Robert Williams
As Director of Sustainable Procurement in the Global Procurement team at AstraZeneca, Rob is accountable for delivery of AstraZeneca’s sustainability goals through their supply chain. He partners with Group Sustainability to deliver the corporate sustainability objectives, developing supply chain performance against environmental and social sustainability goals. He also works crossfunctionally with teams from R&D, Operations, Commercial and Corporate Communications to
engage with AstraZeneca’s employees, suppliers and customers.
Rob has over 25 years’ experience in technical, commercial and leadership roles across a range of industry sectors, from mining and renewable electricity to telecoms and pharmaceuticals. The thread connecting this career path downstream from the ‘coal face’ is energy, which is Rob’s
specialist subject.
After starting his career in technical roles in an SME land development company in the UK (mining, waste disposal, land remediation, property) he co-led the founding of a renewable energy development subsidiary, specialising in wind farms. In 2010, Rob moved to British Telecommunications plc to lead delivery of their renewable energy goals, decarbonising the operations of one of the UK’s largest electricity consumers. In 2021, Rob moved to AstraZeneca when a new position was created to lead Scope 3 decarbonisation as part of AstraZeneca’s Ambition Zero Carbon programme.
In addition to his role at AstraZeneca, Rob is also a lecturer in Energy Procurement for the Energy
Institute and is an Advisory Board member of the Durham Energy Institute at Durham University. Rob holds an MSc in Engineering Hydrology from Newcastle University and a BSc (Hons) in Applied
Geology from the University of Leicester. He is also a graduate of the WBCSD Sustainability Leaders course, provided in conjunction with Yale University and the University of Lancaster.
Coming from a project delivery commercial environment, my focus is on delivery of outcomes. The challenge for businesses to support delivery of a healthy future for the planet and for society has never been in sharper focus, from an ever-wider range of stakeholders. The pace of change is a key challenge and supporting each other to make progress is critical.
I recognised the scale and collaborative nature of the PSCI community to support sustainable supply chains while interviewing for AstraZeneca. I quickly got engaged with the Responsible Sourcing Sub Group and joined the Decarbonisation Topic Team. As a key contributor to the Decarbonisation Team, I was proud to be able to move to Co-Lead the team, to support continued development of the supply chain capabilities needed by PSCI members.
It is inspiring to work with many peers at PSCI member companies through Energize, the Sustainable Markets Initiative, the Sustainable Procurement Pledge, as well as in PSCI.