Speakers

KEYNOTE SPEAKER – Sir Kevin O’Donoghue KCB CBE

General O’Donoghue is currently the Chief Royal Engineer and Honorary Colonel Commandant of the Royal Logistics Corps. On promotion to the
rank of General he became the Chief of Defence Logistics on 1 January 2005. He held this post until the merger of the DLO with the DPA on 1 April 2007 when he became the first Chief of Defence Materiel, responsible for delivering all aspects of the Defence Equipment and Support Plan. This includes responsibility for MOD assets worth £76 billion and an annual operating budget of £16 billion.

CHAIRMAN – Digby Barker

Drawing on his consultancy experience and government background – including posts in MoD HQ and HM Treasury – Digby specialises in helping companies win and profit from public sector business, advising in particular on marketing strategy and tender preparation. His experience includes research, operational/decision analysis, resource allocation, project management and acquisition, especially the development of procurement strategies, ITTs and tender evaluation schemes.

John Baker

John was a teacher of technology and design and an executive manager at Hill Samuel Merchant Banking Group, before leaving the private sector. He was then appointed to the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes as a specialist financial adviser, based for three years at Main Building in Whitehall. During that period his scope of operations extended from Larkhill and Whitehall to the islands of the South Atlantic. He is currently a senior partner in a strategic planning and bespoke training business, Inspire, and is also Head of UK and International Operations for the only consortium of its type in Western Europe, the National Security and Resilience Consortium, CBRN&E group and Security Council.

Irshad Booly

Irshad joined West of England Aerospace Forum 2003. He served 27 years in the Royal Air Force as a Supply Chain Procurement & Logistic Officer. He has also worked for AugustaWestland as their Procurement Manager and Airbus UK as its Supplier Development and Projects Manager. Irshad has vast knowledge and experience of the supply chain and logistics industry, in particular the military and civil aerospace environment. He is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (MCIPS) and Member of the Institute of Logistics and Transportation (MILT). He is also a certified EFQM assessor and provides consultancy on supply chain procurement/logistics and development.

Iain Brookes

Iain is Head of Sustainable Procurement for the Ministry of Defence. He took up his current appointment in November 2008 and leads a small team with responsibility for embedding sustainable procurement in the MOD’s acquisition processes. In his previous appointment he was a Deputy Team Leader in the DE&S Collocation Project, with responsibility for developing the Initial and Main Gate Business Cases. Iain joined the MOD in 1986 and has held a variety of appointments covering finance, personnel, secretariat, and business and project management, with a particular emphasis on change management.

Dr Nigel Chew

Following a major internal review of MOD's Research Programme in 2003, Nigel took up his present post as Technical Director for the new Defence Technology Innovation Centre (formerly the Research Acquisition Organisation). In 1997 Nigel joined MOD's Central Staffs to take up the post of Research Customer for Electronic Device Technology. He later transferred to the post of Research Customer for Infra-red and Visible Technology and in 2002 became Head of the Corporate Research Programme.

Stuart Fraser

Stuart joined the Ministry of Defence in 1970 directly from school. On promotion to the Senior Civil Service in 1996 he joined the then Procurement Executive as Director with responsibility for financial management and the Parliamentary aspects of a range of aerospace projects. Following a brief period as a Support Director in the Defence Procurement Agency he was appointed Head of the DPA's International Relations Group in December 2000, charged with providing advice to Ministers, senior officials and Integrated Project Teams on a wide range of equipment cooperation issues. In December 2005 he was appointed Leader of the Supplier Relations Group, which became the Directorate of Supplier Relations (DSR) on 1 April 2007. DSR is one of the Defence Equipment & Support enabling teams. 

Baudouin Heuninckx

Baudouin is a full-time officer in the Belgian Air Force and a part-time researcher in the law of defence procurement in the Defence and Strategic Procurement Unit of the Public Procurement Research Group within the University of Nottingham. He started his career as a technical officer in the Belgian Air Force 15th Air Transport Wing. Baudouin became in-service support manager of the Belgian Air Force C-130H military transport aircraft, and finalised the avionics upgrade programme of the aircraft and defined its new support policy. He then became manager of the Belgian Air Force search and rescue Sea King helicopters, and led the Belgian government’s regional aircraft procurement programme in 2000, before joining the A400M military transport aircraft programme division within OCCAR.

Andy Leather

Andy joined Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC) in March 2007, following more than 25 years’ of experience in the aerospace industry, latterly as VP Programmes & Business Development for Goodrich. His broad experience also encompasses Normalair-Garrett, the Hunting Group, Lucas, and TRW, in various senior commercial and programme management roles. Within SBAC, Andy has responsibility for leading the implementation of the AeIGT agenda, which encompasses the research and technology portfolio, supply chain improvement programme (SC21), and the people and skills agenda. The overall programme, which is underwritten by the government, is focussed on maintaining the UK as a global leader in the aerospace industry. As part of the development of the portfolio, Andy led the proposal process and negotiation that culminated in the award to the SBAC, of the grant for the running of the aerospace & defence KTN (Knowledge Transfer Network) in late 2007. He was also fundamental in gaining the signature and commitment of the MOD to the SC21 programme.

