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.

Peter brings over 25 years of diverse experience in business management across the medical device, healthcare services, and property sectors. As the National Procurement Category Manager for Heat and Power Purchase Agreements at NHS National Services Scotland, he focuses on advancing sustainable and innovative procurement practices. Peter’s background spans global business management, strategic sourcing, and governance, supporting his focus to optimise procurement strategies. He holds an MBA and a Bachelor of Science from Stellenbosch University (South Africa), with international business training from Grenoble Ecole de Management.

Craig has been with Scotland Excel since 2015 and is a Principal Procurement Specialist within the Contract Delivery team. Craig has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Strathclyde in Product Design and Innovation.

He leads the delivery work under Scotland Excel’s Construction portfolio, which has a collective advertised annual value of £800 million. Recently awarded national collaborative framework agreements include New Build Residential Construction, Demolition and Deconstruction, and Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies.

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.

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.

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.

Sarah Cawthorne is an Assistant Director in the Competition Enforcement team within the Competition and Markets Authority. She is currently leading an investigation into conduct in the housebuilding sector, and has previously worked on a range of competition law cases involving digital and pharmaceutical markets.

Sarah joined the CMA in 2020, after completing a PhD at the University of York. She now works from the CMA’s Greater Manchester office in Salford, where she was one of the first members of staff. During her time at the CMA she has been involved in phases across the lifecycle of a regulatory investigation, including dawn raids, case launch, complex evidence reviews, issuing infringement decisions, accepting legally binding commitments, and successfully defending a CMA decision on appeal.

Ian Schollar is the Head of CIPS Business Study Centre at CIPS and has had a progressive career in procurement and commercial roles spanning over 30 years in both public and private sectors.
He started his career with Mallory Batteries (Duracell) in 1983, before spending 15 years working within both central and local public sector organisations. He was responsible for procuring a diverse range of categories from breathing apparatus for fire fighters to high tech radar systems for air traffic controllers.

In 1998, Ian became a Senior Advisor for Crown Agents, an International Development Agency. He was project lead on numerous capacity building projects working in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe and headed up the procurement and supply chain training at their Training Centre. Ian has worked at CIPS since 2005 and has a particular passion for professional development.
Ian is a Fellow of CIPS and holds a Master’s Degree in Management, Learning and Leadership from Lancaster University Management School.

Gillian Cameron is the Programme Manager for the Supplier Development Programme (SDP), a business support initiative, supported by Scottish Government, Scottish Local Authorities and Agencies. The Programme’s aim is to help Scottish SMEs improve their performance in winning contracts in the public sector. Gillian has over 25 years’ experience in public sector procurement, previously working on many high-profile supplier engagement projects with the Ministry of Defence, the NHS and London 2012 Olympic games. She is a member of the Scottish Government’s Procurement Supplier Group, which aims to inform, influence, and engage with procurement strategy and derive the maximum economic benefit from public sector purchasing.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Laura Santi is the Category Manager within National Distribution Services : National Services Scotland (NSS) . She was the Procurement Lead in the redesign and successful tender of the National Home Oxygen Service for Scotland . Laura has a background in Medical Equipment Procurement and has been employed in Procurement & Commercial roles within NSS for 9 years.

In her current role she is responsible for understanding the needs of Scotland's Health Boards nationally to ensure the delivery of high-quality product choice and providing strategic procurement direction, also contributing to Strategic Sourcing Programme targets by ensuring best commercial outcomes are achieved and that service delivers true value in line with procurement best practice.

In addition her role influences national strategies and procurement initiatives, taking advantage of the wider purchasing power of NHS Scotland and also works collaboratively with other public sector organisations to leverage Scotland-wide spend, securing additional value and long-term benefits.

Ian founded and leads the Scotland Excel work-based-learning Academy, with the team delivering an award winning multi-disciplinary portfolio.

Our Academy supports collaborative learning nationally engaging people in progressive practices which help them do their job well.

Ian has a commercial and operations background transforming people and organisations across Scotland, Europe, USA, Israel, Russia and China.

Gregor is a Chartered Procurement and Supply Professional leading on procurement and commercial capability across Scotland for the Scottish Government. He is passionate about making procurement a Career of Choice and on building diversity and inclusion in the profession.

Andy is a tech-for-good software entrepreneur. He co-founded SIDE Labs, a no-code tech-for-good agency with clients including YMCA and Refugee Action, and HelpFirst, specialists in AI for care-giving organisations. Andy recently won the Holyrood Digital Public Service award and the Go Scotland Social Value award for his work for Citizens Advice Scotland. Andy is enthused about the possibilities of AI to help better support the most vulnerable members of society.

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.

Mike is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply. Following a successful career in the Civil Service and NHS, Mike set up his own training and consultancy business, Perigean Ltd, where he continues to train and advise on procurement, contract, and supplier-related matters. Mike is an enthusiastic and accomplished professional with a good balance of academic rigour and pragmatic, real-world experience.

Lesley trained at Glasgow Eastern College of Nursing and Midwifery, and later completed her BA in Health Studies at Glasgow Caledonian University. While working for the NHS, she specialised in various fields across Glasgow, including Vascular High Dependency, Cardiology, and ITU. She also established the Surgical Day Care Unit at Gartnavel General Hospital.
In 1996, Lesley left the NHS to join Johnson and Johnson Medical. She later moved to Fresenius Medical Care, where she became the National Sales Manager for the Haemodialysis Business Unit.

Lesley joined Vivisol in 2014. As a member of the Scottish Leadership team, she's responsible for delivering the Home Oxygen Service and serves as the primary contractual and business liaison between Vivisol and National Services Scotland.

Lesley lives in Dumfries and is an avid golfer. In addition to her work at Vivisol, she and her husband run the DH9 Foundation, a charity they established in memory of their son. The foundation provides automated external defibrillator (AED) devices and offers free CPR training to schools and community organisations.

BESA - the Building Engineering Services Association is the UK's leading trade association for building services engineering contractors – representing the interests of firms active in the design, installation, commissioning, maintenance, control and management of engineering systems and services in buildings.

BESA’s headquarters are in London, but we are active throughout the UK. We have a separate presence in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as eight regional offices across England. This regional presence facilitates member networking and sharing of best practice, business opportunities and advice on local and national developments.

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.

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.