Tim Rudin has been working in the field of responsible procurement and social value at the Greater London Authority (GLA) and Transport for London (TfL) for twenty years. He is currently head of the GLA Group Central Responsible Procurement Team, leading on implementing the Mayor’s Responsible Procurement and Social Value Policy to create social value in the Group’s £9bn+ annual spend. He is co-chair of the London Anchor Institutions Network (LAIN) Procurement Working Group and chair of the London Responsible Procurement Network.

Jen joined the Cabinet Office TPP programme in 2024 as Head of Commercial Implementation. She has over a decade of public procurement experience, including operational, strategic and policy roles for local government, as well as central government commercial policy experience from her time at the DfE. Jen’s areas of responsibility include supporting the wider public sector in their readiness to implement the Procurement Act 2023.

With over 10 years’ experience in public sector procurement, Keith has held various senior roles including Head of Category, Head of Commercial & Contract Advisory and currently, Deputy Director. He is on the management committee of the Central Buying Consortium and is a member of the LGA National Advisory Group.

Georgina is techUK’s Associate Director for Local Public Services

Georgina works with suppliers that are active or looking to break into the market as well as with local public services to create the conditions for meaningful transformation. techUK regularly bring together local public services and supplier community to horizon scan and explore how the technologies of today and tomorrow can help solve some of the most pressing problems our communities face and improve outcomes for our people and places.

Prior to techUK, Georgina worked for a public policy events company where she managed the policy briefing division and was responsible for generating new ideas for events that would add value to the public sector. Georgina worked across a number of portfolios from education, criminal justice, and health but had a particular interest in public sector transformation and technology. Georgina also led on developing relationships across central and local government.

Richard recently joined Oxfordshire County Council leading the newly reshaped Commercial & Procurement Service. Prior to this, he worked in central government for the Government Commercial Function and in the private sector for the John Lewis Partnership, Heathrow Airport, and British Airways.

Richard is experienced in business change, having been involved in mergers and acquisitions in the private sector and leading commercial change through machinery of government restructures in central government. Richard completed his doctorate looking at implementing change which has played a significant role in shaping his approach to leading his teams and functions through significant challenges.

LHC is a leading, not-for-profit, purchasing consortium that provides best value, compliant procurement solutions for the refurbishment and maintenance of social housing, schools and other public sector buildings in England, Wales and Scotland.

LHC offers public sector users of its frameworks technical and procurements expertise, added value and a share in the LHC surplus for bodies choosing to be members.

LHC sets up framework arrangements for use by public sector organisations wishing to improve efficiency without compromising quality and in full compliance with EU, UK procurement rules and regulations.

Promoting sustainability and procurement and enhancing environmental, social and economic conditions are key considerations in the development of LHC frameworks.

Rikesh Shah is a Head of Innovation Procurement Empowerment Centre – IPEC at Connected Places Catapult since October 2023. Previously, Rikesh was an Open Innovation and Open Data expert at PA Consulting, and prior to that he was the Head of Open Innovation at Transport for London where he created the organisation’s first Innovation Hub, recognised as one of the best in the public sector in Europe, and he also oversaw the organisation’s world-renowned open data initiative bringing £130m worth of value per annum.

Rikesh is a guest lecturer at the Royal College of Arts and a Mobility Tech Innovator at Harvard University. He is a non-executive advisor at Cities Today, London Transport Museum and See.Sense. He also previously served on the Mayor of London’s Smart London Board, co-chaired the Data and Digital Board at the Institute of Civil Engineering.

Lisa has been with Haringey Council for 19 years, bringing extensive procurement experience across various sectors, including care, supplies and services, and construction. Since 2018, she has successfully established and led a dedicated team responsible for managing the Council's extensive portfolio of DPS systems and frameworks, ensuring seamless engagement with stakeholders and suppliers.

In addition, Lisa leads the London Construction Programme (LCP), a virtual organisation hosted by Haringey Council, serving as a one-stop shop for public sector construction procurement. The LCP facilitates the procurement of a wide range of projects, from Professional Services to Minor and Major Works schemes across London and the Home Counties.

