Grahame joined BiP Solutions in 2003 as Production Director with responsibility for the multi-disciplined media and production department, including Content, Research and Distribution. Prior to that, he worked in various senior editorial and publishing roles for the media company EMAP plc. Grahame was appointed Deputy Chief Operating Officer of the BI Division in May 2012 and became Sales & Marketing Director in May 2016 with overall responsibility for driving revenues through private and public sector sales, marketing and events teams. In January 2017, Grahame was appointed Managing Director of the Media and Marketing Solutions division of the BiP Group. In this role he assumed overall responsibility for two of BiP Group’s recent acquisitions – Pro Mark Media and Ingenium – as well as BiP Solutions’ events and training portfolio. Following a restructure of BiP Group in April 2018, Grahame was appointed Sales and Marketing Director for the Business Intelligence and Public Sector business units, before subsequently being appointed Director of Public Policy, Research and Communications in 2023.

Rebecca Rees – Partner and Head of Public Procurement at the international law firm, Trowers & Hamlins. Rebecca is a leading national expert in public procurement law and has significant experience in advising clients in the public, private and third sectors on public procurement, subsidy control and building safety strategy issues. She advises clients on procurement strategy and structures, how to conduct flexible and compliant procurement procedures and compile objective and transparent evaluation models and guidance. With particular interests in value-led procurement, social value and building safety, Rebecca is a member of the Working Group 11 for Procurement Competency, DLUHC’s Procurement Advisory Group, and HACT’s National Social Value in Housing Taskforce. Rebecca is also a Visiting Fellow at the Centre of Construction Law at Dickson Poon School of Law at Kings College London and is currently undertaking a PhD in public procurement, focusing on price evaluation models at the University of Nottingham.

Lorraine leads STAR Procurement which is a very successful, high performing public sector shared service that is leading collaborative change and transformation through procurement and Social Value. STAR supports four Greater Manchester Councils and now two Liverpool City Region Councils that joined STAR in 2023. Lorraine has led STAR for almost seven years and in 22/23 they supported the retention of 78.9% local spend within Greater Manchester for her four partner Councils. STAR have continued to improve the Social Value captured as added value through procurement securing 38.5% accumulatively of the collective contract value since April 2019. The National Social Value Taskforce is a ‘coalition of the willing’ of public, private and voluntary sector representatives who act as advocates and creators of this ‘Social Value Movement’. Lorraine has been part of this since its formation in 2017 as was appointed as Chair in June 2023. Lorraine received a national award ‘Best Council to do Business With’ historically which she received at No.10 Downing St. She personally contributed to the improvement of Public Contract Regulations 2015 and Lord Young’s Reforms as she attended a Select Committee in the House of Commons to respond to a Public Procurement Review. Lorraine was also highly commended in Leadership at the National Social Value Conference 2020 and STAR won an award for embedding Social Value into the procurement processes in 2021.