Priya Anand reflects on the industry, her career, and why near-constant disruption is reshaping supply chain strategy
With more than two decades of experience spanning logistics, finance, operations, strategy, and supply chain program management, Priya Anand has built a career defined by breadth, adaptability, and a relentless focus on turning logistics into a strategic advantage. As Director of Procurement & Supply Chain Services at Jabil, Priya works with customers to define strategy, execute logistics, and build the visibility and partnerships required to keep products moving in an increasingly complex market.
Last year, Priya was the recipient of Supply & Demand Executive’s 2025 Women in Supply Chain Award, demonstrating her commitment to bringing more women into supply chain leadership roles. We sit down with Priya to learn more about her career, the systemic pressures reshaping supply chains, and why near-constant disruption is no longer an exception, but rather a new operating reality.
Let’s start with an introduction to you, your career history, and how you came to be in your current position.
I’ve spent more than two decades in logistics, and my career has given me the opportunity to work across multiple functions. I started out after completing my MBA, and over the years I’ve worked across Asia, Europe, and North America in very cross-functional, multicultural environments. That breadth of experience shaped the way I think about supply chains, not as isolated functions, but as deeply connected systems.
At Jabil, I lead Logistics as a Service, where we work with both manufacturing and non-manufacturing customers to help define supply chain strategy, execute logistics, and bring together the data, visibility, and partnerships needed to keep products moving. What attracted me to Jabil was the opportunity to operate at that full end-to-end level. Jabil goes beyond manufacturing; it sits at the intersection of sourcing, production, logistics, and customer delivery. That makes it a very exciting place to build logistics capabilities that are not just operational, but strategic.
How does your experience of working with diverse clients shape your approach to relationships?
Working across different geographies and cultures has taught me that strong client relationships begin with listening well before you start solving. Different clients define success differently. Some are focused on visibility, some on governance, some on cost, and others on resilience. My approach is always to begin with discovery: understand the client’s pain points, their priorities, and what success looks like in their environment.
Cross-cultural experience also teaches humility and adaptability. You learn very quickly that there is no one-size-fits-all operating model. What matters is building trust, communicating clearly, and creating solutions that are practical in the client’s business context. In logistics, relationships work best when the customer feels you understand not just the movement of freight, but the commercial and operational realities behind it, and the complexity they are navigating every day.
Can you share a project you’re most proud of and what it taught you for future projects?
One of the transformations I’m most proud of is helping shift the conversation around logistics from fragmented execution to true orchestration. Earlier in my career, logistics was far more manual, with multiple handoff points, disconnected systems, and limited visibility. Over time, I’ve seen, and been part of, the move toward integrated digital ecosystems that connect partners, data, and decision-making in a much more seamless way.
What that taught me is that transformation only lasts when it solves a real business problem. Technology alone is not the transformation. The real value comes when you simplify complexity, improve visibility, strengthen governance, and help customers make better decisions before disruption hits. Future projects succeed when they start with a business problem, not the tool.
Tell us about your experiences of being a woman in supply chain. How can we encourage more women to enter director-level and above roles in this industry?
Being recognized with Supply & Demand Executive’s 2025 Women in Supply Chain Award is very meaningful to me because supply chain is an industry that demands resilience, adaptability, and strong decision-making, and I’m proud to have built my career in that environment. Being a woman in supply chain has been both rewarding and instructive. It has reinforced the importance of credibility, consistency, and a willingness to lead through complexity.
What matters most to me is that recognition like this creates visibility for the next generation of leaders. If we want to encourage more women into director-level and above roles, we need to be intentional about mentorship, sponsorship, and access to stretch opportunities. We also need to make sure women are not only included in execution roles, but are also given exposure to strategic functions, commercial decisions, and enterprise-level transformation work. That is how leader-ship pipelines are built.
I would also encourage women executives to be bold, speak up, and not wait to be given a seat. Take the seat and own your narrative.
