Linda O’Hare is Assistant Director – Procurement, at Business Services Organisation (BSO), Procurement and Logistics Service (PaLS), in Northern Ireland (NI). PaLS is the sole provider of professional procurement and logistics services to all Health and Social Care (HSC) organisations in NI. BSO PaLS manages £1.3bn of expenditure per annum, has circa 420 staff, with procurement offices and warehouses situated across NI. BSO PaLS manages procurements and contracts across all categories of goods and services - clinical, non-clinical, social care and ICT. Linda has 23 years Public Procurement experience, in the Health Services in both Ireland and NI. Prior to this she headed up the purchasing department in the 5-star Merrion Hotel in Dublin, and in her early career held a number of management roles in the hospitality industry. In her spare time, Linda takes long walks in the countryside, spends time with family and friends and likes to travel extensively.

Philip has a successful track record of achievement as a leader and senior manager in the public and private sector. In 2013 he was appointed to the OGP executive as head of sourcing education with responsibility for implementing and operating the centralised procurement model within the new DES sector sourcing hub, EPS.

Within the Education Sector, Philip is responsible for sourcing a procurement spend of approximately €900m annually. In his role as director of EPS, he has established and developed a business model and change management strategy to on-board the model and has delivered savings of over €13m to date.

Brendan joined the RSA in August 2022 as Chief Operations Officer (COO). The role of customer operations is to oversee the delivery of the RSA public services including the driving test, driver theory test, driver licensing, NCT, CVRT, enforcement. Our Drivers license services interact of over 1 million people per year and our Vehicle testing and Enforcement ensure that over 2 million vehicles are tested to the required standard annually.

Originally from Belgium, Ingrid has been in Ireland since 1996. She is one of Europe’s leading supply chain, procurement and sustainability thinkers and expert practitioner. In her previous company, Ingrid built a leading strategic practice helping customers “Buy Better”; achieve cost savings while building better relationships with suppliers and the planet. A sought-after speaker, and lecturer in three of Ireland’s universities, Ingrid is passionate about supporting business and supply chain teams to drive sustainable change to positively impact the profit, social and environmental bottom line of the business. Ingrid is also the founder of the Procurement Transformation Institute (PTI), a non-profit organisation that elevates the Procurement Profession.

Procurement Consultant and Trainer – Jeanne is passionate about promoting the role of procurement in the public and utility sectors throughout the EU. Having successfully established a consulting and training business with a reputation for getting the job done, she is now focused on growing the Greenville brand and range of services to meet the current challenges facing the market including reduced supplier bases, growing costs, Brexit and effective contract management, all of which will doubtless have a major impact on Irish society in the years ahead.

Julie O’Sullivan is the Head of Commercial Procurement Services (CPS) in the Education Authority (EA), a Centre of Procurement Expertise for Education in Northern Ireland. The EA is the largest educational body in the United Kingdom NI’s largest employer. Julie leads an award winning procurement team who support 1145 schools/ 101 youth centres, 800 school meal kitchens and numerous external education partners.

Her remit includes the responsibility and management of a £1.7b contract portfolio and an annual procurement expenditure of circa £500m. The service is an important strategic enabler in assisting the EA in delivering its mission ‘To provide a high quality education for every child’.

Julie brings to her position 25 years’ experience and a well-established background in Strategic Procurement and Contract Management. A key achievement has been achieving Centre of Procurement Expertise for the EA and she has led significant Transformational and Change Management Projects in the Public Sector. Prior to working in the EA, she worked in Local Government and Private Sector Procurement functions.

Julie holds an MSC in Purchasing and Supply Management, a BA (Hons) in Business Services and MCIPS.

Clare Egan is Head of Procurement at Ulster University. Clare is an experienced, enthusiastic, and highly motivated individual with over 30 years’ experience in procurement working in both the private and public sector. In her procurement career Clare has worked for multinational companies such as Pepsi Co Restaurants (London), Wyeth Medica (Newbridge, Co. Kildare) and Tyco Healthcare (Europe). Clare has achieved high success rates throughout her working career in procurement.

As Head of Procurement at Ulster University, Clare provides leadership and strategic direction to the procurement team and across the institution, employing procurement methods that enable end users to consider multiple objectives including social values, financial considerations allowing them to consider the balance between cost, risk, and benefits.

Donal Daly is a serial entrepreneur who has founded five successful global technology companies since founding his first company in Artificial Intelligence in 1986. He has worked with world leading companies like Autodesk, Bank of America, BT, Century Link, GE, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Microsoft, Salesforce, Tableau, United Healthcare, and Workday.

Donal’s latest passion is Future Planet, a sustainability software company with a particular focus on helping corporations shape their sustainability strategies while managing compliance obligations and the transformation to a sustainable enterprise.

Donal has been actively involved in advising the Irish government on its national climate change action program and is an advisor to several special interest groups on environmental and renewable energy, energy conservation, governance, and low carbon-procurement matters. He is the author of multiple books on business topics such as Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation of which four were Amazon #1 bestsellers. He is a graduate in Sustainable Development Goals from KU Leuven Belgium, and Electrical Engineering from University College Cork, Ireland.

