TOP is delighted to welcome procurement expert Blair Jennings to its growing team. Blair is a new but familiar face, having worked as one of our client contacts at Heathrow for some 20 years.
Heathrow has always been at the forefront of NEC3 and NEC4 reimbursable contracts, and Blair as part of the procurement senior team played a central role in this. During his time at Heathrow Blair gained a considerable amount of knowledge and experience around NEC contracts. From contract set up, to understanding how they can be adjusted, amended, and improved to best fit actual cost commercial models. This along with his experience on major capital programmes make him a great fit with TOP.
TOP MD Darren Ward added, “A significant proportion of the work we undertake requires the kind of commercial nous which can’t be taught. Through his experience managing literally hundreds of reimbursable style contracts, including in particular PSC’s which we frequently review, Blair knows instinctively where to look for the most common areas of overcharge or mischarge. It’s great to have him on board.“
Procurement professional
Unlike the rest of the TOP team who are typically accountants and qualified auditors, Blair’s area of expertise lies firmly in procurement. Professionally qualified with the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS), Blair has 30 years plus experience of core procurement activities such as tendering, contract and category management and supplier relationship management.
Blair first worked with Darren and TOP at Heathrow in the early noughties. A few years later, on the Terminal 5, project TOP pioneered the innovative, highly cost effective “forensic” approach to cost assurance, using qualified accountants. This approach reduced the cost of providing cost verification, commercial and contractual assurance by 2/3 and recovered £85m of overcharges on the programme.
In 2013 TOP won the Heathrow Forensic Audit Services Framework tender and this cemented a 10-year collaboration. Over the following years TOP worked on a range of audits for Blair. It was the level of personal service provided by TOP, above and beyond what he would expect which impressed him most. “Darren would always focus on our client needs first and foremost and tailor a bespoke service. We intrinsically felt we could trust and have confidence in the findings.”
Blair clearly saw much change at Heathrow in his 20 years, culminating in the Covid pandemic in 2020 which practically overnight devastated the aviation sector.
Since joining TOP last year Blair has focused primarily on a large-scale piece of work around contract compliance on a major capital programme. A key objective being to review behaviours and understand to what extent the main contractors in the programme are operating collaboratively and working as an integrated team.
Blair has adapted to his role on the consultancy side and within a much smaller organisation with ease. As he says, “working in a lean organisation with a dedicated team of experienced professionals where focus is exclusively on the assignments to be completed has been very enjoyable”.
