North East England Construction Summit 2021

Adam is a product of the North East and it’s institutions, hailing from the region and studying to become an Architect at Northumbria and Newcastle Universities.

On graduating, Adam moved to London to work for Sir Terry Farrell on a number of high-end residential, commercial and mixed-use masterplan projects across the capital. He returned to the North East in 2017 to work for FaulknerBrowns Architects and since has become an active member of the North East Generation for Change (G4C) committee, and Constructing Excellence North East. He is now leading on the Value theme of OneVoice developing his keen interest in seeing the industry and the region grow, improve and flourish.

Dan is a founder of MyGlobalHome. He is a multi award winning technologist with a proved track record delivering industry leading products and services into the global construction industry

After graduating from the university of Surrey in 2001, Dan has founded a series of successful ventures operating in the smart homes and buildings market. His career has taken him around the world and seen him involved in projects at the most prestigious addresses.

MyGlobalHome has presented an opportunity for Dan to distill his understanding of smart homes and construction supply chains to bring a new business model into the market streamlining processes and driving market adoption of truly smart homes.

Darush heads up Esh Group’s Corporate Affairs function; responsible for communications, events, brand, carbon reduction and Esh Group’s award-winning Social Value strategy – ‘Constructing Local’.

With over 15-years’ experience in the delivery of Education, Employment, Engagement and Economic programmes, and Esh’s whole business approach to community wealth building. Darush’s team deliver measurable socioeconomic benefits for Esh’s clients and their communities as part of the procurement process.

In addition to his role at Esh, Darush is a member CENE’s One Voice People and Climate Groups, Chair of the North East Institute of Technology’s Construction Board and a Governor at Middlesbrough College.

David is responsible for the development of the strategy, and implementation of the WSP action plan to halve the total carbon in our projects by 2030. David’s passion stems from a deep-seated desire to transform the industry into the low carbon future required in response to the climate emergency.

As the Net Zero Lead, David has collaborated with multiple clients on a suite of new and existing projects to ensure appropriate targets are being established alongside action plans to deliver significant improvements. At all stages of a project, David is engaged in delivering sustainable designs which dramatically reduce whole life carbon through holistic thinking and material efficiency.

Dr Elouise Leonard-Cross is Head of People Strategy & Experience for Northumbrian Water Group. A ‘curious collaborator’ Elouise thrives on asking and exploring the questions to help organisations be happy and healthy places to work, supporting businesses improve performance, recruit and develop diverse talent and increase employee engagement and wellbeing.

An Occupational Psychologist by trade, Elouise started her career in retail and has worked in HR, Communications & Strategy roles. A Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and Chair of the North East of England Branch, she is passionate about the role that People Professionals play in making organisations human and successful.

Oliver is an active ambassador for net zero futures, healthy buildings and research + innovation in our sector. He leads the research activity at Ryder Architecture to manage and develop their growing research power. The role involves working with international though leaders, academics and governments to deliver pioneering research projects focused on optimising building performance. Key to this is developing collaborative partnerships with advanced material and technology start ups as well as promoting our findings openly for the benefit of the wider community. I am involved in several government steering groups, developing smart construction dashboards, the UK value toolkit and Scotland’s first Net Zero Public Sector Buildings Standard.

Duncan has 30 years’ experience in construction. After 16 years in the Royal Engineers delivering contraction projects worldwide he settled in the North East where he has delivered a number of major schemes in including the multi-award winning Northern Spire. Duncan is a leading member of our global project management community leading the drive within the business to professionalise project and programme management and ensure that all projects succeed.

BIM Academy is in a fantastic position to influence and improve the built environment. Their mission is to optimise the built environment through smart processes and digital technology.

Graham is responsible for leading strategy and implementation of digital transformation strategies specific to clients’ real needs. This goes beyond BIM: it is as much about the people as it is about the technology. He has over 12 years’ experience in construction and academia, also completing a PhD in early 2015.

Hollie Statham is Design Manager at Bowmer and Kirkland, one of the largest, most successful privately-owned construction and development groups in the UK.

As well as being Generation4Change (G4C) North East co-chair, Hollie champions schemes such as NELEP Enterprise Advisors scheme, NAWIC North East, NEUPC Engagement Lead, CITB Construction Ambassadors and Career Ready. In 2019, She won the title of G4C New Professional of the Year in 2019 and Mentor of the Year in 2020.

Alongside Mark Thompson, Ryder Architecture, Hollie is leading on the People theme for OneVoice, driving the strategies outlined in the action plan forward, to influence the future of the construction industry.

Jack is the Deputy Director of Estates for Newcastle University, a Russel Group University located in the heart of Newcastle upon Tyne. Graduating with a degree in Construction Management from over the road at Northumbria University, Jack started his career as a project management consultant for AECOM, working for a number of HE and FE clients including Cambridge and Coventry Universities. Since joining Newcastle University in 2014 he has delivered a number of large capital projects for the institution, the most recent being the CENE award winning Dame Margaret Barbour building. Jack is now responsible for the universities estates development teams including Capital, Improvements, Maintenance, Property and Planning.

Since joining the NHC Karen has worked within the social housing sector supporting local councils and housing associations across the North of England in responding to housing and planning reforms.

Prior to joining the NHC, Karen worked in local government, including the North East Combined Authority. Her areas of expertise include housing regeneration, affordable housing, private rented sector, housing decarbonisation and housing standards.

