John Calder

At a glance:

Joined Baringa in
2015

Works across
all sectors that have supply chains and procurement functions

Worldly wisdom
Be intellectually curious and learn by doing

In detail:

John leads Baringa’s supply chain and procurement team, an area he’s been specialising in since the start of his career. He loves the function for its tangibility, the down to earth people that make it happen and its global reach. 

John’s preference for working with things of a tangible nature comes from his first job after studying business management at university. Working at BMW’s then-new MINI plant near Oxford, John helped establish the foundations of a production line that would later supply all MINIs around the world. Doing so gave him insight into how to set up strong and resilient supply chains from the ground up, something he wanted to do for other companies as a consultant. 

Before joining Baringa, John worked at a big four firm, where he supported some of Europe’s largest supply chain centralisations in consumer products and retail before moving into a global role transforming industrial supply chains in oil and gas, Chemicals and metals and mining. John enjoys getting under the skin of the challenge in hand and building relationships with the people he works with, whether in the UK, partnering with a global telco client for three and a half years, or South Africa, where he spent four years driving a supply chain transformation for a global consumer goods company. 

Though he has many proud career moments, leading the programme that designed and deployed the NHS COVID vaccine supply chain is a particularly meaningful achievement for John. Partnering with NHS, his team delivered an unprecedented resilient and agile supply chain that was a key enabler for the success of the UK Covid Vaccine programme.

In his spare time, when he’s not running, biking, playing football, or spending time with his wife, two sons and the family dog, he’s helping a charity close to his heart, Bliss, who support babies born premature or sick. John’s also passionate about food sustainability and manages his own supply chain of self-grown fruit and veg coming into the kitchen from the allotment he built in the garden.