Neil Argyle PASS Consultant and former Director, NHS PASA Neil has recently retired after a career spanning over 40 years in procurement, 31 of which were in the healthcare sector. After working in Trent and Oxford regions he became Divisional Supplies Manager in North West Thames in 1983, providing a procurement and logistics service to hospitals in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. In 1991 the Division merged into East Anglia Regional Health Authority and he was appointed Director of Purchasing. Shortly afterwards, NHS Supplies was formed and Neil became National Purchasing Executive for the medical category. When the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency came into existence in 2000, Neil was appointed Director of Policy and Performance. His responsibilities included business planning, supplier relationships and communications, legal and procedural issues, the environment and emergency planning. In 2005 he was appointed Director of Pharmaceuticals, a position he held until taking retirement at the end of 2006.

Stephen Dickinson PASS Consultant and former Director of Procurement, South West London Procurement Alliance Formerly Director of Procurement at the South West London Procurement Alliance and Head of Purchasing for Kingston Hospital NHS Trust, Stephen has implemented considerable development in procurement management during his career of almost 40 years in the NHS, leading both hospital-based and multi-authority teams. He has worked closely on ensuring that equality and diversity and procurement goals are aligned through effective procurement and commissioning, including contributing to the DH Mosaic project. He has a particular interest in the development of small businesses within service provision to public authorities and has worked on SME compliance with the public contract regulations and ensuring value for money. Stephen has lectured on both graduate and postgraduate courses in public sector procurement and commercial relationships.

Clare Tunnicliffe Category Manager, NHS PASA Clare is currently a Category Manager in the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency and has been working within government procurement since 1997. Prior to joining NHS PASA in 2006 Clare was Head of Supply Management Division where she had both operational and strategic responsibilities for procurement and supply chain activities including the outsourcing of the pharmaceutical and dental supply chains, category management development and e-purchasing initiatives. Clare has recently taken over managing the gas, oil and coal areas to focus on service development, key supplier management and commercial intelligence. Clare’s experience of health is not limited to procurement as she is a registered pharmacist and held posts in pharmacy in the NHS, Royal Army Medical Corps and the commercial sector.

David Lawson Director of Procurement, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust David is the Director responsible for procurement and supply chain management at Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. The hospital is one of the largest NHS Trusts in the country with an annual non-pay spend of approximately £250m. David is currently leading a project to deploy automated stock management systems across the hospital. The project represents the largest deployment of automated systems in Europe. Before moving to Guy’s and St Thomas’ in 2001, David worked for the Department of Social Security and the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions in procurement policy/ strategy roles. He was the winner of the prestigious Supply Chain Innovation Award at the 2008 European Supply Chain Excellence Awards.

Keith Clark Associate Director of Purchasing – Medical, Healthcare Purchasing Consortium Keith is the Healthcare Purchasing Consortium (HPC)’s associate director of purchasing for medical products. The role includes setting the medical procurement strategy to deliver savings for the purchase of medical products as diverse as pacemakers and enteral feeds. Earlier in his career Keith spent significant time purchasing both directs and indirects for supermarket chains such as Safeway Stores and Iceland before joining HPC in June 2005 to support the Collaborative Procurement Hub (CPH) launch. On arrival at HPC Keith was category manager for both orthopaedic implants and cardiology products. His achievements in this role include the establishment of a framework agreement for cardiac stents that could be accessed by all participating CPH member trusts.