Hoagland-Metzler Professor of Supply Chain Management, Michigan State UniversityRaj Sharma - President and Co-chair, Board of Directors at FAIR
President and CEO, Censeo Consulting Group
Raj Sharma is the President of FAIR Institute and the Co-Chair of the Board of Directors. Mr. Sharma is also the founder, President and CEO of Censeo Consulting Group, a leading provider of strategic supply chain management, operations and procurement capabilities to Fortune 500 companies and federal government agencies.
Mr. Sharma brings over 16 years of procurement and supply chain consulting experience working with C-level executives and their teams to implement successful supply management solutions. Mr. Sharma has been instrumental in helping guide the federal government in establishing a framework for strategic sourcing, now being applied across many federal organizations, including the U.S. Department of Defense.
Mr. Sharma holds an M.B.A. from Carnegie Mellon University and a B.S. in International Business and Finance from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Dr. Allan V. Burman - Co-chair, Board of Directors at FAIR
President, Jefferson Solutions and former Administrator of Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP)
Dr. Allan V. Burman, Co-Chair of the Board of Directors at FAIR, is a former Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy in the White House’s Office of Management and Budget under the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administration. Dr. Burman is also the President of Jefferson Solutions, the government division of the Jefferson Consulting Group. Under his leadership, Solutions provides change management services to many Federal departments and agencies.
Dr. Burman is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, a Director of the Procurement Round Table, a member of the Board of Advisors of the National Contract Management Association, and an Honorary Member of the National Defense Industrial Association. He is also an adjunct professor at George Mason University. From 1997 to 2003 he was a contributing editor to Government Executive magazine where he wrote a monthly column, Federal Marketplace.
The IBM Center for the Business of Government in 2008 published a number of his recommended approaches for improving government management and operations and in 2009, he was selected as one of this year’s Federal 100, the top executives from government, industry and academia who had the greatest impact on the government’s information technology community.
Dr. Burman graduated Summa Cum Laude Phi Beta Kappa from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, was a Fulbright Scholar at the Institute of Political Studies, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France, has a Master’s Degree from Harvard University and a PhD from George Washington University.
David Litman - Member, Board of Directors at FAIR
Former Senior Procurement Executive for the U.S. Department of Transportation and Former Chair of the Federal Chief Acquisition Officers’ Council Human Capital Working Group
From October 1995 through February 2008, David Litman was Senior Procurement Executive for the Department of Transportation (DOT). His responsibilities included overseeing DOT’s $6 billion annual acquisition program, providing leadership and policy guidance to the DOT acquisition work force, overseeing grants management and policy, and guiding the competitive sourcing program. Mr. Litman also served as Chair of the Federal Acquisition Institute Board of Directors and was Chair of the Chief Acquisition Officers’ Council Human Capital Working Group.
Previously, Mr. Litman spent more than 10 years as a contract specialist, contracting officer, deputy branch head and branch head in the contracting division of the Joint Cruise Missiles Project, Department of the Navy acquiring the TOMAHAWK Cruise Missile and its components.
From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Litman served as the inaugural Vice-Chair of the Procurement Executives Council (the forerunner to the current Chief Acquisition Officers’ Council), which brought together procurement executives from federal agencies to address common concerns and government wide issues. He also served as chair of the Council’s Performance Measurement Committee.
Mr. Litman retired from federal service in February 2008. He is a CAO SAGE (Strategic Advisor to Government Executives), a program sponsored by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service and a Director of the Procurement Round Table, a nonprofit organization chartered in 1984 by former Federal acquisition officials concerned about the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of the Federal acquisition system.
Mr. Litman received a BA in Political Science from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.
David Nelson - Member, Board of Directors at FAIR
Former Senior Purchasing Executive at Honda of America, John Deere, and Delphi
Mr. Nelson, a sourcing and supply chain visionary well renowned throughout the field of supply management, is a member of the Board of Directors at FAIR. Mr. Nelson is also the Chief Supply Chain/Strategy Officer for HTC Global Services Inc. Prior to that, he served as Vice President, Global Supply Management at tier-one automaker Delphi Corporation, where he was also a member of the Delphi Strategy Board, the firm’s top policymaking group. He previously led purchasing and Supply management operations at Honda of America Manufacturing and Deere & Company.
Mr. Nelson is the author of The Incredible Payback: Sourcing Solutions that Deliver Extraordinary Results and Purchasing Machine: How the Top Ten Companies Use Best Practices to Manage their Supply Chains.
Paul Novak - Member, Board of Directors at FAIR
Chief Executive Officer, ISM
Paul Novak, CPSM, C.P.M., A.P.P., is ISM's chief executive officer. Novak has been with Institute for Supply Management™ (ISM) since 1988 and led the institute in a major change in its governance, the implementation of a Board of Directors comprised of senior officers at major companies. Following this change, Novak led the organization in broadening its focus from purchasing into supply management.
Novak is a graduate of Michigan State University, having received his bachelor's degree in 1967 and his master's degree in 1972. In addition, he achieved his certificate in not-for-profit management from the Harvard Business School faculty. Novak was also the staff editor of ISM's four-book Knowledge Series on purchasing management. He is in his second year of a two-year term as president of the International Federation of Purchasing and Supply Management (IFPSM).
Novak is a frequent speaker concerning the future of supply management and the role it must play to ensure business success.
Joseph Sandor - Member, Board of Directors at FAIR
Hoagland-Metzler Professor of Supply Chain Management, Michigan State University
Former President and CEO of Creative Procurement Strategies, Joseph Sandor was appointed the Hoagland-Metzler Endowed Professor of Practice in Supply Management at Michigan State University's (MSU) Eli Broad Graduate School of Management in 2006. At MSU, he co-directs the annual Purchasing and Supply Chain Management Executive Seminar and the Broad Executive Summit.
Prior to forming Creative Procurement Strategies, where he advised clients such as Harley-Davidson, Rolls-Royce, Whirlpool, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Motorola, and ConAgra, Mr. Sandor was CPO and director of Corporate Purchasing and Logistics for the Sara Lee Corporation for 15 years. At Sara Lee he was responsible for nearly $12 billion in annual purchases. He earlier held positions at Beatrice, NL Industries and General Motors.
Mr. Sandor earned a BA from the University of Miami and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He has Certified Purchasing Manager (CPM) and Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) credentials and was an adjunct professor at The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. He is active in the Institute for Supply Management. He has published articles on supply chain management in CPO Agenda, Supply Chain Management Review, and Inside Supply Management.