The CPO: Transforming Procurement in the Real World

Prologue

My name is Thomas Sutter. I’m 37 years old. I grew up on the Rhein-Main U.S./NATO air base in Frankfurt, Germany. My father, an American, was a pilot during Operation Desert Storm, also known as the Gulf War. My mother, from Frankfurt, met my father on a visit to the base. Though I grew up on the base, I spent a lot of time off the base with my mother’s family in Frankfurt and felt more German than American. When the “purebred” American kids were playing Little League baseball on the base, I was taking violin lessons in the city or visiting the Städel Museum to view the art of the Old Masters. Much to my father’s chagrin, I went to the gymnasium in Frankfurt rather than the base high school, and then off to the Technische Universität ...