Marketing Procurement Awards

Michelle Pawlow interview ‘A new and exciting way forward’: Marketing Procurement Awards Winner – Marketing Procurement Rising Star of the Year

Rising Star of the Year Category

Winner: Michelle Pawlow, Sustainability and Partnerships Director at AG1.

Photo L to R: Craig Inglis (Chair of Judges) Michelle Pawlow (Winner) Iain Seers (RightSpend)

Criteria: To identify, encourage and celebrate emerging Marketing Procurement talent.

Judges Comments: Michelle Pawlow embodies the next generation the awards were created to surface.

Judges described the Rising Star field as one of the most competitive of the categories, with entries going far beyond the core basics of procurement. From leading on AI and ESG initiatives to the kind of complex, multi-stakeholder conversations that increasingly define the discipline. Pawlow stood out across all three areas. 

Her sustainability and partnerships remit places her at exactly the intersection where modern marketing procurement is heading, balancing commercial outcomes with environmental and social impact, while convening internal teams and external partners around a shared agenda.

The judging panel recognised in her work the “new and even more exciting way for the procurement industry” they were hoping to find. That makes her a fitting inaugural Rising Star, and exactly the kind of emerging talent the award was designed to identify, encourage and celebrate.

Insight Interview: Michelle Pawlow

By Alice Tomlinson

At the Marketing Procurement IQ Conference 2026 the inaugural Marketing Procurement Awards (MPA’s) recognised some of the function’s brightest talent.

When the MPA’s were launched by industry evangelists Tina Fegent and Jeff Cobb they felt it was important that the Awards should shed light on not just well-seasoned practitioners, but those who are emerging in the function as exciting new talent.

Marketing Procurement iQ sat down with Rising Star winner Michelle Pawlow to talk about her career so far, the winning moment and why marketing procurement might just be the most exciting function no one has heard of.

Based in Dublin, originally from the US and with a background that spans environmental engineering and FMCG giants, Pawlow is one to watch.

Shock, support and encouragement

Michelle’s entry into the Marketing Procurement Awards was encouraged by her Chief Procurement Officer, Ties Soeters, whom she credits as both a champion of the function and a mentor.

“Michelle is a rare procurement talent who is able to balance both the business needs with what’s important to our potential partners, identifying unique and novel solutions to align incentives and drive value, performance and buy-in throughout” Ties said. “She is never satisfied with just executing against the status quo: the award creates a phenomenal platform to not only celebrate Michelle’s success but also promote the new and novel ways she is able to look at marketing procurement” added Ties.

Michelle said that leading up to the nomination, the team had navigated a period of complex vendor negotiations at AG1 “So we took the opportunity to put the work out there and see what came of it.”

The awards were not about winning, but an opportunity to permeate the marketing procurement community. She had noticed the function was tight-knit and wanted to be “part of the conversation”.

So, when it came to her winning, she was “shocked”. “I wasn’t expecting to win. For me, it was more about submitting and starting to be part of the community” she admitted.

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Michelle Pawlow will be speaking at the Magic & Logic Webinar

“I saw the shortlisted members and thought they were all incredibly talented people, so I really wasn’t expecting it. But I’m so grateful – not just for the recognition, but also because it validates marketing procurement and newer leaders who don’t always get recognition.”

Despite the initial shock, the win has encouraged her to continue to challenge herself and her work, as she explained the award has given her momentum. “It’s not a finish line. It helps maintain the momentum to keep pushing the work forward, keep adapting, and keep learning,” she says.

Michelle said that she had also been inspired by the other winners and shared that they had exchanged contact details, hoping to stay in-touch and be part of the marketing procurement community as she intended when she entered the awards.

An unexpected past to Procurement

For Michelle, her marketing procurement career, like many of those before, began somewhere else entirely     .

Having started her career in environmental and operations engineering, the rising star was initially attracted to sustainable supply chains.

Upon joining the drinks manufacturing giant AB InBev as a supply chain professional, Michelle “found her path into procurement through a rotational programme”.

“Through that experience I discovered just how impactful and rewarding procurement was – that’s where I found my passion,” she confessed.

At AB InBev, she operated within a sprawling global procurement function, with the vendor ecosystems and reach to match.

At AG1, the marketing procurement team is, as she put it, “small and mighty” with a scope that covers everything from agencies and IT contracts to athlete and celebrity partnerships     .

“Marketing procurement sits very central to the business because it’s a smaller organisation,” she explains. “So, it has a more immediate, visible impact, which is really cool.”

Her background in sustainability and environmental engineering also finds a genuine home at AG1, where the company maintains a strong commitment to responsible sourcing.

“At AG1, we’ve worked hard to make 90% of our ingredients traceable back to origin, and we publish that in our annual impact report because we care about it, and it’s something our consumers care about too.”

Moving to the marketing category

The transition from direct procurement to marketing procurement was not just a change of category – it was, for Michelle, a shift into a way of working that felt like a natural fit for her.

Starting in direct procurement, specifically ingredients and packaging, she developed the core, traditional skills associated with the function.

However, Michelle admitted she tends to “be a little more people-focused and collaborative, always looking for win-win solutions”, so that is where marketing procurement felt like a great fit.

“A lot of it isn’t just chasing costs – it’s value-driven work,” the rising star shared.

Skills setting marketing procurement apart

For those who may follow in Michelle’s footsteps and find themselves at the start of their marketing procurement career, the award-winning professional had a clear and considered view of what the function requires.

Whilst many worry that their previous work experience might not be in procurement, Michelle believed you do not need a “specific background”, sharing that some of the “best procurement” professionals came from a variety of industries.

What is crucial for her is “curiosity and a willingness to immerse yourself in the learning process”.

Emphasising the importance of softer capabilities, she says that these are skills that set marketing procurement talent apart from other procurement categories.

Michelle says that “The ability to negotiate is really about understanding what the other side requires and finding creative solutions. You need to distil information quickly, recognise each party’s priorities, and relay that in a clear, succinct manner”

However, Michelle says that “Almost as important is the need to build strong relationships – internally and externally” but, she says, this cannot be done alone. She advocates that young procurement professionals should try and find a mentor, with however, a caveat about how to approach it.

“A lot of younger people get hung up on finding their one perfect life mentor. For me, mentorship isn’t about having one person you look up to for everything – it’s about having multiple touch points with people who have different skill sets and experiences” she suggests, “The best mentorships come naturally,” Michelle concluded.

The strength of community

When the conversation turns to attracting new talent, Michelle emphasised the appeal of the strong community the marketing procurement function fosters.

The awards, the conferences, the growing community – all of it, she believed, plays a role in shifting perceptions of what marketing procurement is and who it is for.

“Before I was in marketing procurement, I didn’t realise how strong the community was, and that’s something that really excites me,” she confessed.

“You learn so much from people outside of your own company – hearing what everyone else is working on, being able to share what you’re doing. That community is something I’m really looking forward to being more involved in.”

Looking ahead

As for her own trajectory, Michelle is clear about the direction of travel, even if the specifics remain open.

“I’m building toward leadership roles where I can grow teams and mentor others. I want to move further into strategy and partnership relationship-building, while still grounding everything in core negotiation and problem-solving skills.”

She also focused on building on her ESG experience, explaining that procurement is “uniquely positioned to drive responsible sourcing and sustainability”. The award-winning procurement professional concluded, “I love being part of that”.

For a Rising Star with an unexpected path into procurement, Michelle’s career has got off to a flying start.

About Michelle Pawlow, Sustainability and Partnerships Director, AG1

About Marketing Procurement Awards