In 2013, William M. (Bill) Cooper assumed the newly created position of Associate Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer for the University of California–Office of the President (UCOP). As such, Bill is responsible for functional leadership of procurement across the ten-campus UC system, the world’s largest public research university system. Bill is charged with leadership and overall management of UC system-wide procurement activity, including strategy and planning, strategic sourcing, category management, technology, sustainable procurement and change initiatives, the most current involving the evolution to a system-wide supply chain management organizational structure.

Prior to UC, Bill served as Stanford University’s first Chief Procurement Officer, unifying the previously separate, transaction focused, purchasing and payables functions into a strategic Procure-to-Pay (P2P) procurement organization. In Bill’s 49-year supply chain management career, he has led operations in federal government and private industry as well as higher education.