Speakers

Stuart Deaton, Senior Manager, Research, Audit Commission
	Stuart joined the Audit Commission in 2005, where he has managed two national studies on the role of the voluntary sector in local public service delivery and local authorities’ use of competition and contestability. Prior to joining the Commission, he spent five years at the Home Office, firstly in the Fire Statistics and Research unit, where he managed the community fire safety research programme, and then in the Drugs Analysis and Research unit, where he managed three large-scale evaluations of drug treatment interventions within the criminal justice system.
Peter Howarth, PASS Consultant
	Peter has a long track record in procurement and local government. He is currently the Chief Executive of the Society of Procurement Officers in Local Government (SOPO). Prior to that he had 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 e-Procurement 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. 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.
Helen Hughes National Advisor (Voluntary and Community Sector), Improvement and Development Agency for Local Government
	Helen joined IDeA in October 2004, having previously worked in the voluntary and community sector. Before that she worked for two years with the Open University, followed by eight years in the NHS. In 1995, Helen set up the Gloucester Council for Voluntary Services where she was Chief Executive for nine years. During this time she was also a member of the steering group which set up the Regional Voluntary Sector Forum, sat on the Home Office Reference Group for the 2002 Cross Cutting Review of the VCS role in public service delivery and was a trustee of the then National Association of Councils for Voluntary Service for five years.
John Kirkpatrick
	John took up the post of one of two Directors of Studies at the Audit Commission, responsible for the Commission's programme of national value for money studies, in December 2006. Previously, he was Inquiry Director at the Competition Commission, responsible for merger inquiries and market investigations. Prior to this he was a civil servant at the Departments of Employment and Education and a management consultant at McKinsey & Co, where he advised clients in the commercial and non-profit sectors.
Marilyn Lister
	Profile to be confirmed.
Megan Meredith
	Megan is Director of External Affairs for Futurebuilders England, where she is responsible for communications, marketing, learning and business development. Her background is in strategic communication and change management in the public, private and voluntary sectors. Prior to joining Futurebuilders she was Head of Strategic Planning for the Audit Commission, where she developed its organisational development strategy for five years and also spent time working on Local Government Corporate Performance Assessment, sharing best practice and national research studies. Megan was a Senior Consultant at KPMG Consulting’s change management practice, working across the sectors in the UK and overseas. She began her career on the National Health Service Graduate Training Scheme and spent six years in the NHS working in acute and community trusts in operational and corporate roles.
Dr Gordon Murray
	Gordon is currently seconded to the National Programme for Third Sector Commissioning, a pan-public sector, Cabinet Office initiative. He was previously responsible for the delivery of IDeA's efficiency peer review, asset management peer review, planning peer review and procurement support; he was also an expert peer reviewer for Defra's Sustainable Production and Consumption evidence- based research programme. Prior to joining IDeA he was procurement adviser at CIPFA/IPF and procurement manager at Belfast City Council.
Lin O'Hara
	Lin is the Outreach and Development Manager for Futurebuilders England. She is responsible for making sure that voluntary organisations and public sector commissioners understand the benefits and opportunities Futurebuilders has to offer. Lin worked as a teacher, press officer and freelance journalist before moving to the voluntary sector as Assistant Director of Newcastle Literacy Trust in 1998. She joined the Community Fund (now Big Lottery Fund) in 2001, and moved to Futurebuilders just before its launch in 2004.
Eddie Regan, Senior PASS Consultant
	Eddie is BiP Solutions' Senior Procurement Consultant and frequently assists public sector organisations with clarification and interpretation of EU Directives and a wide variety of legislative issues. He is also lead consultant on BiP's PASS Mark Health Check, an evaluation technique that helps identify how organisations in both the public and private sectors can develop more effective processes in respect of all aspects of public sector contracting, including the tendering process. Eddie also provides in-house training on the tendering process – law and practice –– to personnel in both the public and private sectors, including several multinational organisations.
Sarah Wood Programme Director National Programme for Third Sector Commissioning
	Sarah has had an extensive career in local government including being Director of Policy at the Local Government Association, Director of Resources at Birmingham City Council and Deputy Chief Executive at Glasgow City Council. In the last two years she has been the interim Director of Resources at the Borders and Immigration Agency and is a trustee of two charities, a member of the Futurebuilders Advisory Panel, Commissioner of the Public Works Loan Board and a Council Member of CIPFA and AAT.