John Utterback is the State Purchasing Director for the State of Colorado, Department of Personnel and Administration. John has been responsible for directing public procurement operations for over 27 years. Most recently, since 2002, John was the Purchasing Director for Colorado State University. Colorado State is a large university with over 25,000 students and over 6,000 staff and faculty. Prior to CSU, John was the Director of Procurement for the Colorado Department of Human Services for eight years. At CDHS John was responsible for overall central administration of the purchasing and contracting operations for the department. In addition, three district purchasing and materials management operations reported to John. Prior to joining CDHS, John was the director of Business Services for Metropolitan State College of Denver, one of the nation’s largest four year public colleges. John was responsible for purchasing, contracting, facilities liaison, and telecommunications operations. Throughout his career, John has served in a leadership position at the state level, serving for over 15 years as an executive member of the State of Colorado Purchasing Advisory Council. John has actively contributed to purchasing and contracting improvement for the state. In 2006 John led his purchasing department at Colorado State University for the first time in applying for the National Purchasing Institute’s Achievement of Excellence in Procurement Award and was successful in winning. In 2006, John was successful in building support for an EProcurement solution for Colorado State University and received the financial commitment to contract for and implement the system in 2007.