Jim Vounassis

Biography

Dimitrios (Jim) Vounassis was appointed Chief Transformation and Procurement Officer, Bombardier Inc. in January 2017. In this role, he leads the company’s operations transformation in order to reduce costs, improve efficiency and support Bombardier’s growth objectives. In addition, he has overall responsibility for the procurement organization, including leading the company’s supply chain activities, managing relations with suppliers globally and ensuring that goods and services purchased by Bombardier meet the highest quality standards. Mr. Vounassis joined Bombardier in June 2015 as Vice President, Operations Strategy. In this position, he conducted detailed reviews of the company’s operations and implemented strategies to increase value creation across the organization. Mr. Vounassis started his career at Kraft Canada before moving to Pratt and Whitney, where he spent nine years and fulfilled various management roles, including Vice President, Strategic Sourcing from 2007 to 2009. In this position, he developed and implemented an emerging markets strategy that lowered costs while supporting efforts to gain access to new business. As Director, Logistics and Materials Management, he developed lean inventory management strategies and deployed supply base monitoring tools. He also helped to integrate a newly acquired manufacturing campus into Pratt & Whitney’s organization as Deputy Director, Polish Operations, and led a Chinese aircraft component facility as General Manager, SPWAEC Joint Venture. More recently Jim Vounassis worked at Baker Hughes, a Houston-based oilfield products, technology and services company from 2009 to 2012, first as Vice President, Strategic Sourcing and Manufacturing Strategy, and then as Vice President, Global Manufacturing. In these roles, he implemented a major transformation across the manufacturing and supply base of the company which decreased cost while increasing customer intimacy and capacity across the global footprint. Prior to joining Bombardier, Mr. Vounassis was Vice President, Global Operations at Pharmascience, a pharmaceutical company supplying generic and branded products in Canada and around the globe. Jim Vounassis holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo and an Executive MBA from Queen’s School of Business in Kingston, Canada.

Research Interest

Business Management