CE East Midlands Award Judges

Marc is currently a project manager in the Estates Capital Department Team at Nottingham Trent University who as a team are delivering £150m of new and redevelopment projects.

He previously spent 3 years specialising in Lean, Collaborative and Service Improvement programmes across a number of organisations and was instrumental in developing a successful “Good to Great” service improvement programme within a leading retirement housing organisation which was presented as a case study to Central Government.

He has been involved with Constructing Excellence for 7 years including working directly them both nationally and in the South West. Marc firmly believes that people, relationships, culture and behaviours are paramount to the success of delivering positive change to the construction industry.”

With over 25 years' experience in the industry and a Chartered Civil Engineer, Mark brings a technical construction background to the forefront of EvoEnergy's projects, and a clear understanding of risk management.

Mark continues to be involved in a number of advisory committees looking at the industry's direction, and is passionate about bringing young people into construction.

With over 30 years’ experience in the industry, Paul takes responsibility for strategic projects that Salus undertakes and for the specific regulatory roles that the company performs – to ensure that all professional and non-technical staff deliver a first-class building control service.

He is one of a selected panel of building control professionals chosen by the Construction Industry Council to assess the competencies of Approved Inspectors as they apply and reapply for inclusion on the Approved Inspectors Register on behalf of the Department for Communities.

Paul maintains a personal, contactable relationship with any client who uses the services provided by Salus, negotiating complex issues with architects, developers and fellow Fire Engineers relative to meeting the building regulations.

Nicola is a Member of the Chartered Quality Institute and is a Chartered Quality Professional. She also has a doctorate in Lean Construction.

Nicola has over 25 years’ experience in developing business processes, rationalising and streamlining working practices, developing and delivering change management programmes and configuring and developing products to help drive improvement.

Prior to joining Pick Everard, Nicola was employed by a major UK contractor working on a number of high profile projects including Joint Ventures and acquisitions. This provided Nicola with the opportunity to apply her client facing and strategic skills in a range of sectors.

Nicola is also Construction Excellence (Midlands) Board member, and Chairs CE East Midlands Regional Club.

Profile coming soon...

COO, Project / Programme Director and Chartered Engineer with over 20 years experience in large and complex Client and Supplier organisations in both public and private sectors.

Extensive track record leading the planning, development and implementation of major infrastructure and business transformation.

Experienced Workforce Development Coordinator with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry. Skilled in Business Planning, Customer Service, Coaching, Change Management, and Construction. Strong employer engagement and skills development professional with a Post Graduate Certificate focused in Building Information Modelling from The University of Wolverhampton.

Dr Amrit Sagoo is the Head of Construction Management and Quantity Surveying, in the School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment, Nottingham Trent University. He leads a Department of over 40 lecturing staff who in turn are responsible for over 900 undergraduate students; 200 taught postgraduate students, and more than 200 students completing a distance learning on-line Master’s degree. In addition, the Department supervises over 20 PhDs.

The department continues to achieve high student satisfaction (National Student Survey for the undergraduate courses and Postgraduate Taught Experience Surveys for postgraduate courses) and league table rankings as top 10 in for building and town planning education. The department places considerable emphasis on enriching the student learning experience by bringing the industry into the classroom with live projects supported by strategic industry partners and year out placements. The department is particularly noted for delivering undergraduate and postgraduate programmes with strong industry links.

Dr Sagoo has responsibility for maintaining the department’s learning, teaching, research and commercial activities. Building on the department’s broad church of expertise and longstanding industrial relationships, Dr Sagoo ensures that that the department remains innovative, relevant and future facing in a rapidly changing sector.

Dr Sagoo has extensive experience of international and transnational education. He has set up, coordinated and strategically managed numerous collaborations (both flying faculty and validation models) with significant number of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Singapore, Hong Kong, UAE, Malaysia, Oman, India, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Nigeria. He has identified markets and developed high quality partnerships with a number of key overseas institutions in India, Oman, Singapore, China, Taiwan, for joint curriculum development, staff /student exchange and research network.

Dr Sagoo is an active RICS Assessment of Professional Competence assessor for both practitioners and academics. Additionally, he sits on numerous external and internal committees.

Dr Sagoo is a Chartered Building Surveyor and is a member of the Quantity Surveying, Valuation and Project Management faculties of the RICS. Additionally, he is a corporate member of the Chartered Institute of Builders (CIOB). He has over 30 years’ experience in Higher Education and has had the opportunity to work with 3 modern universities (Wolverhampton University, Coventry University and RMIT University) in a range of senior management roles. In particular, Dr Sagoo has had substantial involvement in line management, resource management, curriculum development and quality assurance initiatives, aligning the curriculum structure and content with industry expectations and the improvement of the student experience and employability.

