Westpac's Nick Lardner wins top prize at Procurement Awards

Westpac's Nick Lardner (right) and Economic Development Minister Simon Bridges (left) at the awards. Picture / supplied.

The second New Zealand Procurement Excellence Awards last night saw Westpac's Nick Lardner take out the top award.

Lardner was named Young Procurement Professional of the Year earlier in the night before being named the overall winner.

The judges described him as being the "perfect procurement professional" with a good balance of both IQ and EQ.

The awards, hosted at EY's offices in Auckland last night, were created to raise awareness of the benefits of good procurement practices to New Zealand and to celebrate excellence.

According to the judging panel, Lardner's passion for procurement was demonstrated through his "Procurement Sprint" sessions, which he created to encourage the knowledge sharing within his Westpac Team, to develop tactics, strategies and objectives to support team members with current projects or issues.

Sustainability was also celebrated with a new category - Sustainability Project of the Year - taken out by Auckland Transport's City Rail Link team.

ASB Bank also had a successful night, winning Procurement Team of the Year and with general manager for Group Procurement Mark Jones being named Procurement Professional of the Year.

Comvita was awarded the Successful Procurement Change award.

Advisory Partner at EY Scott Blackwood said the awards recognised the significant value that good procurement practices could deliver toward growing New Zealand's economy.

"Every year New Zealand's Government and Private sectors spend billions of dollars on external goods, services and works," Blackwood said.

"A well-established and effective procurement function ensures this money is utilised wisely and delivers real benefits in the form of better economic, environmental, social and Mana Whenua outcomes for our respective organisations and our country."

Category winners
• Mark Jones, ASB - Procurement Professional of the Year
• Nick Lardner, Westpac - Young Procurement Professional of the Year
• ASB - Procurement Team of the Year
• Comvita - Successful Procurement Change Award
• Auckland Transport's City Rail Link - Sustainability Project of the Year