Who is GE Healthcare's New Chief Procurement Officer?

GE HealthCare, a global leader in technology and innovative digital solutions, has announced the appointment of Akshar Awalgaonkar as Chief Procurement Officer.

He joins the team of more than 50,000 global employees and more than 100 years of history serving the community. 

With this, he brings his extensive career across manufacturing and procurement. 

The latest announcement

GE HealthCare has announced the appointment of Akshar Awalgaonkar to the company. In a company post, it said Akshar is joining to 'advance our mission of creating a world where healthcare has no limits."

The company aims to overcome the biggest challenges in healthcare, working to improve diagnostic accuracy, simplify workflows and boost efficiency. According to the FDA, it has the most AI-enabled device authorisations, which help clinicians make more confident and timely decisions to improve healthcare workflows.

Since 2023, approximately US$5.1bn has been invested into innovation, serving more than one billion patients every year. 

The company, a spin-off from General Electric, operates across medical imaging, ultrasound, patient care solutions and pharmaceutical diagnostics. Now, it is using accelerated adoption of digital and AI technologies, alongside advancements in therapies and other devices, to help deliver more targeted treatments in order to improve patient outcomes.

Akshar will lead the company's global procurement strategy, focusing on driving operational excellence, supply chain resilience and strategic value across the organisation's value chain. 

"A warm welcome to Akshar Awalgaonkar as he steps into the Chief Procurement Officer role at GE HealthCare," says Huneth Lor-Fair, Global Executive Search Partner at GE HealthCare.

"Akshar has a proven track record of developing and leading high‑performing teams and delivering holistic functional transformations across complex, regulated industries. His strategic leadership, transformation expertise and ability to catalyse enterprise-wide collaboration will support GE HealthCare’s continued evolution toward precision care for patients and providers around the world."

A strong career history

Ashkar joins GE HealthCare from Avery Dennison, having spent two and a half years there as Group Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer. In this role, he helped transform the packaging manufacturer's operations.

In his leaving post on LinkedIn, Ashkar wrote: "As I prepare to wrap up my time at Avery Dennison over the next few days, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the people I’ve had the privilege to work alongside. 

"When we launched Project Nova, our collective team goal was to shift Procurement from being viewed as a cost-cutter to a true value creator for the enterprise. Turn a fragmented organisation into a cohesive global unit that will blur the lines between global and regional and be a force that will drive accelerated collaboration. I could never have imagined how rapidly Nova turned from project [to a] philosophy [to a] mindset."

Throughout his 20-year career, Akshar has worked his way up the procurement and leadership ladder. He began as a trainee engineer at Bosch in India, where he worked for two years. Following this, he began working in the sourcing route at Whirlpool Corporation in the US. 

Akshar then spent more than seven years at GE, gaining experience in leadership and global strategic sourcing. During this time, he led a range of teams with a consumer base across five different continents. After taking on roles at Walgreens and AbbVie, he returned to GE to work in the Water branch. Here, he led the global integrated procurement function as Senior Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer.

Now, Akshar is bringing a strong knowledge base of global manufacturing, with a strong variation in the customers he has been serving and the products he has been overseeing. His diverse skillset allows him to drive effective transformations across the procurement and supply chain sectors. 

Throughout his career, he has built a range of strategic partnerships and championed collaboration throughout the organisation. He will bring a strong change to GE Healthcare, working to transform the company and work towards elevating the future of healthcare.