Jill Button
After more than 25 years of climbing the corporate ladder and hitting her head one too many times on the glass ceiling, Jill Button took her expertise in supply chain and procurement, and with a passion for business, leapt off the corporate ladder. Taking that fearless leap of faith along with a lot of hard work and unrelenting persistence, now, seven years later, Jill has become a successful entrepreneur and author. Her new book, How NOT to Get Screwed by Your Suppliers and SAVE Millions, modeled after Agile Software Development, teaches executives and procurement practitioners her customized, 4 Steps to Agile Procurement.
As president and CEO of ProcurePro Consulting, a boutique procurement, project management, and IT consulting firm, Jill leads a company whose goal it is to help small and medium enterprise (SME) businesses, source, contract, and implement IT solutions. With a focus on technology, ProcurePro specializes in sourcing and implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions including finance, HR, payroll, customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain, and procurement systems. “I started the company to help SME businesses make smart technology decisions and the right investments to help them streamline, automate, and grow their business,” she explains.
With a reputation as a high performing leader, Jill took her expertise in IT procurement, professional and consulting services, outsourcing, and offshoring, and founded ProcurePro in Toronto in 2013. Celebrating seven years since its launch, the company has grown to meet its expanding client needs, with a team of certified professionals including procurement and supply chain consultants, project managers, business systems, sales, and digital marketing analysts.
Four years ago, as she was focusing on helping clients and growing her company, Jill’s entrepreneurial mind hit upon a new business idea. “I’m always thinking about what I can do to solve problems and makes things better. Experiencing my own challenges to find experts to help me run and grow my business, I had an epiphany and realized that I, along with a lot of other entrepreneurs, don’t always have the breadth of knowledge and experience beyond our own core competence. I’m a procurement and supply chain expert so when it came to sales and marketing, frankly, I was struggling,” she shares. As a result, she reached out to like-minded entrepreneurs and in February 2020, partnering with complementary business executives, Jill and her new partners formed ThryvX Consulting. This enabled her to exponentially expand her service offering to clients to include marketing, IT, and HR.
ThryvX is focused on helping SME businesses grow, offering back-office services normally reserved for large enterprise that are challenging for SME’s to find and afford. We can offer retainer, part-time, or project-based services, virtually or at our client’s site, including fractional executive services. We help companies with their business strategies and execution including marketing, social media, application development, health and safety training, human resources compliance, recruiting, and of course, sourcing, contracting, and implementing the right technology solutions to manage and grow their business. We will be adding more complementary services with plans for national and global expansion coming soon. “Eighty percent of small businesses have been hugely impacted by COVID-19, so it is really timely and critical that we help SME’s not just survive, but THRYV.”
Self-described #GenXFempreneur, given her over thirty years of experience and the way Jill has risen to the challenge to become the leader of two flourishing companies, it is no surprise that Jill was named one of the 100 Influential Women in Canadian Supply Chain by Supply Chain Canada and nominated for the RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Award. “I am so humbled and honored to be recognized. I am especially grateful for the amazing relationships I have been able to build across Canada, the US, and around the world.”
Jill is a passionate supporter of girls and women, doing her part to support, inspire, and promote future female leaders. As a former board president of her local chapter of Girls Inc. Durham, the organization is near and dear to her heart. “Girls and women really need encouragement and support so they can achieve their greatest potential.”
To support relief efforts for those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Jill is donating 100 percent of the profits from her book in 2020 to COVID relief in Canada.
Jill Button, CSCMP
President & CEO
ProcurePro Consulting
Download the Top 100 Canadian Professionals magazine and check out Jill's feature on page 55.