What defines the most impactful digital transformations in supply chains?
Transformations deliver lasting value when they connect logistics to business outcomes, not just operational activity. If a transformation improves visibility, governance, performance, and financial decision-making, and helps the business become more resilient, then it creates value that lasts. The strongest transformations are the ones that connect logistics to revenue realization and to the broader supply chain strategy.
Where many organizations struggle is that they still treat logistics too tactically. They respond when there is a problem, but they don’t always design the network proactively. They may invest in tools, but if the data is fragmented, the governance is unclear, or the handoffs remain siloed, then the transformation never fully lands. The real challenge is not simply adopting technology; it is integrating people, partners, data, and decision loops in a way that changes how the organization operates.
Where do you think the human element remains irreplaceable as technologies like AI and machine learning mature?
AI and machine learning are becoming very important because they help improve visibility, fore-casting, and proactive decision-making. They can surface patterns, model options, and help organizations respond faster. But the human element remains irreplaceable in judgment, context, and tradeoff decisions.
Supply chains do not operate in a vacuum. They operate in dynamic environments shaped by customer expectations, geopolitical realities, regulations, service priorities, and commercial tradeoffs. A tool can tell you what may happen; people still must decide what matters most, how much risk is acceptable, and which path best supports the customer and the business. Human
expertise is especially critical in consultative conversations, governance, exception management, and navigating ambiguity when there is no perfect answer.
What are the biggest systemic pressures facing supply chains and how does almost constant disruption shape your advice to clients?
The biggest systemic pressures are volatility, geopolitical disruption, shifting supply-and-demand conditions, and the ripple effects those create across sourcing, lead times, cost, and service. The environment has become much more complex, and that means companies can no longer rely on static operating models or simply react once something goes wrong.
That reality shapes my advice in a very practical way. I encourage clients to focus on visibility, scenario planning, and partner models that can help them respond proactively. If a sourcing country is becoming risky, they should already understand what their alternatives are, what those alternatives cost, and how they affect transit times and service. The goal is not to predict every disruption perfectly. It is to build the data, decision-making, and network flexibility needed to respond with speed and confidence when change happens.
What does resiliency look like in practice? How can companies balance diverse networks and regional sourcing with efficiency pressures?
Resiliency in practice means your supply chain can keep moving when conditions change. It means your product is still getting to the customer, your network is still functioning, and your organization has credible alternatives when disruption happens. It is not just a KPI, it is a business capability.
Balancing resiliency and efficiency requires a broader lens than simply choosing the lowest-cost option. The cheapest option is not always the best long-term choice if it creates performance is-sues or leaves the network exposed. Companies should look at total value: service reliability, partner capability, visibility, governance, and the ability to support the business during disruption. Diverse supplier networks and regional sourcing can absolutely support resilience, but they need to be paired with strong orchestration, good data, and disciplined decision-making so that complexity does not turn into inefficiency.
What’s the most exciting area of growth in your division over the next five years?
What excites me most is the continued evolution from logistics execution toward connected, intelligence-led orchestration. The more we can integrate partner ecosystems, visibility platforms, and proactive decision support, the more value we can create for customers across the full supply chain lifecycle.
I also believe one of the most important capabilities for the future is scalable predictive orchestration – the ability to model what is likely to happen next and act on it early. That means combining network intelligence, partner data, operational insight, and business context in a way that helps customers make better decisions before disruption becomes costly. That is where I see tremendous potential.
Is there anything you would like to add that we haven’t covered?
The one thing I would add is that logistics should no longer be viewed as a tactical function that only matters when there is a problem. It is a strategic lever. When logistics is connected to the broader supply chain strategy, it helps businesses protect revenue, improve customer outcomes, and build resilience in a very uncertain environment.
So if I were to leave readers with one message, it would be this: think beyond execution. Think about how your network is designed, how your partners work together, how your data supports decisions, and whether your supply chain is truly built to adapt. That is where long-term value comes from.