Ivan McKee was appointed Minister for Public Finance in May 2024. His career has involved a number of senior roles in manufacturing and business, managing companies in the UK as well as Poland, Finland, Croatia and Bosnia. Early in his career, Ivan spent two years with VSO in Bangladesh. He is currently a trustee of the charity CEI, which supports education and health projects in Bangladesh. Ivan has been MSP for Glasgow Provan since May 2016. He was brought up in Glasgow where he studied at the University of Strathclyde. He also studied at the University of Newcastle.

Rona Dougall is a broadcaster, freelance journalist and also a popular TV presenter best known as the host of STV’s flagship current affairs programme ‘Scotland Tonight‘. The thirty minute live programme takes an in-depth look at the big news stories of the day, along with sport, politics, business, art and entertainment.

Before becoming a Scottish Television anchor, Rona was Sky News Scotland correspondent for over 15 years. During that time she covered many headline stories, including the Dunblane massacre, the trial of the Lockerbie bomber at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands, the death of Princess Diana from Balmoral, the opening of the Scottish parliament and several Scottish elections.

She was also part of the British Bafta award winning team which covered the terrorist attack at Glasgow airport.

Off duty Rona Dougall is a mother to her two children, a keen runner and a voracious reader.

Nick spent eight years as Head of Commercial and Procurement at the Department for International Development. Following over 25 years within the private sector specialising in procurement, commercial and project management in roles across the UK, USA, Australia, and Spain, Nick joined the public sector as part of HMG’s Commercial Functional Leadership Group. Nick is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) and a Chartered Global Management Accountant. Previously a CIPS Regional Chair and regular keynote speaker at conferences, Nick is also an active mentor for Procurement and Commercial professionals.

Nikki has worked in a number of private and public sector senior procurement and programme management roles since graduating in 1990 with a BA (Hons) in Business Economics and Marketing. With IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Agilent she gained extensive experience in leading national and international procurement and system transformation programmes. Since joining the Scottish Government in 2005 she has played a key role in driving and enabling public procurement reform in Scotland, with a particular focus on building Scottish Government’s Procurement, Commercial and Project Delivery skills.

An FCIPS Chartered Procurement & Supply professional, Nikki currently sits on the CIPS Foundation Steering Group and is an ex-trustee of their Global Board of Trustees. With specific interests in developing the capability of individuals, organisations, supply chains and our Procurement People of Tomorrow, Nikki also plays an active role in encouraging diversity (in all its forms) within senior procurement and supply chain roles.

Alistair Kerr is the Chair of the Community Wealth Advocacy Forum, Director & Chair of BASE Scotland, and Partnerships and Development Manager for Scotland at PeoplePlus, with a strong focus on creating sustained and inclusive employment opportunities for disadvantaged people or groups in our local communities. Utilising Sustainable Procurement legislation, Community Wealth Building & Social Value Policy drivers to transform lives of Disabled or Disadvantaged people across the UK, Alistair has held various Executive, Board & Chair positions since 2002 representing Disabled Peoples rights and advocating a Socially just society. He is recognised by Scottish Government as a Champion of Scotland’s Supported Businesses.

Jane is a Professor in Procurement for the Logistics and Operations Management (LOM) section of Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University. Jane’s subject areas for research and teaching include innovation and social public procurement, supply chain management, and collaboration. Jane is the strategic lead for Procurement Labs in a WEFO funded project, Infuse (Innovation of Future Public Services).

Jane is Programme Director for the UK Government funded 'Help to Grow Management' programme delivered at Cardiff Business School aimed at supporting SMEs with business growth. Additional Roles: Member of IRSPP (international research study on public procurement) Branch Chair of the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) South Wales Associate Director (MICW) of Institute for Collaborative Working (ICW), Cymru.

Joining Scottish Government as Scotland’s first ever Procurement Modern Apprentice, Rachael now has over ten years of public procurement experience, which includes leading and supporting critical procurements through periods of significant economic and supply chain instability. Rachael is MCIPS and degree qualified and has been an active member of the Procurement People of Tomorrow community, helping to promote procurement as a profession of choice and mentoring new entrants based on her own career journey. Rachael has had a breadth of roles from commercial capability, contract management, buying and now leads the Communications and Strategic Engagement Team.

Police Scotland was formally established on 1 April 2013 and is responsible for policing across the length and breadth of Scotland, some 28,168 square miles. Police Scotland is the second largest force in the UK after the Metropolitan Police.

Police Scotland spends around £200m annually on goods, services and works, in order to support policing, improve safety and wellbeing of people, places and communities throughout Scotland.

With over 20 years of experience working in the Scottish public sector, Carolyne's role as senior AI Policy Officer in the Scottish Government allows her to bring together her passions for IT, innovation and the delivery of high quality public services.

