Lianne is an engineer by background with more than 30 years’ experience in the steel industry with British Steel, Corus and Tata Steel Europe in operational, technical and commercial roles. The senior leadership roles Lianne held whilst working in steel involved large transformational change, cultural management and customer focus programmes across Europe, involving many different sites and legal entities. Whilst Chief Procurement Officer she developed a category and regional management approach enabled by a “Journey to Procurement Excellence” More recently Lianne set her own company providing a business and technical consulting service; focussing on additive manufacturing, decarbonisation and setting up of new organisations. As Chief Executive Officer of BlueLight Commercial Lianne looks to develop a commercially focussed, “Go To”, agile organisation that is aligned to the Policing 2025 vision, driving Commercial excellence for the function, developing a full Commercial Lifecycle Model approach and provide innovative solutions to key issues such as supply chain risk.
Jo was the Director of Procurement for the forces of Yorkshire and Humber. She played a lead role in the establishment and implementation of the Regional Procurement Team there, transitioning and transforming four disparate transactional teams into one harmonised category management function. The Team was successful in attaining the CIPS Procurement Excellence Standard Award and scored as ‘Better’ against the Government Commercial Framework. She is also the Commercial Lead for the National Police Air Service (NPAS); established in 2012 to provide all police forces in England and Wales with air support. Jo supported the organisation to set up all elements of its commercial framework on a national basis, developing a clear procurement strategy. And she leads the national fleet category, working in partnership with colleagues from the National Association of Police Fleet Managers (NAPFM). The associated £280m third-party spend incorporates all vehicles owned, leased, or hired by Police Fleet - including those services and goods needed to repair, maintain, modify, and keep vehicles safe, roadworthy and available for use.
Ruth joins BlueLight Commercial having previously served as the Head of Procurement for the Yorkshire and Humber police region, where she actively led on promoting the critical role that procurement plays in fostering meaningful collaboration with both internal and external partners to ensure the successful delivery of best value for each organisation and their wider communities. She has more than 17 years of experience within police procurement directing high-risk and high-value ICT and estates contracts including negotiations and dispute resolutions. Still actively engaged on the national Modern Slavery agenda, she will ensure a collaborative approach to the co-design and implementation of social value, supporting colleagues across policing with their approach and using their combined expertise to influence outcomes.
Jon was Head of Procurement for Liberty Steel in the UK, a large multisite manufacturing business. He established, lead and developed the procurement team covering all aspects from strategy to delivery, whilst ensuring processes met the demanding quality, environmental and sustainability standards set by the aerospace, automotive, engineering and construction markets served. Prior to this Jon held a number of category and procurement roles in Tata Steel covering direct materials, indirect materials and major capex with broad experience of both managing the full commercial lifecycle as well as interaction with a broad and geographically disperse end user base. Managing categories through their full life cycle and delivering value all the way from specification setting to contract end is a real passion and something Jon is keen to work with people on. Jon also has broader commercial experience in managing and negotiating long term sales agreements, settling commercial disputes and contract novation having managed the procurement aspects of a number of large business sales and purchases.
Steve joins us from Devon and Cornwall Police where he has been the Director of Procurement for a regional South West Police collaboration for 4 years, the South West Police Procurement Service members are Devon and Cornwall Police, Avon & Somerset Police, Dorset Police, Gloucestershire Police and Wiltshire Police. Prior to this Steve was the Head of Procurement for Avon and Somerset Police for 4 years having joined from the IBM Joint Venture Company, SouthWest One which comprised of IBM, Police and Local Government organisations. Having joined SouthWest One in a senior role, Steve was the Chief Procurement Officer prior to joining ASC. He has worked as a Procurement Consultant in a Financial Services and Insurance Company, attained the role of Principal Procurement Manager at Gloucestershire County Council during 14 years of service and started his career at British Coal where he worked for 11 years in the Contracts team before privatisation.
Claire has enjoyed a career of 20 years in a broad range of roles within the private and public sector, leading multi-cultural cross functional teams delivering change, capability and improvement. She worked within the procurement function of Tata Steel Europe as a Business Purchasing Manager and Category Analyst, delivering the P2P process and strategic activities across the UK and as the Capability and Improvement Manager, implementing the competency frameworks to support commercial skills development and career paths across Europe. More recently, within the HR function, Claire worked as a Talent Manager - ensuring key roles had a developed pipeline for succession; led the performance review cycle - ensuring objectives were delivered; and implemented career plans for identified future talent and leadership roles.
Stephanie is a solicitor with expertise in commercial contracts, procurement, commercial property, and police collaborations, together with a wealth of knowledge in general commercial matters specific to the policing environment. She has more than 12 years’ experience supporting a number of police forces in regard to various commercial matters - advising at the highest level on high value, high risk, critical contracts, acting as the lead lawyer on the procurement and delivery of numerous key policing contracts. She has provided in-depth strategic legal guidance and oversight in regard to the development of procurement contracts and processes, to enable the improvement of commercial standards within policing. She has successfully led on many significant and complex contractual disputes securing the best outcome for police forces, and in 2020 was a West Yorkshire Policing Awards finalist in the Award for Extraordinary Public Service category.
Caroline joined BlueLight Commercial from the role of Business Manager for the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit. Having worked for Avon & Somerset Police for 27 years, mainly in investigative and specialist operations environments, Caroline brings significant experience in business and administration at a management level in policing. Those skills include budget management, recruitment and retention, estates and facilities management, human resources liaison and health and safety knowledge. She is a passionate advocate for wellbeing in the workplace and is a champion for diversity and inclusion. Coming from a regional policing background but aligned to a national network, Caroline understands the complex budgetary challenge policing faces - and the importance of collaborative working and of providing value for money for communities.