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Speakers
| CHAIRMAN – NEIL JONES, Assistant Director for Business Services |
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Neil is Head of Business Services at Hampshire County Council and has been a member of the Central Buying Consortium Management Board since 1997. He is known to suppliers and local government alike as an active supporter of initiatives to obtain greater value for money through aggregation of purchasing for the public and voluntary sectors. Neil took over as CBC Chair from Ros Aird in September 2007. |
MARK BRAMAH,
Assistant Chief Executive, Association for Public Service Excellence |
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Mark is Assistant Chief Executive with the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE). He is responsible for all of APSE’s operations (advice and research, consultancy, training, performance networks) and has specific responsibility for special projects and commissioned research. Mark has worked in local government since 1982, including posts with Rochdale and Bury Metropolitan Borough Councils, the Association of Direct Labour Organisations (ALDO), and Kirklees Metropolitan Council. From 2000 to 2004 he managed APSE’s Best Value Consultancy. He has also led APSE’s research programme in partnership with De Montfort University, the Institute of Local Government Studies (Inlogov) at the University of Birmingham, the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) and the Environment Centre at Southampton University. |
| RUTH CONNORTON, Partner, Eversheds LLP |
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Ruth is a partner and head of Eversheds LLP’s public procurement team, which is rated number 1 in the UK in Chambers directory. She is an experienced procurement and contracting lawyer, having advised on a wide range of commercial deals and procurement issues for both the public and utilities sectors, from day to day procurement and contracting to major projects. Ruth’s experience includes working for five years for a major utility plc before moving into private practice. Ruth is a member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and regularly speaks at major procurement events including the annual conferences of CIPS and SOPO. She is named in the Who’s Who of Public Procurement as a “real gem” and in the Chambers directory which states “she has a quick mind and is able to answer questions at the snap of a finger; it is wonderful to see her working”. |
PETER HOWARTH,
Chief Executive, Society of Procurement Officers in Local Government (SOPO) |
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Peter has a long track record in procurement and local government. In October 2003 he started his own consultancy and training company (SBV Ltd) specialising in procurement and contracting matters, primarily in the public sector. He is currently the Chief Executive of the Society of Procurement Officers in Local Government (SOPO). Prior to that he spent three years with the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) where he worked as a member of the team developing IDeA Marketplace. He is also a member of the National eProcurement Project board, a Director of the Ipswich and Sudbury Enterprise Agency – primarily working on their strategy group – and is a regular conference speaker and workshop facilitator. His earlier posts include Director of Strategic Management, Associate Director of Resources and County Purchasing Officer for Suffolk County Council. While at Suffolk he led on the introduction of Best Value and was responsible for a number of cross-functional projects and departments. He has also worked for Shropshire County Council as Deputy County Supplies Officer. Peter spent 15 years in engineering procurement, primarily with British Leyland – originally in the Automotive division working on development projects for sports cars such as the TR7, and then in the Special Projects division, mainly for Coventry Climax. Peter is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and a member of IPSERA. He was one of the first graduates from the Birmingham University MBA in Strategic Procurement and also holds a degree in Applied Economics. |
| STEPHEN McHALE, Assistant Head of Finance (Procurement), Oxfordshire County Council |
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Stephen is Chief Officer for Procurement across Oxfordshire County Council. His role involves heading a corporate procurement team and working through a decentralised structure to manage an annual revenue expenditure of over £400m and transactional aspects of procurement such as e-procurement and the use of procurement cards as well as supporting the procurement of major capital projects. During 16 years in the private sector Stephen headed a wide variety of procurement and contracts teams in various industry sectors, primarily for SMEs. He created pioneering international supply chain management techniques in the computer industry and was a successful product marketing manager. He was recruited into the public sector in the early 1990s to help augment professional procurement practices. His public sector roles included Senior Tutor at The Post Office Management Training Centre, Commercial Manager for Royal Mail and Head of Social Care Procurement at Suffolk County Council. Stephen specialises in creating successful new teams to tackle a wide range of business challenges and working with diverse internal specialist teams to drive efficiencies and effectiveness through strategic procurement management. |
| DAVID SHIELDS, Managing Director, Government Procurement Service |
