Contact: Kenneth Billings
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A Mississippi State administrator is receiving the Mississippi Association of Governmental Purchasing and Property Agents' 2008 Purchasing Agent of the Year award.
James G. "Jay" Rester III, procurement card and invoice control manager, joined the MSU professional staff in June 2006 as an invoice control supervisor. He assumed his current duties the following February.
A 1988 MSU banking and finance graduate, Rester specifically was recognized for his work in advancing the university's procurement card program.
"With the assistance of Melissa Inmon and the rest of the staff, Jay has been able to greatly expand the procurement card program and move it forward," said Don Buffum, the institution's procurement and contracts director. "The P-card program provides MSU departments with an excellent tool to make small purchases quickly and efficiently, while maintaining the strong accountability that we must have.
"While the program and everyone involved in its implementation deserve accolades, Jay's leadership in this effort is ample reason for him being named purchasing agent of the year by the organization's membership," Buffum added.
The state association was established in 1983 to "bring governmental purchasing, property and materials management officials into an organization through which they can improve the quality of governmental purchasing, property and materials management."
Before returning to MSU as an employee, Rester was employed at the Starkville-based National Bank of Commerce of Mississippi, now Cadence Bank.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For additional information, contact Buffum or Rester at 662-325-2550.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.