2025
Supplier Symposium

Bhavin Patel is the Director of Supplier Diversity and Economic Inclusion within Abbott’s Global Procurement organization. An emerging leader with diverse supply chain experience across technology, healthcare, and telecom, Bhavin brings over 15 years of experience in Supply Chain and Procurement. 

Since joining Abbott three years ago, he has helped elevate the company’s focus on small business and disadvantaged business inclusion. He leads small business subcontracting reporting and supports the integration of small and diverse suppliers into Abbott’s global supply chain with focus on value-driven access to opportunities.  

Bhavin is passionate about aligning business goals with community impact. Known for his empathetic leadership and ability to build meaningful connections, he thrives on fostering collaboration and driving inclusive growth.

Sarah Priest leads Abbott’s Global Procurement Business Excellence team, a center of excellence elevating the effectiveness and efficiency of the procurement function across Abbott.

With more than 20 years of experience, Sarah has led teams in procurement, operations, financial services, planning and information technology. Prior to joining Abbott in 2016, Sarah worked for 15 years at John Deere. Among the roles she held were category manager for hydraulics and later for fabricated metal. She was also the strategic planning manager for John Deere’s agricultural business, first for South America and then for the global business. Sarah has lived and worked overseas in Senegal and Brazil.

She holds a BA from the University of North Carolina and an MBA from Yale University.

Aaron Bernstein is the Divisional Vice President of Global Procurement. A leader with extensive global procurement and supply chain strategy experience, he currently runs procurement for indirect goods and services, RMDx, a direct materials center of excellence, and sustainability. 

Before his current role, he has led procurement for Abbott Nutrition, Abbott’s Rapid Diagnostics division, as well as running central commodity teams that span Abbott's electronics, mechanical, and packaging materials. While leading the Rapid Diagnostics procurement, he played a critical role in helping ramp up the production and availability of Abbott’s Covid tests. 

Before his tenure at Abbott, Aaron dedicated 15 years to GE Healthcare, where he held various leadership positions in product development, operations, and procurement. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Juris Doctorate in Health & IP Law from Marquette University Law School.

Julie joined Abbott in 2023 and leads Abbott’s Supply Chain Sustainability (SCS) program and team.  She collaborates across Abbott to embed sustainability into the business, procurement, and our suppliers.  

Julie has over 20 years in the healthcare industry, most recently with Hollister Incorporated, where she was the head of Environment, Social & Governance (ESG) & Environment, Health & Safety (EHS).  In this role, Julie built and executed standardized systems, policies, and procedures for ESG across the organization.  Prior to this role, Julie was the Senior Director of Procurement Risk, Sustainability, Performance, and Innovation at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, where she integrated sustainability into procurement systems and processes.  Julie previously held multiple roles at Baxter International, including Director of Supply Chain Sustainability, Director of Ethics & Compliance, and Senior Manager of EHS.  

Julie is a past board member of the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative (PSCI) which is a healthcare industry collaboration to drive improved supplier environmental, ethical and human rights outcomes. She has a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Illinois Wesleyan University and a Masters of Environmental Management from Duke University, Nicholas School of the Environment.