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, 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 was appointed 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 (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: World class procurement in the NHS: the NHS procurement strategy, its importance and implications

The NHS's £40bn procurement spend means that it has enormous leverage, not only to secure best clinical value but also to drive innovation for the benefit of patients and to support UK economic growth. Effective management of this spend is essential to enable the NHS to drive through the efficiency improvements that are needed. The next few years will see radical change in how NHS procurement is undertaken. This session will describe these changes and how NHS staff will need to engage with them.

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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 & 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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Peter Akid began his NHS career in 2005 as Chief Executive of the Greater Manchester Procurement Hub and over the past five years has taken the organisation from strength to strength. Expanding the service offering and its geographical coverage, the organisation became known as the North West Collaborative Commercial Agency and in December 2010 merged with NHS Shared Business Services. With a national footprint and the potential to deliver even greater savings and efficiencies to the NHS, Peter is now the Managing Director of NHS SBS's procurement business. Over the last five years Peter's leadership has resulted in the delivery of £360m in savings opportunities to the NHS. Peter also sits on the Board of the National Adoption Centre, North West Medilink and is a member of the Department of Health National Procurement Council.

Prior to joining the NHS, Peter held a number of key positions in strategic and operational procurement and supply chain management both in the public and private sectors; latterly as Vice President of Global Supply Chain for Cable and Wireless, where he undertook significant change programmes in the Caribbean and Latin America. Before that, Peter had held the position of National Procurement and Contracts Manager at British Gas/Transco PLC, delivering benefits via strategic sourcing and outsourcing programmes. A common theme has been managing procurement activity in organisations undergoing privatisation and deregulation.

Peter is a member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. Having started his career in the construction/civil engineering industry as a Chartered Quantity Surveyor, he is also a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.


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Peter has wide-ranging experience of operations, logistics, e-commerce and business development in the healthcare industry. Following an early career in the pharmaceutical production directorate at The Wellcome Foundation (now The Wellcome Trust), with responsibility for master data management and new product introductions, he was appointed Logistics Director for Kodak Clinical Diagnostics, with responsibility for materials management, procurement and distribution.

Further senior level appointments followed at Celsis International with responsibility for manufacturing; at PA Consulting specialising in eCommerce in healthcare supply chains; at eLabsEurope in Munich; and at GHX UK.

Peter formed Healthlogistics with Mike Beckley in 2003 to provide effective master data management and eProcurement services for the NHS and its supplier community. Today Healthlogistics provides leading-edge catalogue, exchange and business information services to a range of leading NHS Trusts.

Peter is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Logistics and Transport.

Presentation: Progressing towards world class procurement

World Class status depends on providing NHS procurement professionals with the information they need to leverage their budgets effectively and achieve 'best value' for NHS patients, employees and taxpayers.

e-Procurement is the enabler to drive the whole supply process, from sourcing to payment, reducing time, effort and costs for NHS buyers and suppliers alike. This session will explore the importance of accessing common data and gaining visibility of the whole purchasing process across multiple Trusts, in order to strengthen the NHS's buying power and improve process at local, regional and national levels.

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David is Head of Sustainable Procurement in the Department of Health working in procurement policy and research. David has worked on sustainable procurement in the public sector since 2006, and is also currently leading work on supply resilience and the development of an NHS procurement dashboard.

Presentation: Achieving security of supply

The decentralised model that the NHS has hitherto operated for procurement has resulted in an inability to manage supply chains that have become increasingly global. Disruption to these supply chains can put patients at risk. This session presents a case study of what happened as a result of an earthquake, and the steps the Department of Health had to take in order to recover the situation.

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Stephen graduated as an Electronic Engineer from the University of Sussex. He then spent nearly 20 years working for Philips Semiconductors and NXP where he held various engineering, project management and business management roles. During this time he undertook an MBA at Imperial College achieving a distinction.

Following his work in the Semiconductor industry, Stephen joined the Technology Strategy Board in 2009 working on the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) and more recently on Smart. Both schemes aimed at helping R&D intensive companies and in particular SMEs.

Presentation: The Technology Strategy Board programme to support innovation in the NHS

The Technology Strategy Board and its related initiative, the SBRI, invest significant sums of money in the NHS through supporting innovations by private sector companies. These innovations are designed to deliver better clinical outcomes and may also help the UK economy by creating products for which there is an overseas demand. However, to achieve this, greater engagement is needed from clinicians and other NHS professionals. The restructuring of NHS procurement will provide the opportunity for this and for the full benefits to be realised.

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Andrew Butcher has over 25 years NHS experience and decided to specialise in purchasing and supply early in his career. For 16 years he took a "time out" from the NHS to become Cumbria Constabulary's Head of Procurement. A committed collaborator he played an active role in developing collaborative Police procurement in the North West before returning to the NHS. On his return he took a keen interest in commissioning and the procurement of services but is currently Acting Head of Procurement with North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Andrew is a member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and a member of the Institute of Healthcare Management. His presentation will look at why collaboration remains a separate activity instead of being the accepted means by which we ensure like requirements are procured.

Presentation: Collaboration versus going it alone

What are the benefits and disadvantages of collaboration in procurement? Can Trusts that avoid collaboration really get value for money in today's global supply chains? Will economic necessity eventually force them into collaboration?

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