Speakers

Keynote Speaker – Kevan Jones MP Shadow Defence Cabinet

Kevan has been the Labour MP for North Durham since June 2001. He served on the Defence Select Committee from 2001-08 and sat on the Armed Forces Bill Select Committees in 2006 and 2011. From October 2008 until May 2010, Kevan served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Defence and Minister for Veterans. He is currently Shadow Defence Minister for Armed Forces.

Chairman – Grahame Steed Managing Editor, Government Opportunities (GO)

Grahame joined Glasgow-based BiP Solutions Ltd as Production Director in 2003, following 13 years as Magazine Editor, Publisher and latterly Publishing Director at EMAP plc. He is responsible for the Media Department at BiP, which includes the Business Intelligence, Proofing, Communications, Design and Distribution Teams that are responsible for BiP's diverse range of business intelligence services. In 2008 his role changed to Publishing Director to more accurately reflect the nature of his department's activities. As Managing Editor of Government Opportunities (GO), Grahame is responsible for the overall content and direction of the publication and its GO Awards and www.govopps.co.uk brand extensions.

Rita Beuter Senior Expert, European Institute of Public Administration

Rita is Senior Expert in the unit for European policies at the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA), based in Maastricht in the Netherlands. She joined EIPA in 1986 and concentrated on Internal Market and trade policy issues. Since the end of the 90s, she focused on European public procurement policy. Her role has entailed the development of seminars, conferences and lecturing/research primarily on European public procurement policy and rules but also on international procurement issues. The clients for these seminars include the Member States, EU candidate countries and European institutions, agencies and organisations.

Claire Harrison Business Awareness Unit, Export Control Organisation (ECO), Department of Business, Innovation and Skills

Claire joined the Export Control Organisation (ECO) at the end of 2009. She oversees the work of the Business Awareness Unit, specifically in their information sharing and awareness raising activities. Claire has worked for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills for a number of years and has a background in working with companies – mostly small and medium-sized enterprises – ranging from assistance with their technology projects to advice about market research and selling in overseas markets. Since joining ECO Claire has been involved in a number of export control training and awareness activities for companies as part of ECO’s export control training events. She has been actively involved in briefing and disseminating export control information to a wide range of business intermediaries across the UK. She has also been involved in spreading best practice about export control processes and procedures in international outreach activities sponsored by the US, BAFA and the EU, including participation in a programme of training to industry and customs officials in Lithuania.

Professor Derrick J Neal Centre for Defence Acquisition, Cranfield University

Derrick has a background in Engineering, a PhD in fluid mechanics and a MBA from Cranfield University. He has worked in the defence industry with Vickers and SMEs both in technical roles and as a Marketing Director. He joined Cranfield University in 1998 and is Professor of Defence Strategic Change at the Defence Academy of the UK. Derrick has a particular interest in strategy and change management issues within the MOD and he teaches, researches and publishes in these areas. Derrick consults in the area of change management and works with a number of organisations within the public sector and the MOD in particular. He has held a number of Non-Executive Director positions and is also the UK representative on the Transformational Chairs network, which consists of professors from each of the US Professional Military Education establishments, NATO and representatives from Australia, Singapore and Sweden.

Martin Trybus Professor of European Law and Policy Director, Institute of European Law, Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham

At the beginning of Martin’s Senior Lectureship at the University of Sheffield in 2006, he was seconded as Senior Adviser to the SIGMA programme of the OECD in Paris, where he coordinated a number of major studies on public procurement in Europe financed by the European Commission. Martin has been involved in consultancy projects for the British, Dutch and French Governments, the European Defence Agency, the European Commission, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. These projects concerned public procurement regulation, in particular public procurement reform in Central and Eastern Europe and the legal aspects of the European armaments market. Martin is the Director of the Institute of European Law. He is a member of the Public Contracts in Legal Globalisation Network and the Procurement Law Academic Network.