Our Agreements

Andy is a career procurement professional with 25 years’ experience in both public and private sectors. After graduating in architecture at the University of Westminster, he spent 10 years with London Underground, specialising in energy procurement and leading a project to bring private finance into the operation and renewal of LU’s power supply network. Having established a UK procurement function for a building materials group, Andy founded and led a 45-strong procurement function at a large local authority with an annual spend of £500m, where he led negotiations to establish a thriving and innovative joint venture company in educational support services. Spells with both the fire and police services saw Andy develop a specialism in collaborative procurement, which he brings to the job as Director of LUPC. Andy is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and has an MBA from Kingston Business School.

Responsibilities:

Accountable to the LUPC Board, Andy is responsible for the overall direction of the Consortium, including the formation of the business plan, annual report, and budget.

Tel.: 020 7307 2767
E-mail: a.davies@lupc.ac.uk

Don Bowman, MCIPS

Assistant Director (Procurement)

Don was previously the Head of Procurement at the University of Kent for nearly five years. He has over 20 years' experience in public and private sector procurement. He has experience gained from a varied career that has seen him working in the DHSS, catering, food production, MAFF, broadcast sales, Parliament and the Skills Funding Agency prior to his move into the HE sector in 2011. Don lives on the Kent coast and is a supporter of Charlton Athletic.

Responsibilities:

Management of the LUPC contracting team and tendering activities.

Tel.: 020 7307 2769
E-mail: d.bowman@lupc.ac.uk

Laura Compton

Assistant Director (Membership)

Laura joined LUPC in November 2011. She was previously a Communications Officer for London Councils, a local government membership organisation. Prior to that she worked in Marketing at King's College London and Publishing at the Royal Society of Medicine.

Her current responsibilities include:

Member recruitment and relations
Marketing agreements and services
Training, including HEPA
Events, including LUPC’s annual Conference
Website
Contact and agreement databases
Advertising
e-Bulletin and Linked magazine

Tel.: 020 7307 2766
E-mail: l.compton@lupc.ac.uk

Jill Christiaens, MCIPS

Senior Contracts Manager

Jill’s procurement career began in the not-for-profit sector in 2009, at the European Medicines Agency, where she held contract management and procurement posts in the facilities department. She then moved to one of the Fortune 100 companies for a short while before returning to a life sciences environment, taking up the role of Procurement Project Manager at the European Bioinformatics Institute. This role involved collaborative procurement activities with CERN, Jisc, Crown Commercial Service and other organisations.

Jill has completed an MCIPS-accredited Master’s degree in Strategic Procurement Management awarded by Plymouth University.

She speaks Portuguese and Dutch fluently, as well as basic French.

Jill lives in East London and enjoys being a foster carer for the local charity Celia Hammond Animal Trust.

Responsibilities:

Library;
Professional Services (including Legal Services, Occupational Health; Temporary Staff; Executive Recruitment; and Global Mobility Services);
National Postal; Mail Services;
Office Supplies (including Library Furniture and Supplies);
Debt Collection.

Tel.: 020 7307 2771
E-mail: j.christiaens@lupc.ac.uk

Suzanne Picken, MCIPS

Senior Contracts Manager

Suzanne joined LUPC in April 2013 and is a procurement professional with a background in both the commercial and charity sectors. She started her career at Direct Wines within the shipping department and then moved to Lockhart Catering Equipment as an Assistant Buyer. For the past nine years, Suzanne has held various roles within the procurement department at the charity, Leonard Cheshire Disability. She has experience of managing a wide range of categories including utilities, telecoms, fleet, consumables, and equipment servicing and maintenance. Her expertise lies in category management, stakeholder engagement, and leading and managing tender processes and contracts for multiple user groups. Suzanne is a business graduate of Plymouth University and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply.

Responsibilities:

Estates Maintenance & Minor Works
Cleaning
Security
Sustainable Waste Management

Tel.: 020 7307 2772
E-mail: s.picken@lupc.ac.uk

Mike Kilner, MCIPS

Senior Contracts Manager

Mike was born during the late 60s in South Australia and, in a decision that he has never quite forgiven his parents for, moved to the UK in the early 70s and settled near Carlisle in Cumbria. After graduating in Geography from Coventry University, he worked as an Assistant IT Buyer for Hertfordshire County Supplies where he completed his CIPS qualification before taking up the role of Senior IT Buyer for a leading PC and Notebook system-builder in 1996. The experience there stood him in good stead as he progressed to a position as a Procurement Manager in international break-fix company Fujitsu ICL in the late 90s before coming back full circle into the public sector when joining LUPC in 2001.

Responsibilities:

Telecommunications
IT Hardware and Software
Insurance
Electronics
Laboratory Gases
White Goods

Tel.: 020 7307 2768
E-mail: m.kilner@lupc.ac.uk

Darran Whatley, MCIPS

Senior Contracts Manager

Darran’s procurement career began in 1991 at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, where he held several posts including General Buyer and Specialist IT buyer. He then moved into the charities sector and joined Imperial Cancer Research Fund (later merged with CRC to form Cancer Research UK), where he specialised in laboratory and IT procurement. In 1999 he joined University College London, where he continued to develop his laboratory procurement expertise and contributed to the strategic policy of this leading research university. Joining LUPC in 2004, Darran is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply.

Responsibilities:

Laboratory Equipment, Consumables, Chemcials & Services
Audio Visual
Paper
Travel
Furniture & Soft Furnishings
Utilities
Vehicle Hire
Photographic Equipment
Promotional Products

Tel.: 020 7307 2764
E-mail: d.whatley@lupc.ac.uk

Joyce Kadri

Contracts Officer

Joyce is a contracts professional with experience in both public and private sectors. Upon joining LUPC in 2005, she soon moved into procurement and is presently working towards CIPS accreditation.

Joyce is actively involved in managing national and regional agreements, working closely with Darran Whatley.

Responsibilities:

Fire Extinguishers and Fire-Fighting Products
Smoke alarms and CO detectors
Air Filters
Portable Appliance Testing
Signs and Signage
ICT Furniture
Cash and Valuables in Transit
Childcare Vouchers
Advertising
Taxis

Tel.: 020 7307 2763
E-mail: j.kadri@lupc.ac.uk

Teele Jõeleht

Procurement Analyst

Teele graduated with a Chemistry degree from University of Tartu before completing a Master’s degree in Management at Queen Mary, University of London. She chose a career in analytics to use the theoretical side of her studies. Teele joined LUPC in October 2015.

Responsibilities:

Developing and managing the process for gathering regular spend data from all of the Consortium’s suppliers.
Managing LUPC’s data coding, formatting and delivery of an annual Spend and Savings Report for each Member, based on Member-submitted spend data using a web-based spend analysis tool
Managing data coding, formatting and delivery of an annual Scope 3 Carbon Emission Report for each Member
Analysing Member spend using appropriate techniques to benchmark Members against different sector targets
Using analysis tools to identify opportunities for Member savings, and to promote LUPC agreements.

Tel.: 020 7307 2770

E-mail: t.joeleht@lupc.ac.uk

Liz Taylor

Administrator

Although Liz’s career within the procurement sector is fairly new, she brings a wealth of HE/FE experience having fulfilled roles at no less than three of our Members institutions as an Academic/Course Administrator since 2006.

Responsibilities:

Accounts
office management
general administration

Tel.: 020 7307 2762

E-mail: l.taylor@lupc.ac.uk