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.

Sian Lloyd is an experienced journalist and presenter and a well known face to TV audiences. She began her career in Wales before joining the national BBC News team as a senior correspondent and presenter, and has covered some of the most important stories of the past two decades. Sian has now embarked on a freelance career and presents TV and Radio programmes in Welsh and English.

Rob has been involved in the waste management industry for most of his career, working in a variety of senior management and project management roles; this included developing and managing three large landfill operations in Wales as regional landfill manager. In 2004, Rob decided to concentrate his efforts as Managing Director and joint shareholder of Natural UK Limited and has since developed a profitable waste collection and environmental management business. His specialist knowledge on waste management legislation and his expertise in the development and operation of waste treatment and disposal facilities has enabled us to develop our unique waste treatment facility – to recover and re-use the paper fibre and plastics from traditional offensive wastes that would otherwise be disposed of at landfill.

Kristen joined Crown Commercial Service (CCS) in 2013 and has worked in various roles across the business over the past 10 years including project management, commercial strategy of £bn frameworks and business development. Kristen recently followed her passion for the environment and took on the position of Head of Sustainability, working to decarbonise the £30bn annual spend through CCS. Kristen works closely with public sector buyers, suppliers and industry bodies to help accelerate the journey towards achieving CNZ by 2050 at the latest.

Helen Carter is an experienced procurement professional who after 10 years in the profession found a new way of making it even more interesting – namely sustainable procurement. After working in Direct mail, manufacturing and then Infrastructure construction Helen embarked on a journey to embed the flexible framework and drive more sustainable procurement practices. During her career at Action Sustainability, she has worked with a wide variety of clients, including Network Rail, TFL, MOJ, RBI, Skanska, Balfour Beatty, United Utilities and too many more to mention. In addition to sustainable procurement, she also has a focus on Modern Slavery and Human Rights within supply chains, expanding her expertise and becoming AS’s centre of knowledge in the fight to combat modern slavery. In 2018 she was awarded a Top 100 influencer in this space and more recently she was part of the technical authoring committee and panel for the new British Standard BS25700 – Organisational response to modern slavery. As part of her role, she has worked with her clients to upskill their teams and supply chains as well as helping them and their supply chains implement effective modern slavery and human rights due diligence activity. Projects have been varied and include developing and delivering training courses, providing procurement and supply chain support, ranging from developing strategies and policies to supplier development plans, PQQ’s, ITT’s, risk assessments and category strategies.

I joined Police Digital Service (PDS) in 2022 and having previously worked in varying procurement roles across NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership (NWSSP) over a 14 year career managing multi-million £ frameworks. Within PDS I now currently work on the National Digital Policing Strategy, developing digital commercial avenues to harness the power of digital, data and technology in realising Policing’s digital ambitions.