Gregory K.Spearman received his B. S. Degree from Fort Valley State College, Fort Valley, Georgia in 1970 and Master’s Degrees from Atlanta University (1974) Atlanta, Georgia and the University of Houston (1976) Houston, Texas. He worked for the Houston-Galveston Area Council of Governments as a Health Care Consultant and then as a Purchasing Planner for the Agency’s Cooperative Purchasing Program where he was the Administrator for the Cooperative Purchasing Program for a period of four years. He was Director of Purchasing for the City of Savannah, Georgia from 1986 to 1991. In the later part of 1991, he became the Director of Purchasing for the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Purchasing Department, a joint City-County operation. While in Charlotte, he was instrumental in implementing a number of cost saving measures including “Just In Time” contracts for Inventory Items. He also was part of team that oversaw the RFP process for the competition of various City services against the private sector. In 2000, he went to work in the private sector for Onvia, a company that produces Web Based Purchasing Software for public agencies. He helped to develop purchasing solutions for agencies needing to improve their purchasing process via automation. Mr. Spearman is a Certified Public Purchasing Officer and a Florida Certified Contracts Manager and has been active in the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing for a number of years as a seminar presenter, instructor and mentor. He is currently Director of Purchasing for the City of Tampa where he manages a staff of 40 and is responsible for the day to day operation for the acquisition of various goods and services and inventory management for the City.