About Your Speakers

Giles Breault is Head of Productivity and Global Business Services for the Novartis Pharmaceuticals Division, responsible for driving and implementing transformational productivity programs across the Pharmaceuticals Division Prior to holding this office, Mr. Breault was Chief Procurement Officer of the Pharma Division. Under his leadership, this function was able to generate year-on year sustained growth in savings that contributed nearly half of the overall company productivity target.

Mr. Breault is a career Supply Chain, Sourcing and Procurement executive with strategic and operational experience in the Pharmaceuticals, Electronics, and Aviation industries. Mr. Breault joined Novartis in 2005 from Aventis in Frankfurt, where he was Senior Vice President and Chief Purchasing Officer. Prior to Aventis, Mr. Breault was Head of Global Strategic Purchasing at Roche in Basel, Switzerland. Mr. Breault attended Lafayette College in the US (BS - Economics) and Pepperdine University (MBA). He is a CPM (Institute of Supply Management - USA) and a member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing (CIPM).

As Senior Vice President of Sourcing and Procurement at Nokia Corporation, from January 1999 to December 2011 (based in Helsinki), Jean-Francois transformed Nokia Supply Chain into the most respected and agile asset within Nokia, and created the most efficient Supplier Network enabling Nokia to offer the best solutions to meet customer requirements. He was recognized in 2007 by AMR Research as the best organization of the world for developing efficient Supply Chain through Collaboration, “Connecting the Inside with the Outside”. He won the 2010 EIPM-Peter Kraljic award for Excellence: “The Organization of the Year”.

Prior to joining Nokia, Jean-Francois was Director at Compaq, leading the European Sourcing and Materials organization, based in Erskine, Scotland, from 1994 to 1997. He then moved to Houston Texas from 1997 to 1999 as both director, Corporate Procurement for Mass Storage and Director Sourcing for Compaq Storage business unit.

Within the concept of “Knowing, Doing, Being”, Jean-Francois learnt most of the key principles in Leadership and Supply Chain from his mentor, Gene Richter, at Hewlett-Packard from 1984 to 1994, where he held most of the key responsibilities within Supply Chain, including the global leadership for the Sourcing and Materials management for HP Personal Computer Division, based in Grenoble.

Other industrial experiences include two years on offshore platforms in West Africa with Schlumberger and one year at Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique in France as research engineer.

Jean-Francois was the Chairman of the Electronic Component Board for RosettaNet from 2002 to 2004. He was nominated by the French Minister of Commerce in January 2003 “Conseiller du Commerce Exterieur de la France” in Finland. Jean-Francois was from 2005 until Sep 2011, Board Member at NetOnNet, leader in e-commerce retail in Sweden and listed in Stockholm. Jean-Francois is also Technical Advisor at Sand9 (Boston), Advisory Board Member at Procurement Leaders (London) and Professor Emeritus at EIPM (Geneva).

Jean-Francois received a Master of Science in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering from Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Arts et Metiers in 1980 and a Master of Science in Petroleum Engineering from Stanford University in 1981.

Happily married, Jean-Francois has three children and lives in Geneva. Jean-Francois is also a keen sailor and skier.

Nick Gunn is Vice President of Global Procurement at Hewlett-Packard. Under his leadership, GP manages the company’s multibillion annual spend for non-production goods and services. This includes the entire supply chain supporting HP’s Enterprise Services trade business, as well as all supply chain and procurement for internal use within HP (such as Labor, Technology, Business Services, Real Estate and Workplace Services, Travel, Marketing and Print). Nick’s organization is accountable for driving HP’s growth by contributing to the company’s bottom line, enabling revenue, mitigating risk, and maintaining operational excellence. With 1,000 employees located in 52 countries, HP Global Procurement is one of the largest and most diverse procurement organizations in the world.

A recognized thought leader, Nick has also expanded his organization’s scope, capabilities and focus to move beyond traditional procurement, successfully unleashing business value at HP. Prior to his current role, Nick was VP of Global Category and Supplier Development within HP Global Procurement, where he was responsible for integrating HP and EDS category resources into one team, while delivering the best contract terms and pricing through rationalizing HP’s supply base. Additionally, his team led the efforts in Supplier Development to stimulate “new value” creation from HP’s top strategic suppliers. Nick has held a wide range of leadership roles supporting HP enterprise customers since joining the company in 1989, including Integration Services, Business Development, and Logistics. A graduate of the University of Bournemouth, with a degree in Business and Information Technology, Nick currently serves on the Editorial Advisory Board for My Purchasing Center. A strong advocate of higher education, Nick is also actively working with key universities to influence procurement and supply chain curriculum for the next generation of procurement professionals.

Henrik Larsen commenced his employment with A.P. Moller - Maersk as a trainee in 1981. He was expatriated to San Francisco, USA. In 1985 he returned to Maersk Line in the Copenhagen head office, after which he was stationed to Dubai. First as Owners’ Representative for the A. P. Moller activities in the United Arab Emirates & Oman, later he was appointed General Manager for Maersk Kanoo LLC, also in Dubai. In 1993 Henrik Larsen returned to Maersk Line in Copenhagen holding various positions, amongst others being regionally responsible for a BPR project for the Maersk Agencies in Europe and Africa. He was appointed General Manager in 1997. In 1998 he was appointed Regional Line Manager for Maersk Line in South America, taking up office in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In 2002 followed a posting as Regional Line manager for the Maersk Sealand activities in Central Europe based in Hamburg, Germany.

