Colin Cram 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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Jon Hughes is chairman and founder director of Future Purchasing and Visiting Fellow at Henley Business School, with a 30-year perspective on procurement transformation in the private and public sectors. He is on the Appointments Board of CIPS and the Editorial Advisory Board of CPO Agenda, and is the author of the CPO Communiqué best practice forum. CIPS acknowledged his contribution to innovation and procurement professional development with their Swinbank Award in 2006.

Jon works closely with senior executives and business leaders on the repositioning of procurement as a major contributor to organisational success, and in the context of the public sector, its increasingly important role in deficit reduction, service delivery innovation and economic growth.

Presentation: Why public procurement is central to the UK's economic performance ... and how to transform it

Transformation of public procurement offers a way to address the challenges of reducing the deficit, rebalancing the economy and stimulating economic growth. Developing leadership at the right level and creating the right mix of people-based capabilities focused on value delivery can make a real difference.

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David Shields joined Government Procurement Service in December 2010, and was recently appointed as Managing Director. Government Procurement Service operates at the heart of the government's Centralised Procurement programme and has become the 'engine room' of government procurement.

David previously worked within the government's Centralised Category Procurement workstream in the Efficiency and Reform Group (ERG).

As a procurement and supply chain professional, David has years of experience in the private sector where he worked in senior roles for global insurance and life assurance providers, such as AXA plc and CGU, now known as Aviva.

David has also worked within other areas of the public sector, including HM Customs and Excise, and is an active fellow of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply.

Presentation: Maximising the benefits of public sector procurement

The latest about the value for money work of the Efficiency and Reform Group and the Government Procurement Service (GPS). This will include category management, 'deep dives', purchase spend analysis, the progress and plans for the GPS and the implications for central government and the wider public sector.

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Mario Varela joined the Bart's and the London NHS Trust on 1st November 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 procurement projects, eg £300m investment in diagnostic medical equipment for cancer services and the introduction of digital hearing aid technology into the NHS.

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 web-enabling technology. This highly successful strategy delivered in excess of £35m in savings over the period. Mario has been a member of the LPP Steering Board since its inception in 2006, and was appointed as its first Managing Director on 1st April 2011. The programme aims to leverage the £6bn of commercial expenditure across 75 NHS organisations in London. LPP has worked on more than 100 commercial projects, saving the NHS in London £218m as well as improving efficiencies in service delivery and reducing clinical risks.

He has previous experience in both the public and private sectors with senior management positions at BT, Royal Mail and Ernst Young.

He 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).

Presentation: Leveraging expertise and delivering value and savings through collaboration

The London Procurement Programme is delivering large benefits for hospitals throughout the capital by leveraging the procurement spend and the category and procurement expertise that exists within members. This session will explain how this has been achieved, the benefits so far and how it is changing the procurement landscape of the NHS in London.

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David Smith is the Commercial Director for the Department for Work and Pensions (the biggest central government department) and is accountable for its overall procurement spend of in excess of £4bn per year.

He has specialised in procurement and commercial matters in the public sector for over 20 years. Before moving to DWP, David was Head of Procurement for the Inland Revenue and has previously held senior commercial posts in the Home Office and HM Treasury's Central Unit on Procurement (now OGC).

He is a well-known and respected national and international speaker on commercial strategy, delivery, e-commerce, and contestability and has previously acted as Commercial Adviser to the e-Envoy on the 'Government Gateway', to the European Institute for Public Affairs (EIPA) and the Royal Institute for Public Affairs (RIPA).

David has a close working association with the Office for Government Commerce (OGC). He is a member of the Government Procurement Service Council, the Strategic Stakeholder Forum, HM Treasury's Major Projects Review Group and many other interdepartmental committees. He is also a past member of the CIPS Board of Management and the CIPS Council.

David was presented with the coveted 'Government Opportunities Lifetime Achievement Award for Public Procurement Excellence' in June 2006 and was made a Companion of the most honourable Order of Bath (CB) in the Queen's New Year Honours 2009.

Presentation: Getting the profession to the top table

The CIPS President's theme for 2011/12, which includes developing career opportunities in procurement and procurement's role in creating work, training and development opportunities for young people.

