Jason Soza
VP, West
Former Chief Procurement Officer, Alaska
Jason Soza joins Government Sourcing Solutions with 20 years of experience in public procurement, starting as a frontline buyer for the State of Alaska and going on to be appointed as Chief Procurement Officer in 2013. In this role, Jason was responsible for the oversight of all goods and services purchases, inventory, and property disposal by all executive branch agencies across a very geographically diverse and challenging state.
During this time, Jason undertook a number of initiatives to transform Alaska's procurement function, starting with the formation of a cross-agency procurement officer group to increase communication and idea sharing. By breaking down historically-siloed agency spend and fostering new inter-agency relationships, Jason brought nearly 50% more spend under management of the central procurement office, resulting in hundreds of millions in additional savings over his tenure.
Building on this, Jason led several statewide process improvement projects that resulted in an ongoing $7 million in annual savings. These efforts were recognized with the State of Alaska being awarded the Gold George Cronin Award for Procurement Excellence by the National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO), the top award for state procurement innovation.
Jason has also been very active in advancing the public procurement profession on the national level and has held numerous leadership positions with NASPO, including Chair of the Emerging Issues Committee, Chair of the Governance & Oversight Committee, Director-at-Large/Research & Innovation Champion, and President-Elect. Additionally, Jason has authored and contributed to a number of publications, such as the most recent edition NASPO's State & Local Government Procurement: A Practical Guide and a research paper published by the Harvard Kennedy School titled "Cooperative Procurement: Today's Contracting Tool/Tomorrow's Contracting Strategy."
As well as holding both CPPO and CPPB professional procurement certifications, Jason also earned and holds a Six Sigma Black Belt certification issued by the American Society for Quality (ASQ).
In his off time, Jason enjoys a wide range of pastimes and on any given day you might find him on the ice as a hockey goalie, cooking up something delicious in the kitchen, jamming out on guitar, practicing his carpentry skills, or out fishing.