Now, over 50 public sector organisations are benefitting from efficient, compliant procurement processes that the LCP offers. Lisa has been instrumental in leading innovation in end-to-end procurement practices which has recently been demonstrated in the launch of LCP’s Housing Framework, which takes a unique approach to Social Value, Supporting SME’s, and bringing together the Golden Thread that runs through the Gold Standard, Construction Playbook and the Framework Alliance Contract (FAC-1).

Darren Knowd has over 30-years’ experience of senior Procurement and Social Value roles in both the global private sector and public sector.

Darren commenced his career at General Motors Ltd in Liverpool as a graduate commercial apprentice before moving to Nissan Motor Manufacturing in Sunderland and became the Purchasing Manager at Nissan Europe and held senior roles in Barcelona, Paris offices and the European vehicle design company in Cranfield in the UK.

He studied a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) at Durham University Business School before leading five local government district Councils and merging eight Council procurement teams into a centralised team at the new unitary Durham County Council.

In 2021 he became Head of Procurement, Sales and Business Services and led a team of 700 employees consisting of £700 million of procurement spend, £25 million of commercial sales, and £15 million of people resources providing business administration and project services to the Council.

He initiated and led a collaborative place-based social value project “The County Durham Pound” working collaboratively with ten County Durham based organisations and won a national social value award as the “Best Public Sector Social Project” in 2023.

He became Chair of the Local Government Association (LGA) National Advisory Group (NAG) in 2020 and led procurement nationally during the pandemic working together with national colleagues and several central government departments, and as LGA NAG Chair he contributed to Cabinet Office Procurement Policy, the National Procurement Policy Statement and the new Procurement Act 2023.

As Framework Director at Procure Partnerships Framework, Faye supports the team of regional Key Account Managers to advise public sector bodies on compliant and procurement routes to appoint their main contractor partners. Faye also works closely with Social Value and Marketing to ensure public sector bodies have substantial support from procurement to onsite delivery.

Faye is also responsible for ensuring a smooth transition from contractor procurement, to contractor appointment, to starting on site by organising the likes of project launch workshops and collaborative planning workshops, and external training sessions.

Christopher Hammond is the Chief Executive for UK100. UK100 is a cross-party membership organisation that supports the most ambitious councils to go further and faster on their Net Zero and Clean Air targets.

Since joining in 2021, the network has doubled and launched two new ambitious programmes. The Climate Leadership Academy and Local Power in Action. In 2023, the Membership Team which he created, was shortlisted for ‘Team of the Year’ in the Edie Sustainable Leadership Awards.

Previously, Christopher served as the elected Leader of Southampton City Council from 2018-2021. During his tenure as a councillor (2013-2022), he brokered an agreement that led to the country’s first commercial Shore Power facility and devised a Green City Charter subsequently signed by 75 major city organisations. In 2020, he was shortlisted for ‘Leader of the Year’ at the LGIU Councillor Awards.

Born and raised in Dagenham in East London, Christopher was the first of his family to graduate from university. Afterwards, he worked as a race equality advocate and governance and risk manager for Nationwide Building Society. In 2018 he established an award-winning restaurant in Southampton. Christopher holds a degree from Bournemouth University, which named him its 2019 Alumni of the Year.

Sarah Cawthorne is an Assistant Director in the Competition Enforcement team within the Competition and Markets Authority. She is currently leading an investigation into conduct in the housebuilding sector, and has previously worked on a range of competition law cases involving digital and pharmaceutical markets.

Sarah joined the CMA in 2020, after completing a PhD at the University of York. She now works from the CMA’s Greater Manchester office in Salford, where she was one of the first members of staff. During her time at the CMA she has been involved in phases across the lifecycle of a regulatory investigation, including dawn raids, case launch, complex evidence reviews, issuing infringement decisions, accepting legally binding commitments, and successfully defending a CMA decision on appeal.

Denis is a Founder, Entrepreneur, Strategic Director and Board Member with over 20 years’ experience across multiple industries, sectors and markets. Immediately following his MBA, he founded Arcus Global Limited (AGL), a SaaS company working in the regulation technology and government technology spheres in the UK. He is also a member of techUK’s Local Public Services Committee.

