Author Irina Shulman, PH.D.

Irina is a Principal level consultant with The Mpower Group and an Adjunct Faculty at the Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). Irina has over 20 years of experience in leading and managing complex projects for Fortune 500 companies. She has demonstrated success in process improvements and cost savings / value creation in consumer products, industrial goods sector, home services, and retail industry. Irina has been recognized for her expertise in effective contract negotiations, building and aligning cross-functional teams, and providing mentorship and coaching guidance to young business professionals. In her role as a Divisional Vice President of Procurement for Sears Holdings Corporation, Irina was responsible for managing over $4 billion in annual spend for purchasing indirect products and services. She led a team of one hundred people situated in the United States and India. Her other responsibilities included conducting ongoing supplier risk assessments, measuring team’s performance against industry benchmarks and standards, and providing continuous training to associates to assist with their personal and business growth and development. Before Procurement, Irina was a Compliance Office for Home Services organization at Sears and was responsible for ISO 9000 standard implementation in over 300 field locations, as well as adherence to statutory and regulatory requirements for the service industry. She also has extensive experience with business divestitures, mergers and acquisitions, business process outsourcing, and spend analysis. Irina is fluent in both English and Russian. Irina has a Ph.D. in Business Administration with specialization in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Northcentral University.