Meet Jamie Siu: PwC's Newest Digital Procurement Partner

In June, PwC announced Jamie Siu as a new partner in our Digital Procurement practice. In celebration of achieving this career milestone, the Digital Procurement team wanted to take some time to ask her a few questions - we're excited for you to get to know her the way we do!

Tell us about yourself?

“I was born in Hong Kong and moved with my family, my parents and one sister, to Calgary when I was 10 years old. I graduated from the University of Calgary with a degree in Petroleum Land Management which has led me to working across several industries and 4 out of 7 continents. Outside of work I enjoy spending time with my partner and our cat. I thoroughly enjoy both travel and food (although I’m only recently working on my cooking skills).”

What about being a partner made you want to pursue the role?

“As I’ve progressed through my career and especially during my time at PwC I came to realize my passion for building effective and successful teams. I believe this is a key capability for a Partner to utilize to find success for themselves and their practice and the role partners play in this capacity is what has always attracted me to the position.”

What has been the biggest change transitioning into the partner role?

“Transitioning into the Partner role has brought on a few new changes, most notably, effectively spreading my time across time with the team, client work, business development, firm work and initiatives. However, something I’ve been actively maintaining through this transition is effectively prioritizing my time so that I can continue to protect the time I get to spend with my family.”

What is the consulting buzzword that you are the biggest culprit of using?

“‘Integrated solution’, ‘collaboration’, ‘business-led’, ‘tech-enabled’ to name a few (although I’m sure there are a lot more). I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve used those four in a single sentence.” 

What value do you bring to your clients as a PwC Partner?

“Something I pride myself on is building trusted and transparent relationships with my clients. I think there is substantial value in telling my teams what they need to hear, and not necessarily what they want to hear. By doing this we’re able to effectively solve problems that really matter while promoting an open and candid working environment.”

What is your favorite quote/saying and why?

“‘Be open to opportunities, unless you try, you will never know. The worst would be to live with regrets’

I like this saying because I believe your experiences, both good and bad, shape who you are as a person. Having the opportunity to try something new and unique might be daunting, but the experience you gain will always have value, regardless of the outcome.”

What has been your most difficult client experience? (i.e. client horror story)

“Looking back I don’t have any notable experiences that I think of as a ‘client horror story’, I’ve been very lucky to work with great colleagues and clients. I think transformations and organizational change can be stressful, there will always be lessons to learn and reflect on and that’s why we’re there to support, through both the ups and downs.”

What long lasting impacts do you think the pandemic will have on the consulting industry?

“As a result of the pandemic I think our clients are really starting to see and understand the value of partnership and collaboration between business functions and the Supply Chain and speed to execution. By doing this, organizations have the ability to identify opportunities quickly to increase efficiency, team effectiveness and realize savings.”

What pandemic hobbies have you picked up over the past year?

“During the pandemic I’ve picked up two hobbies, baking and golf. I never enjoyed baking and cooking, never took an interest in it, (possibly because my parents spoiled me by always doing the baking and cooking) but have really learned to enjoy baking during the pandemic. In golf, I was looking for a new challenge to put my focus and patience to the test and it has gotten me out of the house a lot during work from home and really testing my patience.”

Where do you see the digital procurement landscape moving in the next couple of years? Where do you hope to grow the practice?   

“We’ll continue to see digitization take hold of everything we do. For organizations to effectively navigate this in the procurement and supply chain landscape, they need to first be fully aligned on what is value to the business. By keeping this in mind when going into the design and implementation of transformation enabled by digital solutions, this will allow supply chain teams within any organization to gain trust, work collaboratively to deliver and demonstrate value to the business for buy-in.”