Tutor Profiles

UNDP tutors are drawn from both UNDP's own staff as well as its roster of external experts.

You can be assured that all have extensive and relevant experience. A selection of their profiles are shown here.

Alfonso Buxens
Alfonso Buxens re-joined UNDP/PSO in January 2009 as Team Leader for the Special Advisory Team in the Crisis Prevention and Recovery Procurement Unit. He previously worked for UNDP / IAPSO from 1996-2001 as Junior Procurement Officer and Procurement Officer. In the years between, Alfonso worked for the UNOPS as Procurement Specialist, Carl Bro a/s (now Grontmij-Carl Bro), a Danish management consulting company active in the area of development work and public sector development as Project Manager and for the IADB as Principal Procurement Specialist in Nicaragua. During his professional career, Alfonso has been exposed to a wide variety of strategic and operational aspects of the procurement function, as procurement practitioner, consultant, manager, trainer and conceptualizer, both in headquarters and in the field. His experience encompasses reform and strengthening of national public procurement systems. Alfonso has developed and tutored procurement capacity development courses and workshops for UNDP, UNOPS and the IADB. A Spanish citizen, Alfonso and holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration / Financial Management from Universidad de Deusto and completed an MBA in Strategy and Procurement Management at the University of Birmingham.

Alfonso Fernandez de Castro
Alfonso Fernandez de Castro is currently Procurement Advisor in the Procurement Strategy & Policy Support Unit in UNDP Headquarters NY. With more than 10 years in procurement and supply chain management, Alfonso joint UNDP in 2002 in Copenhagen, Denmark. From 2002 to 2004 he was Procurement Advisor in the Regional Service Center in Johannesburg for the African Region. Prior to joint HQ in NY he was head of the Global Procurement Unit in UNDP/ IAPSO. For the past 6 years has conducted standard and tailormade courses for several organizations, including UNDP, UNPD and Government organizations around the world. Alfonso is a Spanish national and holds a Master's Degree in Business Administration.

Gerard Gomez
Gerard Gomez is currently Chief, Global Procurement Unit in UNDP/PSO (Procurement Support Office) overseeing direct procurement support to UNDP Country Offices in strategic practice areas. He has extensive experience in public procurement and has conducted several training courses and workshops in procurement. Gerard Gomez started his involvement with the UN system in 2000. He worked on UNDP’s Electricity Rehabilitation project for Northern Iraq from 2000 till 2003 in senior procurement posts, before becoming Chief, Procurement for UNDP Iraq. He joined UNDP/IAPSO as Deputy Director in 2006 and steered IAPSO through the partial merger of IAPSO with UNOPS which was successfully implemented on 1 January 2008. Prior to joining the UN he was involved in procurement and contract management for large scale infrastructure projects. He thus has a solid background in international public procurement and multi-sectoral projects. Gerard Gomez is a Malaysian National and his academic background is in mechanical engineering.

Jack Gottling
Jack Gottling has been a tutor on UNDP's training courses for past 10 years and has conducted standard and tailormade courses for several organizations, including UNDP and UNECA in both Africa and Asia. His main expertise lies within procurement policies and practices as well as supplier relations management. Jack Gottling joined the UN system in 1979 and thus has a solid background in international procurement procedures. In 1993, he joined UNDP/IAPSO and later became Deputy Director and responsible for the Procurement Services Unit and member of the Management Team . He was responsible for the co-ordination of accelerated project deliveries to UNDP country offices. In addition, he coordinated procurement policy matters concerning projects financed by the World Bank, the African Development Bank and other development banks. He was also responsible for UNDP/IAPSO’ s Marine Cargo Insurance Policy and Global Freight Forwarding arrangements. His earlier assignments include Senior Procurement Officer with the UN specialized Agency ILO in Geneva (1979-1993). He has undertaken a large number of procurement missions to country offices as well as projects mainly in Africa and Asia. Jack Gottling retired from UNDP as Deputy Director in 2007 and is now one of our external tutors. Jack Gottling is a Swedish National and his academic background is in mechanical engineering.

Marco Sosted
Marco Soested has been a tutor on UNDP's training courses for several years and has conducted standard and tailor-made courses for various organizations, including UNDP, in both Africa and the Middle East. Marco Soested joined UNDP in 1995 and has solid experience in identifying, planning and undertaking large scale procurement on behalf of UNDP, UN, GO and NGO clients world-wide. In 2004, he has provided procurement related support to the UNDP Country offices in Yemen, Jerusalem and Sudan where he was stationed for a longer period of time. His main expertise lies within the area of procurement, contracting and logistics. Marco is a regular tutor on our courses on Fundamentals of Public Procurement, "Logistics and Incoterms” and “Risk Management in Contracting for Construction Services”. Since 2004, Marco has worked with the implementation of UNDP’s procurement strategy and applied various analytical tools, such as spend analysis, supply and demand analysis and transaction analysis. Marco has conducted several field missions on behalf of UNDP to e.g. Zambia, UAE, Sri Lanka, Palestinian Territories, Afghanistan, Russian Federation, where he conducted supplier inspections and assisted UNDP Country Offices with training and streamlining procurement processes, and developing procurement capacities. Marco is a Danish National and his academic background is in Economics.

