21 September 2006

Alison Littley is to be the new chief executive of the Office of Government Commerce's commercial trading arm OGCbuying.solutions. Littley, who has a background in the private sector and has spent the past seven years working for drinks business Diageo, will take over from current chief executive Hugh Barrett on 2 October.

At Diageo, Littley was responsible for developing and implementing the global marketing procurement strategy. While there she built and led a procurement team to manage a global spend of £1.4 billion.

Barrett, who has helped achieve savings of more than £800 million at OGCbuying.solutions, is still deciding on his next move.

Littley said: "I am thrilled to be joining OGCbuying.solutions and looking forward to working with the team."

John Oughton, OGC chief executive, added: "Alison brings important private-sector procurement skills to her new role, which will further enhance the delivery of savings to the public sector."

SMsep2006