We caught up with Stuart McLean, Category Team Manager in Procurement who tells us about his work in sustainable procurement, including a project he’s working on that is ensuring fair working practices in the textiles industry. He also tells us about his musical talents and his love for his VW camper. Image Stuart McLean, Category Team Manager What is your role within the Finance Department? I lead the Professional and Campus Services Procurement team. The “Professional” part means all soft services, consultancy, Staffing Agencies. The scope is very broad. The “Campus Services” part is more everyday services such as Travel, Stationery, catering, courier services. Basically anything that doesn’t fit in Labs, Estates and IT is our teams responsibility. I am also involved in a lot of Sustainability factors which effect procurement, working closely with external bodies and our Sustainability Office. What does an average day look like for you in Procurement? We share a large office in Charles Stewart house. First……get a coffee, have some more coffee then water the plants. I then check over any actions that have come in via Unidesk or email. A lot of the work I do is project based so I tend to work to a reasonably strict timetable (hopefully). My calendar is usually pretty full with activities to complete both in Procurement Projects or strategies, and working with my team to ensure we deliver the service expected of us, then get another coffee. Recently there is lot of activities in ensuring support for the Service Excellence Program to streamline service provision and realise improvements. What have you/your team been working on recently? Our team has a large variety of projects, o name some we recently let a new Graduation Gown agreement which addressed Fair Working Practices in the textile industry and reduced the cost to students to hire their gowns. Insurance for the University was also recently let. Merchandising and improving on the “everyday” services has also been a large project just starting, again introducing sustainability elements in clothing, bottles etc. There is a lot of activity In the team regarding consultancy to support the changes underway. HR activities also require various and interesting projects. What keeps you busy outside of work? My family generally keep me on my toes. I have two daughters one 20 who’s is at Glasgow Uni and the other 14 who is in High School (enough said ). I’m married to Susan who is a Psychologist, and that comes in handy. I also play drums in various bands, enjoy Fly Fishing, Music and keeping my VW camper on the road. This article was published on 2024-07-01
