PRINCIPAL ADVISER, KPMG, 34

With a dozen years’ purchasing experience in industry and consultancy roles, Iain Kirwan is MCIPS qualified and has an MSc in procurement management. He had early responsibility as a buyer at Rover Group, overseeing a £20 million spend. After a series of roles at various firms, he was, at 31, appointed purchasing director of an international manufacturing business. In that role he built and successfully managed a new group procurement team.

In the past two years at KPMG, Kirwan has been involved with tactical cost reduction and large strategic procurement transformation projects at various FTSE-100 companies. He undertook a six-month secondment in Munich last year to help KPMG’s German business develop its procurement advisory practice. As an executive adviser at KPMG he led a procurement project for a global oil company that identified more than $50 million (£30.1 million) of savings in six weeks.

He won the Management Consultancies Association’s “best new consultant” award in 2008.