Colin Cram has held senior positions in the public sector for the past 30 years, including central (such as the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury) and local government, higher education and the wider public sector. He has been responsible throughout for initiating and implementing innovative strategies for procurement, shared services, outsourcings and organisational re-engineering. Savings from his initiatives exceed £1bn.

Colin has created and managed several pioneering joint and shared service procurement organisations, influencing spend of up to £7bn a year. He was a founder member of the Central Unit on Purchasing (the forerunner of the Office of Government Commerce), created and led the Research Councils' Procurement Organisation, the Benefits Agency Contracts Organisation and was the first director of the North Western Universities' Purchasing Consortium. Latterly, he was director of the North West Centre of Excellence, creating and delivering collaborative opportunities in procurement and shared services for 47 local authorities.

A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS), Colin has been appointed a senior adviser to the Office of Government Commerce and is a member of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE). He is a regular speaker at national and international conferences and training events, and is a regular contributor to professional journals. He has been a member of European working groups on procurement, innovation and sustainability. He runs a successful consultancy, Marc1 Ltd.


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After working for a number of years in industry, John Warrington joined the NHS in 1984 to work in the West Midlands Regional Supplies Department in Birmingham. He worked in a number of purchasing roles in the West Midlands, Oxford and North West Regional Health Authorities before joining the National Purchasing Unit of the newly formed NHS Supplies Authority in 1992.

John was National Portfolio Manager for the Rehabilitation Section before becoming Head of Strategic Supply Development and Innovation in the authority's strategy directorate. He was made Head of Research and Innovation for the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (PASA) on its formation in April 2000, and appointed as a director in January 2004, with responsibility for research and innovation and national procurement for food, domestics and textiles categories.

After a spell as Director, Policy and Innovation, John recently transferred to the Department of Health, Procurement, Investment and Commercial Division, to take up a new role as Deputy Director, Procurement Policy and Research.

John is a member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) (having completed his professional exams way back in 1981, when they were easy!) and has recently completed an MBA at the University of Bath.

Presentation: Implementing the new NHS procurement strategy

This session explains the new strategy, the rationale behind it, the opportunities and what will be expected of NHS managers, clinicians, procurement, finance personnel and budget holders in engaging with the new strategy.

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David Noble was appointed Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) in June 2009. Previously, he was Group Supply Director at IMI plc, a FTSE 250 UK multinational company specialising in advanced engineering technology and responsible for circa £1bn spend. A key achievement was pioneering Category Management and Strategic Sourcing at Motorola in the mid-80s. Although the majority of his career has been in manufacturing, he also has experience of the public sector, the distribution industry and large-scale turnkey power station projects.

David has an honour's degree and was elected a fellow of the institute in 1994, also serving on the fellowship selection panel and the CIPS board.


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Mario Varela joined Bart's and the London NHS Trust in 2004 after a two-year secondment from the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency, where he was an Associate Director of Purchasing with responsibility for the management of 100 procurement professionals and £1.5bn of NHS expenditure. He worked closely with policy leads and ministers on some of the most high profile government projects. While heading the function at the trust, Mario transformed the focus from 'transactional' to 'added value' through investment in professional expertise and modernisation of processes through technology. This highly successful strategy delivered in excess of £35m in savings. Leading LPP since 2009, he was appointed as its first Managing Director in April 2011.

Mario is a graduate in business studies, with an executive MBA from Cranfield University and is a corporate member of both the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (MCIPS) and the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (MCIPD).


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Chris Tulloch has been a doctor for 35 years and an orthopaedic consultant for 20. He currently specialises in lower limb and trauma surgery. Having chaired a medical advisory committee for Nuffield Health, with special responsibility for clinical governance, he assumed the roles of Clinical Director for Orthopaedic Surgery and Associate Medical Director at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust.

Having become aware of the situation whereby identical implants were being purchased by different hospital trusts at widely varying prices, Chris took a hands-on role in the negotiation of implant costs with a view to establishing the concept of target pricing. His work in this area led to him being invited to work with the Department of Health on the QIPP project.


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