During his academic career Dr Sagoo has developed, taught and managed a range of modules related to Quantity Surveying, Building Surveying, Construction / Project Management, Real Estate and Development, Civil Engineering and Architecture, leading to both undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications. He also has extensive experience in initiating, designing, managing and leading numerous undergraduate and postgraduate courses for the home and international markets.

Dr Sagoo has been an External Examiner for undergraduate and postgraduate courses at several universities as well as acting as an External Examiner for PhD’s. He is a member of the editorial team of ‘The International Journal of Modelling in Operations Management’ and a member of a panel of experts for the RICS Education Foundation Trust.

A proven executive with a successful track record of interim management, business growth and change management in the construction sector implementing new and modern business practices that develop culture and improve performance. Current experience includes Construction Project Management, PFI and implementing lean processes to ensure that all projects and departments utilise modern ways of working to deliver business success whilst handling and resolving long running legacy problem contracts.

Specialties: Collaboration, PFI, Prime Contracting, Hoshin Planning, Values, Lean

Profile coming soon...

With over 30 years’ experience in the construction industry Matt has worked on a variety of prestigious projects across the Midlands including Millennium Point, QE Hospital, NEC and Birmingham Airport.

Since 2014 he has headed all Interserve Construction’s Preconstruction activities across the region. This allows him to use his background in procurement and design management to develop work winning bid strategies using innovative technical solutions. These are applied across a variety of sectors including education, health, residential, commercial, industrial and retail.

He is also an active member of Interserve’s Design Management Business Excellence team which is focussed on continual improvement through a combination of training, process refinement and innovation.

Chris joined emh group from another leading registered housing provider in 2018. He has over 20 years’ experience of multi-tenure, residential development in the public and private sectors. Chris manages the group’s Strategic Partnership with Homes England, through which he aims to almost double the number of new homes built over the next five years. He is a lead member of the Quantum Development partnership and strong campaigner for greater housing investment in the East Midlands.

See Tom’s Linkedin Profile HEREhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/twoodhead/?originalSubdomain=uk

Andrew Wright is a Reader and joined the Institute in September 2004. He is Subject Group Leader for teaching of Energy and Sustainable Develoment. Research interests include low energy buildings, energy in industry, and renewable energy in the developing world.

Following a degree in Applied Maths at Sheffield, he took an MSc in Atmospheric Physics at Imperial College, London, and for his PhD investigated computer modelling of the thermal performance of industrial buildings. Before coming to De Montfort, Andrew was the Programme Manager of a distance learning MSc course in Sustainable Electrical Building Services at UMIST (now University of Manchester), where he was also a researcher in the Tyndall (North) Centre for Climate Change Research. He has previously worked for the UK Electricity Industry at EA Technology Ltd near Chester; Newcastle University; and the Building Design Partnership in Manchester.

He has written many journal papers relating to energy use in buildings, and numerous reports for EA Technology ranging from the energy impacts of teleworking, to the effect of distributed generation on the electricity network. Andrew is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers, and a member of the Energy Institute. He has contributed to the design guides on Environmental Design (Volume A) and Weather (Volume J), and is a member of the Schools Design Group. He has also contributed to reports for Ofgem, DECC and the Department of Health.

I’m Maria Coulter from the North East originally, now based in the East Midlands
I’m on a mission to facilitate a revolution in the Construction Industry.
My name is Maria Coulter, aka The Construction Coach and I work with SME’s and micro-businesses to help them maximise their profits and stand out from their competition.
I do this by focussing on 4 key areas:
Purpose – Knowing who you are and what you want
People – Having the right people and building a positive culture
Productivity – Doing the right things at the right time
Process – Having the right processes in place to eliminate waste
Focussing on these areas will increase your profits, give you the freedom to grow your business, have a better lifestyle and be happier.
And what qualifies me to do this?
I’ve been in the industry since I was 16 (a loooong time ago)! I’m a Chartered Quantity Surveyor, who’s career evolved into Project Management and Risk Management.
I became interested in coaching through being coached myself at a time in my career where I felt a bit lost, like I had to be someone I wasn’t. I was also seeing a lot of negative behaviour and unfairness in the industry and this prompted me to re-train as a Personal and Business Coach.
I became qualified in 2012 and soon realised I couldn’t change the industry staying as a Project Manager so I launched Construction Coach in 2014.
I love what I do and my clients definitely appreciate the combination of industry experience with coaching. I’m also from the North-East originally and we are known for being straight talking!
I’m East Midlands based but work nationally and internationally via Skype.
There’s never been a better time for a revolution!
The industry is getting a lot of negative press at the moment, Grenfell and Carillion are forcing much needed change. There is a skills shortage and Brexit is looming. It’s time for individuals and businesses to take control of their own revolution.
I want to encourage everyone to get to know who they are and what they want. I want SME’s and micro-businesses to value themselves and I want to work with them to give them the tools to be able to maximise their profits and win work on value and not lowest price.
I want everyone to be able to be themselves and create an inclusive environment for the next generation to come into our industry.
I’m also giving back to the industry I love
I’m a board member for the East Midlands Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
I’m Chair of the East Midlands Construction Industry Council(CIC),a not-for-profit membership organisation for Built Environment Professions
I’m a Non-Executive Director for the CIC on their national board and chair their Diversity and Inclusion panel
I’m a trustee for Youthbuild UK, an organisation to promote engagement with young people to combat social exclusion through the development of construction based support services and celebrate young people’s success.
I’m a committee member for Nottingham Women in Construction
So, you can see I’m serious about my mission.
When each individual in our industry takes control of their own destiny and happiness, change will definitely come.

