About David Atkinson
David Atkinson is the founder and Managing Director of Four Pillars, a management consulting and training company dedicated to business transformation, procurement, sales and negotiation.
David has 28 years procurement experience in senior line management and consulting roles with a range of global organisations including Black & Decker, Lucas and Rolls-Royce. He has an MBA in Strategy and Procurement Management from the University of Birmingham where he is now a visiting lecturer. David trained in Mutual Gains Approach at Harvard Business School and holds other qualifications from Cranfield School of Management and London Business School. He a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (FCIPS) and holds the Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).
An expert in procurement (with particular emphasis on supplier performance and SRM – Supplier Relationship Management), David is an exponent of systems-thinking and servant leadership in organisations. The idea is that the role of leader is to enable and support the team in carrying out its mission, looking after the welfare of team members, and then essentially getting out of the way.
David takes his message to universities, the conference platform, and regularly blogs at Four Pillars and for the CIPS magazine Supply Management.
