On 18 May 2016, the NATO Communications and Information Agency General Manager Koen Gijsbers and the Director of Acquisition, Mr Peter Scaruppe attended the Spanish Information Day on NATO Business Opportunities Procedures. The conference was held at the Higher Centre for National Defence Studies (CESEDEN) in Madrid, Spain.
The NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) was also in attendance and was represented by its General Manager Mike Lyden, and the Director of Procurement, Mr Patrick Fesquet.
The presentation by the NCI Agency highlighted the importance of cooperation between the NATO Agencies and industry. The day's programme also included a discussion between Mr Scaruppe and representatives from Spanish industry.
"The excellent setup of this conference, presentations to a large audience combined with one-on-one meetings with Small and Medium Enterprises, allowed us to reach our goal for this event: reaching out to and engaging directly with the very capable Spanish IT, C4ISR and cyber industry," said Mr Scaruppe, Director of Acquisition.
This session gave Spanish companies the opportunity to ask specific questions or clarifications regarding procurement processes at the NCI Agency. A similar discussion session also took place between the NSPA Director of Procurement and local industry.
"The event provided an invaluable opportunity for the Spanish industry to meet face-to-face with the NCI Agency leadership and helped the audience to get a flavor of the Agency mission, objectives, activities and procedures, with special focus on the acquisition domain," said COL Manuel Herraiz Martínez, Spanish National Technical Expert.
A number of additional informative sessions took place during the conference, including a panel discussion titled 'Lessons learnt on procurement', during which COL Martínez discussed NCI Agency business opportunities.