If you want a true cultural experience, Essity, a leader in global hygiene and health, is the place for you.

Leon McRae is a Global Procurement Manager within Essity’s Global Procurement Department. He supports Market Research globally and Corporate Services and Marketing locally and regionally. Leon has been with Essity for eight years but has been doing Procurement and Contracting for over 30 years. This is his first venture into manufacturing which was one of the highlights of taking this role. Leon found Essity and the role very interesting because it is a global company with many opportunities.

- I wanted to expand my horizons in terms of doing things culturally that were different from my previous experiences, and this has been exactly that. It's allowed me to go to Europe, which I now do often, but at the time it was really exciting, interesting, and new for me.

As Procurement Managers, Leon and his colleagues support stakeholders with supplier contracts, price negotiations and requests for proposals. Globally, he concentrates on market research projects. Essity’s two big product brands are TORK for their Professional Hygiene side and TENA for their Personal Hygiene side.

- Lately I’ve also been supporting the Medical Team on multi-regional market research projects for our JOBST brand for compression therapy. The quantitative and qualitative research studies, again, attempt to provide an indication of where Essity is versus the competition, and how we might go about improving on our market share regarding this.

Currently, Leon is the Global Sourcing resource for the United States, and majority of the team is in Sweden and Germany. One of the attractive parts of the company was always the international travel, getting to visit the various European offices for team meetings and team building opportunities.

- Culturally it’s been one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. The time differences and cultural differences have been a small challenge to work through, but I take my hat off to my colleagues for how much they’ve adjusted to my schedule as well as me to theirs. Essity is such a great company to work for and I´m so proud to be part of it!

Gabrielle Akal

Name: Leon McRae
Title: Global Procurement Manager
Education: Bachelor of Arts in Accounting (Minor – Finance) from the University of Pittsburgh
My favorite innovation: One of my all-time favorite innovations was the creation of movie taverns. An evening out enjoying a good movie and a nice meal, all at the same time, in the same venue, always works for me!