Katie Date on Bringing Women In Supply Chain™ Together

Q2 is just around the corner. 2024 has brought a fresh sense of urgency to the global supply chain amidst growing regional wars and tensions, and calls from climate scientists have kept sustainability initiatives a top priority. Rising sea levels and major American metropolitans slowly sinking have climate scientists on high alert and raising the alarm for government and commercial organizations.

The Russian war and attempted invasion of Ukraine and other global conflicts have made the safe passage of cargo across the Red and Black Seas more problematic than ever, while cutting off some major global suppliers.

The supply chain isn’t getting any less complicated. But thankfully, now we have more women in logistics to help solve the latest issues. We saw meaningful progress for Women In Supply Chain™ last year with a powerful leap in executive representation and activity for women across the chain. Frontline representation remained steady at 31% and the overall number of women in the supply chain community made a 5% increase—a trend that continues.

To face the latest wave of market challenges and logistics obstacles, more organizations are investing in diversifying their workforces and letting women take the lead. At Let’s Talk Supply Chain, we’re honored to feature Women In Supply Chain™ breaking out of traditional gender roles across global logistics, transportation, and manufacturing. These stats show that Women In Supply Chain™ drive bigger, faster moves forward and greater profitability while igniting higher levels of global collaboration.

Women In Supply Chain™ motivate us. They give us hope for finding novel approaches in our fast-evolving world. At Let’s Talk Supply Chain, we hope our Women In Supply Chain™ blog series inspires other female professionals looking to ascend far beyond glass ceilings to make a tangible impact.

Let’s Talk Supply Chain’s Women In Supply Chain™ program, and these blog highlights show the undeniable competitive advantage in investing in your female workforce. Empowering women in your ranks is proven to spike higher revenue and ROI. More than half of businesses dedicated to gender equity and diversity have 50% higher profitability and 61% higher revenue growth than competitors. And over 70% rank highest in customer satisfaction.

This month, we’re excited to feature Katie Date, SVP of Industry Relations & Strategic Initiatives at Manifest: The Future of Logistics. Katie has two decades of experience connecting businesses, research, and education, working in different capacities across the supply chain. As the SVP of Industry Relations and Strategic Initiatives at Manifest, she spearheads organizational efforts to foster strategic partnerships, empower innovation, and advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) in the industry. Katie previously founded and let the Women In Supply Chain™ Initiative at MIT, a groundbreaking project making greater knowledge and resources accessible for a more diverse and inclusive workplace.