Michael Prokopis is Vice President, Supply Chain for UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. In this role, Prokopis serves as the strategist and business executive heading all aspects of supply chain, distribution, and logistics. He provides expertise in demand planning, sourcing, data analytics, value analysis, purchasing, contracting, and field operations, while managing >$1.5 billion in spend. During his tenure in healthcare, Prokopis led several impactful initiatives to increase efficiency and lower costs. He founded and helped launch a Demand Planning consortium tasked with identifying models that evolve forecasting into more effective demand plans, assisting vendors to match manufacturing cycles with product requirements. He developed a self-distribution model to collocate personal protective equipment (PPE), significantly reducing transit times during the COVID-19 pandemic and lowering inventory carrying costs across 39 acute hospitals by 20% annually. He developed a first-in-industry model to accurately price orthopedic implants, matching contribution margin for in- and out-acute patient procedures. This, combined with consolidation from 17 to 4 vendors is expected to save >25% annually. He led all aspects of a 5-hospital acquisition to support supply chain consolidation with stated goal of achieving an 8% to 10% reduction of supply chain spend and removal of excess inventory. He has saved over 15% in price efficiencies due to product category/vendor consolidations, including more than 200 clinical/value analysis team (VAT) initiatives. Prokopis, while at Steward Health Care, created an effective sustainability program that eliminated 70,000 pounds of waste from landfills, receiving a Stryker Sustainability Platinum Award. A highly decorated officer and veteran of the Gulf War, Prokopis served in the United States Navy from 1987 to 1991, attaining the rank of Lieutenant, Surface Warfare Officer. He was the first Ensign in the history of the USS Iowa to qualify as both Surface Warfare and Underway Officer of the Deck. Prokopis earned a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree in Finance from the University of Utah, a MBA from the Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College, and a Certificate Masters in Supply Chain Management from MIT.