At last night’s Procurement Awards ceremony in Crowne Plaza Hotel, Santry Jeanne Copeland accompanied by Lionel’s daughter Elizabeth Sarah McCarthy and his son Lionel McCarthy Junior accepted a posthumous ‘Procurement Leader of the Year 2024’ award for Lionel Mc Carthy. 

Lionel was born in Belfast during the Second World War and was educated in Dublin and De La Salle Waterford, before qualifying as an engineer. He took up a job in the Electricity Supply Board, working in internal audit, marketing and distribution and finally ending up in Procurement.

At ESB he gained a specific interest in law and the Irish constitution. It was this interest that drove him take a career break to study law at Trinity College, gaining a first-class degree! On his return, he moved to the Load Research Team before taking up the role of project lead for the Egyptian Electricity Authority under a World Bank Project in Cairo for 5 years. It was here that he was introduced to the concept of procurement, supply chain issues and World Bank rules.

On his return to ESB, he was appointed Senior buyer in charge of power generation in the newly established Materials Department. He was nominated to numerous European committees to debate the new Utilities Directive which was ultimately adopted in the early 1990s – at the same time as the expansion of the Internal Market project as part of the European Commission’s focus on expanding the scope of procurement to include services as well as the inclusion of utilities in the water, energy, transport and postal sectors into the regulated procurement regime.

At this time Ireland was going through one of its many difficult periods and Lionel, working at the coalface of procurement, understood that the Internal Market could either be a threat or an opportunity for Irish suppliers. At ESB he was instrumental in organising numerous joint North-South Meet the Buyer events, leading the team who won the Taoiseach’s award for public procurement in 1992 and 1993.

In 1996 he established the Forum on Public Procurement in Ireland – a unique membership organisation bringing buyers and suppliers together to promote greater appreciation of procurement outside of the tension of a public tender scenario.

In 1997, along with Jeanne Copeland, he set up Achilles Procurement Services, a dedicated procurement consultancy and training business which he led up until 2016. Achilles was involved in supporting many public sector and utility clients through the complexity of EU procurement legislation, the interpretation of judgments from the European Court of Justice and the practical application of those rules to significant and everyday procurements. He pushed through barriers, fear and resistance to drive more strategic procurement and promoted the use of negotiation and competitive dialogue.

During this time, he was responsible for the development and ultimate widespread adoption of the formula now used for scoring cost, a development he was very proud of. He was also instrumental in establishing the first formal public procurement training course with the Institute of Public Administration – the Certificate in Public Procurement, which has now trained over 1,000 students, a course which has become the standard qualification for procurement professionals.

In 2017 he supported the establishment of Greenville Procurement Partners by Jeanne and Elizabeth-Sarah. He worked with Greenville right up until his very sudden passing in June this year – advising, guiding, supporting and promoting clients and the Greenville team with his unique and unrivalled love of procurement.

His influence on the public procurement profession in Ireland was widespread – his love of, and enthusiasm for the European Regime and Public Procurement was infectious and the knowledge he brought to each client and procurement engagement along with his understanding of what was necessary to ensure a successful result was unparalleled.

Lionel McCarthy,
Procurement Consultant and Trainer
Proprietor Forge Road Consulting and Company Secretary of Greenville Procurement Partners Ltd.