Paul leads Welsh Government Procurement, overseeing a spend of circa £700 million. He also steers the delivery of a collaborative procurement pipeline for Wales with over 30 national frameworks. Prior to this Paul has held a variety of procurement roles across the Welsh Public sector including Head of Category Management of the National Procurement Service (NPS) and the Strategic Procurement Adviser to the Welsh Government’s Economy Department. An advocate for inclusion of Welsh SMEs and Social Enterprises in public sector supply chains, Paul’s team have won multiple awards at the Go Awards Wales for their work to embrace and deliver social value.

Carl has a wealth of public procurement experience, having previously led the award-winning procurement team at one of Wales’ largest housing associations. Before joining Welsh Government, Carl worked for the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS), where he taught procurement and contract management best practice to public and private sector organisations across the globe. Carl also played an important role in CIPS’ work post-Grenfell, and supported the work of Working Group 11 to agree specific procurement competence levels for people involved in the construction of new higher risk residential buildings. In his current role, Carl is responsible for developing Welsh Government’s wider Procurement Reform engagement activity, working closely with stakeholders across the Welsh public sector to ensure that they are ready to maximise the opportunities arising from procurement reform.

I have been working in NHS procurement for over 30 years with the majority of my career spent in Northern Ireland Health and Social Care national procurement organisations. In recent years I have worked at a senior level in Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and my present role in leading Procurement Services within NHS Wales. I hope my experience over many years of working within different political and operational environments in the NHS has allowed me to develop a keen sense of what works well (and not so well). I look forward to continuing the work with my procurement colleagues across Wales and beyond to help meet the many current and emerging challenges where our profession can make a real difference for our patient population and wider society.

Appointed to Head of Customer and Digital Service in 2018. Previously, Head of Procurement at Caerphilly Liz leads a team of 160 FTE’s who is responsible for the delivery of all services in relation Customer experience, Digital transformation, Procurement and Information Governance. Liz is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply with a keen interest in social and economic regeneration through the effective use of procurement.

Richard from Pontypool and is Managing Director of Pro Steel Engineering and National Chair of the Institute of Directors. In addition to his patronage of the Prince's Trust, Richard also holds a key role as Chair of The Prince’s Trust Cymru Development Committee, was appointed Deputy Lieutenant in Gwent in November 2021 and has co-established the Torfaen Strategic Economic Forum. He has earned significant respect and recognition as an influential figure within the business community in Wales. Furthermore, Richard extends his influence as newly appointed Co-Chair of Cwmbran Futures Board which aims to identify how the UK Government’s £20m Long-Term Plan for Towns grant for Cwmbran should be spent.

Jane is a Reader in Procurement for the Logistics and Operations Management section of Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University. Her subject areas for research and teaching include innovation and social public procurement, supply chain management, and collaboration. 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. Her additional roles include being a Member of IRSPP (international research study on public procurement), Branch Chair of the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) South Wales and Associate Director (MICW) of Institute for Collaborative Working (ICW), Cymru.

With a career spanning the retail, hospitality, FMCG and Higher Education sectors, Catherine is not your typical procurement professional - she began her career in sales, before moving into training, product marketing, category management and then, as many do, ‘fell’ into procurement, and more specifically indirect procurement. With a passion for adding value and making a difference be it commercially or through developing procurement talent, Catherine’s mix of private and now public (HE) sector experience enables her to bring change and a different lens to procurement at USW, balancing commerciality with the legislative requirements of the sector.

Formerly Director of National Collaborative Commissioning in NHS Wales, having led transformational work for the Commissioning of Welsh Ambulance Services; Welsh Emergency Departments; and the Welsh Access Model which was part of the National Urgent and Emergency Care Programme, and previously Finance Director across NHS Wales (Acute & Community NHS Trust; Ambulance NHS Trust; Local Health Board – of the former type). Julian’s key achievements include: leading teams which won GO Awards & a HSJ (Health Service Journal) Efficiency Award for procurement; establishment of the NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership through leadership of the Welsh Government Programme; delivery of significant financial savings alongside service improvement for an NHS Trust within financial turnaround; and the funding award & then successful delivery of a range of Welsh Government Invest to Save projects – including the pan Principality (award winning) Mental Health & Learning Disability Services outsourcing change which had a positive impact on patients and their families, ensured consistency in the quality of care and generated significant financial benefits. Since stepping aside from NHS Wales, Julian has established his own consultancy – JB Commissioning Finance Improvement and has been working with the PSTA (Public Service Transformation Academy) which delivers the Cabinet Office Commissioning Academy; a (CSU) Commissioning Support Unit; a Pharmaceutical Company and most recently in partnership with Sirius Partners supporting a Welsh Regional Partnership Board’s strategic capital and outsourcing agenda. Julian believes in bringing together planning and health & social care professional leadership to collaborate in the co-production of future health & social care services. Transforming health & social care, putting policy into practice, and improving the patient / service user experience.