331: Women In Supply Chain™, Sylena Urbanoski
Sylena Urbanoski is a dynamic operations leader, veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, business founder, and start-up advisor. She shares her journey of co-founding a customs brokerage firm with the goal of digitizing the industry and creating better opportunities for women, a venture that was successfully acquired by Flexport. Throughout her career in male-dominated fields, she has seen the power of mentorship and believes strongly in building community to support professional growth. Sylena is passionate about innovation and is currently launching a new global trade management platform to continue transforming the supply chain space.
In today’s episode of Women In Supply Chain™, I’m joined by the multi-talented Sylena Urbanoski: veteran, business founder, supply chain leader and start-up advisor.
Sylena Urbanoski is a strategic and dynamic operations leader with over seven years’ experience at the chief executive level, where she built profitable start-up divisions, grew business lines, managed deals, and streamlined operations. A veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, Sylena also co-founded a company that sold at 10 times valuation within 24 month to Flexport.
Today Sylena will be talking to us about her career so far; her entrepreneurial success; her long-time business partnership; and why she’s so passionate about scaling start-ups. Plus, she’ll be sharing her experiences as a woman in supply chain, as well as her words of advice for all of the women following in her footsteps.
SHOW SPONSOR:
Women fuel the success of some of the world’s most successful businesses, yet barriers still exist. SAP is committed to supporting and elevating a new generation of women to profoundly lead and impact global supply chains and are proud to support the Women In Supply Chain™ Series and its efforts.
Supply chains need to evolve from low-cost and optimized to risk-resilient and sustainable and SAP can help.
SAP Digital Supply Chain solutions connect the entire process — design, planning, manufacturing, logistics, maintenance, and service; connecting your supply chains to the rest of your business and all your contextual data; supporting your efforts in alleviating risk in your supply chains.
SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software and for the last 50 years has been helping companies to run better. Find out more at sap.com/scm
Sylena’s career journey and how a road trip with a friend led to a life-changing business and lifelong partnership.
The vision behind Sylena’s first business, and its successful sale to Flexport.
Sylena’s experience working with Flexport, the next steps in her career journey, and her long-time business partnership with Cindy Christensen.
How and why supply chain has changed for women in the last decade, and the work that still needs to be done.
From finance to the military to supply chain, Sylena’s experience across multiple male-dominated environments, and her experience of strong, supportive women.
The industry areas that Sylena would like to see changed for women.
What the future holds for Sylena.
Sylena’s words of advice for leadership, and women in the industry.
What excites Sylena the most about the future of supply chain, and her advice for jumping in.
Sylena’s biggest top tip for Women In Supply Chain™.
Resources & Links Mentioned
- You can connect with Sylena over on LinkedIn.
- If you’d like to hear more from Sylena, check out episode 26 of Blended – Veterans Voices: Inspiring Stories from Those Who Serve. And if you want to hear even more veteran voices, listen to episode 14 of Blended – Veterans and Civil life: Winning the Battle of Workplace Discrimination.
- Check out our other podcasts HERE.