Leanne started with Bellway Homes in 2022 as Group Head of Sustainability, responsible for delivering their sustainability strategy ‘Better with Bellway’. Committed to sustainability, climate change, reducing carbon and promoting innovative and collaborative construction methods to achieve sustainable objectives within the industry, she has spent 16 years in environmental and sustainability roles with main contractors (Sir Robert McAlpine, BAM Nuttall and Galliford Try) before moving to the housebuilding sector. She is a member of the CENE Climate Emergency Group and until recently was on the OneVoice Steering Group.

Louise has worked within resources and engineering sectors internationally for over 15 years.

She has managed and implemented both global and local talent management and development strategies including early careers strategies and programmes, talent and performance management, leadership development and succession planning, employee engagement, competency development and various learning programs.

Mark was appointed Mace’s Group Chief Executive in 2013 and Chairman in January 2022. He has overseen the company’s revenue growth from £1bn to £2bn. He has consistently championed change within the industry, driving innovation to improve service excellence while ensuring Mace continues to be a more productive, efficient and responsible company.

Mark gained his early experience in the commercial and aviation sectors and was the Deputy Programme Director for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Mark was appointed in June 2022 as Co-Chair of the Construction Leadership Council, to help lead the next steps of our industry’s transformation. Mark is also a Board Director for BusinessLDN and the Northern Powerhouse Partnership.

Dr Natasha Boulding is the founder and CEO of Low Carbon Materials, a climate tech company developing material-based solutions in the race to Net-Zero. Natasha has patents in the area of advanced materials and has raised grant funding and private investment upward of £2.5 million. She sits on the advisory board for the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) start-up division and has been recognised by Forbes 30 under 30. Natasha has led LCM to win numerous awards.In 2022 LCM was announced as a finalist for the prestigious Earthshot Prize.

Nik joined the social housing sector in 2009, having previously worked in project management, under-taking large scale developments across Newcastle city centre. She is passionate about the north east, taking an active role on the Constructing Excellence North East board, driving the change agenda in construction, housing and regeneration. Nik is part of the executive team at believe and is responsible for front line services, fostering a culture of customer excellence and ensuring that believe housing have a varied portfolio of properties across Durham county that people want to live in.

Paul leads the advocacy engagement of the European woodworking and sawmill industries towards the European institutions, especially the Parliament and the Commission. Increasing the use of sustainable wood products in construction and in The Renovation Wave are the priorities.

Paul is a former UK Member of the European Parliament who served on both the Environment Committee and the Agriculture Committee. He led for the Socialists & Democrats political grouping on forestry and timber issues and was a rapporteur on the last EU forest strategy and on the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry legislation where he was instrumental in achieving the inclusion of the promotion of long-life harvested wood products, particularly engineered timbers, for use in construction.

Peter has been the Chief Executive of the Construction Products Association since May 2019 following five years as Deputy Chief Executive and Policy Director.

A Chartered Architect with more than 35 years of experience, Peter is particularly respected for his leadership across the wider construction industry. Most recently he has represented the CPA at the Industry Response Group, initiated by the UK Government to advise and organise a response that will help make existing buildings safe in the wake of the Grenfell disaster. He was also asked by Dame Judith Hackitt to chair the Regulations working group for her independent review, and sit on both the Products and Golden Thread working groups. In 2018 he was asked by the UK Housing Minister to support a government working group on modern methods of construction in the housing sector.

Rob is CEO of Space Group, which includes Space Architects, BIMtechnologies, bimstore and Twinview.

He is an architect by profession and has been a passionate advocate of improving the construction sector for over 20 years. He is co-founder of BIM Show Live, which has promoted the benefits of digital construction for ten years and launched Inspiration Day to encourage young people to consider a career in the construction sector.

His research focuses on the decarbonising of the built environment using operational data and Artificial Intelligence

Sam earned his PhD in organic chemistry at Imperial College London – synthesising inks for printable solar cells. In 2018 he developed the idea for Thermulon in the Deep Science Ventures incubator whilst researching ways to build deep-tech start-ups that can have a big impact on climate. Insulation of houses is one of the simplest ways to mitigate CO2, but there is a real need for building insulation materials that are high performance, fire-safe and affordable. Thermulon was started to meet this need through the continuous production of affordable aerogel insulation.

Steve Quinn has over 30 years of experience in the chemical industry, having worked in ICI for 20 years and subsequently in a number of local SMEs. Steve has worked across the chemical industry from polymers to paints, aerospace to adhesives and renewables to graphene. He now works at Power Roll Ltd a local SME that has developed novel, thin film photovoltaic solar technology with many unique benefits including low cost, lightweight and flexibility.

Susan joined Northumbria University ten years ago as a senior lecturer and now leads on the strategic development and delivery of the degree apprenticeship programmes for the Faculty of Engineering and Environment.  The provision was the first in the country to cover the disciplines of surveying and architecture and it has now expanded into civil engineering both regionally and nationally.

Susan had over 20 years industry experience prior to returning to education and she is particularly interested in bringing together the best of higher education with vocational training and working in close collaboration with across education and industry. She is also a Board member of CENE.

Tim is an architect based in Newcastle upon Tyne. Graduating from Newcastle University in 1990 and qualifying in 1992 he has been involved with a diverse range of realised building projects with contract values between £30,000 and £25m.

In November 2000 he founded his own practice, xsite architecture, that became a LLP in 2008. As well as commercially driven schemes for residential, retail, leisure and office development, considerable experience has been gained with Public and Voluntary Sector clients on Heritage and Arts Projects, Community Consultations, Contract Administration and
Project Management.