Aoife Sugrue is an Acting Senior Executive Engineer with the Regional & Local Roads Design Office of Cork County Council. Since joining the public sector in 2001, she has worked in various roles within the Planning, Environment, Water Services and Climate Action areas of the local authority. In 2023, Aoife joined the Roads Directorate in Cork County Council to undertake a pilot project on Green Public Procurement in Road Maintenance.

Michael is experienced in managing and supervising client projects using his unique practical style to deliver client results of the highest quality in all areas of procurement. He is a key member of the Greenville training group with well-honed expertise and skills in the development and delivery of training to public sector clients at all stages of their procurement journey. Fully recognised for his warm personality and gentle approach which belies his considerable breadth of experience he is now playing his part in expanding our training business to great success.

The Irish Green Building Council (IGBC) was launched in 2011, by organisations and businesses from the entire value chain of the built environment. These include universities, professional institutes, local authorities, leading contractors, NGOs, architects, engineers, energy companies and leading national and transnational companies. All are united in one common goal to provide leadership to accelerate the rate of change in Ireland to a sustainable built environment.

Established in 1989, Coillte is proud to be the custodian of 440,000 hectares or 7% of Ireland’s land. This is primarily forested land and makes Coillte Ireland's largest forest manager and largest provider of outdoor recreation. Coillte also develops green energy projects, produces panel boards and delivers nature conservation projects of scale. Coillte is focused on delivering the multiple benefits from it's forests and land for climate, nature, wood and people.

Coillte is part of a wider forestry sector, that together manages approximately 11% of Ireland's land, supports 12,000 jobs and contributes €2.3bn to the economy annually. Our purpose is to manage the state forests on behalf of the people of Ireland.

Louise Masterson is the Head of Procurement at An Post. Louise is a professionally qualified, highly motivated and enthusiastic Procurement leader who is responsible for setting a transformative procurement strategy and leading a core team across a wide spectrum of categories.

Catherine is an Architect having studied at University College Dublin and TU Delft. She has over 15 years experience working in private and public sectors, as a designer and as a client. At the GDA Catherine has taken a particular interest in Sustainability and Whole Life Carbon considerations working to integrate these into procurement models and strategies. She has extensive experience across a wide range of projects in Ireland, the UK and further afield, many of which have been internationally recognised for design and construction excellence.

Catherine is the Director of Programme & Procurement at the Grangegorman Development Agency. The role of the Agency is to develop the c.70hectare site of the former St Brendans’ Hospital in line with the Grangegorman Masterplan vision on behalf of stakeholders including the Health Service Executive (HSE), Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin), the Department of Education and Skills (DES) and the communities of the Grangegorman neighbourhood.

Colin took on the position of Chief Executive at Social Enterprise NI in June 2016 having spent 38 years working across local financial institutions. During his time mainly in Ulster Bank, Colin was a member of the senior management team within Business Banking. In the Bank Colin lead the Banks interaction and relationship with key stakeholders across, social enterprise, charity and voluntary sectors, as well as engaging with the Public Sector.

Colin is currently a Council Member of NI Chamber of Commerce and in December 2020 was appointed to the reconstituted Procurement Board to represent the social enterprise sector. He is passionate about the benefits of social value in procurement. Colin also sits on the High Street Taskforce Forum as well as the Belfast City Councils, Growing the Economy & City Development Board. He is an Ambassador for local charity Start360 and a member of The Resurgam Trust Advisory Panel. He is formerly Chair of the Finance and Governance Committee of Women in Business.

Treasa is a qualified Barrister with over 17 years working and leading at a high level in regulation, compliance, and quality assurance, including delivering on significant public procurement projects. Treasa has been part of conducting internal and external statutory institutional reviews and was in professional practice at the commercial bar in the area governance and regulation, before becoming Head of Quality Assurance with one of the one of the largest Irish education and training providers. Treasa utilises her extensive experience to conduct legal analysis and integrate both advisory and training services to inform strategic planning and decision making. Treasa believes strongly in the power of education and training and still lectures in law in Trinity College, Dublin.

Chris is the CEO of the Irish Social Enterprise Network (Socent.ie), Managing Partner of Collaboration Ireland and a Teaching Fellow of Trinity Business School. Chris also volunteers as Chair of Far and Wild social enterprise and is President of the Irish US Alumni Association. Chris is a former Country Partner for the BCorp community in Ireland and the former Director of Social Enterprise NI.

Chris’ work focuses on leading and managing European and nationwide projects on Social Enterprise, Social Entrepreneurship, Corporate Responsibility, Social Impact, Startups, Cooperatives, Exporting, SMEs in Ireland and leading a life of passion and purpose.

Abby Semple, LL.B., Ph.D. is a consultant with over 13 years of experience in advising public bodies on strategic and legal aspects of procurement. Her focus is on the environmental and social impact of public contracts and how these can be meaningfully addressed through the contracting process. Abby has managed complex tenders on behalf of public sector clients in Ireland and the UK, developed policy and guidance at the EU level, and is author of one of the first books on the 2014 EU Procurement Directives A Practical Guide to Public Procurement (Oxford University Press).