GEP INNOVATE 2026 - AGENDA

Details to follow

Conference MC Paul Blake kicks off GEP INNOVATE 2026

As AI, geopolitical uncertainty and supply chain disruption drive a Great Global Reset, Subhash Makhija examines the challenges and success factors defining the next era of procurement and supply chain.

Alexander Stenzel, Mercedes-Benz Group AG and Binayak Shrestha, GEP

In less than 12 months, Mercedes-Benz deployed an agentic platform to address spend across its global procurement operations, transforming how work gets done. This candid discussion will share key lessons from moving from pilots to deploying agentic AI at scale globally, including:

• The key decisions that enabled procurements’ rapid enterprise-scale deployment 
• How teams are evolving as agents automate tasks and workflows 
• Where AI is creating the greatest value today

Few athletes have faced greater pressure or bigger moments than Eli Manning. Join the two-time Super Bowl MVP for a conversation on leadership, teamwork and the habits that help individuals and organizations perform at their best.

Break

Join GEP’s product leadership team for an exclusive look at the latest innovations across the GEP Quantum Intelligence platform, including:

• New agentic AI capabilities and autonomous workflows
• How organizations are moving beyond automation to intelligent execution
• The key emerging technologies shaping procurement and supply chain
• GEP's product roadmap

Whether you’re exploring AI or scaling it across the enterprise, this session offers a firsthand look at what’s next.
 

What if compliance could do more than identify problems and actively protect value? Quang Ho shares how Chevron is using GEP Compliance Control to continuously identify deviations, uncover value leakage and strengthen compliance across complex procurement processes. Discover how AI-powered monitoring is turning greater visibility and control into measurable business impact.

Networking Lunch 

From global supply disruptions to AI transformation, Alex Gorsky shares lessons from leading Johnson & Johnson through some of the most challenging and consequential years in its history.

Leading GEP partners share practical insights on the trends, technologies and strategies shaping procurement and supply chain today, from AI and risk to sustainability and digital transformation.

Four sessions will run concurrently and be repeated on Day Two, giving attendees the flexibility to choose the topics most relevant to their priorities.

Mastercard: Use Virtual Card Payments to Tackle Tail Spend and Improve Working Capital

Explore how virtual card payments can simplify tail-spend management, reduce supplier onboarding and administrative effort, strengthen controls and improve working capital. Learn how procurement and accounts payable teams are using card-based payments to generate rebates, reduce fraud risk and unlock new financial value.

Fluxym: Turn GEP Quantum Intelligence Studio Into Value Without Introducing New Risks

AI can transform procurement, but sustainable value requires more than deploying a new tool. Through practical use cases, Fluxym experts will show how GEP Quantum Intelligence Studio can address evolving procurement needs and how organizations can integrate AI into a broader source-to-pay transformation across processes, people and technology.

Whatfix: From AI Ambition to S2P Transformation: Making Adoption the Advantage

Technology alone does not deliver transformation. Learn how Whatfix helps organizations accelerate adoption of GEP through contextual guidance, hands-on simulation, process guardrails and behavioral insights, helping teams improve proficiency, strengthen compliance and sustain adoption across evolving source-to-pay workflows.

TBA

Break

Rapid-fire conversations with GEP customers reveal how leading organizations create value, overcome complexity and shape the future of industry.

See It Coming: Rethinking Supplier Risk  
Dr. Marsha Anderson, Oncor Electric Delivery in conversation with Colleen Zupan, GEP

Discover how utilities and other organizations can rethink third-party risk management in an era of constant disruption. Rather than treating supplier risk as a compliance exercise, leading organizations can use data, technology, and structured governance to gain visibility into critical suppliers, anticipate risk sooner, and build more resilient supply chains.

The S2P Leap: From Fragmented to Fully Connected  
Andrew Brennan, University of Arizona in conversation with Pranav Padgaonkar, GEP

What happens when procurement moves from fragmented processes and limited technology to a connected, end-to-end source-to-pay operation? Learn how transformation can deliver greater visibility, control and efficiency across procurement — creating a stronger foundation for better decisions, greater value and lasting impact.