Peter Adler
Peter Adler has been a regular tutor on UNDP/IAPSO courses for the past 12 years. Today his main focus is on procurement negotiations where he tutors "Effective Negotiations in Projects and Procurement”. As a tutor, Peter Adler draws upon his long experience within procurement in the UN system. His career within the UN began in 1979 when he joined the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna as Chief of its Field Procurement Section. From there, he was appointed in 1986 by UNDP/IAPSO in Geneva as its Senior Technical Advisor. In 1990, he became IAPSO’s Deputy Director and Director of the Division of Procurement Services in Copenhagen, Denmark. In spring 1998, Mr. Adler took over the function of UNDP’s Senior Procurement Advisor to the Assistant Administrator of UNDP in New York, which he left in May 1999 to temporarily assist the UNDP project for electrification of Northern Iraq, as its Chief of Procurement. Mr. Adler retired from UNDP effective 1 Jan 2000 and has since worked as an independent consultant. Mr. Adler is a graduated physicist and holds a Ph.D. in Physics and Chemistry. In addition, he has graduated in Economics and Business Management.

Poul Muller
Poul Muller has been a tutor on UNDP's training courses since 2007 and has conducted standard and tailor-made courses for various organizations in both Europe and the Middle East. Poul Muller joined UNDP/IAPSO in 1994 and has solid experience in handling large scale supply chain management and e-procurement projects on behalf of UNDP, UN, GO and NGO clients world-wide. In 2007, he has provided procurement related support to the UNDP Country office in South Sudan where he was stationed for a longer period of time as acting Head of Procurement, Contracting and Logistics. His main expertise lies within the area of procurement, contracting and logistics. Poul is now a regular tutor on our courses on Fundamentals of Public Procurement; and Logistics & Incoterms. Since 2008, Poul has been a Procurement Advisor at the Global Procurement Unit (GPU) within UNDP/PSO and is Team Leader for CPR and Country Office Support and Project Manager for Electoral Procurement. Poul has conducted several field missions on behalf of UNDP and WHO to e.g. Ghana, North and South Sudan, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Africa, Mozambique and Sierra Leone. Poul is a Danish National and his academic background is in Economics and with a graduate diploma in Logistics and Supply Chain Management and Informatics.

Secil Tas
Secil Tas joined the UNDP in January 2006. Secil works in the Country Office in Turkey where she manages all procurement within the context of Projects/Programmes and Common Services, as well as administrative/operational nature. In addition, she serves as a Roving Procurement Officer and is thereby recognized as a resource person in the UNDP globally. Her main expertise lies within complex procurements, procurement risk management, contract management, field procurement, construction contracts and programmatic/operational challenges. As a tutor, Secil has experience from delivering trainings to CO staff, Project/Programme Field Offices and Government Counterparts. When joining UNDP, she brought with her 10 years of experience from the private sector. As Commercial Specialist in business development with Siemens, she was responsible for the procurement cycle, including preparation of international large scale tenders, negotiations, contract and project management through SAP. Secil is a Turkish national and her academic background is in business administration. She has also completed a post graduate program on International Trade in Canada Ryerson Polytechnic Univesity in cooperation with Forum for International Trade Training of Canada.

Torben Soll
Torben Soll is Team Leader in the Quality Assurance and Professionalisation unit in UNDP's Procurement Support Office. He is responsible for the design, development and implementation of procurement capacity development, learning and quality assurance initiatives at individual, organizational and partner country levels. Torben is a regular tutor on UNDP courses with the main focus being on Procurement Strategy Development, Fundamentals of Public Procurement, and Contract & Supplier Relations Management. Prior to joining UNDP in 2004, Torben spent four years with the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UNESCWA) in Lebanon, where he worked as Team Leader and Economic Affairs Officer. Before joining the UN system in 2000, he worked 7 years as Chief Consultant in Ramboll Management Ltd, the largest Danish private management consulting company in the area of public sector development. Torben is a Danish national and holds a Master's Degree in Public Administration.

Victor Margall
Victor Margall joined UNDP in 2006 and works today as Procurement Analyst and Team Leader for Electoral Procurement with PSO in Copenhagen. He manages and coordinates complex electoral procurement projects and Long Term Agreements (LTAs), conducts support missions to UNDP Country Offices and participates as facilitator in procurement workshops. Examples of these are UNDP GFATM and Elections Workshops in Geneva and Copenhagen as well as support missions to Afghanistan and Tanzania. As a tutor, his primary expertise lies within public procurement and contract management and can deliver courses in both English and Spanish. His work experience with UNDP includes also the management of LTAs and UNWEBBUY content (electronic procurement platform) as well as supervising the GFATM Procurement Team at PSO, dedicated to supply Laboratory and Medical Equipment to UNDP projects and its beneficiaries worldwide. Prior to joining UNDP, he worked with UNICEF Supply Division, where his main focus was large contracts for Emergency and Water/Sanitation projects, as well as Strategic Analysis of UNICEF’s Global procurement for Immunization. In addition, he brings with him experience from the private sector as consultant and Market and Sales Analyst at IBERIA (Spanish Airlines – Scandinavian Office). Victor is a Spanish national and holds a BBA and MBA Masters Degree by ESADE (Barcelona), and a Cand. Merc. Masters Degree in International Management and Marketing by CBS (Copenhagen Business School).

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