KNOXVILLE – Blake Reagan, director of procurement services for the University of Tennessee System, recently received the Young Professional in Procurement Award from the National Association of Educational Procurement.
Reagan, who has worked at UT since July 2008 and oversees university contracts with vendors, was recognized at the association’s national conference this month.
The Young Professional in Procurement Award is given to professionals with fewer than 10 years of experience in the higher education purchasing and procurement field and who have “made great strides and contributions to the education procurement industry,” according to the association’s website.
“Blake continues to implement innovative efficiency initiatives that help the university and our customers and vendors, and he is a great ambassador for the university in his role with this national organization,” said Charles M. “Butch” Peccolo, treasurer, chief financial officer and chief investment officer for the UT System.
As a public institution, the university is bound by many laws and regulations that can make the procurement process less than efficient, but Reagan has implemented several initiatives to make the process better. For instance, he shortened the average negotiation time for contracts by developing a template negotiation strategy, and he created UT’s first internal contract office training guidebook.
In addition, he implemented a master agreement program, which has primarily benefited the UT Libraries, which has more than 115 library master agreements. This program has reduced its contract volume by more than half. Another way he has made the procurement process more streamlined is in implementing a new way to handle UT’s credit applications, which has reduced processing credit applications by more than 90 percent.
Reagan was nominated for the award by Kelly Kozisek, chief procurement officer at Oregon State University. Katie Lanker, contract officer at Oregon State, heard Reagan speak at the association’s conference last year and connected Reagan and Kozisek.
Reagan earned his bachelor’s degree in political science and his law degree from UT Knoxville.