Emma is MCIPS qualified with over ten years’ experience in public sector procurement. She spent the previous five as a Procurement Manager within Higher Education; specialising in everything Estates and construction. Emma is on hand to support our clients throughout pre-construction and construction; to help them achieve value for money and build strong relationships throughout the supply chain.

I teach Construction Management, and am Programme Director for BSc(Hons) Construction Engineering Management at Loughborough University. Prior to my current post, I was Lloyds TSB Insurance Post-doctoral Research Fellow (2001-2002), investigating remediations of flood-damaged domestic properties. Then, I worked as a Post-doctoral Research Associate at Loughborough University (2002-2007), where I was involved in several industry and government-sponsored research projects, including ‘HyCon’, ‘Respect for People’, ‘the Big Ideas’. This post was followed by Senior Lecturership (2007-2012) at Coventry University, where I led Construction Management Applied Research Group and won research funding for Community Resilience to Extreme Weather (CREW), virtual collaborative building design (Hewlett Packard Catalyst Initiative), Build Your English (BYE, EU Long-life Learning Programme) projects.

Since starting my current post in 2012, I have led research initiative in two strands; digital design and construction and flood resilience in the context of low and middle-income countries. The digital strand has brought the award-winning ‘BIM-Hub’ (https://bim-hub.lboro.ac.uk/[RS1] ) project that puts collaborative working in the construction industry under the spotlight and tests the Building Information Modelling (BIM) mode of working. This was followed by Digital Enablers for CONstruction Transformation (DECONT; https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/construction/about-us/transforming-construction-network-plus/small-projects#Digital%20Enablers%20for%20Construction%20Transformation%20(DECONT)[RS2] ), which was aimed to develop future scenarios and roadmap for the adoption of digital technologies to integrate off-site manufacturing and on-site construction. In flood resilience strand, I led Blue-Green Infrastructure in Semarang (BuGIS; https://bugis.lboro.ac.uk/[RS3] ) project that aimed to increase the flood resilience of Semarang city (Indonesia) by integrating Blue Green Infrastructure (BGI) concepts into urban development planning. I was pivotal in obtaining funding for FloodFinJava project which promotes proactive financial planning for mitigating the impact of flooding in Central Java, Indonesia. I coordinated Researcher Links workshop and Second City Higher Education Partnerships in Indonesia, and founded UK-Indonesia Researcher Network (UKIREN; https://ukiren.lboro.ac.uk/[RS4] ) and – all were funded by the British Council.

I was World Class Professor at Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS, Surabaya), funded by Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education, Indonesia (2017-2018) and Visiting Professor at Ryerson University, Canada (2010, 2012). I was PhD external examiner at Universities of Salford, Aston, Wolverhampton (UK) and KNUST (Ghana). I am currently external examiner for BSc Construction Management at Kingston University and MSc Construction Management at the University of Reading.

A ‘hands-on’ practitioner providing implementation support, training and coaching for lean, continuous improvement, systems thinking and six sigma. Currently, leading the implementation of lean construction for Ashghal, Qatar as part of their enhanced project delivery strategy.

6 years in the role of business improvement director within a leading UK construction company, implementing lean to improve business & project delivery performance.

27 years helping over 200 organisations of all shapes and sizes, helping to improve operations, realizing real tangible improvements in quality, delivery & cost competitiveness. Delivered client bottom line savings and improved value of over £40 million.

Sectors : automotive, aerospace, chemical, construction, infrastructure, health, local government, manufacturing, process, retail & service industry.

