Mitzi Loftus has spent over 30 years working directly in government for the State of Illinois. During this time, she gained experience in a variety of different leadership roles, between procurement, IT, and finance.

Her career in government started in the finance office, working with cost allocation, budgets, and financial systems. In 1999 she started her procurement path, where she was initially working on IT and telecom procurements, then moving into the State’s procurement system administrator and procurement helpdesk manager. Eventually, Mitzi became the Deputy Director of Illinois Central Management Services, where she functionally served as Statewide Procurement Director for three years.

In the private sector, Mitzi worked for CGI Technologies where she was the National Governmental Procurement Delivery Director, with responsibilities over the entire country. She participated in the State of Michigan’s implementation of its statewide ERP system and then was a subject matter expert, as support to the sales team. Later, she would join Periscope as a Sales Director, taking direct charge of sales for over half of the country, for their e-procurement system. In both roles, Mitzi worked directly with governments to help identify procurement best practices across the country.

After heading to the private sector, Mitzi came back to the state where she served as the Chief of Staff at the Illinois State Police, Office of Finance for two and half years. While in that role, she oversaw procurement, accounts payable, assets and inventory, state-wide asset seizure and forfeiture, rollout of new agency-wide ERP programs, and agency-wide audits.

Mitzi has been an active member of NIGP, (National Institute of Governmental Purchasing) for the past 9 years. She has served on their Finance Council, along with the Audit and Forum Committees. Most recently she has become a mentor to new and emerging procurement leaders across the country taking a role in the NIGP Mentorship Program.

Mitzi holds a Bachelor of Science from Illinois State University (Economics/Business), along with her CPPO from UPPCC.

Born and raised in Springfield Illinois, Mitzi resides there, with her husband Jamie, two adult sons and their families, along with her toy poodle Sassafras and her cat Blue. She has one adored granddaughter, Monroe. She loves to travel and visit friends across the country. When she gets the chance, she loves to go boating with her family.