Face to Face
Kim Eaton
Commercial Services Lead

Kim Eaton, a lifelong Alaskan, has been with Alyeska almost two and a half years. As Commercial Services Lead, Kim oversees the company's travel and procurement card program, procurement document control and commercial systems administration. She also manages Alyeska's Women and Minority Business Enterprise (WMBE) Program.

An avid outdoors person, she spends her free time playing hockey, skiing, hiking, biking, camping and running (she is a Honolulu Marathon veteran). A true Alaskan from the get-go, Kim also won a Junior World Championship Dog Sled Racing title at the age of 10.

Q: How would you describe the Women and Minority Business Enterprise Program?

Alyeska's Women and Minority Business Enterprise Program exists to provide equal opportunities for women and minority-owned businesses to market their products and services to Alyeska. Alyeska prohibits discrimination against any person or business pursuing these opportunities on the grounds of race, creed, color, national origin or sex. Alyeska is committed to expanding the WMBE participation in its direct contracts and subcontracts whenever possible.

Q: What are your primary responsibilities in managing this program?

My responsibilities include WMBE program development and implementation. Our ultimate goal is to find qualified WMBEs and place those companies on our internal sourcing list. We utilize that list as a resource for our purchasing or when bidding for contracts. We also provide companies an opportunity to present their capabilities to Alyeska representatives. We realize that working for TAPS goes beyond Alyeska and therefore seek to identify possible partnerships for WMBEs to increase opportunities for all aspects of pipeline operations. Our outreach efforts are very crucial to the success of our program. We partner and collaborate with other WMBE related organizations and groups to collectively approach the challenges and opportunities facing women and minority-owned businesses.

Q: Why is Alyeska committed to this program?

We are required to have such a program in place but embrace the opportunity to take it a step further by helping promote the growing importance of women and minority-owned businesses. This program not only affords vendors and potential vendors the opportunity to learn the way the procurement process works at Alyeska, it also helps create a more vibrant and diverse business community in which we work.

Footnote: Alyeska Pipeline and BP are hosting a women and minority business fair at the Sheraton Hotel on March 28. For more information, Kim may be contacted at Kimberly.Eaton@alyeska-pipeline.com.