Katherine Worthen

Kathy Worthen is Vice President of the Direct Purchasing department at Yazaki North America, in Canton, Michigan. She is responsible for leading the region’s Electronics and Instrumentation, Routing, Bulk and Raw, Connections Systems, Supplier Quality, Regulatory Compliance and BCM, and Advance Purchasing functions.

Worthen is a highly accomplished end-to-end supply chain and purchasing executive with over 20 years of global automotive experience. She has lead business initiatives within corporate business environments and excelled in strategic sourcing, supply chain management, supplier management, cost control, and corporate profitability initiatives.

She spent more than 20 years at General Motors in various roles within Global Purchasing and Supply Chain. In addition to leading global Interior, Exterior, and Chassis commodities teams, she spent three years as Vice President of Global Purchasing and Supply Chain for GM Europe, where she was recognized as one of the Top 25 Leading Women in the Automotive Industry in 2016. Ms. Worthen also served as an active member of the GM Europe Opel / Vauxhall board from 2014 to 2017.

Upon returning to the United States after three years in Germany, Ms. Worthen was the Global Purchasing and Supply Chain Executive within the General Motors Global Vehicle Portfolio program teams. Most recently, she applied her two decades of experience to implement a ground-up purchasing, supply chain, and logistics organization for Leggett & Platt Automotive.

She earned a bachelor’s in Business Administration from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, holds an MBA from Walsh College, and completed Stanford University’s Executive Education – Innovation Leadership program.