Speakers

Michael Bowsher KC has a busy practice in public procurement, competition and commercial law, particularly in disputes concerning major public and public-private projects. He is particularly known for his unique practice in regulated procurement in the United Kingdom, Ireland, elsewhere in Europe and beyond.

He has appeared as counsel in many of the major procurement cases over more than a decade. His contentious practice is complemented by a substantial practice in providing legal and strategic advice for bidders and purchasers throughout the procurement process.

Michael is a Visiting Professor at King’s College London where he teaches EU Public Procurement on the LLM degree course and is Director of the Distance Learning Diploma and Masters in Public Procurement law. Each of these courses includes substantial components concerning procurement by international organisations beyond the EU.

Michael is a member of the Bar Library in Belfast and the Law Library in Dublin, and practises actively in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland as well as in England and Wales. He is Leader of the European Circuit of the Bar of England and Wales.

Kate is a partner in Freshfield's Global Projects Disputes Practice and specialises in complex contentious and non-contentious public procurement, construction and infrastructure matters.

She has advised public and private sector clients on a wide range of major domestic and international projects and disputes across a variety of sectors, including nuclear, transport, infrastructure, healthcare and defence.

Her recent work includes acting for EnergySolutions in their successful claim against the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority relating to the contracts to decommission 12 nuclear-licenced sites (the largest UK public procurement challenge to date) and advising the UK Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in relation to the procurement, construction and financing of the 22km Thames Tideway Tunnel.

Kate is a lecturer on issues of complex procurement at King’s College London for its MA and postgraduate diploma in public procurement regulation in the EU and a regular contributor to articles on public procurement.

Gavin Hayman is Executive Director of the Open Contracting Partnership. Prior, Gavin was Executive Director and Director of Campaigns of Global Witness. He oversaw the groundbreaking and award-winning investigative, campaigning and advocacy work uncovering secret deals, corruption and conflict around the world at Global Witness.

He helped create the international Publish What You Pay campaign and helped negotiate the intergovernmental Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative that brings together oil and mining companies, home- and host-governments and civil society to improve disclosure and oversight of over $1 trillion dollars of oil and mining money.

He is an expert on illicit financial flows, and helped lead global efforts to end the abuse of anonymous shell companies for money laundering and financial crime, including working with the British government’s recent presidency of the G8 and the Open Government Partnership.

He has a Doctorate from the University of Reading and has worked with Chatham House in London and the United National Environmental Programme in the past on analysing and investigating global environmental crime.

Darren Knowd is the Head of Procurement Sales and Business Services at Durham County Council. He currently leads all procurement activity at the County Council who spend over £650M annually in supplies, services and works, and the Council are a partner in the NEPO shared service (North East Procurement Organisation).

He chaired the LGA National Advisory Group for Local Government Procurement for three years and until recently he was also LGA Chair of National Social Value Task Force for the previous seven years.

Prior to joining Local Government Darren worked for Nissan Europe where he was Purchasing Manager at Sunderland, Paris, Barcelona and Cranfield and previously worked for General Motors in Liverpool. He has an MBA from Durham University Business School.

Lindsay is the Deputy Director for Procurement Reform at the Cabinet Office. She joined the Government Commercial Organisation in 2016, initially working as senior category leader for employment and labour market in DWP. Subsequently she worked as Head of Small Business Policy at Cabinet Office, working with all central government departments and SMEs to break down barriers to entry and then as Head of Engagement for Procurement Reform.

Prior to joining the civil service, she gained over 10 years commercial experience from the private sector, working in the Aerospace, property management and FMCG sectors for both large multinationals and SMEs, including spending 5 years abroad in Germany, Netherlands and Canada working on complex projects.