THE SUPPLY CHAIN INTERVIEW
built Supply Chain Revolution Global LLC around it and transformed it into a platform for the ideas she believes will fundamentally reshape the industry.
“ Five years ago when I was last on the Supply Chain Digital cover, I was talking about the potential,” Sheri reflects.“ Now I’ m the living proof that supply chains are a force for good to transform our world, with the right leadership, investment, policy and cooperation.”
The cost of systemic exclusion The statistics are stark and Sheri does not allow them to remain abstract. Women represent 40 % of the supply chain workforce, yet senior leadership parity, by current projections, remains nearly five decades away. For Sheri, the diagnosis is clear.
“ Let’ s be honest about why: the pipeline isn’ t the problem,” she says.“ Women are entering supply chain in strong numbers. The problem is what happens between middle management and the C-suite.”
What she describes is not a visible barrier but an invisible architecture, built from decisions about who receives sponsorship rather than mere mentorship, who is handed P & L responsibility and who gets assigned to high-visibility transformation programmes versus steady-state operational roles. The 2025 Gartner and AWESOME survey found the percentage of female Chief Supply Chain Officers dropped six points to just 11 %, the lowest figure recorded since 2019.“ That’ s not a plateau; that’ s regression,” Sheri adds.
“The conversation about women in supply chain can’ t stop at corporate headquarters, LinkedIn banners, and the soup-du-jour‘ women in insert X’ panels”
Sheri Hinish,“ Supply Chain Queen”
Representation is declining across every level of management, the earlycareer pipeline is contracting and the supply chain gender pay gap widens to 23 % after twenty years of experience. One in three women have considered downshifting or leaving the workforce entirely, yet only 29 % of organisations hold direct accountability for increasing women in leadership on their management scorecards.
Add to that, the wider workforce landscape of the moment; in January, Catalyst revealed a potentially devastating truth – that more than 455,000, or nearly half a million, women left the US workforce between January and August in 2025.
46 March 2026