Unimarket appoints Christopher Rust to lead higher education market engagement initiatives

Annapolis, MD - Unimarket, a leading provider of procurement software and services, has added Christopher Rust to its team as Director of Higher Education Market Engagement. He will lead outreach and collaboration initiatives with procurement professionals at higher education institutions, sharing his insights and experience about what it is possible to achieve with an eProcurement solution like Unimarket.

Christopher Rust
Director of Higher Education Market Engagement

Rust is an industry veteran with decades of experience in accounts payable, purchasing and procurement. He worked in higher education procurement for 18 years, previously serving as director of purchasing at Connecticut College and Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.

Throughout his career, Rust has formed many connections within the higher education procurement community. He was president of the NAEP New England Board of Directors and was a member of the Board of Directors of E&I Cooperative Services. At Unimarket, he will use his expertise and collaborative abilities to work directly with clients, as well as sharing his knowledge with the wider higher education procurement community through things like speaking engagements at industry conferences.

He also brings a unique, client-side perspective to Unimarket. In his previous role at Connecticut College, he selected Unimarket’s procurement platform and collaborated with the team to implement a shared solution for the college and its CTW Consortium partner institutions, Trinity College and Wesleyan University.

“As a highly respected and experienced procurement professional and as someone well known for his highly collaborative approach, Christopher will help us further connect and deepen our engagement with colleges and universities.”- Darren Blakely, President of Unimarket North America

"Christopher will be an incredible asset to the Unimarket team and our higher education clients," said Darren Blakely, President of Unimarket North America. "We greatly enjoyed working with him as a client, and we now have the pleasure of welcoming him to our team. As a highly respected and experienced procurement professional and someone well known for his highly collaborative approach, Christopher will help us further connect and deepen our engagement with colleges and universities."

For Rust, the chance to discuss the transformative potential of eProcurement with his procurement and finance peers is incredibly exciting, so much so that he made the decision to join Unimarket shortly after retiring from Connecticut College.

"I'm excited to continue to be part of the Unimarket family, this time as a member of the team, with a focus on serving our clients through exceptional service and engagement," Rust said. "I especially look forward to helping my peers in the procurement profession to imagine the possibilities of transforming their current procurement environments through process improvements, technology solutions and strategic thinking – all in the spirit of collaboration and undertaken as a shared journey."