Empowering Small Island States in the Caribbean: Leveraging Pooled Procurement and Innovative Technologies for Supply Chain Resilience

Sangeeta Khorana is Professor of Economics at Aston University in the United Kingdom. She leads research and advises governments on government procurement reform.

Sangeeta has successfully completed several projects on procurement reform for the EU, InterAmerican Development Bank, OECS, International Criminal Court, among others. She has published several books, book chapters and written several journal articles on procurement issues.

She has a PhD from the University of St. Gallen, a summa cum laude Masters' degree in law and economics from Switzerland and MA Economics from India.

Roselyn Opel is a Kenyan National and the Head of Pooled Procurement Services at the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission based in St. Lucia, providing leadership in the Pooled Procurement of Health commodities on behalf of the Ministries of Health of the OECS. She oversees the General Procurement for donor and Government Projects on behalf of the Member States.

She is a seasoned Procurement and Supply Chain professional with over 25 years of experience in complex cross border humanitarian supply chain & Logistics Management, private (FCMG) and public sectors in Africa and the Carribean. She has worked with several NGOs including World Vision, American Refugee Committee (Currently Alight), Save The Children, CESVI, Marie Stopes Kenya, among others.

She spent 19 years working with Multilateral donor funded projects and Public Procurement in the 9 Member States of the Eastern Caribbean including Global Fund TB, World Bank, EU, CDB.

Doug Fraser is the Caribbean Development Bank's Head of Procurement and manages the Procurement Policy Unit within the Bank's Projects Department based in Barbados.

Doug holds an MBA in Procurement and Strategy and is a full member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS).  

He has more than 22 years of experience as an international procurement specialist and has worked on a wide variety of procurement assignments across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas for a range of multi-lateral and bi-lateral financing institutions, foundations, NGOs and private sector clients.  

He has previously been based in long term roles in Cambodia, Japan, the Philippines, the UK and Vietnam.

Jean-Jacques Verdeaux joined the World Bank Group in 2002 as Senior Procurement Specialist in the Africa region and has held various positions including Senior Counsel in the Legal procurement group, Procurement Coordinator for the Andean Countries, Lead Procurement Specialist for the Middle East and Northern Africa. Previously, he was the Senior Procurement Adviser for the Energy Department at the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg.

Hi is currently Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean where he leads a team of 40+ World Bank procurement specialists who supervise operations in 32 countries.  The portfolio includes operations in critical infrastructure, education, environment, health, including the procurement of vaccines during the pandemic.
 
The unit also engages in a dialogue with Borrowers on how to increase the efficiency of their procurement systems in a time of high inflation and need for climate action.
Admitted to the Paris Bar, Jean-Jacques is also a lecturer in international procurement operations and law.

Felix Ohnmacht is the Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of Axmed.

Felix held several senior management positions at Novartis, serving as the Head of Strategy Africa (+47 countries). Felix also served as Executive Director, The Novartis Biome SSA, a regional hub developing innovative business models and technology solutions to improve healthcare.

Felix co-led an initiative for Kofi Annan at the Kofi Annan Foundation and the United Nations (UN) during the Syrian Civil War. He gained management consulting experience at Accenture Strategy as a core member of its Precision Medicines Center of Excellence.

Felix is the co-author of the UN Broadband Commission Report on "Reimagining Global Health through Artificial Intelligence." He is a visiting lecturer at the Graduate Institute, Geneva, in Global Health and Advocacy, where he also obtained his PhD. He was an advanced doctoral researcher at Princeton University and the Max Planck Institute.