Speaker profile

Ian has worked in public procurement for over 25 years and has been running consulting and data businesses for over 15 years. As the founder of Spend Network he has built the world’s first open database of public procurement, which is the world’s largest Open Contracting Data Standard database.

Prior to his career as an entrepreneur, Ian worked as a Management Consultant with a focus on government procurement.

Ian has worked for governments around the world including Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Australia and Turkey. He has advised on procurement technologies, services and analysis to combat fraud, reduce cost and to deliver economic development.

Ian sat on the Cabinet Office’s Open Data User Group and the Contracts Finder Steering Committee.

He now runs Open Opportunities ( Open Opportunities | Global Tender Alerts from 800+ Government Procurement Sites ), a website with public sector tenders and contracts globally that customers can access in order to bid for work that they may not have been aware of.

His aim is to open up the public sector procurement space to more players and give them the tools to compete with the traditional suppliers.