Niall O'Halloran, Purchasing Manager at Rochestown Park Hotel and founder of Ventura Management Consulting, joins the judging panel for the National Procurement Awards 2026, bringing a career defined by hands-on procurement practice, academic contribution, and a genuine commitment to developing the next generation of procurement professionals.

A graduate of hospitality studies from Munster Technological University Cork, Niall joined the Rochestown Park Hotel in 1995 and has held the role of Purchasing Manager there since 2001, building over two decades of sustained procurement experience within a single organisation. That long-term institutional knowledge has given him a depth of operational understanding that broader career paths rarely produce.

His academic credentials are equally strong. Niall completed his diploma with the IIPMM in 2005 and went on to obtain an honours law degree from University College Cork in 2013, a combination that reflects both his commitment to professional development and the increasingly cross-disciplinary nature of modern procurement practice. Following a period of lecturing for the IIPMM, Niall formed part of the team that developed and launched the Certificate in Procurement Management programme at UCC in 2016, a course on which he has continued to lecture.

In 2019, Niall O'Halloran established Ventura Management Consulting, a business dedicated to advising small and medium enterprises on procurement strategies that reflect their scale, sector, and maturity. That advisory focus on SMEs is particularly valuable within the context of the National Procurement Awards, which recognises excellence across organisations of all sizes and sectors.

Beyond consulting and lecturing, Niall regularly mentors aspiring managers, guided by his favourite principle from Ralph Nader: that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. It is a philosophy that runs through everything he does, and one that speaks directly to the spirit of what the National Procurement Awards seeks to celebrate.

The National Procurement Awards 2026 gala takes place on 22nd October at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Santry.

View the full list of judges here www.procurementawards.ie/judges, and subscribe to the newsletter to stay up to date with announcements, shortlists, and event news.