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David joined Government Procurement Service in December 2010 and was recently appointed Managing Director. Government Procurement Service operates at the heart of the Government’s Centralised Procurement programme and has become the ‘engine room’ of Government Procurement. David previously worked within the Government’s Centralised Category Procurement workstream in the Efficiency and Reform Group (ERG). As a procurement and supply chain professional, David has years of experience in the private sector, where he worked in senior roles for global insurance and life assurance providers such as AXA plc and CGU, now known as Aviva. David has also worked within other areas of the public sector including HM Customs & Excise and is an active fellow of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply. |
| CLAIRE SMART, Gloucestershire County Council |
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Claire has 20 years’ experience in corporate, education and social care procurement in both unitary and county councils. At national level Claire has been organising chair of the annual Social Care Commissioning and Contracting Conference, has served as a contributor to the DH national contracting guidance and the National E-Procurement Partnership and as Service Advisor for the IDeA. She is a member of the National Executive Committee of SOPO and currently chairs the OGC Local Government Professional Services Steering Group, an initiative designed to save £285m across the local authorities. Claire’s mission is to drive best practice procurement principles and e-procurement across every area of local government spend, including the traditionally overlooked care and commissioning sectors. The value of this agenda has already been demonstrated through the delivery of over £3.8m of savings with the award-winning South West regional learning disability pricing tool and database. Claire is currently leading major change within Gloucestershire through the implementation of SAP and a £10m procurement benefits programme. |
| IAN TAYLOR, Director, North East Procurement Organisation (NEPO) |
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Ian is Director of NEPO – the North East Procurement Organisation – which runs a collaborative procurement programme for the 12 local authorities in the region and integrates the work of the North East Improvement and Efficiency Partnership into a well-established and respected consortium. NEPO is moving into new areas of collaboration using category management, in particular in social care, and is implementing a new range of construction framework contracts. The region expects significant savings but has also charged NEPO with helping local suppliers to develop their capability to compete for public sector contracts within the North East and beyond. Ian was previously Commercial Director at the Department for Education where he was an active proponent of collaborative procurement for schools and across central government. Prior to that, Ian was Head of Procurement at HBOS. He is a previous President of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, where he campaigned for more sustainable procurement. |
| ROGER WEST, Head of Procurement Outsourcing, DHL |
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Roger is the head of DHL’s procurement outsourcing service, designed to help public and private sector organisations achieve substantial cost savings through transformational sourcing of products combined with logistics. He is a former director of procurement with the NHS Supply Chain (NHSSC), a ground-breaking project run by DHL with the aim of saving the NHS £1 billion over ten years through private sector-led procurement experise. Roger believes that the success of the model achieved through the NHSSC could be applied to remove cost, deliver improved service and protect key jobs in areas such as defence, prisons, schools, emergency services and local government procurement. Attempts to make public sector buyers work together in the past have failed to deliver substantial change. The DHL model works by aggregating demand from public sector buyers then using private sector-led expertise to mediate and manage supply chains. This can deliver genuine and quickly achievable savings. |
| WENDY WILLS, Chief Executive Officer, Procurement Connection CIC (PCC) |
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Wendy founded the Procurement Connection concept during her work as Managing Director of the Ways2win business tendering organisation. As CEO of PCC, Wendy is forging ahead with the community interest company’s mission:‘To develop a leading National SME Engagement solution (without cost to the public sector) that will facilitate micro, small and medium-sized enterprises’ engagement with public sector supply.’ Wendy spent 18 years within the NHS (London and across the South West), beginning as a Registered General Nurse before moving on to Senior Management and Directorship roles in the last six years of her NHS career. In 2005 Wendy started her own business to help SMEs supply to the public sector through education, training and coaching. |
| JONATHAN WILSON, Market Development Manager, Konica Minolta |
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Jonathan is an experienced marketer and business consultant. Having worked globally for 14 years, Jonathan understand the intricacies of doing business in the public and private sectors in both emerging and developed markets, taking a firm belief that the client is at the heart of what any supplier should be doing, as this drives every single engagement. As a strategist with a deep understanding of how technology and services are reshaping the corporate and public sectors, Jonathan is at the leading edge of guiding the development of new services, solutions and hardware offerings that maximise client investment while minimising their capital expenditure. This forms the basis of a continual improvement model showing efficiency gains throughout the lifespan of any contract. |
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