IAOP Member of the Year Awards

As an association “of outsourcing professionals for outsourcing professionals,” IAOP’s success depends on the willingness of its members to contribute their time and talents. Annually, IAOP recognizes those who have made exceptional contributions to the association and its members. These individuals are recognized by their peers at a special awards luncheon held at the association’s annual global gathering — The Outsourcing World Summit®.

On behalf of all of our members and the entire global community of outsourcing professionals, we thank them for their dedication, contributions and leadership.

The 2009 Member of the Year Award recipients were announced at The 2009 Outsourcing World Summit

IAOP honored two of its members at a luncheon ceremony during its annual conference, The 2009 Outsourcing World Summit, at La Costa Resort & Spa, Carlsbad, CA, on February 17, 2009. From left to right: Debi Hamill, Senior Managing Director, IAOP; Members of the Year Bill Hall, Founding Partner, Pretium Partners, Inc.; William Metz, COP, Global Business Services, External Business Development Manager, Procter & Gamble and Mike Corbett, Chairman, IAOP.

The 2009 Award Recipients

Bill Hall

Founding Partner

Pretium Partners, Inc.

William Metz, COP

Global Business Services, External Business Development Manager

Procter & Gamble

After graduating from the University of Virginia, Bill Hall has gathered 25 years experience in sales and marketing. His expertise was developed in technology and services sales, services marketing and services management. He co-founded Pretium Partners in 1997.

Bill has authored articles on value selling, as well as “Value Assessment in Outsourcing, A Study of Outsourcing Justification Practices,” a study conducted by Pretium and The Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University.

Bill has been contributing tirelessly to the industry since before IAOP was even off the ground. He formed and co-chairs IAOP’s Sales & Marketing Chapter, chairs our Member Services Committee and at this year’s Summit, hosted the Customer Experiences Track. Bill is someone who has always been there for IAOP and its members and never says “no,” whatever the need, but instead says “here’s how.”

William Metz has been delivering business solutions for some of the world’s largest companies for more than 20 years. These companies include Procter & Gamble, General Electric, AT&T, American Electric Power and Marathon Oil. His specialty areas include architecture consulting, application development & support, competency development, project management, and sourcing.

Bill has been on the forefront of the trend to use outsourcing and global sourcing approaches, has led a number of key sourcing initiatives at P&G that have delivered significant savings and flexibility, and holds the Certified Outsourcing Professional (COP) certification. His current focus is on increasing the pace of new innovation and extracting additional value from existing P&G solutions via strategic partnerships.

What has made Bill Metz a standout is his unstoppable willingness to share his experiences, learning, insights and cutting-edge thinking on outsourcing from his work at Procter & Gamble with our members around the world. In the last 12 months, Bill has participated in two Outsourcing World Summits, our European Outsourcing Summit and has represented IAOP in China. He also co-chairs the Greater Cincinnati chapter.

The 2008 Award Recipients

Neil S. Hirshman, COP

Partner

Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Kurt Kohorst, COP

Assistant Vice President

 Safeco Insurance

Neil's practice is focused on intellectual property and technology related transactions, both domestic and foreign, including outsourcing (business process, information technology, and application service provider, or ASP), software, software development, trademark, patent and technology licensing, and strategic alliances.

Neil has represented both customers and service providers in the outsourcing (onshore, nearshore and offshore) of many functions, including information technology, finance and accounting, human resources, real estate, procurement and e-learning. Neil represented PricewaterhouseCoopers in its business process outsourcing transaction with Nortel Networks, which was at the time the largest multi-process, multi-country business process outsourcing (BPO) transaction.

Neil obtained a J.D. from Harvard Law School, a B.S. in electrical engineering from University of Illinois and is a registered patent attorney.

Neil is the founder and chairman of the Chicago Chapter of IAOP and has earned the designation of Certified Outsourcing Professional (COP).

Kurt Kohorst brings more than a decade of property and casualty insurance experience to his business process outsourcing (BPO) leadership role at Safeco, Before becoming assistant vice president of BPO programs, Kurt was responsible for process improvement, workflow metrics and project management for Safeco’s six regional commercial underwriting offices. He also has experience as a commercial multi-line underwriter and helped set up the first call center for direct service to Safeco’s commercial customers.

In his current role, Kurt and the BPO team have developed and implemented the standards for outsourcing at Safeco. Kurt has experience across the full outsourcing lifecycle — from identifying opportunities to service management. Kurt runs the outsourcing program management office that has completed seven projects in less than 18 months. Their mandate is to speed project execution and minimize risks while maximizing benefits. Kurt and his team have developed a standard methodology for consistently delivering projects.

Kurt is an active member of the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP). He serves on the organization’s Research Committee, is co-chair of IAOP’s Pacific Northwest Chapter and is a judge for its annual evaluation of top service providers (known as “The Global Outsourcing 100”). In June 2007, he earned the designation of Certified Outsourcing Professional (COP).