Since 2003 Henrik Larsen has been a member of the management team in Maersk Procurement, Copenhagen, where he has had the responsibility for Implementation, Knowledge sharing and Training & Education. From 1 October 2006 Henrik was appointed Senior Director and deputy to the CPO and at the same time also assuming the strategic sourcing responsibility in the A.P. Moller – Maersk Group. On 1st march 2008 Henrik Larsen was appointed Vice President and also assumed the responsibility of Indirect procurement.

Gary Johnson is a senior director in McDonald’s Worldwide Supply Chain responsible for providing strategic oversight and direction for McDonald’s global sourcing of beef, pork, poultry and fish.

During his 20 year career with McDonald’s, Gary has seen ‘Sustainability’ evolve to become a key consideration in all sourcing practices. In 2009, Gary was recognized by the International Seafood Alliance as the annual ‘Seafood Champion,’ reflecting his over 15 years of service dedicated to Sustainable Fisheries initiatives at McDonald’s, and around the world.

In addition, Gary oversees a variety of sustainability-related programs that cross multiple product categories. He serves as a member of the Sustainable Supply Steering Committee, which oversees McDonald’s Animal Welfare program and Sustainable Land Management Commitment. Gary is also the executive sponsor for the Global Social Accountability Board, which has responsibility for ensuring fair and ethical people practices in every country where our suppliers operate.

In 2001, Gary was appointed to the Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee in Washington, D.C., an acknowledgement of his expertise and knowledge of the latest trade trends in the food and agricultural sector as it relates to policy and commodity-specific products.

A native of Chicago, Gary joined McDonald's in1986 after starting his career in the food retail industry. He also spent several years with McDonald’s Europe, where he lead supply chain strategy for the entire region’s protein sourcing needs.

University of Illinois, B.S., Food Science Elmhurst College, M.S., Business Management

Leo Curran has been in a leadership role in the global hi tech and outsourcing sector over the last 20 years. In addition to executive positions in the technology outsourcing sector, Leo's career highlights include managing logistics and procurement in the Retail sector, as well as, managing information management services where Leo led the European operations for a USA based corporate.
Leo has extensive experience in cloud and platform enabled solutions. Speaking at a number of European engagements, Leo is well known in the BPO services industry and leads the BPO business for TCS in the UK and Ireland.

David is a senior procurement and cost based transformation specialist who has worked at board level in the UK and USA, Europe and SE Asia, across a wide range of both private and public sector clients, including Telecommunications, Technology, Automotive, Food Industries and Financial Services. David has a significant track record of delivering successful major change management, business process outsourcing and business transformation programmes to FTSE 100 organisations.
With a specific focus on strategic management consultancy, David has achieved significant £multi-million savings for customer organisations. Whilst maintaining and improving upon the procurement capability, David now leads TCS’ work with clients such as the Liverpool City Council to develop innovative and creative solutions to drive out additional savings.

Florian is a Senior Product Management at SAP AG in Germany and responsible for the SAP Sourcing and SAP Contract Lifecycle Management Solution in the EMEA region.

Prior to joining SAP in 2001, Florian Seebauer worked in the Logistics Industry in Germany and the UK.

Florian has a master’s degree in Business Administration/Economics.

Gautam brings 20 years of experience in supply chain and procurement as he manages and builds The Smart Cube to be the leading provider of customised market intelligence solutions for procurement organisations. Very much a hands on, practical procurement professional, Gautam has built an organisation that understands and engages the procurement professional and generates relevant insights to support their day to day requirements. A familiar face at Procurement Conferences and speaking events, Gautam brings genuine experience and insight to the supply chain function. His prior roles include A.T Kearney in London, and an earlier career at Mitsubishi Motors and Cummins Engines in the US. Gautam has an MBA from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, USA and an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Bombay, India.

Ian McNally is a Vice President with Efficio, having joined in 2004. He has over 15 years of experience in consulting, and has managed several large procurement transformation engagements. Ian has worked for and consulted to the Utilities, Chemicals, Telecoms and Manufacturing industries. Prior to Efficio, Ian spent seven years with A.T. Kearney in London and Johannesburg, and worked for eight years in the white goods industry, focusing on manufacturing and procurement. Ian holds an Engineering degree from Trinity College, Dublin, and an MBA from Cardiff Business School.

James Cunningham is a Principal Consultant with Efficio and is currently delivering the outsourced procurement function for Thames Water. He has over 14 years in consulting focusing predominately within strategic sourcing and procurement transformation programmes. James has broad experience across a range of sectors that includes Utilities, Semi-conductor, Financial Services and Industrial services. Prior to Efficio James was with PwC consulting. James graduated from KwaZulu-Natal University with an Economics degree.

Jamie joined ESAB Holdings Ltd in late 2005 as Head of Procurement and in early 2010 was appointment Global Procurement Director. He has over 12 years of experience ranging from operational management to strategic development. During his time at ESAB Jamie has led key development projects to deliver a global synergy across multiple operating sites, taking a year out from his Procurement role to manage a acquisition in Singapore during 2008. Before joining ESAB Jamie has worked predominantly within the Military and Civil Aviation industry holding a number of varied roles withinCategory Management through to Purchasing transformation programmes. Jamie's key focus for ESAB now is to drive forward further synergy opportunities by creating a central operating structure that will engage and deliver on the key business initiatives to enhance its low cost sourcing and ensure continuity of supply whilst minimising risk.