Andrew brings experience of over 30 years in commercial, procurement and supply chain management to the role of GCCO as he leads the cross-government commercial community to deliver the Plan for Change.

Focusing over 6,000 commercial professionals who are directly managing and influencing £176 billion of central UK Government procurement spend on vital goods and services, ensuring every pound spent of taxpayer money delivers for the public.

Andrew was previously the Director General Commercial at the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and prior to joining the MOD in 2017 he was the Chief Commercial Officer at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Lindsay is the Head of Engagement for Procurement Team at the Cabinet Office. She joined the Government Commercial Organisation in 2016, initially working as senior category leader for employment and labour market in DWP and subsequently as Head of Small Business Policy at Cabinet Office, working with all central government departments and SMEs to break down barriers to entry.

Prior to joining the civil service, she gained 10+ commercial experience from the private sector, working in the Aerospace, property management and FMCG sectors for both large multinationals and SMEs, including spending 5 years abroad in Germany, Netherlands and Canada working on complex projects.

Zuzanna Briant is the Director and Practice Lead for Contract and Commercial Management (CCM) at World Commerce & Contracting. In her role, she serves as an ambassador and advocate for efficient, effective contracting, focused on building high-performing, trusted business relationships. She joined WorldCC from Virgin Media, bringing extensive experience in procurement and leadership of commercial and contract management teams.

Her innovative thinking and strategic approach have delivered multi-million-dollar cost savings and revenue gains. Her earlier career spans the financial services and aviation sectors, and she holds a Master’s degree in Finance.

Nicola joins CSG in April 2023 as Divisional CEO (Strategic Services).

Nicola is an experienced public sector leader, primarily with Luton Borough Council where she progressed to Corporate Director of Inclusive Economy.

Nicola’s role at CSG is to deliver outstanding growth across our recruitment, procurement and community services divisions.

Shirley is a successful business leader and entrepreneur with extensive experience gained in delivering first-class financial, commercial, and operational leadership across the Private and Public Sectors. She is a former Chair and President of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS), her legacy as President was to create The Fellowship as it is today with over 1000 Fellows globally and is the first Chair of Fellows.

The Small Business Crown Representative is one of a network of Crown Representatives focused on helping the government in its engagement with specific sectors. The main aim of the role is to lead on the overall relationship between the government and small businesses, making sure the government gets the best value from small business and small businesses have the best possible opportunity to work with the government.

Guy Battle is passionate about the contribution that business can make to improve our society. This has been one of the driving motivations behind Social Value Portal, which he set up in 2015 to provide an online solution for measuring, procuring, and managing social value. Guy is also the creator of the National Social Value Measurement Framework (The National TOMs) that have become the most widely used methodology for measuring and reporting social value in the public sector. Outside of his work with SVP, Guy chairs the ESG committee for the British Council for Offices, focusing on environmental sustainability within office developments, and also chairs Riversimple, a zero-emissions mobility solution that builds and operates a growing fleet of hydrogen-electric vehicles.

Joanna has been a driving force behind the creation and management of the social value function in London Borough of Waltham Forest, since its inception in Dec 2020.

With over 20 years’ experience leading on various investment and regeneration initiatives that promote inclusive growth and community wealth building, under Joanna leadership the Council has transformed the way it maximises social impact through its contracts for services, regeneration, and construction works.

Over the past four years, the collaborative efforts of the Council and its supply chain have yielded over £50 million in delivered social value, laying the foundation for a substantial pipeline of future benefits.

Cabinet Office supports the Prime Minister, and ensures the effective running of government. As the corporate headquarters for government, in partnership with HM Treasury, Cabinet Office take the lead in certain critical policy areas.

They are responsible for:

• supporting collective government, helping to ensure the effective development, coordination and implementation of policy
• supporting the National Security Council and the Joint Intelligence Organisation, coordinating the government’s response to crises and managing the UK’s cyber security
• promoting efficiency and reform across government through innovation, better procurement and project management, and by transforming the delivery of services
• promoting the release of government data, and making the way government works more transparent
• creating an exceptional civil service, improving its capability and effectiveness
• promoting social action and National Citizen Service, and growing the social investment market
• political and constitutional reform

Kieran is a consultant solicitor and legal trainer, specialising in public procurement law. He advises clients on public procurement, commercial contracts, grant funding, and subsidy control (previously State aid). For most of the past decade he has worked in-house within local government legal teams. Since June 2023 he has been operating as a consultant solicitor.

Kieran also sits on the executive committee of the Procurement Lawyers' Association (PLA), a membership body for procurement lawyers across the UK. He was previously the National Lead for Procurement Law within a membership body for local government lawyers.

Cabinet Office supports the Prime Minister, and ensures the effective running of government. As the corporate headquarters for government, in partnership with HM Treasury, Cabinet Office take the lead in certain critical policy areas.

