Carla Lavender has over 20 years of experience in public sector procurement, including eight years leading collaborative teams across a range of categories. At the National Procurement Service (NPS), she led senior legal professionals in developing two major national frameworks for Solicitor and Barrister services, and directed procurement teams in high-risk areas as interim Head of Food, and later as interim Head of Fleet and Professional Services.

As a Senior Manager for Procurement Reform, Carla supported the development of procurement policy and legislative guidance, and acted as the single point of contact for Learning & Development between the Cabinet Office and the Welsh public sector. To complement the UK Government’s core L&D offer for the Procurement Act 2023, she developed supplementary bilingual training tailored to the Welsh context. This training also supported stakeholder readiness for the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023 and the Health Service Procurement (Wales) Act 2024.

In her current role as Senior Procurement Review Unit Manager, Carla plays a central role in supporting compliance with the new procurement regime in Wales. She leads the implementation and refinement of processes that monitor the integrity and efficiency of procurement activities, ensuring contracting authorities adhere to regulatory requirements. Carla also collaborates closely with stakeholders to assess procurement practices, take corrective action where necessary, and assess supplier exclusions under the Procurement Act 2023.

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.