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Jakob Edler is Professor of Innovation Policy and Strategy and Research Director at the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIoIR, www.mbs.ac.uk/research/) at the Manchester Business School (www.mbs.ac.uk), University of Manchester. His field of activity and publication comprise: European Innovation and Science Policy and Modes of Governance; Demand oriented innovation policy and public procurement, evaluation and conceptual development of RTDI policies, comparative Research on Internationalisation Strategies in Science and Technology Policy; internationalisation of Public Research and Industrial R&D, knowledge Supply and Technology Transfer; industrial knowledge management and patent strategies.

In the area of public procurement and demand oriented policies, Jakob is currently co-leading a large study on Understanding Public Procurement for Innovation, funded by the ESRC/BIS/NESTA and TSB (http://underpin.portals.mbs.ac.uk/), which also involves cases studies within the NHS. He has previously led two large studies at EU and national (German) level and has been member of three European expert groups on the topic. He has published widely in the area and presented at numerous academic and policy-oriented conferences.

Presentation: Understanding public procurement of innovation

Announcing the results of a research project into the use of public sector procurement to stimulate innovation.

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Brian Walsh joined Coventry City Council as Director of Community Services in July 2009. The directorate comprises Adult and Older People's Services, Library and Adult Education Services, Public Safety and Housing and Policy and Performance.

Previous roles include:

• Director of Adult Services at Scope
• Assistant Head of Service (Older People) with Derbyshire County Council
• County Manager, Children and Families in Northamptonshire County Council

Brian is Joint Chair of The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) Workforce Development Network.
He is also Chair of KeyRing, a learning disability charity and a non-Executive Director of Derby and Derbyshire Cluster PCT.

Presentation: Creating a supply market of mutuals and social enterprises

A key element of the Big Society agenda is delivery of services through social enterprises. Delivering the strategy requires a practical approach and potentially the creation of suitable social enterprises.

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Mark Barrow was appointed as the Strategic Director of Development at Birmingham City Council in September 2010. Prior to that, Mark was Chief Executive of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council. He has previously worked for a variety of district, county, unitary and metropolitan authorities across the country, including Birmingham in the early 1990s.

Mark is responsible for providing strategic leadership, vision and direction for development related activity, including delivering the Birmingham Enterprise Zone, economic development, inward investment, transportation infrastructure, physical and social regeneration, sustainability and the green economy. Mark's ambition is to deliver transformational change to further develop Birmingham as a smart sustainable and diverse global city.

As Company Secretary for the Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Economic Partnership, Mark provides strategic advice and support to the board, to support the objective to create a world-class workforce, with 100,000 new jobs and growth in the GVA of £8bn by 2020.

Mark acts as the Chief Executive for the partnership of West Midlands Councils, and is Chairman of the West Midlands Economic Inclusion Panel. He is also a member of the Regional Chief Executives Task Force and is a board member of Finance Birmingham Ltd, NEC Developments Ltd, Business in the Community WM Ltd, Acivico, the Be Birmingham Executive and the Birmingham Environmental Partnership. As the representative for West Midlands Councils within the former Regional Economic Taskforce he led the workstream on Community Support which focused on mitigating the social impact of the recession.

Mark has a construction, regeneration and property background and has been an active member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, holding positions at both the local and national level. He is an accredited 'Gateway Review' team leader and has led numerous peer reviews across the country on behalf of the 4'P's (Public/Private Partnership Programme).

Presentation: Using public sector procurement to invest in the local economy

The Open Public Services White Paper asserts a new focus for public sector procurement on overall value rather than cost, taking into account the need to consider economy, efficiency, and effectiveness. The work of the West Midlands Economic Inclusion Panel strongly resonates with this aim, using procurement as a tool to 'advantage the disadvantaged'.

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Sally Collier is Executive Director of Policy and Capability in the Efficiency Reform Group, within the Cabinet Office. Her 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 Organization; they transcribe EU Directives into UK regulations, promote compliance and manage the UK's response to any infractions brought against public authorities.

Sally is also responsible for implementing the commitments made by the Prime Minister on increasing transparency in central government procurement and contracting, and has had responsibility for developing a consolidated approach to the use of public procurement in furtherance of wider policy goals – environmental, social and economic.

Another work stream that Sally has recently led 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 15 years have been spent in the public sector largely focused 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: Lean procurement and procurement policy

An update on the 'Lean Procurement' initiative, the UK government's proposals for the revision of the EU procurement directives, transparency, and the response to the Select Committee's report 'Public sector procurement as a tool to stimulate innovation'.

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