Procurement Award Judges

Judging for the Awards is under the auspices of the Irish Institute of Purchasing and Material Management, the longest established and largest Institute of procurement professionals in Ireland.

A distinguished panel of Judges has been drawn from state, academic and private sectors and will be co-ordinated by the Institute.

These judges will be spilt in to two panels, where they will review the allocated entries and rate from first to last.

Scores are then collected and collated by the IIPMM, with the entrant receiving the highest overall score being declared the winner of that category.

Winners will be presented with their trophy at the glamorous Award ceremony on November 17th at the Burlington Hotel, Dublin.

The judge's decision is final and no correspondence, telephone, email or communication of any kind will be entered into in relation to decisions reached.

Gary Shanley- Group Director of Procurement & Distribution at Digicel

Head of Judging and Category Criteria                                              .

Gary Shanley is Group Director of Procurement & Distribution at Digicel, the largest mobile telecom operator in the Caribbean. The group operates across 32 markets and has in excess of 11 million customers. He has spent twenty (20) years working in blue chip global organisations in technology, financial services and fixed & mobile telecoms in Europe, North America, Central America and the Caribbean.

Previously, he was the Head of Procurement and Supply Chain at Telefonica O2 Ireland. A former Vice President and Country Head of Procurement at CITI, he has also been the Head of Procurement at eircom, the largest telecom operator in Ireland.

He is holder of a business management degree and a post graduate master's degree majoring in Strategic Procurement from Dublin City University (DCU).

Gary is a Director and Board Member of the Irish Institute of Purchasing (MIIPMM) and is a member of the international Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (MCIPS). Recently he has accepted a role as a Non-Executive Director with BigDogg Technologies and is on the Telecoms Council for the Gerson Lehrman Group.

Edward Sweeney- Director of Learning at the National Institute for Transport & Logistics (NITL)

Edward Sweeney is Director of Learning at the NITL, based at the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT). At NITL, he is responsible for the development and implementation of the integrated supply chain management (SCM) development programmes and carries out research and consultancy work on behalf of NITL client companies in the life sciences, food and drink, electronics and retail sectors.

 Edward has held full-time academic posts at the University of Warwick (UK) and the University of Technology, Malaysia (UTM), as well as visiting positions in several Asian universities and institutes. He is an engineer by background and has worked and lectured in over 30 countries in Europe, North America and Asia. He is an experienced researcher with over 200 publications including books and book chapters, papers in international peer-reviewed academic journals, practitioner journal articles and conference papers. Edward's most recent book, Supply Chain Management and Logistics in a Volatile Global Environment, was published in 2009. The focus of his current work is on resilience and sustainability in global supply chains, with particular reference to the divergence between theory and practice.

He holds undergraduate degrees from the University of Dublin (Trinity College) and postgraduate qualifications from the Universities of Warwick and Hull. Edward is a Member of the Irish Institute of Purchasing and Materials Management (IIPMM) and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT).

Paul Hannigan- Purchasing Manager, Kerry Foods 

Paul Hannigan is an experienced procurement professional and has held senior management positions in multinational companies across a number of sectors including  ICT, medical devices and FMCG both in Ireland and abroad.

He is currently Purchasing Manager for Kerry Foods with responsibility for ingredients. Kerry Foods operates both UK & Ireland across 21 sites.

Paul is a chemical engineering graduate from UCD and a member of the IIPMM.

Alec Dolan- Principal Officer, Department of Justice and Board Member, National Procurement Service.

Alec Dolan heads the Procurement Strategy Group in the Department of Justice and Law Reform.

He first encountered procurement in the late 1980s while in the Department of Finance (working on the European Procurement Handbook for Open Systems).  Subsequently as Head of IT in the Department of Justice he led numerous procurements before being assigned to his present position in 2008.  

He is a Board member of the National Procurement Service.

John McKeon- Procurement Director, Europe Materials division of CRH PLC.

Mr. John McKeon, B. Eng, C. Eng IMechE, MBA has over twenty years experience in procurement and supply chain.  He is currently responsible for the procurement activities in the Europe Materials division of CRH PLC. This involves working with procurement teams in Ireland, Poland, Finland, Switzerland and beyond, across the full spectrum of categories. Previously he worked with Compass Group PLC leading a European category team. He also worked with Unilever PLC for 12 years in various engineering and supply chain roles in the UK and the Netherlands.

He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Mechanical Engineers, a graduate of U.C.D. and has an MBA from Henley Business School.      

Malachy Fergus-European Strategic Sourcing Manager Intel  

Malachy Fergus is the EMEA Strategic sourcing manager at Intel. He has spent twenty one years working in Procurement in both Direct and Indirect procurement categories.

Over the past 6 years he has managed a team of Commodity Managers across Europe looking after Intel spend in Sales and Marketing and HR commodities with an annual spend of over $500M.   

He is also chair of the National Procurement Advisory group set up in 2010 by Dept of Finance to advise the National Procurement Service (NPS) on best Procurement practice in the private sector. 

He Is the holder of a BBS degree from UL in Limerick.

John O'Neill- Department of Environment, Community and Local Government

John O'Neill currently works for the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government where he provides specialist technical support and input on the formulation, development, implementation and management of National, EU and International Environmental policy and legislation in respect of a wide range of environmental disciplines including waste management, life cycle analysis and sustainable development.

John is also involved in the development of markets for recyclables which includes a particular focus on developing green procurement policy. Before joining the Department John spent over 10 years working in the private sector for environmental and engineering consultancies, where he held various senior management and supervisory positions on a broad range of environmental projects.