Ranga Mulabagula

Ranga Mulabagula has been with Amcor for nearly eight years driving the global packaging company’s sustainable “procurement excellence” journey through digital procurement, strategic supplier relationships and TCO value creation.

As Vice President of Procurement in Amcor Rigid Packaging (ARP) he is leading the organisation to the next level of procurement excellence. He manages six global category directors, 43 global procurement teams and is responsible for a $2+ billion spend.

Mulabagula collaborates with Amcor global procurement leadership team (PLT) to define and drive the current (FY20-22) and next Horizon (FY23-FY25) procurement strategy, business alignment, targets, metrics, policies, processes/systems and to serve the needs of the organisation’s rapid business growth. 

He focuses on accelerating the procurement journey through technology enabled strategic sourcing, Master Data Management (MDM) and procure2pay (P2P) tools along with unique solutions across Americas for sustainable Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) performance, compliance, control and reporting expectations.

He started his career with ARP in 2013 as Director of Purchasing, Polyolefins and Additives where he led a high-performance team of four category managers with $200 million global spend. With an expanded role, he took the position of Director, Polyolefins, Additives and Technology, a global category leadership in ARP in 2018 with $500 million global spend.

“I'm currently leading ARP’s global rigid packaging procurement excellence journey while striving to meet aspirational sustainability objectives - that is what’s driving me - I have been part of four acquisitions in the last seven years, which has been a fantastic learning and growth opportunity” he said. 

Mulabagula is a results-driven, continuous improvement focused supply chain and operations leader with more than 27 years of experience in strategic sourcing, commodity management, supply chain management, business continuity planning, supplier quality, product development and start-up ops for impactful business changes in the Consumer Purchased Goods (CPG) packaging and Automotive Industries.

General Motors (GM) was where he shaped his career journey spanning 17-years across multiple functions, he said: “I had the opportunity to relocate and start a brand new Mexico procurement operation for them.

“In Mexico, I was no longer a functional expert since I was reporting to the President of GM, Mexico and working with four assembly lines and responsible for delivering their needs in supply chain, quality, product development, and liaising back to corporate headquarters in Michigan. So that was a fantastic experience because I got to wear multiple hats and learn what the stakeholders actually need and value. I would say that was the defining moment of my career.”

In the early years Mulabagula briefly worked as maintenance engineer for a tyre manufacturer in India which he describes was “an intriguing experience” it was here his desire for the learning began. He moved to the US in 1991 to pursue a Masters in Mechanical Engineering at Ohio University and went onto the work with the US Air Force looking at how to protect pilots from gravitational forces during ejection.

“That's what got me interested in biomechanics and the application of computer aided engineering to biomechanics and occupant safety. I didn't realise that was going to open my career. I got hired into an automotive consulting company soon after I graduated where my first job was selling automotive safety software, which led to the opportunity with GM.” Subsequently, Mulabagula went on to complete his MBA from University of Michigan.

Reflecting on his career path towards leading one of the world’s leading packaging companies, he said: “I had the privilege of working with some of the brightest minds, visionary, collaborative leaders and fantastic mentors along the way, early in my career, I began to see the bigger picture and how what we do actually applies and impacts the end customers and the markets and businesses that we work for.”

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