Procurement Reform: A Suppliers Perspective Online Event Series

Phil Williams is Procurement Director for The Procurement Partnership Limited (TPPL). TPPL are leading providers of compliant framework agreements and procurement consultancy services to Local Authorities, Registered Providers of Social Housing, NHS Trusts, Fire Authorities, Universities, Schools, and Charities across the UK. TPPL’s free to join buying club consists of over 900 public sector organisations, including over 85% of all Local Authorities. Over the last four years we’ve helped our members tender and award over £1billion of contract value. TPPL manage a range of frameworks and dynamic purchasing systems compliant with Public Contracts Regulations. Our solutions cover the purchase, rental, and contract hire of vehicles, from cars and vans, through to HGVs, and including electric and hydrogen options. TPPL also provide solutions for a range of fleet ancillary products, the supply of building materials, grounds maintenance equipment, and plant and handheld tools.

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.

Dr Joshua Pritchard is the Deputy Director of the CBI’s Policy Unit, and the CBI’s public sector markets lead. Josh helps lead the CBI’s team covering infrastructure, transport, manufacturing, retail, and construction, and personally heads up policy around public procurement, major projects, defence, and social value. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, and previously worked on policy issues for Reform think tank, the Solidarity Peace Trust in South Africa, and the De Beers Group.

Eddie is BiP Solutions’ Principal Procurement Consultant and working alongside the Client Services team, he frequently assists public sector organisations with clarification and interpretation of EU Directives and a wide variety of legislative issues. For the last 21 years Eddie has lectured regularly on procurement policy and processes at conferences and events, both on behalf of BiP and for a variety of other organisations. He also provides in-house training on the tendering process to personnel in both the public and private sectors.

Phil regularly provides advice and support to both public and private sector clients, handling a wide variety of procurement and tendering-related questions and challenges. Phil has delivered presentations on procurement regulation, policy and processes at numerous public sector tendering and training events covering a diverse range of procurement-related topics, on behalf of both BiP Solutions and other organisations including the Scottish Government, the Supplier Development Programme and the Higher Education Procurement Academy. During a two-year secondment to the Scottish Government’s procurement policy team Phil supported the transposition of the new procurement legislation, created and delivered a comprehensive training programme on the legislative changes and also delivered support to the Government’s Single Point of Enquiry and their European Structural Funds Team. Before joining PASS, Phil spent three years as Interoperability Manager for the UK Government’s Supply2.gov.uk service. During this time he worked with public sector organisations to increase the number of opportunities available to SMEs through the portal, and with business support organisations and trade associations to help the SME community take advantage of this resource. More recently, Phil has delivered a wide variety of procurement projects both in the UK and internationally, including providing UK defence exporters with a comprehensive guide to supplying the Japanese Ministry of Defence and wider defence sector (a Foreign and Commonwealth Office project); and delivery of a tailored procurement function to a UK contracting authority (including knowledge transfer, handbook and ongoing procurement support). He is currently writing a Foundation Course on public procurement for the Caribbean region.