Ian Evans is the Procurement & Information Governance Manager at Caerphilly County Borough Council, with over 25 years of public sector experience. He leads the Council’s approach to Procurement, Information Governance, and Cyber Security, driving innovation, transparency, and smarter decision-making through data and collaboration.

Ian manages a multidisciplinary team of 60, fostering a culture of positive teamwork, continuous improvement, accountability, growth and putting policy into practice. A trusted leader in high-profile, cross-sector projects, he champions partnership working and service excellence. As a Member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS), Ian is committed to the highest standards in public procurement.

Liz is the Director of Transformation, Digital and Procurement. Previously Head of Customer and Digital Service and 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.

Paul leads Welsh Government’s Procurement Delivery team, overseeing a spend of some £700 million per annum. 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.

Rhian Rogers works as part of the Welsh Government Commercial Procurement Directorate, which supports procurement for both the wider public sector and the Welsh Government.

WLGA’s lead officer for procurement. Richard came into public procurement “From a background of Logistics, Branch Management and B2B Sales in the private sector.” Initially as one of Cardiff Councils operational procurement team where he ran the County Supplies Catalogue and a delegated suite of procurement frameworks; then to a joint Welsh Government & WLGA initiative, the Welsh Local Government Procurement Support Unit; from there to the WLGA core team.

A champion of social value and the wellbeing of future generations; he's taking a pivotal role in central/local government relations, coordinating the National Procurement Network for councils in Wales and much more. Army of one and fiercely loyal to his procurement officer network, he is coordinating local government responses to consultation and participating in the Government's reform programme. In 2021 Richard initiated the NPN Market Intelligence Expert Group and currently acts as researcher, editor, publisher. He says that he’s just a middleman; the value comes from the people on the group and the knowledge they have; but that’s what Richard does, he brings the good from the people he’s with.

Richard has been speaking on the National stage, at the National Local Government Procurement Expo about Procurement in Difficult Times, about the Local Government Showcase at the National Social Value Conference and about Digital Transformation in a Gov News Masterclass. Wales representative to LGA's National Advisory Group for procurement, he's providing a weekly bulletin to an extended network of 114 procurement stakeholders and is credited in the Social Value Roadmap 2023, an important document nationally.

So far, in 22/23 he's appeared in 10 separate external (non-WLGA) searchable and public facing digital media events. There were at last count 21 separate live events online featuring interviews, presentations, keynotes and reports where Richard is recorded or credited as a contributor.

Sue has worked in procurement policy, in Welsh Government and in Whitehall, for most of her career. She has worked on projects to improve competition for public contracts, and opportunities for SMEs and consortia bids.