Martin Blake

Head of Corporate Procurement & Commercial Development for London Probation

Currently Head of Corporate Procurement & Commercial Development for London Probation, Martin has 8 years experience in public sector procurement; including the Cabinet Office, Jobcentre Plus and Learning + Skills Council. In recent years, he has been responsible for establishing brand new, strategically-focused procurement teams that have rapidly gained a professional reputation with both internal and external stakeholders. Martin believes that team development and empowerment, strategy, innovation and customer service are the key enablers to effective performance.

David Smith

Commercial Director for the Department for Work and Pensions

David is the Commercial Director for the Department for Work and Pensions (the largest Central Government Department) and is accountable for its annual procurement spend of over £4billion.

He has specialised in Procurement and Commercial Matters in the Public Sector for over 20 years. Before moving to DWP, he was Head of Procurement for the Inland Revenue and has previously held senior commercial posts in the Home Office and HM Treasury (Central Unit on Procurement).

David is a well known and respected national and international speaker on commercial strategy, delivery, e-commerce, and outsourcing and acted as Commercial Adviser 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 Chief Executive’s Strategic Stakeholder Forum, the Government Procurement Service Council and various other inter-departmental committees. He was also awarded the ‘Government Opportunities Lifetime Achievement Award’ in 2006 and is currently a member of the CIPS Board of Management..

Helen MacCarthy

Director, NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency

Helen has worked in purchasing and supply roles in the Department of Health and NHS since 1987 covering both clinical and non-clinical markets.
Since May 2005 she has held the post of Director in the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency. Her team covers a range of categories including energy, transport, decontamination, ICT, estates and emergency planning. She is also the NHS PASA lead for Transforming Government Procurement. She works with OGC and other government departments on pan-government initiatives.

Andrew Quincy

Director, Group Procurement

Andrew joined TfL in January 2007 as Director, Group Procurement. Prior to joining TfL Andrew held senior positions in RHM Plc, Bulmer’s, Bass and Rover/BMW Group. During his career Andrew has led a number of global procurement teams, a major IT change programme, logistics operations and best practice & technical teams. Andrew has been involved in a number of mergers & acquisitions and was part of the team that successfully delivered the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of RHM in 2005.

Alison Littley

Chief Executive OGCbuying.solutions

OGCbuying.solutions is an executive agency of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC). Established in August 2001 and employing over 280 people, they are largely based at two sites - Liverpool (head office) and Norwich.

OGCbuying.solutions primary role is to maximise the value for money obtained by government departments and other public bodies through the procurement and supply of goods and services. Their major target is to deliver £1billion cashable savings to the Government by 2010/2011.

Prior to joining OGCbuying.solutions in October 2006, Alison previous career was with Diageo and Mars.