They are responsible for:

• supporting collective government, helping to ensure the effective development, coordination and implementation of policy
• supporting the National Security Council and the Joint Intelligence Organisation, coordinating the government’s response to crises and managing the UK’s cyber security
• promoting efficiency and reform across government through innovation, better procurement and project management, and by transforming the delivery of services
• promoting the release of government data, and making the way government works more transparent
• creating an exceptional civil service, improving its capability and effectiveness
• promoting social action and National Citizen Service, and growing the social investment market
• political and constitutional reform

Ben is a researcher working with the Institute for Government's general election team. Before joining the Institute, Ben studied medicine at university and continues to practice as an NHS doctor, and has also published research in a number of medical journals.

Jane is a Professor in Procurement for the Logistics and Operations Management (LOM) section of Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University. Jane’s subject areas for research and teaching include innovation and social public procurement, supply chain management, and collaboration. Jane is the strategic lead for Procurement Labs in a WEFO funded project, Infuse (Innovation of Future Public Services).

Jane is Programme Director for the UK Government funded 'Help to Grow Management' programme delivered at Cardiff Business School aimed at supporting SMEs with business growth. Additional Roles: Member of IRSPP (international research study on public procurement) Branch Chair of the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) South Wales Associate Director (MICW) of Institute for Collaborative Working (ICW), Cymru.

Rebecca Rees is a Partner and the 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.

Michael has extensive experience working in local government and across the wider public sector, with a specialism in strategic thinking and leading change in commissioning and procurement functions. He has experience in developing and implementing organisation-wide strategy and policy, raising workforce capability, and maximising the use of data and intelligence to generate insights.

Procurement Services is a market-leading provider of procurement solutions & contract management, and our focus is on providing compliant routes for the UK public sector to procure products & services from local, national & global suppliers. All our solutions give complete peace of mind when it comes to procurement.

We are a proud part of the Commercial Services Group Procurement & Partnerships portfolio, a wholly-owned business unit of Kent County Council.

Steven has extensive public procurement experience advising central government, local government, other contracting authorities, utilities and suppliers at all stages of the procurement lifecycle including designing procurement strategies, advising throughout the procurement process into contract management and in relation to procurement challenges.

Having spent time both in private practice and as general counsel in an innovative defence contractor, Steven has a unique procurement skillset and is able to appreciate the perspectives of both contracting authorities and suppliers. Steven has a particular specialism in framework agreements having recently completed a PhD in public procurement law on this topic. Steven is ranked in Chambers UK for public procurement law.

He has published various articles in leading public procurement journals and his research on frameworks is about to be published in a forthcoming book co-authored with Professor Luke Butler, "The marketisation of framework agreements in the UK: practice, regulation and reform". Steven is a member of the Procurement Lawyers Association and the prestigious Public Procurement Research Group at the University of Nottingham.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is the UK’s tax, payments and customs authority. We collect the money that pays for the UK’s public services and help families and individuals with targeted financial support. We help the honest majority to get their taxes and payments right, and make it hard for the dishonest minority to cheat the system.

Procurement Services is a trading function of the Commercial Services Group, which is a wholly owned business unit of Kent County Council.

Commercial Services Group (CSG) is one of the largest, local authority owned, trading organisations of its kind in the UK.

Since its inception over 90 years ago as the supplies division of Kent County Council, it has grown organically to become one of the leading suppliers of products and services to the education and public sector, serving over 15,000 customers in 85+ countries.

Procurement Services is a market-leading provider of procurement solutions and contract management, and their focus is on providing compliant routes for the UK public sector to procure products and services from local, national and global suppliers.

Jasbinder (Bindi) Sandhu is responsible for the management of the contracting team and tendering activity at LUPC.

Bindi has over 20 years’ experience in procurement, having worked for the international section of British Red Cross, in private education and in the HE sector for nearly seven years. Prior to joining LUPC, she was Head of Procurement at LUPC member, the University of the Arts London (UAL).

Bindi has experience of working both within and outside the procurement regulations which has given her a good understanding of the benefits and constraints for organisations. She has worked across a variety of category areas, and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (MCIPS Chartered).

Gemma joined SUMS Group as the Head of Procurement in 2023 and in 2024 was appointed as Head of SUPC. Previously Gemma spent four years working as a Senior Procurement Manager at Sovereign Housing Association a registered Charity, where she worked managed a team of 5 Category Managers looking after Property Services and Development Stakeholder requirements with over £100m per annum addressable spend. She delivered procurement initiatives to the business, which contribute to achieving the strategic goals including but not limited to Category Management, Contract Management, Sourcing and SRM.

