Marc Watson

Head of Procurement, Unitywater

Marc Watson, the Head of Procurement at Unitywater has been leading Procurement and Supply Chain teams in top ASX listed companies and Government organisations for over 20 years. To support the strategic goals of each business, Marc has developed and delivered innovative ways in Australia and overseas to engagement markets, deliver benefits, improve systems, and process and grow capability to help people have careers not just jobs. Marc has worked in the Rail Transport, Telecommunications, Hospitality, Media, Banking, Insurance, Education industry sectors and now enjoys his role at Unitywater. A recent highlight has been finalising the Unitywater Build Better Together contracts for the next 5 years’, $1.8B capital construction program.

Marc Watson’s Track Sessions

FWD›››24

Innovation Procurement Pitch at Forward Fest

Innovation procurement is emerging as an important lever in state and local government strategies for digital, smart places, sustainability solution research and development and as a key economic growth strategy. Governments and economists are increasingly seeing procurement practices as an opportunity to use the power of government as a customer to drive innovation and value chains by making procurement decisions strategically, rather than simply on the basis of cost. What is innovation procurement? “Innovation procurement” is an approach where a public buyer either buys the process of innovation – such as research and development services for a specific problem or need – or buys the outcome of innovation through a novel or emerging product or service. This fast-paced ‘shark tank’ style pitch session will enable local, emerging tech founders to present to a panel of Sunshine Coast and Queensland procurement professionals in front of a live audience. All founders have been vetted beforehand by a panel from the Queensland Ignite Spark program and identified as being well-positioned to present for this session.