As a member of the Scottish AI Alliance, a partnership between the Scottish Government and the Data Lab within Edinburgh University, she currently has responsibility for delivering the Scottish AI Register, a tool designed to ensure that Scottish public sector AI use is open and transparent for all our citizens.

Transport Scotland are the national transport agency for Scotland, delivering the Scottish Government's vision for transport. Through the development of transport projects and policies, they support Scotland's businesses, communities and services, connecting people across Scotland and beyond.

Procurement underpins much of the delivery of their priorities and has a notable impact on performance and success. In recognition of the wider impact that procurement policy and practice has on the Scottish Government’s purpose and our commitments, their vision for procurement is to support the delivery of value for money, sustainable and innovative infrastructure and services in fulfilment of the Scottish Government’s ambition and vision for transport, and Transport Scotland’s corporate commitments through a strategic and systematic approach to procurement.

Jamie is the Strategic Partnerships and Engagement Manager for Social Enterprise Scotland and joint lead for the new and exciting Social Enterprise Scotland Buy Social Scotland Pledge initiative.

Jamie has worked in senior executive positions in the Third Sector for nearly 20 years, leading and developing sizeable manufacturing and service offering Social Enterprises in Scotland, Ireland and Poland.

With a passion to embrace the power of Procurement to support the sector, Jamie is keen to support and influence both private and public sector organisational policy and strategy that facilitates and encourages sustainable and profitable procurement opportunities for Social Enterprises.

Out with work, Jamie is a youth rugby union coach and passionate supporter at his local town rugby union team.

George joined Edinburgh Climate Change Institute in May 2018 to lead their work on the Sustainable Scotland Network (SSN). Before joining ECCI, George managed the SSN and a range of sustainability and climate change initiatives at Keep Scotland Beautiful. He has experience of climate change policy, carbon accounting, public sector climate change reporting, managing events and communications, and working with a wide range of organisations to support public sector action on climate change and sustainable development. Prior to leading SSN George worked for Oxfam as Trade Campaign Manager, before taking up post as Oxfam Scotland’s Parliamentary Liaison Officer. George has a degree in Community Studies.

Sharon is a Commercial Contract, Procurement & Supplier Relationships Management Specialist, developing, implementing and training on transformational commercial and procurement strategies for delivery into the Public sector.

My current contract career includes Associate Trainer assignments with CIPS, DPSS and Explosive Learning Solutions and Commercial Consultant for BMT Defence & Security working with the MoD. Other recent contracts include: MTB Consultant at Thales UK; Commercial SME Consultant at Niteworks; and Interim Commercial Manager at Babcock. My earlier perm career includes commercial leadership roles with QinetiQ, EMS Global Tracking, BAE Systems and Westland Helicopters.

Raymond is a chartered QS and leads on the delivery of Fife Councils Construction Capital Projects.

He leads a team of 40 in house professionals including architects, M+E engineers, civil engineers and quantity surveyors delivering on average 400 projects per year.

He also leads on Fife Council's partnership with Hub East Central Scotland on delivering our larger infrastructure projects. This included the £125m Dunfermline Learning Campus that is officially the largest Passivhaus education building in the world and was a recent winner for the projects approach to social value at the recent UK Procurex awards in Liverpool.

Michelle develops and delivers The Data Lab’s Professional Learning and Leadership Development programme. She has over a decade of experience delivering learning and development in the professional, higher, and further education sectors. She has a PhD in Human-Computer Interaction and a background in user-led design and experience.

She strives to create and deliver clear, accessible, and learner-centred content. Her expertise ensures engaging and impactful learning experiences that foster growth and leadership in digital culture.

Margaret is a Procurement Portfolio Manager in Social Security Scotland, and has worked in procurement within the public sector since 2007, working with Scottish Enterprise, Stirling Council, Scottish Government and now Social Security Scotland. She loves her job and getting involved in a wide variety of projects across the organisation - anything from Telephony to Furniture. She have a particular interest in community benefits and how procurement can ensure that the contracts they place benefit society and the communities that they work with. She was also involved in publishing a Community Benefits Strategy for Social Security Scotland and is working closely with her team to implement this.

Gillian has nearly 30 years of experience of experience as a procurement professional in the public and private sectors and as a small business and social enterprise owner.

Gillian recognises from both perspectives that more needs to be done to support smaller organisations to access public sector work and she co-founded Go4Growth to fill that gap. She’s committed to removing the barriers that prevent SMEs or VCSEs from being able to compete for the work on offer, creating a level playing field for all.

Tracker aims to empower suppliers to achieve their public sector strategy with ease and confidence. With features spanning from market and industry insights, to advanced analytical reporting, and unique spend analysis data, Tracker Intelligence is more than just a tenders platform.