Product Intelligence: Where AI Meets Engineering  
Linas Polteraitis, Terex in conversation with Gauranga De, GEP

Discover the combination of agentic AI, deep engineering expertise and advanced physical technologies to create a new approach to Product Intelligence. From Agentic Should Cost and Buzz Analytics to Design-to-Optimize, 3D scanning and rapid prototyping, this session explores how a richer understanding of products, components and costs can uncover new opportunities for reengineering, margin transformation and value uplift — delivering rapid ROI while opening an entirely new frontier for value creation.

Going Global: Making Procurement Transformation Scale 
Rohit Dir, Phibro Animal Health in conversation with Kokila Roy, GEP

A candid fireside chat exploring the successful global rollout of GEP software. Practical insights, key learnings and ideas from the journey — offering valuable takeaways for organizations navigating complex, global procurement transformation.

Choose one of four concurrent sessions:

Autonomous Intelligence Starts With the Platform: Your Foundation for Long-Term Transformation

Built AI-native and orchestrated end to end, the platform embeds intelligence into every layer, sensing risk, flagging issues early and acting before small problems become expensive ones. That foundation protects savings and de-risks every part of your procurement investment.

Real ROI, Right Now: Compliance, Intake and Category Intelligence at Scale

Walk away with a clear path to fast, measurable ROI. From Compliance Control’s savings protection to Intake and Orchestration’s spend control and Category Management’s category-level savings, this session makes the upstream-to-downstream case for migrating today.

Designed With You: Co-Innovation, Adoption & the Self-Service Experience​

Discover how agentic AI is reshaping design thinking, self-service and the customer experience. This session goes beyond interface - showing how co-innovation with customers and AI-driven adoption tools make software easier to use and operate around real needs.​

Choose one of four concurrent sessions:

Autonomous Intelligence Starts With the Platform: Your Foundation for Long-Term Transformation

Built AI-native and orchestrated end to end, the platform embeds intelligence into every layer, sensing risk, flagging issues early and acting before small problems become expensive ones. That foundation protects savings and de-risks every part of your procurement investment.

Real ROI, Right Now: Compliance, Intake and Category Intelligence at Scale

Walk away with a clear path to fast, measurable ROI. From Compliance Control’s savings protection to Intake and Orchestration’s spend control and Category Management’s category-level savings, this session makes the upstream-to-downstream case for migrating today.

Designed With You: Co-Innovation, Adoption & the Self-Service Experience​

Discover how agentic AI is reshaping design thinking, self-service and the customer experience. This session goes beyond interface - showing how co-innovation with customers and AI-driven adoption tools make software easier to use and operate around real needs.​

Breakfast

Details to follow

What does effective leadership look like when the stakes are high and the answers aren’t easy? Valerie Jarrett, CEO of the Obama Foundation, joins GEP President Roopa Gandhi for a wide-ranging conversation on leading through uncertainty, bringing more women into technology and consulting, building powerful partnerships across business, government and society, and turning leadership into meaningful social impact. Drawing on lessons from the White House, the boardroom and beyond, Jarrett will explore what it takes to build trust, navigate crises and bring people together to make change happen.

The era of predictable globalization is over. Governments are intervening in markets, trade relationships are being redrawn, and geopolitical competition is reshaping global trade. Join Ambassador Nikki Haley for an essential conversation on the forces redefining global trade and supply chains, including:

• The future of U.S.-China competition
• The outlook for trade, tariffs and the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement
• Key lessons from recent geopolitical flashpoints
• What the 2026 elections could mean for trade and industrial policy

Kellanova has continually improved its global source-to-pay operations, most recently applying AI and agents to streamline processes, improve cash flow and enable teams to take on more. Drawing on that journey and its two-decade-long partnership with GEP, Ruxandra Frigea will share practical lessons on: 

• Where AI agents and automation are creating value across source-to-pay  
• How Kellanova is redesigning processes and global teams to improve cash flow and take on additional scope 
• How to sustain transformation through acquisitions, integration and major business change 

Break

Procurement technology is entering a period of extraordinary change, but which developments will genuinely reshape the function and which risk being overtaken by the hype? 

Gartner’s Magnus Bergfors brings an independent perspective on the forces reshaping the procurement technology landscape, from the evolution of source-to-pay and orchestration to AI, autonomous sourcing and emerging agentic capabilities. Discover what’s gaining traction, what procurement leaders should be watching and where technology could take the function next.

