By James Hallock, Chief Executive Officer, CoreTrust
When CoreTrust was founded in 2006, we set out to prove that procurement could be a source of strategic advantage, not just a back-office function.
Most executive teams at the time treated indirect spend as overhead — an operational role that was undervalued. Sourcing teams were stretched thin, wrestling with massive tail spend and often lacking the negotiating leverage needed to execute their plans effectively.
The original idea behind CoreTrust was simple: augment internal team capabilities and take on the heavy lifting of procurement so organizations could focus on driving their core missions.
As I look back across my 16 years at the company and CoreTrust’s two decades of scaling alongside our community, I am reminded of a fundamental truth: scale creates our initial seat at the table, but trust is what keeps us there.
Trust is not just a marketing hook for us. It’s the true indicator of exceptional operational performance, category expertise, and rigorous stewardship earned over 20 years of experience.
Our growth and success serve as the ultimate market validation of the CoreTrust model.
When we unite $7B in aggregated buying power with deep SME-led category strategies, we give capital, time, and strategic leverage back to our partners:
For Our Members: It converts unmanaged, fragmented indirect spend into immediate margin improvement, audit-tested terms, and capital returns that can be reinvested into their mission.
For Our Private Equity Partners: It serves as a rapid capability multiplier across portfolios, driving portfolio-wide EBITDA and speed to value during onboarding.
For Our Supplier Partners: It replaces go-to-market and account engagement friction with long-term demand stability, streamlined execution, and market-validated scale.
What I’m most proud of isn’t just the scale we’ve reached; it’s the trust behind it. Every member, supplier, partner, and team member who has grown with us is part of our story, and they’re the reason I’m even more excited about the next 20.
As we look to the future, we’re focused on continuing to unlock innovative ways to deliver sustained enterprise value for our members, PE sponsors, and supplier partners alike — whether that means putting AI-driven insights directly into members' hands via the CoreTrust Experience Platform (CXP), expanding our international reach with CoreTrust Europe, or accelerating our strategic market expansion with CoreTrust Public Sector and BuyQ.
Over the coming months, we'll mark CoreTrust's 20th anniversary by spotlighting those who have shaped our journey, honoring where it's been, and where it's going next. Be sure to follow us on LinkedIn to catch every story, milestone, and employee spotlight as they roll out.
To everyone who has walked this path with us over the last two decades: thank you for your continuous partnership. We are just getting started.