Jim Townsend

Jim Townsend serves as the Chief Property & Procurement Officer at Asda since February 2024. Previously, Jim held key procurement leadership roles at Walgreens Boots Alliance, including Chief Procurement Officer and Group Head of Procurement for Goods Not For Resale, overseeing significant expenditures and shaping strategic agendas. Early experience includes transformative roles at Walgreens post-acquisition and strategic sourcing at Anglo American. Jim's procurement expertise was further honed at GE, where responsibilities spanned global low-cost sourcing and supply chain alignment. Additionally, Jim contributed to Rolls-Royce's procurement and ERP implementations. Educational credentials include an MBA in Strategic Procurement from the University of Birmingham and a BEng (Hons) in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering from the University of Derby.