Paul Martin

Paul is currently team leader of the MOD’s Partnering Support Group. The Group is responsible for implementing the Department’s Partnering Handbook, and has for some time provided practical support and advice to MOD projects such as Contracting for Availability and Contractor Logistic Support. In addition to implementation of the Partnering Handbook, current work is addressing Business Relationship Management requirements and joint working across the MOD. Paul is also MOD Chair of the joint MOD/Industry Partnering Implementation Working Group.

Mike J Pearson

Mike is a Chartered Engineer and graduated from the Royal Military College of Science in 1978. In October 2008 he was appointed the Project Team Leader for the Next Generation Estate Contracts Project which will define and procure the most cost effective mix of estate procurement contracts to meet the strategic and operational needs of defence. Upon graduation Mike worked in the Property Service Agency in various appointments. In 1992 he joined Defence Works Services as the Defence Works Adviser ( Cyprus) providing advice to the Commander British Forces Cyprus on Estate matters. In 2001, he was selected as the Integrated Project Team Leader managing a project team in the definition and procurement of the South East Regional Prime Contract and on award of the Prime Contract Mike was appointed Deputy Director. In 2006, Mike became the Estate Management Coherence Manager, managing a dynamic development agenda which included the harmonisation of the service delivery output, establishing best practice to inform the Next Generation Contracts initiative and the quantification and costing of the Fully Maintained Estate.

Steve Thomas

Steve is currently on secondment from the MOD to the UK Trade and Investment Defence & Security Organisation (UKTI DSO) as part of the arrangements for delivering government support for defence and security exports. He is Assistant Director for Business Development and is supported by a large team of people responsible for delivering packages of support for
small businesses, executing UK MOD’s offset policy, hands-on demonstrations of military equipment to overseas government customers and bringing those customers together with UK industry at defence and security exhibitions at home and overseas.

Rod Turnbull

Remploy is the UK’s largest provider of employment opportunities for disabled people. Every year Remploy helps 6000 disabled people into jobs in mainstream employment in addition to employing 3000 in its network of 54 factories throughout the UK. Remploy has agreed a five-year funding package with the Government which requires the company to increase its sales to the Public Sector from its ten factory based businesses. Rod Turnbull has recently been appointed to head up the Government Sales Team. He has transferred over from his role as General Manager of the Remploy Furniture business which is a market leader in the supply of education furniture. He and his team are keen to promote to public sector buyers the social benefits of trading with Remploy and to adopt the special procurement regulations which allow public sector buyers to discriminate positively in favour of supported businesses. Rod has been with Remploy for 7 years and his career includes board level positions in manufacturing industry and also management consulting.

Malcolm Warr

Malcolm has spent over 40 years’ dealing in international military support. He was the first Royal Navy Logistics Officer to be appointed to a UK SSN in the mid 1970s and was Head of Logistics for the Royal Navy of Oman in the late 1980s on loan service during which time he was also the Royal Navy Logistics representative on the Staff of Allied Headquarters in the first Gulf War. He was responsible for co-ordinating the logistic effort south of the Straight of Hormouz. He received the Sultan of Oman’s Commendation for his work. On leaving the Royal Navy, he joined the Defence Industry as Kellogog Brown & Root’s Maritime Business Manager for Europe and the Middle East. He was then head hunted in New Zealand, and joined the New Zealand Gallagher Group and founded Maritime Services Management Ltd with the Chairman of Gallaghers (NZ) and the Chief Executive of the major maritime infrastructure group in New Zealand. As Managing Director of MSM Ltd, he subsequently ran Gallagher Security Europe – a typical defence small to medium sized enterprise in Coventry, UK and eventually sold it to European interests. He then joined the defence consultancy circuit where, among other things, he spent two years advising UK DERA/QinetiQ on business transformation and then was part of a team who developed, the award winning helicopter support solution for Agusta Westland and the MOD.

Dermot James Cusack MBE

Head of Land Systems Reference Centre, Steria

Dermot Cusack is the Head of the Land Systems Reference Centre where Steria is the prime contractor and is supported by SCS, Drumgrange, Johnsons Controls and Aspire. This facility is one of the MOD’s principal Test and Reference Centres providing a wide range of companies with access to Land Environment communication equipment.

During his Army career Dermot was employed in armour and subsequently in information systems where he worked as the Programme Manager of the Army’s SECRET infrastructure, introduced the business changes required by BOWMAN and developed and released applications in support of applications. He has a Masters Degree in Defence Administration in which he completed his major study on relationship management.