Darren Jugurnauth

Procurement Programme Lead for "Polaris" – transition of entire IT Services from a single supplier to a multi vendor model in 3 months (termination for breach = 'distressed exit'). Applied structure, governance and commercial leadership in a highly-pressurised and time-poor programme. Instilled 11 contracts across ITSM, Service Desk, EUC, SOC, Firewalls, App Support, DBAs, Infra NW & Telco and MDM. Built strong and effective relationships with all suppliers and SLT/Ops stakeholders through engagement, credibility and personality.

Developed and implemented a new Group Procurement Target Operating Model across the full Procurement lifecycle (Category Mgmt, Sourcing, ESG, Risk & Assurance; Supplier Mgmt and Business Intelligence. Programme Lead on Supplier Risk covering Governance (policies, procedures, risk framework), Risk Mgmt (Risk Lifecycle: Identification, Assessment, Mitigation, Monitoring), Compliance (Audits) and Assurance (Reporting, Insights). Created strategy and associated methodologies, org. design, service capability (mapped to best practice), process optimisation, creating and embedding new teams (incl. overseas) and data mgmt, Effective SRM and reporting for XLT, Board, Procurement Leadership and Transformation teams/stakeholders.

Provided services on UK-based contracts to deliver subject matter expertise on improvement projects across a wide array of industries, including information technology, financial services & banking, government, and telecommunications.

As an Infosys Portland Managed Service, led a team of 20 in Professional Services & Consulting, a 6Bn SAR spend category with a NEOM-wide scope in an extremely challenging working environment. Focused on meeting procurement demand, recovering, stabilising then improving the team, driving more strategic behaviour (especially SRM/comms, setting minimum quality standards and individual/team upskilling), developing excellent relationships with stakeholders, providing Category/Procurement advisory/SME services, and being the first-line escalations/dispute resolution (including supplier negotiations). Operations Lead: strategy, Target Operating Model, leadership and line management, capacity management, recruitment, training and individual/team capability enhancement.

 >180M SAR (c. 19% against spend) cost avoidance in 12 months; developed and led the implementation of the new TOM, growing the team from 8 to 20