Bobby Pounds was appointed Director of the Texas Comptroller’s Statewide Procurement Division (SPD) and State Chief Procurement Officer in May 2020. He has almost 32 years of experience in state government, including previous work in compliance with the Texas Education Agency and subsequently as a program administrator in Operations and Contract Management with the Texas Workforce Commission. He came to SPD in 2008 as the manager of the Contract Management Office and was promoted to SPD Assistant Director in April 2014. As Director, Bobby oversees the operations of Statewide Procurement and Contract Management, Procurement Policy and Outreach, Training and Certification, the Statewide HUB program, Data Management & Analytics, the Texas SmartBuy Membership program, and Statewide Fleet, Travel and Mail Operations.

Bobby holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from The University of Texas at Austin and is a Certified Texas Contract Developer (CTCD) and Certified Texas Contract Manager (CTCM). He has provided a number of speeches, trainings and Q&A sessions regarding statewide procurement to his customer agencies and enjoys interactive communication with both internal and external customers. As Director, he maintains a focus on collaboration, transparency, excellent customer service and acquiring and retaining exceptional procurement talent.