Before this Gemma worked for Vodafone, ING Direct and Thames Water as a category manager for Indirect areas including Technology and HR Services. Gemma brings over 20 years focused experience in procurement including Financial Services, Technology and Public Sector experience in Social Housing and Utilities. Gemma is passionate about strategic sourcing and Procurement transformation and looks forward to driving improvements for SUPC’s Frameworks and adding value to our members through Procurement Business Partnering.

Rikesh Shah is a Head of Innovation Procurement Empowerment Centre – IPEC at Connected Places Catapult since October 2023. Previously, Rikesh was an Open Innovation and Open Data expert at PA Consulting, and prior to that he was the Head of Open Innovation at Transport for London where he created the organisation’s first Innovation Hub, recognised as one of the best in the public sector in Europe, and he also oversaw the organisation’s world-renowned open data initiative bringing £130m worth of value per annum.

Rikesh is a guest lecturer at the Royal College of Arts and a Mobility Tech Innovator at Harvard University. He is a non-executive advisor at Cities Today, London Transport Museum and See.Sense. He also previously served on the Mayor of London’s Smart London Board, co-chaired the Data and Digital Board at the Institute of Civil Engineering.

Deborah Wilkie is a Director in the CMA’s Competition Enforcement team. She has led numerous cartel enforcement cases across a variety of sectors, including those affecting public sector bodies and cases in the construction sector, and is currently working on the CMA’s preparations for the new exclusion and debarment regime in the Procurement Act. She also leads the CMA’s leniency team, handling applications from businesses and individuals who realise they have taken part in illegal cartel activity and report this to the CMA, cooperating with any investigation in return for a reduction in financial penalties and protection from criminal prosecution and director disqualification.

Prior to joining the CMA, Deborah was a Senior Associate at the international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, where she represented clients in large-scale commercial disputes in a variety of sectors, including private competition actions before the High Court and Competition Appeal Tribunal.

Bahar is a transformational procurement leader, and the Go Awards 2025 winner in both the Team and Individual categories—recognising his outstanding contributions to public procurement. As Director of Procurement at Queen Mary University of London, Bahar has defined the role of procurement as a strategic enabler of value, innovation, and impact. With early career experience in finance, Bahar entered the procurement field in 2007.

Since joining Queen Mary in 2012, he has delivered significant savings and recognised multi million in social value, while embedding ethical, sustainable, and social priorities into procurement practices. Bahar also contributes as an Executive Committee member of the London Universities Purchasing Consortium and a leader in several sector-wide working groups.

Annie is a policy specialist within the Cyber Digital Technology team at the Local Government Association (LGA). Her role focuses on the intersection of cyber security, digital transformation, and new and emerging technologies, with a particular specialism in AI ethics. Annie's career has been rooted in local government, spanning roles from home-to-school transport to the LGA's national graduate development programme to leading on equalities policy in a London borough.

Mike is an award-winning chartered construction manager with over two decades of experience in the construction sector, particularly in procurement, project management, contract administration, and sustainability.

He is the national sustainability lead for the National Association of Construction Frameworks, and as YORhub's Performance and Improvement Manager he specialises in working with public sector organisations on their procurement of construction works and services, advising on procurement solutions and the administration of NEC contracts.

Having spent 15 years in global buying roles in industrial distribution, Emma moved to the Housing sector 4 years ago to work for MTVH. Her experience means she has led multi-disciplinary, customer-focussed teams across multiple geographies, where her strengths have been establishing common goals and joint aspirations together with a strong team ethos and sense of purpose.

Emma is also vice-chair of the G15 Procurement Leadership Group, where they come together to share best-practice and explore opportunities for collaboration across London’s biggest Housing Associations.

As the National Head of Public Sector at Trowers & Hamlin, Amardeep is a recognised expert advising all levels of government, public bodies and UK and international businesses on transformation and business critical projects, including joint ventures, public/private partnerships, complex supply chain arrangements, regulatory matters and large-scale procurement exercises.

He has extensive experience across a range of sectors including digital technology, leisure, transport, health, logistics waste, major events, housing, education, outsourcing, regeneration and aviation.

Tiia Sammallahti is the CEO & founder of whatimpact.com, the UK’s leading social value matchmaking & management platform. whatimpact.com increases efficiency in social value partnerships between VCSEs and companies by reducing the cost and time spent on administrating locally relevant, tangible and contract specific social value. whatimpact offers also public sector social value brokerage and reporting solutions for procurement related social value. Addition running whatimpact tech startup, she is an active content writer and collaboration initiator in social value industry.

NEPO undertakes high-value procurement in major strategic areas of spend (such as construction, energy, and facilities management) on behalf of North East local authorities and a range of associate members from the wider UK public sector.

At every step of our procurement journey, we collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders to ensure that their needs are understood and met. So whether you are a public sector colleague, a supplier interested in doing business with us, or an end-user using the goods and services we procure, you can rest assured that we are procuring for you.