Philippa leads our client engagements, building strong relationships with leaders and teams. She works across the UK public sector, navigating complex challenges and bringing clarity to organisations and their transformation journey. Philippa has supported engagements including the UK Space Agency, Arts Council, Thurrock Council and the Stroke Association, where she has helped them to develop new operating conditions, organisational values and behaviours, and embed a service-led approach to delivery.

Prior to joining Public Digital, Philippa was Head of Delivery at Royal Borough of Greenwich, where she led the modernisation of the Council's infrastructure, including a transition to cloud hosting. She was responsible for steering Greenwich’s first borough-wide digital inclusion strategy, initiating a local government community of practice designed to improve the evaluation of digital inclusion programmes. Working closely with procurement leaders, she also led on the creation of new governance mechanisms at Greenwich and Hackney Councils based on user centred and agile principles.

Mark is a lawyer who advises people and organisations on how to work together across the public, private and civil society sectors. He is a leading expert in sustainable procurement, with a particular track record in enabling social value to be a core feature in the delivery of public services. He provides strategic advice on models for transforming public services, using the law to create flexible routes for achieving change.

NEPO undertakes high-value procurement in major strategic areas of spend (such as construction, energy, and facilities management) on behalf of North East local authorities and a range of associate members from the wider UK public sector.

At every step of our procurement journey, we collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders to ensure that their needs are understood and met. So whether you are a public sector colleague, a supplier interested in doing business with us, or an end-user using the goods and services we procure, you can rest assured that we are procuring for you.

As Head of Social Value at McConnell, Julian brings 24 years of experience in the construction and housing sectors, with a proven track record of delivering meaningful outcomes. He has managed social value portfolios for clients worth over £1 billion, developing bespoke offers for tenders that drive both business success and community impact. Recognised with 22 industry awards — including the Social Value Leadership Group Awards 2024 and the Social Value Awards 2022 — he is widely recognised and has built a reputation for delivering on promises and creating innovative, high-impact social value strategies.

Pat started his career working as a client for a leading G15 Housing Association, working his way up to senior positions. This experience proves invaluable when working and collaborating with Clients. Pat’s experience includes in the procurement and mobilisation of various large-scale contracts, including a £100m decent homes contract, and contract management for gas, fire, and legionella compliance contracts.

After moving over to the contracting side, which includes holding a Divisional Director role with the McConnell team, Pat has demonstrated his client-focused approach and has recent experience delivering fire remediation schemes to the value of £55m for various Clients.

Guy has over two decades of experience working across local and central government, the NHS, emergency services, educational and the third sector. Having started his career working in Parliament and then representing organisations in Westminster, Guy was Head of Public Sector Sales for Vodafone and is now leading Gett's Public Sector team - focused on bringing the very best technology to public sector organisations delivering SEND transport, non-emergency patient transport and other core services across the UK.

Chris has 25 years of combined military and civilian security experience, specialising in property protection and the delivery of effective solutions for clients. Chris served in the Grenadier Guards for seven years and saw active operational service in Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Since leaving the British Army in 2008 he has focused on supporting veterans through employment and to date has created jobs for over 1,000 veterans across a variety of different start-ups he has formed.

Delta eSourcing is an end-to-end, EU compliant, full eSourcing web-based service which allows buying organisations to manage tenders, suppliers and contracts in a single solution.

Our eTendering portal is at the forefront of eProcurement technology for the public sector, and offers all users outstanding customer support and guidance.

Delta allows public sector buyers a chance to build communities, enjoy benefits of collaboration and transparency as well as meeting with an ever changing legislative landscape. Intelligent forms allow users to comply with legislation and at the same time allows our customers the ability to outperform their market.

As the UK’s competition authority, our work makes a difference to millions of people across the UK. We help make sure that competition works for the benefit of consumers.

Competition law helps us to protect people and businesses. We investigate all sectors of the economy, from care homes and online gambling to cloud storage and major retailers.