Nadia Abbas

Head of IT Procurement, Institutional Procurement Services
, ADB
Profile / Bio: 

Nadia Abbas is the Head of IT Procurement, of the Procurement and Contracts Administration unit of the Corporate Services Department at the Asian Development Bank. Handling the institutional procurement for IT requirements of the Bank, under her leadership, Nadia’s team provides a significant contribution towards the digital transformation of the Bank. Seasoned by over twenty-one years of international experience across, she has driven movements in the IT and Procurement landscapes most notably in Digital Transformations, Strategic Sourcing, Agile and Innovative Procurement Frameworks, including Compliance and Risk Management.

Prior to joining ADB, she held various leadership positions with the United Nations and CGIAR, where she has led multiple organization-wide transformation journeys, resulting in business efficiencies, optimization, and resiliency. Her experience spans Asia, Europe, Middle East, and East & West Africa.

In her present role, Nadia provides strategic direction, innovation initiatives, and manages over $110+ million annually in goods and services comprising the Bank’s entire IT Procurement Portfolio, which is approximately 80% of ADB’s Institutional spend. She leads ADB’s Digital Agenda from Institutional Procurement.  Driving open communication and full transparency: she strongly believes that extreme collaboration with business is the key to the success of any project.

Nadia holds a double Master’s degree, one in Business Administration (specialized in IT) and second as Masters in Telecommunications. She also holds multiple Leadership, Procurement, and IT certifications. She has been awarded as CCM (Certified Continuity Manager – ISO 23001), Diploma in Business Continuity from the IBC, United Kingdom, and Certified Change Management from Prosci. She advocates Agile and Innovative Procurement - going way beyond traditional procurement.

Materials

Title Date Learning Materials Topic
Business Opportunities in Corporate Procurement 05 October 2023 Slides ADB Administration and Governance
Opportunities in ADB's IT Institutional Procurement 14 June 2021 Slides ADB Administration and Governance, Finance