Ceris Jane Whiteley is a sourcing coordinator with Burberry who manages over 150 product styles and ensures the on-time delivery of over 120,000 units annually. She has experience developing supplier relationships and negotiating costs to improve margins. Whiteley's language skills and understanding of Italian culture allow her to successfully manage production and resolve issues. Previously she held roles managing leather goods production for Paul Smith and assisting designers at Italia Accessories.

1. Ceris Jane Whiteley
Sourcing Coordinator with fluent Italian at Burberry
Profile
With proven success of adapting quickly to new working environments I add value by identifying
opportunities and bringing a commercial approach to improve current practices. I have experience working
with all levels of business from VPs and directors through to technical specialists. My focus on developing
both existing and new supplier relationships has yielded improvements in meeting production targets
while ensuring there is flexibility to react to changes at any stage of the production process. My language
skills and understanding of Italian culture and business practices have been at the core of my ability to
deliver success within a challenging and dynamic working environment.
Professional Experience
March 2014 - Present
Burberry Ltd, London
Sourcing Coordinator, Hard Accessories
Working predominantly with Burberry’s single largest vendor, I manage the placement and follow-through
of over 150 product skews and am responsible for seasonal volumes in excess of 120,000 units. In line with
the business’ supply chain objectives, my team are responsible for delivering a quality product, on time
and at the right price.
Achievements:
 Leading negotiations with major Italian vendor and raw material suppliers to achieve the top target
of 85% margin on a strategic AW16 large leather product
 Driving a 15.6% reduction in cost with Burberry’s largest vendor for a key small leather product,
resulting in season savings of over EUR 57,000
 Identifying the need for and implementing a ‘supply chain working group’ between Burberry,
vendor and major tannery to improve issues such as leather quality, lead times, communication
and aligning ways of working
Key Responsibilities:
 Reporting to VPs and directors on a weekly basis, identifying and highlighting any significant
production issues affecting on time delivery and presenting possible solutions
 Seasonal travel to Italy to oversee production placement and resolve issues such as capacity, raw
material availability and quality
 Managing seasonal critical path and ensuring cross-functional teams work to key deadlines for
production
 Driving on time delivery targets across Sourcing team and vendors
 Managing vendor relationships by advising on the buying/production calendar, communicating
seasonal forecasts and overseeing raw material commitments and call-offs
 Negotiating costs based on production volumes to help achieve target margins
 Working closely with cross-functional teams to improve efficiency across product life cycle:
Product Development, Raw Material Engineering, Product Engineering, Quality & Technical,
Merchandising, Planning and Customer Operations
 Seasonal vendor performance analysis
 Career management and development of the Sourcing Assistants

2.  Working with Corporate Responsibility to promote Project 2020, Burberry’s commitment to
eliminate hazardous chemicals from all its products by 2020
September 2011 – February 2014
Paul Smith Ltd, Nottingham
Production Assistant
I was responsible for Paul Smith’s women’s leather bag collection, as well as tie, belt and hat
production. I also worked on leather goods, socks, cufflinks and jewellery. This required seasonal pre-
production and production factory visits to Italy, Spain and the Far East.
Achievements:
 I developed, working closely with the IT team, a new series of reports that led to improvements in
the docketing process and more efficient product data analysis
 Overcame significant hardware quality issues by sourcing alternative supplier and introducing a
hardware specialist to advise on quality and product development
March 2010 - August 2011
Italia Accessories Ltd, Berkshire
Development/Production Assistant
 Liaised between Italian factories and UK designers to assist in the creation of seasonal collections,
from the design through to bulk production
 Regular travel to Italy to show collections to luxury brands including Paul Smith, Aquascutum,
Pringle of Scotland and Alfred Dunhill
 Responsibilities included overseeing and advising on prototypes, negotiating costs, managing
critical paths and archiving previous seasons’ developments
January 2010 - March 2010
Atlas Translations Ltd, London
Work placement
December 2007 - September 2008
Corporate Executive Board, London
Marketing Associate
September 2006 - September 2007
Oxford School of English, Padua, Italy
English teacher
Education & Professional Skills
2008 – 2009 MA Translation & Interpreting (Italian)
University of Westminster, London
2002 - 2006 BA(Hons) Italian& Linguistics(Distinctioninspoken Italian) University of Leeds,Leeds
1991-2002 Haberdashers’ Monmouth School for Girls, Monmouth
 Microsoft Office suite, SAP, PLM, Prologic CIMS, Sage 50 Accounts