Volunteer Newsletter April 2026
Welcome to the April update, celebrating you and your volunteering activities during the first quarter of 2026 and a look ahead to what’s coming up.
Give Gain Grow
Mentoring Circles 2026
A huge thank you to our global FCIPS who have volunteered to participate in the fifth Mentoring Circles programme. We were delighted to receive over 70 registrations from both new and returning mentors globally.
The time, knowledge and expertise provided by our FCIPS volunteers enables CIPS to offer a unique opportunity for members to participate in these valuable sessions.
For this phase of the Circles, it has been truly inspiring to see former mentees – now FCIPS – step forward as mentors, using their achievements and FCIPS status to give back to CIPS and the profession.
Circle topics and dates will be advertised to potential mentees during April, with the programmes running during May and June.
Volunteers visiting CIPS at WestPoint
Since moving into the new UK Headquarters, it has been great to host visiting volunteers and groups.
In February we welcomed Marco Cantagallo, Branch Chair and Paolo Zaza, committee member of the CIPS Italy Branch, to discuss the branch action plan for 2026 and meet with Ben Farrell, CIPS CEO.
During March we also hosted the Construction Senior Leaders Group for their bi-monthly meeting.
Led by the Group Chair Lee Taylor, the agenda for the day included a discussion on how CIPS can support their organisations and sector through products, services and member value, plus topical discussions on the current construction climate.
Volunteers supporting Volunteers
Promoting Procurement & Supply Chain Management as a ‘Career of Choice’ to the next generation is a key focus area for CIPS and our volunteers. We were delighted to see global collaboration between our UK and PAN ASEAN branches on this topic.
Gaynor Smith – CIPS Central Education Group, Education Liaison Officer & Vice Chair, Birmingham & Coventry branch was introduced to Santi Octaviani and Irwanna Malek from the PAN ASEAN Branch to discuss volunteering activities within Education.
To provide a broader perspective on what the Education Group do, Gaynor brought together fellow group members Elizabeth Durham – Vice Chair, West of Scotland Branch, Iain Steel – Chair, West of Scotland branch and Lucie Fierdehaichemaheas – Education Liaison Officer, Central London branch.
Santi commented:
‘’It was incredibly helpful to hear about the strategies, challenges, and successes encountered by the group. Their insights provided valuable guidance as the PAN ASEAN Branch work to enhance educational initiatives across the network. As a branch we are new to volunteering within education, so the call gave us an opportunity to look at volunteering in education from a global lens.”
Branch Event Spotlight
As volunteers you do an amazing job in creating and delivering engaging and informative events throughout the year. On Wednesday 25th March, a group from CIPS’ Yorkshire Branch enjoyed a fascinating visit to Veolia’s Recycling & Energy Recovery Facility in Leeds. The talk and guided tour was genuinely eye opening.
As we walked the grilled walkways and climbed over 100 stairs in the 7-storey facility, we learned from our fabulous host, Helen, about how advanced technology is being used to transform Leeds’ domestic waste collections into energy. Zero waste goes to landfill; as well as energy generation the plant feeds into the provision of low carbon heat and hot water to homes, businesses, and public buildings via the Leeds PIPES district heat network. Even the ash produced at the end of the process doesn’t go to waste and is instead turned into aggregate for roadbuilding.
The striking building was designed by the internationally renowned architect, Jean-Robert Mazaud of S’pace Architects, and even features a huge living wall, which at around 1,800m², it is one of the largest living walls in Europe.
The wall incorporates over 100,000 plants, including meadow species, shrubs, small trees, and more than 700 habitat boxes, all designed to support and enhance local biodiversity. There are even two bee hives on site!
It was an informative and surprisingly inspiring glimpse into how Leeds is working towards a more sustainable future.
MORE DETAILS HERE
Recognising an incredible milestone
Congratulations and huge thanks to Mike Brown FCIPS for his passion and commitment to the Education Group. Mike has reached the incredible total of 102 education events, delivering sessions to 31 universities and 71 schools. On average this equates to 5000 plus students being inspired to consider procurement and supply as a career choice.
CIPS Australia and New Zealand
The branches in Australia and New Zealand have kicked off 2026 with some fantastic events! From having breakfast together, playing lawn bowls, hearing about how major transformations were navigated at Health NZ | Te Whatu Ora and finding out the latest on how procurement maturity is evolving across Australia
It has been great to see so many people from the community come together to start the year in the best possible way.
Welcoming New CIPS Volunteers in the ANZ Region
Excitingly, since the last Volunteer Newsletter, we have welcomed 13 new volunteers across 4 branches! We cannot wait to see them at events in the future and work with them to support those in the procurement and supply profession.
- VIC Committee welcomes, Gareth Davies, Guli Tursumtova MCIPS, Jay Puthusseri, Lillian Kagi-Snowball and Mohit Karat
- QLD Committee welcomes, Ben Potztal, Bobby Fitzsimmons MCIPS, Obre Pemberton and Silke Therhaag
- WA Committee welcomes, Autumn (Qiuxia) Sun, Craig Medley and Olivia McCormick
- NZ Southern Committee welcomes, AJ Akhtar
Remembering Malcolm Budd
At the end of February, we received the sad news of the passing of Mal Budd. As a longstanding member and volunteer Mal’s contribution to the procurement and supply profession, and to CIPS, will always be remembered, and his passion to help others and share his knowledge will be greatly missed.
In other news
Thank you to the volunteers who have stepped forward to support wider CIPS initiatives and projects including
- reviewing and providing feedback on how we can improve the content and the look and feel of the intelligence hub section of the CIPS website
- delivering inspirational and motivational talks to learners enrolled on CIPS procurement training programmes. Volunteer guest speakers are providing real-world insight into procurement careers, promoting professional development, and the value of achieving professional qualifications such as MCIPS
CIPS updates and what’s coming up
- The Situation Room is now live on the CIPS website, keeping you updated on how current events are affecting the procurement and supply profession on a global scale
- Engagement opportunities
- Global Volunteer Drop-In’s 23 Apr 08.30 BST, 21 May 13.00 BST, 18 Jun 16.00 BST, 16 Jul 08.30 BST
- Volunteer Induction 22 May 12.00 BST, for all those new volunteers recently onboarded
- UK & Europe Branch Chair Drop-In 26 May 17.00 BST, 23 Jul 08.30 BST
- Upcoming branch events can be found here
And don’t forget………
CIPS Connect community platform is the perfect place for you to share these, and other stories, first hand.
Finally, thank you for everything you have contributed, you are amazing and we really appreciate you!
CIPS Membership Team
Contact us please get in touch if you have any questions or suggestions for our next newsletter, we are always happy to hear from you. Please email branchevents@cips.org