HPE, one of the world’s largest technology companies with $36 billion in revenue, redesigned the way procurement and supply chain work together. Meche Hernandez and Binayak Shrestha share practical lessons from implementing a new operating model and AI to make the supply chain more agile, resilient and competitive, enabling double-digit year-over-year growth.

Leading GEP partners share practical insights on the trends, technologies and strategies shaping procurement and supply chain today, from AI and risk to sustainability and digital transformation.

Four sessions will run concurrently and be repeated on Day Two, giving attendees the flexibility to choose the topics most relevant to their priorities.

Mastercard: Use Virtual Card Payments to Tackle Tail Spend and Improve Working Capital

Explore how virtual card payments can simplify tail-spend management, reduce supplier onboarding and administrative effort, strengthen controls and improve working capital. Learn how procurement and accounts payable teams are using card-based payments to generate rebates, reduce fraud risk and unlock new financial value.

Fluxym: Turn GEP Quantum Intelligence Studio Into Value Without Introducing New Risks

AI can transform procurement, but sustainable value requires more than deploying a new tool. Through practical use cases, Fluxym experts will show how GEP Quantum Intelligence Studio can address evolving procurement needs and how organizations can integrate AI into a broader source-to-pay transformation across processes, people and technology.

Whatfix: From AI Ambition to S2P Transformation: Making Adoption the Advantage

Technology alone does not deliver transformation. Learn how Whatfix helps organizations accelerate adoption of GEP through contextual guidance, hands-on simulation, process guardrails and behavioral insights, helping teams improve proficiency, strengthen compliance and sustain adoption across evolving source-to-pay workflows.

TBA

A conference highlight, the Peer Exchange convenes delegates for candid, customer-led discussions on the topics that matter most. Hosted by GEP customers, these sessions offer an opportunity to share practical experiences, exchange ideas and learn from peers facing similar challenges. Together, participants explore solutions to some of the most pressing issues facing their organizations.

Roundtable 1: The Challenges of Deployment at Scale, Hosted by Michael Krassos, Phibro Animal Health
Going live is one thing. Going global is another. Join Michael Krassos of Phibro Animal Health for a peer-to-peer discussion on what it really takes to deploy procurement technology successfully at scale. Share experiences and practical lessons around adoption, standardization, stakeholder engagement and managing complexity across regions, and explore how to turn a successful implementation into lasting, enterprise-wide impact.

Roundtable 2: What Should It Cost? The New Intelligence Behind Manufacturing Value, Hosted by Linas Polteraitis, Terex
How much value is hidden inside the products you make? Join Linas Polteraitis of Terex for a peer-to-peer discussion on how Product Intelligence is changing the economics of manufacturing. Explore how should-cost modeling, agentic AI, engineering insight and product reengineering can expose cost opportunities at the component and assembly levels, and share ideas for turning deeper product intelligence into better negotiations, stronger margins and sustained value.

Roundtable 3: Building the Foundation Before Go-Live: Preparing for Supply Chain Transformation at Scale, Hosted by Derrick Glaze, Southern Company
Implementing a supply chain platform is about much more than deploying software. It requires organizations to align processes, governance, data, stakeholders and operating models long before go-live. Join Southern Company for a peer-to-peer discussion on the lessons, challenges and decisions involved in preparing for large-scale supply chain transformation. Explore process standardization, organizational readiness, business engagement, change management, data preparation and governance. Share experiences on balancing current-state operations with future-state design and discuss how to build the foundation for successful adoption and long-term value.

Roundtable 4: ERP: The Foundation for the Next Generation of Procurement, Hosted by Marcelo Loureiro, CPO, Alkermes
Organizations are investing heavily in analytics, automation and AI, but sustainable transformation begins with a strong operational foundation. Join Marcelo Loureiro of Alkermes for a peer-to-peer discussion on how ERP consolidation can serve as a catalyst for procurement transformation by driving process standardization, improving data quality, strengthening governance and enabling greater visibility across the enterprise. This interactive roundtable will explore lessons learned, challenges encountered and how building a common foundation today can prepare organizations for the next generation of procurement capabilities.