45 | The Genius Who Built "eBay" for NATO

In this episode, I dive into an amazing conversation with Marc Tomlinson. Marc is currently the Director of Business Relationship Management at AIMCo. He oversees procurement, supplier relationship management, market data, and AIMCo's global office network leasing. With over 25 years in procurement and contract management, Marc's unique experiences have shaped his strategic perspective and continually pushed him to implement new thinking to solve complex and challenging problems. He is passionate about serving differently. As a builder, he enjoys creating new processes, models, and systems to positively impact the end user. Marc has worked at every level of government and, for ten years, led a Canadian charity dedicated to improving the lives of those with limb loss. Dedicated to supplier diversity and social procurement as an enabler, Marc is part of AIMCo's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council, fostering new relationships with disadvantaged businesses. Marc is also credited with creating the first e-commerce application for the NATO Alliance in 1999, which is still in service today. He designed the procurement module for an integrated application that allowed 48 Armed Forces from 21 nations to redistribute military parts and components amongst themselves - think eBay for NATO. When buyers could not be matched with sellers, Marc created NATO-wide contracts that the Armed Forces could order against - a process that took 60 seconds. He created a new business model for NATO's largest agency and changed procurement laws in five countries. Over the past two years, Marc has traveled extensively to establish AIMCo's new global network, which includes offices in Calgary, Singapore, Luxembourg, and New York and expansions in Toronto and London. He secures and negotiates the office space, creating and designing each space to reflect the office's unique needs. He blends hospitality elements and original indigenous art from Canadian artists to create modern and functional spaces in a post-pandemic world. We hope you enjoy listening to today's episode of The Inflection Point! There are  a lot of exciting episodes coming up as I dive into  deep conversations around starting a company from an entrepreneur's point of view and the ups and downs that come along with it in the process. You can check us out on LinkedIn @ The Inflection Point. Please leave us a comment with your thoughts and you can send your questions to [email protected] so that I can ask those questions to our guests and spark insightful conversations around entrepreneurship. You can also follow us on instagram @theinflectionpointwithshaan and if you leave today with one message I hope it is this- “Change is inevitable; embrace it if you can!” See you all next time!