An Interview with new AWESOME Leader, Camille Batiste

I’m passionate about the development of women, particularly in supply chain, because it’s where I’ve spent the last 30 years of my career. It gives me great satisfaction to invest in the lives of young and upcoming professionals in the field.

I’ve done a lot in supply chain, from operations to procurement, planning, and eventually running a global supply chain in my last role. The two things I’m most proud of: first, at ADM, we transformed the procurement function from something nascent into a real value generator for the company. This involved developing our people’s skills, building confidence, implementing digital transformation, improving processes, and changing the organizational structure.

The second thing is the external recognition we received. We won awards from organizations like ISM and Coupa, which was very validating. It was rewarding to see that both internally and externally, the transformation was acknowledged and appreciated.

I tend to connect most with those who are early to mid-career, from entry-level professionals up to the director level. At the top, you don’t necessarily need mentoring—you need a community of peers who understand your challenges. But for women in that mid-career phase, the challenge is how to make the leap from where they are to the next level. I’m really invested in helping people make that transition from executing to leading and influencing.

I’ve been blessed with amazing mentors and bosses throughout my career—formal and informal mentors. One story that stands out: I worked on a project with a senior leader, and one evening, he stopped by my office and said, “Camille, I really appreciate how you lead, and I see you as a future vice president.” At the time, I was a manager, and the idea of becoming a VP had never even crossed my mind. His words planted a seed. When I eventually got my first VP job, he was the first person I thought of, even though I couldn’t reach him since he had already retired. His belief in me made a difference, and that’s something I try to do for others now.

Honestly, I didn’t manage work-life balance very well. I’m being transparent—I’ve recently resigned and am focusing on life now. But when I was working, I always made time for myself by waking up early and prioritizing physical, mental, and spiritual health. That meant exercise, prayer, and meditation before starting a hectic day. You can plan your day, but in supply chain, the day often dictates what happens, so that routine helped me prepare.

For personal growth, I read a lot and invested in relationships, both at work and in mentoring others. Relationships are just as important as the work itself because you learn from those interactions, not just give. I also made time to connect with my team and other colleagues, and volunteered for mentoring relationships. It’s about building meaningful human connections as much as it is about executing tasks.

I believe in something called “reverse mentoring.” You’re learning from the top and teaching the top, and likewise, you’re teaching your direct reports while learning from them. It’s a 360-degree reciprocal relationship, and I think it’s important to recognize that.

Yes, absolutely. If you can’t get the full balance, at least some form of grounding or centering can make a huge difference. Right now, I guess I’m on a sabbatical, so this is my work-life balance for the next few months!

If there’s interest in hearing more about how I got to where I am, that could help frame why I have these opinions.

I started my career as an engineer, working in operations at chemical plants for a few years. Those roles taught me a lot about working with operators and blue-collar workers, learning to influence and lead without authority. Early on, I had to convince people to do things I wanted them to do, as engineers couldn’t physically touch anything in a union workforce. That’s where I developed my initial leadership skills.

From there, I moved into IT, supporting the implementation of an ERP system across our business unit, traveling to various locations to train teams. I was essentially doing change management before I even knew what that was. After that experience, I transitioned into procurement, despite not knowing much about the field. I understood the systems from my IT exposure, but the actual procurement processes were new to me. I still took the role and learned a lot.

That’s where I took on my first manager and director roles, gaining supply chain experience and learning more about leadership. I also made it clear to my leaders what I wanted to do, which helped when new opportunities arose. Eventually, I transitioned from Honeywell’s chemical business to the aerospace business, thanks to exposure to that division’s chief procurement officer. I spent four years there, moving from a director to my first vice president role.

Then I got a call from a recruiter for ADM. They wanted me to build a world-class procurement organization. I joined ADM, where we laid out a vision, set milestones, and executed that plan over time. I’m really proud of the work we did, which continues to evolve even today.

As our achievements at ADM gained recognition, other leaders in the company wanted similar results for their teams. One of our leaders approached me to help with business strategy. Once I joined, I noticed that the group lacked a formal supply chain processes. We had business managers doing planning, but we weren’t using proven processes such as S&OP. So, I advocated for creating a global supply chain function. Eventually, we expanded the group to support the enterprise and I joined the C-suite. 

As I continued to take on more responsibilities, I ended up in a unique position where I was not only leading procurement, but also the chief transformation officer and supply chain leader. It was a bit crazy, but I made it work by connecting the dots and leveraging the skills I’d built in supply chain leadership.

By the time I left ADM, I had handed off the transformation role but continued overseeing procurement and supply chain. By then, we had integrated planning, sourcing, operations, and logistics,  leading an organization of about 8,000 people in one division. I’m very proud of what we achieved at ADM and the value we created, all while staying mindful of how we impacted people. I focused on building future leaders, and many of them continue to reach out for mentorship.

I loved every second of it, and I’m happy to bring that same energy to AWESOME as well.

 It was exciting. At Honeywell, I realized I was building on someone else’s vision, especially in procurement, where I had forward-thinking leaders. I enjoyed the challenge, but there were times I thought, “If this were my vision, I’d do it differently.” At ADM, it was more of a blank slate, and I could build out my own vision—how to create strategic supplier relationships, ones that were tough but not adversarial. We saw the benefits of that approach during the recent global pandemic.

The opportunity to create a new vision, execute it in a new way, and at the right pace—that’s what made the move to ADM so exciting.

Go for it. Don’t hesitate. The men aren’t smarter than you—they just go for it. We need more women in leadership because organizations will benefit when they leverage ALL their talent!