Speakers

Anne Davies is Professor of Law and Public Policy and a Fellow of Brasenose College. She studied at Oxford, completing the BA (winning the Gibbs and Martin Wronker Prizes) and the D.Phil. She was a Prize Fellow at All Souls College from 1995 to 2001, and the Garrick Fellow and Tutor in Law at Brasenose College from 2001 to 2015. From 2015-2020 she was Dean of the Oxford Law Faculty.

Professor Davies is the author of five books and numerous articles in the fields of public law and labour law. In public law, she has a particular interest in government contracts. Her D.Phil. thesis examined the phenomenon of contractualisation in the UK National Health Service from a public law perspective. She developed this research into a book entitled Accountability: A Public Law Analysis of Government by Contract which was published by Oxford University Press in 2001. Her book The Public Law of Government Contracts, a wider examination of public procurement and public/private partnership contracts from a public law perspective, was published by OUP in 2008. She continues to write about government contracts and public service delivery more generally, and chairs the Oxford POGO Club for the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford.

Jane Lynch is Professor and Director of the Centre of Public Value Procurement. The research centre aims to grow and support the talent pool of procurement professionals in public, private and third sectors.

She is experienced in providing a range of procurement and collaboration support to governments and the private sector from research and engagement activities to executive teaching. In 2023 she was awarded the prestigious Government Opportunities, Individual of the Year Award for her contributions to public procurement in Wales.

Jane is the practise lead for IRSPP (International Research Study on Public Procurement), Course Director for Help to Grow: Management (available for Micros and SMEs), the strategic co-lead for the Procurement Lab of Infuse 2023 and collaboration expert and social impact lead for LINC Multimorbidity project.

She is Senior Fellow for the Advance Higher Education (SFHEA) and has won awards for personal tutoring and student experience, previously holding roles such as Senior Personal Tutor and Director of Student Experience for the Business School. Her pedagogical research has included personal tutoring and international orientation, regularly attending and presenting at the LTSE Conference.

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.

Kieran is a solicitor specialising in public procurement law and subsidy control. He provides advice to the North of Tyne Combined Authority (NTCA) and North East Local Enterprise Partnership (NELEP). Kieran is the National Lead Officer for procurement law within Lawyers in Local Government (LLG) and sits on the executive committee of the Procurement Lawyers' Association (PLA).

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.

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.

Richard is an experienced leader in public sector procurement, working at the central-local government interface in Wales. He serves as the strategic national procurement lead for councils, providing expert advice to the WLGA Leadership, Political Group Leaders, and the National Commissioning Board. Richard facilitates national and regional initiatives in key procurement areas and manages the local government procurement officer network, driving reform and promoting social value across Welsh local authorities.

Notable achievements include leading the Welsh Local Government procurement response during the Covid-19 pandemic and developing Wales’ first Social Value TOMs framework, aligned with the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act. Richard also revitalised the National Procurement Network, advanced local government cyber security, and reformed the WLGA’s procurement processes to ensure resilience and alignment with Welsh policy goals.

Ruairi is passionate about public procurement and contract management. A lawyer in the US (Attorney, New York) and UK (Solicitor, England and Wales), he is a part time researcher at the University of Oxford’s Faculty of Law on a project called SPARKS -- Sustainable Procurement Applied Research and Knowledge Sharing. Ruairi is also the civil society co-chair of the UK government’s open contracting advisory group and manages a peer learning initiative called the Oxford Procurement of Government Outcomes Club (Oxford POGO Club). He is associated with the GO Lab and the Net Zero Research Hub at the Blavatnik School of Government.