2022.04.06: Aubrey Leigh Goodwin Interview

Original article published on Linkedin by Dustin Lanier, CPPO

In a Procurement Leader Spotlight, we had a great 10-minute discussion with Aubrey Leigh Goodwin, a Deputy Executive Director with the Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration. The full audio is available in the podcast, here’s her response to my invitation to her to introduce herself:

"Thank you, my name is Aubrey Leigh Goodwin – I do go by Aubrey Leigh, a good Southern double name - I work for the Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration, which is a catch-all support agency for government. 

We do everything from pick up the trash to fly the Governor’s airplanes. That’s generally my elevator speech for DFA. We do all kinds of support functions and one of those is procurement oversight. 

I started out in procurement about 13 years ago. I was assigned here as one of DFA’s Special Assistant Attorney Generals - so the procurement shop was my client. I tell everybody they taught me everything I know about procurement – they really invested in me, which I’m eternally grateful for, I wouldn’t be here if not for that. 

In 2016 I became Chief Procurement Officer which was an amazing experience. I really thought I'd be there forever, but the Legislature had other plans, so I moved into this role in 2017. I moved into this role (A Deputy Executive Director of DFA) in 2017

In my current role I do basically all things procurement at DFA. That includes everything that we contract for as an agency, the Office of Procurement and Contracts is on my team, then I have Ross Campbell, the Chief Procurement Officer’s team as part of my shop, and I have another office similar to his that does Personal and Professional Services, so we are just Team Procurement."

Other questions we talk through in the full recording include:

• What motivated you to step up to this role, and what defines the leadership style you bring to the table?
• I saw you put up some social media content last week teaching a class in person - so you are really out there on the front of the front line - tell me about that.
• I got to speak for MAGPAA last year, and it was a huge event when people weren't still doing events - Tell me about the Mississippi procurement community.
• Finally, what should people be looking for from Mississippi in terms of procurement priorities coming out of the legislative process? What's on the agenda?

Check out the full interview in the podcast link.