Nick Welby is a seasoned procurement and supply chain executive with over 25 years’ leadership experience in complex, global, multi-site organisations within the FMCG, Automotive and life sciences sectors. He specialises in leading large-scale procurement and supply chain transformations, value stream & cost optimisation programmes and building the leadership capability, stakeholder alignment, systems enablement and spend governance needed to sustain change.

Nick’s foundations were built over nine years at Toyota as a Procurement Manager, developing a grounding in lean supply chain thinking, supplier development and category management that has underpinned his approach ever since. He went on to spend three years as Group Purchasing Manager (Manufacturing) at the Gallaher Group, managing direct materials procurement across all manufacturing sites and supporting new factory establishment in Singapore and South Africa, before three years as the Global Head of Category Management at British American Tobacco, where he ran procurement across all categories (direct & indirects) & geographies, supported a large M&A program, and created global sourcing frameworks & category strategies..

Nick then spent two years as the Head of Operations Procurement at AstraZeneca, covering both internal & contract manufacturing procurement, where he led a world-class operations and external supply chain procurement function within the highly regulated pharmaceutical environment — managing reputational risk through rigorous supplier due diligence. He also had responsibility for low-cost country sourcing hubs in India and China.

He then spent ten years as the Chief Procurement Officer & Global Business Services Director at Imperial Brands Plc, an £8bn turnover, 35,000-employee global manufacturer, where he built & led the Global Procurement & IT functions across the organisation, as well as sponsoring the Group’s end-to-end Source-to-Pay process, delivering both top and bottom line benefits through value stream projects, technology implementation and driving business wide synergies. He also led the M&A procurement integration for an acquisition in the US and established new supplier ecosystems in Asia to support the innovation & introduction of new product developments and supply chains. He is well versed in the ESG requirements of suppliers and supply chains. His final role also included building a multi-function blueprint for the Global Business Services function.

Nick brings board-level governance experience from his time as the Chief Executive Officer and Board Trustee of the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS), a £35m turnover, 250 FTE global professional body with 60,000+ members operating under Government and Charity Commission regulation. As CEO, he held full P&L accountability for the business, delivered a new five-year growth strategy repositioning CIPS as a digital content provider through new subscription, membership and commercial partner models, overseeing governance with regulators, audit partners and education providers, and initiated new market entry and revenue generation strategies in white spot locations.

Since 2025, Nick has advised a variety of businesses on procurement and supply chain transformation, market entry and supplier resilience, and currently serves as a Non-Executive Director of Social Value Portal and Vice President of England Hockey.

Known for a pragmatic, collaborative leadership style, he is skilled at building high-performing teams and supplier ecosystems, identifying and developing talent, and creating the strategic blueprint for a function while remaining close enough to execution to deliver lasting change.

Nick holds a 1^st Class BEng (Hons) in Manufacturing Engineering & Management from Loughborough University and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (FCIPS).