Alison Petrie

Senior Category Manager - ICT and Technology

NHS NOECPC

Alison started work at NOE CPC in September 20011, and has over 15 years’ experience in both the private and public sectors within the Steel Industry, Financial Services and NHS sectors managing a broad range of spend categories to delivering significant savings and contract efficiencies.

Alison is the ICT Category Manager within the Procurement team at NOE CPC. She is MCIPS qualified with a BA(Hons) degree in Business Studies.

Andrew Rudd

Senior Consultant

PASS Training

Andrew was the Chief Operating Officer for the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (NHS PASA), part of the Department of Health. NHS PASA was responsible for purchasing and supply strategy for the NHS in England and also managed national contracts covering £3.2bn of the NHS’s £20bn total of non-pay expenditure. Andrew has 25 years’ NHS purchasing experience at local, regional and national level. At PASA, he was also the Director responsible for eProcurement, sourcing and data analysis and programme and uptake management. His wider corporate responsibilities included performance, quality and information. Andrew has a Masters Degree from the University of Birmingham and is a member of both the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Caroline Brash

Training, Events & Business Development Manager

NHS NOE CPC

Caroline has worked in procurement since 1998, moving in the year 2000 from a manufacturing environment to the NHS, initially at the The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust. It was during this time that Caroline became became CIPS qualified. In 2006 she took on the role of Project Manager for the pilot project “Growing the Region’s Businesses with NHS Investment”, NOE CPC’s unique partnership with Yorkshire Forward. The pilot project was shortlisted for two prestigious awards; the HSJ Awards and Government Opportunities (GO) Awards.

Since the successful completion of the Yorkshire Forward project, Caroline has worked in a number of roles at NOE CPC, including Procurement Training Specialist, delivering training to both businesses and NHS staff on public sector procurement.

Caroline’s role as Customer Relationship Manager involves developing NOE CPC’s relationships with both existing and new members, and delivering a programme of training and other events for NOE CPC members.

Eddie Regan

Principal Consultant

PASS Training

Eddie is BiP Solutions’ Senior Procurement Consultant. 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.

Eddie is lead consultant on BiP’s PASS Mark Health Check, an evaluation technique that helps identify how organisations in both the public and private sectors can develop more effective processes in respect of all aspects of public sector contracting. A member of the International Purchasing and Supply Education and Research Association (IPSERA), Eddie is also the senior adviser on BiP’s unique Tender Support Helpline team, which provides advice on contracting matters to hundreds of clients.

For the last 13 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 including the Institute of Directors. He also provides in-house training on the tendering process – law and practice – to personnel in both the public and private sectors, including several multinational organisations.

Melinda Johnson

Commercial Director

Department of Health & Social Care

Melinda Johnson joined the Department of Health and Social Care in June 2017 as Commercial Director following a period of 5 years as Group Commercial Director at the Department for Transport. ‎Whilst at Transport Melinda was also Director of Property, Digital, Security and Information. Melinda joined the Civil Service in 2005 to be a Deputy Director in Commercial at the Department for Education where she held various commercial roles.

Melinda is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) and a Chartered Procurement Professional, joining the Institute in 1988 whilst on the procurement graduate programme at British Telecom. Melinda’s early buying career was in IT procurement in organisations such as National Power. Melinda has worked in the wider public sector as well as being Head of Policy at CIPS for 3 years. An advocate of CIPS, Melinda completed 4 years on the CIPS Board, following her role on CIPS Council, and was Chair of CIPS Congress.

Melinda holds a MBA, a BSc Hons in Psychology and has a post graduate qualification in Marketing. She is a non executive director of the British Quality Foundation and the NHS SCCL (Supply Chain Coordination Limited).

Melinda is married and lives near Stamford in Lincolnshire.

Michelle Walker

Category Manager - Healthcare Services

NHS NOE CPC

Michelle started work at NOE CPC in September 2008, and has almost 18 years’ experience in public sector procurement.

Prior to joining NOE CPC, Michelle worked in procurement within the Facilities Directorate at Sheffield Hallam University, responsible for the compliant procurement of a vast range of goods and services. Before this, Michelle worked at Rotherham General Hospitals in the Supplies Department where she embarked upon studying the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Graduate Diploma which she successfully completed in 2001.

Michelle also holds a BA(Hons) degree in Business and Management and is currently a student of the University of Nottingham, on the Post Graduate Programme in Public Procurement Law and Policy.

Phil Kinnell

Senior Consultant

PASS Training

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.

Steven Sinclair

Head of Procurement

NEPO

Steven Sinclair is Head of Procurement at NEPO where he is responsible for a work programme of £210m.

Steven joined NEPO in 2011, having worked in various procurement roles across the North East, including the former regional development agency One NorthEast.  Steven’s career history also includes experience in both the manufacturing sector and financial services.

NEPO works in partnership with North East local authorities and Associate Members to undertake high-value procurement in major strategic areas of spend including Professional Services, Construction and Energy.