Speakers

CONFERENCE CHAIRMAN – NEIL JONES

Neil is Head of Business Services at Hampshire County Council and has been a member of the Central Buying Consortium Management Board since 1997. He is known to suppliers and local government alike as an active supporter of initiatives to obtain greater value for money through aggregation of purchasing for the public and voluntary sectors. Neil took over as CBC Chair from Ros Aird in September 2007.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER – DAVID SMITH

Commercial Director, Department for Works and Pensions (DWP)

David has specialised in procurement and commercial matters in the public sector for nearly 20 years. Before moving to DWP, he was Head of Procurement for the Inland Revenue and previously held commercial posts in the Home Office and HM Treasury (Central Unit on Procurement). David is a well known and respected speaker on commercial strategy, delivery, e-commerce and outsourcing and has acted as Commercial Adviser to the e-Envoy on the ‘Government Gateway’, the European Institute for Public Affairs, the Royal Institute for Public Affairs and BiP Solutions Ltd on procurement matters. David has a close working association with the Office of Government Commerce. He is a member of the Chief Executives Advisory Group, the Government Procurement Service Management Board, and various other interdepartmental committees. David is also a member of the CIPS Board of Management.

Allan Bouglas

Allan is a founding member and Director of Development at Committed2Equality, a not-for-profit organisation that promotes diversity. He has a specialised knowledge of equality issues and their impact on procurement in both the public and private sectors and has recently produced a procurement guide to the proposed Equality Bill. Allan is the author of a number of reports, including the Local Authorities Equality & Diversity Survey in 2006. He was also a member of the WEU Gender Equality working group during 2007-08 looking at gender pay.

Ian Heptonstall

Ian has over 20 years’ experience in the organising and strategic planning of business development programmes, business events, exhibitions and conferences. Ian founded Business to Business in 1991. The company now has four offices across the UK led by a strong management and delivery team. He has recently become a member of the London Development Agency’s specialist consultancy panel advising them on their international supply chain development strategy and their public sector procurement strategy.

Ian Leete

Ian is Policy Adviser in the Public Sector Partnerships Team at the Office of the Third Sector, where he is currently working on local and regional government issues. He has responsibility for overseeing National Indicator 7, an environment for a thriving third sector; the Supporting People Programme; and implementing the regional coordination strategy. Ian was previously Business Development Manager at the Essex Community Reuse and Recycling Network, working to improve local authority and third sector interaction on commissioning, procurement and service delivery.

David McAlpine

David is an economist with an MBA from London Business School. During the past three years he has been Project Manager of iCAM Supply (formerly IBET), a pioneering local procurement initiative in Islington, which initially focused on the £800m Arsenal stadium development and was then extended to other major developments across the borough. In mid-2006, he set up a similar project in Camden to take advantage of the £2bn King’s Cross Central development. Both projects have been funded by the LDA and are now run jointly. Over the past three years, these projects have helped local companies to win over £30m of contracts, obtain 430 tender invitations and create 450 jobs. David also has extensive consultancy experience in public and community sector feasibility and regeneration studies throughout the UK covering the market, financial, management and technical aspects as well as many successful Lottery bids to NOF, Heritage Lottery Fund, Sport England and the Arts Council.

Debasish Sen

Debasish is Chairman of the North Kent branch of the Federation of Small Businesses and Vice Chairman of the Kent & Medway Region. He is a marketing professional, starting his own marketing consultancy in 1992, having worked with BT for six years. He then ran his own call centre between 2001 and 2003. He is founder director of BIG Solutions Ltd – a business development company working largely to connect the public sector and SMEs. He is also founder director of Education for Enterprise CIC – a social enterprise company taking owners of SMEs into secondary schools to inspire young people about the world of work and running a business.

Mandy Wright

Mandy is Associate Director at the Improvement and Development Agency, where she is currently working on strategic equalities issues. She was previously Director (Workforce and Diversity Issues) at the Employers’ Organisation for Local Government where she was responsible for pensions, health and safety, procurement and efficiency, as well as the EO’s equalities team – DIALOG (Diversity in Action in Local Government).

Paul Toben

Paul is Programme Manager for the South East Business Link support programme for the London 2012 Games. Since 2007 this programme has been raising awareness amongst small businesses of the opportunities in the London 2012 and public sector supply chains. It also offers specialist workshops to help companies become ‘fit to supply’. Paul has worked for both Business Link and UKTI South East, helping small companies develop their business, both in the UK and internationally.Between and 1982 and 1997 he ran his own business in the automotive and engineering sectors where he developed his skills in tendering for international contracts in both the public and private sectors. From 1997 to 2000 Paul worked for Telegan, a company specialising in gas analysis and detection. He managed the sales team and the bidding for and delivery of international public and private sector contracts.