The Future of Sourcing

Giles Breault

Global Head of Productivity, Business Services, Novartis

Biography

Giles Breault is Head of Productivity and Global Business Services for the Novartis Pharmaceuticals Division, responsible for driving and implementing transformational productivity programs across the Pharmaceuticals Division. In addition, this role is responsible for the Off-shored Business Service Center located in India, a key component in driving overall productivity solutions.  

Prior to holding this office, Mr. Breault was Chief Procurement Officer of the Pharma Division. Under his leadership, this function was able to generate year-on year sustained growth in savings that contributed nearly half of the overall company productivity target.

Mr. Breault is a career Supply Chain, Sourcing and Procurement executive with strategic and operational experience in the Pharmaceuticals, Electronics, and Aviation industries.  Mr. Breault joined Novartis in 2005 from Aventis in Frankfurt, where he was Senior Vice President and Chief Purchasing Officer.  Prior to Aventis, Mr. Breault was Head of Global Strategic Purchasing at Roche in Basel, Switzerland.  Mr. Breault attended Lafayette College in the US (BS - Economics) and Pepperdine University (MBA). He is a CPM (Institute of Supply Management - USA) and a member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing (CIPM). 

Tim Mann

Chief Information Officer, NFU Mutual

Biography

Tim Mann is CIO at NFU Mutual. Originally trained as a Mechanical Engineer at Portsmouth Polytechnic, Tim's first role was in a refrigeration manufacturing company in Berkshire, implementing a Manufacturing Resource Planning solution. He then moved to a software house specialising in commercial systems before joining Coopers & Lybrand, the management consultancy. Tim spent 5 years consulting on all aspects of IT to clients in the defence, retail and pharmaceutical sectors. He then joined Skandia and led the IT and Customer Services departments, with his final role running the development of the Skandia Investment Solutions Wrap platform. After a short interim role as CTO for 1St Software The Exchange, he joined NFU Mutual as CIO in May 2010. Tim has two key objectives in this role (1) Modernise all aspects of IT and make it great (2) Put technology at the centre of the business.

Nige Fleet

Global Supply Chain Director, RSA Insurance

Biography

Nigel Fleet joined RSA Insurance in 2005 as the UK business’ Supply Chain Director with responsibility for £2.5bn spend.

Since then he has held the positions of Transformation Director, UK and now works in the Group Corporate Centre as Group supply Chain Director overseeing £5.5bn annual spend.

Prior to joining RSA Nige was running his own consultancy business, Purple Zoo, specialising in Strategic Sourcing and Business Transformation. And before this, he worked for AXA Insurance for 3 years, joining as a director in their newly formed central sourcing team and subsequently as MD of AXA’s Lifetime Care business.

Nige’s working career started in the chemical’s industry. He joined ICI in the North West of England in 1987 on their graduate trainee scheme where he gained experience in a variety of roles including sales, exporting and purchasing.

Nige has recently got married and between him and his wife they have 5 children. Nige works in London during the week but home is in Audlem Cheshire which provides a perfect base for his collections of VW classic cars and his love of gardening.

Nige is impatient about progressing the sourcing agenda; in particular that organisations emerge as customers of choice and attract A+ players from the supply base. 

Kevin Gallagher

Chief Information Officer, Channel 4

Biography

Kevin Gallagher has been CIO at Channel 4 since 2009 having joined the organisation 11 years ago. Channel 4 is the UK's only publicly-owned, commercially-funded public service broadcaster, with a remit to be innovative, experimental and distinctive. Digital convergence creates tremendous opportunities for media companies and an increasingly product-focussed role for Kevin's teams.

During Kevin's time at Channel 4 there has been a rapid expansion in the number of TV channels and technologies requiring major changes to the application portfolio. The applications also enable Video-on-Demand distribution (4oD) to numerous syndication partners and an increasing number of devices including most recently the PS3 and iPad. The operating ethos of the organisation is to remain lean. This drives investment in new ways of working, and continual improvement to process and technologies efficiencies.

Kevin has a strong people passion. His teams are diverse in nature and also operate in a multi-resource environment with a mix of off/near shore as well as many partnerships with like-minded companies. Delivery is a key strength in the IT team as well as the ability to be agile in their approach. They are, under Kevin's direction, responsible for over 100 projects a year ranging from large scale product delivery through to the underpinning sales, scheduling and financial systems.

Before joining Channel 4, Kevin worked in both private and public sector organisations. His first graduate position was in manufacturing.

Margaret Gibson

Head of Group Procurement, Standard Life

Biography

Margaret Gibson joined Standard Life plc as Head of Group Procurement in November 2009. Prior to Standard Life, Margaret spent over twenty years in various global Procurement roles in the Financial Services, Pharmaceutical and Manufacturing sectors. Margaret also has also worked in Human Resources and Finance within other Financial Services organisations. Margaret has a BA (Hons) in Business Studies and an MBA.

Click here to read Margaret's views on procurement in financial services

Ian Bolger

Director - Managed Procurement Service, Thames Water, Efficio

Biography

Ian Bolger has 20 years' experience in Procurement and Supply Chain across Oil (Exxon), Brewing (Guinness /DIAGEO), Heavy Building Materials (CEMEX) and now in the Utility sectors, with 10 years in Director level leadership roles. Ian joined Thames Water in September 2007 to modernize the Company's Supply Chain and Commercial functions upgrading all systems, processes, sourcing methodologies, staff, structure and strategies, covering both Opex (£400 M pa) and Capex (£ 1 Bn pa). This transformation program has delivered significant cost improvements and has been short listed in 5 categories in the Procurement Leaders 2011 Awards.

Before joining Thames Water, Ian has held a number of senior-level roles including Procurement Director (UK & Ireland) for CEMEX, Business Improvement Director and Group Procurement Director of RMC Plc and Supply Chain Development Director and Procurement Director for Diageo (North America).

Ian holds a Degree from Nottingham University and has completed Business Administration courses at Stanford Business School and INSEAD. He was awarded the CIPS Supply Chain Professional of the Year in 2010 in recognition of the successful transformation he lead at Thames Water. He is a Fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and the Institute for Advanced Purchasing and Supply.

David Wilde

Chief Information Officer, Essex County Council

Biography

Currently CIO for Westminster City Council, David is driving forward an exciting new ICT strategy based on the principles of customer centric service delivery, a zero infrastructure technology environment and transformational change.

David was previously CIO at the London Borough of Waltham Forest, with responsibility for the Council’s access to services strategy, transforming service delivery, all ICT and the Project and Programme management profession.

Prior to that David was Head of e-Business and Head of Internal and Electronic Communications for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM), where he was responsible for development and delivery the ICT strategy and service management, e-government and internal and electronic communications strategies and operations. He also ran Internet service development and delivery for the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) and worked on Schools capital policy in the Department for Education and Employment, including the New Deal for Schools programme.

Neil Lover

Head of Business Operations,, Supplier Management, Telefonica UK

Biography

Neil Lover, Head of Business Operations & Supplier Management, Telefonica UK Limited

Neil's scope of responsibility includes the suppliers and partners for O2 Money. These focus on payments and payment token production as well as other activities including core banking provision.

Neil has worked in the banking industry for over 20 years having previously been Head of Payments Strategy and Transformation at Nationwide Building Society and has wide experience of Retail, Operations and Change Management.