Esther Beaumont – Head of Category Management & SRM at 7F Commercial Services
MCIPS qualified, with over 25 year’s commercial experience & 17 years working in Public Sector Procurement, within Local Authorities and the Emergency services sector.
In my current role, I am responsible for a team of 28 people, directing & leading commercial activities, tendering & supplier relationship management activity across 7 Police Forces in the Eastern region. Key category areas include ICT, Construction & FM, Frontline Operational requirements, Corporate Services & Community Based services.
I have a particular passion for embedding Sustainability and Social Value into the procurement process, continually expanding upon this in contract and am currently focusing on the contribution our supply chain makes to supporting our Net Zero Carbon targets.

Claire has in-depth expertise in the Equality Act 2010 and the Human Rights Act 1998, and currently leads the Commission’s compliance work on AI. She regularly contributes to the work of others, including the Alan Turing Institute’s AI Fairness in Practice workbook, which supports public sector organisations to identify and manage unfair bias across the AI lifecycle, and the Local Government Association’s Responsibly buying AI guide which helps councils consider equality and data protection when procuring AI. She also authored a 10-step guide to help public bodies and contractors think through the equality implications of their policies and decisions, including when these relate to digitalisation and AI deployment.

Dan Ebanks is a respected and recognised leader in Social Value.

Before creating the Social Value Exchange and the country’s leading Social Value brokerage platform, Match My Project, Dan had a 15 year career in management consultancy, advising clients in UK central, regional and local government.

Dan recognised that the Social Value Act represented a qualitative break with previous value for money public policy and saw an opportunity to disrupt traditional procurement processes with modern digital technologies.

Dan is also a Big Issue Changemaker, a mentor on Sky’s F100 Growth Fund and a Future Vision alumni.

He lives in London with his wife and two children. Dan is a keen Arsenal fan, vinyl collector and runner.

Victoria is an award winning information governance professional with more than 20 years local government experience. As Pan-London Information Governance Lead she shapes the way London approaches information governance for city-wide collaboration projects on subjects ranging from rough sleeping, retrofit and safeguarding. She also authors guidance for London and nationally on information governance matters, including as a lead author on the LGA Guidance Responsibly Buying AI.

OffPloy is a UK-based organisation that supports people at risk of offending or with convictions to access employment and personal development opportunities. They focus on tangible opportunities, such as skills development and access to resources, and tackle the mindset and self-belief challenges that individuals face. Additionally, OffPloy strive to change societal views, fostering an environment in which employers and organisations recognise the potential in every person, regardless of their past.

As co-founder of Impact Reporting, Reason Digital and MeasureUp, Matt is a self-described "social impact geek" based in Manchester. He brings a wealth of technical experience as well as a huge amount of thought leadership around using technology as a force to drive social good. He’s spent over 15 years supporting purpose-driven organisations and reached tens of thousands of people with his talks at national conferences on topics such as ethical AI and wellbeing. Matt was voted Digital Entrepreneur of the Year at the Digital Entrepreneur Awards. Matt is a strong advocate for the LGBTQ community, having started Pride in Leadership and siting on numerous boards, including akt - the national LGBTQ+ youth homelessness charity.

Catherine Manning is Head of Impact Practice at Impact Reporting and the Programme Director and driving force behind the game-changing social valuation tool, MeasureUp. Her passion is improving social value processes. She has over a decade of deep expertise and has worked tirelessly to understand how current practices are failing communities. She joined Impact Reporting from leading industry body, The Institute of Social Value (formerly Social Value UK), where she remains a trustee.

Gemma Waring is a qualified bid writer, trainer, and coach. With an unwavering commitment to excellence, Gemma has worked in the sector for 20 years and her career has been marked by exceptional achievements due to her determination to succeed and her passion for empowering others. Gemma's dedication recently earned her the prestigious title of Runner Up in the APMP UK's annual awards in the Supplier of the Year category and seen her continuously develop her own skills as an advocate of life-long learning.

At the helm of G Waring Consulting Ltd since 2019, Gemma orchestrates success in public sector tendering and procurement projects – securing new business and successful outcomes across the board. Notable accomplishments include bid writing endeavours for blue-chip companies, securing multimillion pound contracts, working with Scottish Government on a national training campaign, and securing successful outcomes in complex multi supplier / multi lot frameworks and DPSs.

In her role as Lead Trainer and Skills Coach for the Bid Coordinator Apprenticeship, Gemma also runs multiple cohorts, shaping training content, and assessing learners for long term development and supporting new entrants to the sector to grow and flourish.

Mark has been working with BiP for over 7 years and is one of the Business Development Managers in the Delta eSourcing team. He is responsible for both promoting the Delta platform to prospective new customers, and supporting current customers within the public, private and third sector across the UK.

These include central government, NDPBs, local government, education, NHS, charities and private entities.