Colin has held senior positions in the public sector for the past 30 years, including central (including 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 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, Colin has been appointed a Senior Adviser to the Office of Government Commerce and is a member of SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives). 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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David has over 19 years experience at senior executive/director level driving value and change through procurement and organisational transformation.
David's varied background enables him to draw on not only his various global experiences, sector diversity and responsibilities within many FTSE 100 companies such as, Associated British foods (ABF), Carphone Warehouse plc (CPW), Barclays Bank plc, WS Atkins plc and SmithKline Beecham (now Glaxo SmithKline) but also the experience gained in the Construction and Property sectors at the beginning of his career. He therefore has a real feel for the commercial and business drivers of the corporate customer to the private trader and what it takes to deliver sustainable bottom line results in the optimum time frame.
As Chief Officer & Head of Supplier Relationship Management at Westminster City Council he designed a new target operating model and reduced the headcount by 30%,an annualised saving of £1.25m+. He has instituted a new structured training and development programme for all staff and is responsible for all major negotiations and key decisions developing a new gate review process, toolkit and championed the constitutional changes necessary to bring this to fruition
David gained qualifications from Nottingham Trent University and Michigan Business School and was co-editor/author for UMIST MSc Pharmaceutical Engineering degree and more recently CIPS level 6 Graduate diploma, Finance for Purchasers.



Presentation: If You Can't Take the Heat......

Implications for procurement

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Beth is currently programme managing the Department of Health's response to the QIPP (Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention) requirement to gain efficiencies through procurement across the healthcare system.

Previously, Beth managed the transition of the Pharmacy Unit of the erstwhile NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (NHS PASA) into the NHS Commercial Medicines Unit and wasresponsible for setting the strategic direction of the Unit and managing its response to the changing needs of the Department of Health and the NHS.

Beth is a BA (Hons) Business Studies and CIPS qualified procurement professional with 12 years' public sector experience. The majority of her work has been in building collaborative procurement partnerships within the NHS to gain efficiencies and improvements in healthcare with NHS PASA. She was the Assistant Director of the North West Centre of Excellence, which achieved savings for local authorities through collaboration.

Beth was the elected Healthcare representative on the CIPS council for 3 years and has also been North West Branch Co-ordinator for the Health Care Supply Association.


Presentation: QIPP: The NHS approach to Delivering Procurement Savings

Providing an update on the progress of the QIPP Programme

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Sally Collier is Executive Director of Policy and Capability in the Efficiency Reform Group, a newly formed unit within the Cabinet Office.

Sally's current portfolio of responsibilities includes the development and application of UK public procurement policy. Her team of policy experts represents the UK on public procurement at the European Commission and World Trade Organisation; they transcribe EU Directives into UK regulations, promote compliance and manage the UK's response to any infractions brought against public authorities. She has also had responsibility for developing a consolidated approach to the use of public procurement in furtherance of wider policy goals – environmental, social and economic.

Sally is also responsible for implementing the commitments made by the Prime Minister on increasing transparency in Central Government Procurement and Contracting

Sally recently led a workstream whose remit was to improve central government capability in procurement, project and programme management and estates. This encompassed the work of the Government Procurement Service and the Procurement Capability Review (PCR) programme.

Sally's career started in the private sector but the last fifteen years have been spent in the public sector largely focussed on public procurement. Postings have included delivery of programmes to assist small and medium enterprises to bid successfully for government work and a strategic programme to better manage workflow and supply and demand matching in major government markets.

Non-procurement delivery roles have included a spell as a Director of Change implementing a major organisational restructure and the development of e-business strategies across Whitehall.

Sally has a postgraduate qualification in management and is a qualified programme manager.


Presentation: EU Procurement Directives Update

Delivering savings. What one can and can't do. Impact of 2006 regulations and remedies directive and possible future changes

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