Speakers

Paul King

PASS Consultant, BiP Solutions

Paul has over 30 years high level management experience in both the private and public sectors. He was a county council Chief Officer, responsible for all commercial activity including tendering for work in competition with the private sector, with over 2,500 staff in five services and a £13m turnover. He was the founder, spokesman and Chair of the Forum of DSO Managers with a membership of over 30 UK local authorities. He has worked in most countries in the Middle East including Iraq and created the UK subsidiary for a large European FM company and grew the business to £5m in four years, making it the fastest growing worldwide subsidiary. He has also acted as a "company doctor" for SMEs, identifying weaknesses, creating long term stability and focussing business development and has been a regular speaker/chairman at seminars on public procurement. Between 2001 and 2005 he was CEO - Business Development for a Government contractor with sales of over £80m, generating sales of £30m p.a. including ground breaking contracts in new areas of business including the company's first overseas contract in Israel. He is currently consulting to the private sector and is also involved with manufacturing and distributing cutting edge renewable energy products.

Naomi Davy

Senior Policy Advisor and Programme Manager of the Glover Review,
Office of Government Commerce

Naomi joined the civil service in 2002, working in a number of high-profile policy development and project management roles in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Home Office before joining the OGC as a senior advisor in August 2007. OGC’s responsibilities include getting best value from £175bn of annual third party spend; getting the best from the Government's £30bn estate; helping to achieve delivery of further government policy goals, including innovation, equality, and support for small and medium enterprises (SMEs); and driving forward the improvement of central Government capability in procurement, project and programme management, and estates management. Naomi was the project manager for the Glover Review into the role of SMEs in public procurement, and is subsequently programme managing the implementation of the Glover recommendations.

Philip Adams

Interoperability Manager, Supply2.gov.uk

Phil has played key roles in organising and running public sector procurement and training events since 2001 and has been involved with the Supply2.gov.uk brand since its launch in 2006 through marketing at roadshows, events and meetings with interoperability partners. He was recently appointed Interoperability Manager for Supply2.gov.uk and is responsible both for strengthening relationships with existing buyers and for creating further relationships to extend the reach of this respected government brand.

Anne Thompson

Sector Leader for Sport,
North West Regional Development Agency

Anne has over 20 years experience of working in the sport sector including working for Sport England before moving across to economic development, firstly, with East Midlands Development Agency and now Northwest Regional Development Agency. Her current role involves growing the sport sector in the Northwest and working across the business community in the Northwest to maximise the business opportunities from London 2012.

Peter Akid

Chief Executive, North West Collaborative Commercial Agency

Peter is a highly experienced professional in strategic procurement and supply management. He currently holds the position of Chief Executive of the North West Collaborative Commercial Agency. Prior to joining the then North West Collaborative Procurement Hub in May 2005, Peter was Vice President of Global Supply Chain for Cable & Wireless, where he undertook significant change programmes in the Caribbean and Latin America. Peter has also held the position of National Contracts and Procurement Manager at Transco plc, delivering business benefits via strategic outsourcing programme.

He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in London. Peter started his career in the construction industry as a Chartered Surveyor (Quantity Surveyor) and is a fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

Mike Haslin

MCIPS, Deputy Director, North Western Universities Purchasing Consortium Ltd

Mike has over 15 years' experience in public sector procurement and has been with NWUPC for eight years.

He is responsible for the development of the NWUPC contracting strategy, working with higher and further education consortia to develop and co-ordinate a joint contracting programme. The main objective is to identify new contract areas in line with EU legislation.

Mike is responsible for all aspects of the contracting programme for NWUPC and its 29 member institutions with direct influence across a wide range of commodity areas totalling over £70m a year.

Steve Connolly

Relationship Manager, Business Link Northwest

Steve is Business Link Northwest’s Relationship Manager for Greater Manchester, where he is responsible for coordinating engagement with key stakeholders and developing strategic relationships with organisations in the public and private sector.

After graduating with a Business Information Management degree, Stephen worked as a Business Advisor before taking up a management post with BT. He then went on to join Liverpool Chamber of Commerce as Deputy Chief Executive, and was simultaneously Chief Executive for MERIT (NW) Ltd, a group that represents ICT Managers and Directors from across the North West. More recently, Stephen headed up the corporate and individual support team at National Museums Liverpool before joining Business Link in November 2007.