1 November 2012 to 31 October 2013
President of the Institute – Paula Gildert FCIPS
Paula Gildert is Head of Development Strategic Sourcing , Novartis Pharma, formerly Head R&D Procurement, AstraZeneca and is a Fellow, Member of (GBT)and President of CIPS. She is responsible for driving value in all external spend in the development of new medicines. A physicist & chartered control and electrical engineer with over 25 years’ experience in the Fine Chemical & Pharmaceutical Industry in a wide range of roles; engineering, manufacturing, supply chain and procurement.
Chairman of the Board of Trustees – Karen Van Vuuren FCIPS
Karen van Vuuren was until recently the Chief Procurement Officer of Absa, one of South Africa’s largest financial services institutes with 10 million customers and 40,000 staff. She was responsible for Group Sourcing practices for the bank with an annual spend of R14 billion. Karen previously worked in the area of Purchasing and Supply Chain Management (PSCM) Systems at Transnet, South Africa’s rail, ports and pipelines State Owned Enterprise, the Gauteng Shared Service Centre (GSSC), a department of the Gauteng Provincial Government, and for iron and steel manufacturer Iscor, as well as for the South African Post Office.
Karen is passionate about professional development. In her previous role as chairman of the board of the Institute of Purchasing and Supply of South Africa (IPSA), she was instrumental in crafting the relationship with CIPS, leading to the establishment of CIPS Southern Africa in April 2010. Karen is now an executive board director of CIPS Africa.
Karen was the South African representative for six years in a research group called IRRPS (International Research Study of Public Procurement), consisting of key international procurement practitioners and academic research groups in North America, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Europe. Karen has presented papers on PSCM Best Practices and Corporate Social Responsibility in Hungary, Australia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Lesotho, Zambia and Botswana as well as at various conferences in South Africa.
Chairman of Congress – Melinda Johnson FCIPS
Melinda Johnson is Director of Group Procurement and Estates at the Department of Transport. She joined the Senior Civil Service in 2005 (Department for Education) to build sustainable procurement capacity and deliver savings across the education system for which she won the Civil Service Procurement Award in 2008. Melinda was jointly responsible for DFE Procurement and for ensuring continuous improved procurement and commissioning across the whole DFE wider public sector with a particular focus on collaboration and sector shared services.
Since joining the Institute in 1988, Melinda has worked in a variety of procurement roles including local government, higher education, utilities, and the SME sector. She also spent four years as Head of Policy and Representation at CIPS.
Melinda has been Chairman of a CIPS branch and has previously served as an elected member of the CIPS Council, from where she was elected to the Board of Management.
Chief Executive – David Noble FCIPS
David Noble was appointed CEO of CIPS in May 2009. Prior to that he had been a member of the Institute’s Fellowship Selection panel and was appointed to the Board in 2008 before stepping down to take the CEO post. He became a full member of the new Global Board of Trustees in June 2012 following the governance restructure.
Alongside his CIPS role, David has 30 years’ corporate experience including 10 years at Board level in procurement and supply management, latterly as Group Supply Director at IMI plc, a FTSE 250 company.