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ACC Leader Spotlight: Heather Laney Senior Vice President of Procurement
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Heather Laney has been with ACC for almost 25 years, forging her own career trajectory from a biology bachelor’s degree with a chemistry minor to market research, then business development, and now procurement.
“I joined ACC right after graduation from Texas State University, where I also earned my MBA,” Heather recalls. “It was 2001, and the company had only 35 employees. I was the Director of Market Research, conducting market studies and examining demographics and potential development areas. So it was a natural transition to business development, helping craft proposals and present to universities.”
Working in development and property integration, Heather next gravitated toward the construction side, researching and initiating a business plan to purchase from manufacturers rather than retail dealers, and centralizing property upgrades and renovations management.
“Each property had been doing their own thing, negotiating their own contracts, finding their own suppliers,” confirms Heather. “So I conducted further research and put together another business plan – this time for an official procurement division.”
Only about two years into its existence, ACC’s procurement division has been built from the ground up by Heather and her team through the creation of systems, policies and technologies to streamline and ease purchasing companywide. They have developed much more center-led procurement, leveraging buying power and consolidating vendors while still giving individual properties the flexibility to purchase on their own within established standards.
“We’re now incorporating technology to produce procurement efficiencies for our properties,” Heather attests. “We’ve created an online marketplace, a central platform where ACC properties can purchase from our national partners. We’re exploring vendor-management systems for the future. And with Supplier.io, a database of about 1,000 suppliers, we can identify which suppliers are small businesses, diversity-certified, etc.”
Sustainability and inclusion are woven into almost every aspect of procurement, says Heather, beginning with asking the right questions of potential vendors about their sustainability goals, recycled materials, recycling practices and industry partners, among other facets.
“Our sustainability targets are involved in everything we do,” she asserts. “Opportunities to advance them is something we’re thinking about every day as we move through our activities and strategies.”
Heather’s dogged cultivation of best procurement practices for ACC was celebrated in 2024 by our ownership entity with the Head of the Class Award at the annual Chief Procurement Officer conference. Heather was recognized for her exemplary engagement and success in the Procurement Excellence Program, 60+-hour bootcamp-like training with extensive resources formulated especially for procurement professionals.
“Procurement is much bigger than just buying stuff,” concludes Heather. “It’s not just, ‘I got the best deal on this widget.’ It’s evaluating your supplier risk, assessing your supply chain, incorporating sustainability, ensuring diversity, providing spending transparency. It’s engaging with multiple teams across the company and continuing to gain knowledge about my business, so I can see how we as a company are best suited to succeed.”
“I joined ACC right after graduation from Texas State University, where I also earned my MBA,” Heather recalls. “It was 2001, and the company had only 35 employees. I was the Director of Market Research, conducting market studies and examining demographics and potential development areas. So it was a natural transition to business development, helping craft proposals and present to universities.”
Working in development and property integration, Heather next gravitated toward the construction side, researching and initiating a business plan to purchase from manufacturers rather than retail dealers, and centralizing property upgrades and renovations management.
“Each property had been doing their own thing, negotiating their own contracts, finding their own suppliers,” confirms Heather. “So I conducted further research and put together another business plan – this time for an official procurement division.”
Only about two years into its existence, ACC’s procurement division has been built from the ground up by Heather and her team through the creation of systems, policies and technologies to streamline and ease purchasing companywide. They have developed much more center-led procurement, leveraging buying power and consolidating vendors while still giving individual properties the flexibility to purchase on their own within established standards.
“We’re now incorporating technology to produce procurement efficiencies for our properties,” Heather attests. “We’ve created an online marketplace, a central platform where ACC properties can purchase from our national partners. We’re exploring vendor-management systems for the future. And with Supplier.io, a database of about 1,000 suppliers, we can identify which suppliers are small businesses, diversity-certified, etc.”
Sustainability and inclusion are woven into almost every aspect of procurement, says Heather, beginning with asking the right questions of potential vendors about their sustainability goals, recycled materials, recycling practices and industry partners, among other facets.
“Our sustainability targets are involved in everything we do,” she asserts. “Opportunities to advance them is something we’re thinking about every day as we move through our activities and strategies.”
Heather’s dogged cultivation of best procurement practices for ACC was celebrated in 2024 by our ownership entity with the Head of the Class Award at the annual Chief Procurement Officer conference. Heather was recognized for her exemplary engagement and success in the Procurement Excellence Program, 60+-hour bootcamp-like training with extensive resources formulated especially for procurement professionals.
“Procurement is much bigger than just buying stuff,” concludes Heather. “It’s not just, ‘I got the best deal on this widget.’ It’s evaluating your supplier risk, assessing your supply chain, incorporating sustainability, ensuring diversity, providing spending transparency. It’s engaging with multiple teams across the company and continuing to gain knowledge about my business, so I can see how we as a company are best suited to succeed.”
“Our sustainability targets are involved in everything we do,” she asserts. “Opportunities to advance them is something we’re thinking about every day as we move through our activities and strategies."