Recent client activities focused on improving project delivery performance (quality, programme, productivity and cost) on construction and infrastructure projects including:
- Civils for new nuclear power station
- Highways, roads and drainage
- Utilities
- Rail
- New schools and prisons
- New hotels and retail centres
- New build housing

Authored two CIRIA implementation guides:
* Lean Tools & Techniques for Construction
* Implementing lean in construction - Health and safety synergies of lean

Mentored and coached personnel at all business levels in lean, change management, vision & strategy formulation, policy deployment & operational excellence.

Developed and delivered training programmes in lean & continuous process improvement.

Specialties: Business diagnosis & assessment, strategy development, policy deployment, lean implementation, value stream transformation, 6 sigma, continuous improvement, kaizen, change management, operations management, supply chain development, lean training.

Recently appointed as Chief Executive of not-for-profit procurement consortium EEM Ltd, Rebecca Dermody-Simmons is a successful and well-regarded professional with over 20 years of procurement experience in the social housing sector. Rebecca has been involved with EEM since its inception in 2010, growing from five members to 222 as of April 2021. Prior to working at EEM, Rebecca worked at Nottingham City Homes for almost 15 years, initially as an Apprentice Purchasing Officer and most recently as their Procurement Manager.

Under Rebecca’s leadership, EEM delivers hundreds of comprehensive, yet simplified procurement solutions and distributes thousands of pounds of Community Donations each year. Rebecca’s focus now for EEM is to lead the business in its continued growth whilst ensuring that they meet and exceed members’ expectations and remain true to their core aim of achieving best value and efficiencies through intelligent procurement.

Rob, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building, has many years’ experience of working at a senior executive level within the construction sector. He is actively involved in shaping our industry, as a member of the Green Construction Board, Director and Treasurer of the Aldersgate Group, Member of CIOB Education, Qualifications, Standards and Practice Board and former chair of the Build UK Environmental Leadership Group.

Rob was awarded the Business Green Leaders ‘sustainability executive of the year 2016'

Representing the Off-Site Homes Alliance as Project Director (www.offsiteha.org) along with consulting roles with a small number of innovative MMC/Offsite development clients and assisting Government departments on all things MMC.

A highly-professional Director with 30+ years experience in strategy and business development roles within the building products, MMC and Modular manufacturing industry. Strong track record of leading change management, developing operating models, improving business processes and driving the achievement of OKRs and targets successfully. Significant experience of Technical, R&D, General Management, Marketing & Commercial Operations at board level. Employed primarily since 1988, for 3 international building material companies (CRH Plc, Knauf Insulation and Saint Gobain - British Gypsum), with continuing consulting and contracting roles in the MMC/Offsite sector via Ottersbrook Consulting Limited.

Profile coming soon...

Danny Clarke joined the National Federation on Builders in July 2021 as Commercial Director where he is responsible for the growth and retention of membership through developing market leading innovative and member focused products and services.

Danny started his career at the age of eleven as a market trader selling computer games, videos and DVDs. His early working career also included working as a Train Operator, Holiday Rep and was the youngest Branch Secretary of RMT. His main passion is people, whether through health, safety and wellbeing, championing equality and diversity to helping people develop and grow to meet their ambitions in life.

As a Chartered Member of IOSH he has post graduate qualifications in occupational health and safety as well as leadership qualifications. He has held a variety of commercial and operational posts in both the public and private sector as well as senior board level appointments working across many industries including construction.

His wealth of knowledge and expertise spans a diverse and impressive career which includes roles and assignments including Capita Real Estate and Infrastructure, Merseyrail, Synergy Health Laboratory Services, ELAS, The University of Salford, being a former board member for EWDTS and a current board member of the Association of Occupational Health and Wellbeing Professionals. He is also the founder of Occupational Health and wellbeing Community, Simply-People as well as an Outdoor Health Charity.

Danny also acts as mentor for several organisations including the Business Growth Hub, IOSH and TechMcr and has been published in a number of business focused magazines and articles. As an advocate of work life balance and wellbeing he is a proud father of three children and enjoys family time and keeping fit. You can find him on weekends hill walking throughout the UK as a passionate advocate of networking through hiking.

Katrina Woodward is Strategic Partnership Manager for Construction and Sustainability in the Partnerships Local Engagement and Commercial Services department at Nottingham Trent University.

Prior to joining the PLECS Team, Katrina was the skills and employability lead for the Local Enterprise Partnership working across Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. Katrina commissioned and contributed to the development of the employer-led Construction and Low Carbon skills action plans for the LEP which were used to define the strategic content of ESF programmes to raise the skills and employment levels to benefit the local economy.

Prior to this Katrina worked for a local Further Education College managing the employer engagement team, and overseeing the delivery of vocational and apprenticeship programmes.

My recruitment background is quite rare. I've only worked for one company, in one industry and with mostly the same team - and I love it.

Back in my 20’s when I started I didn't really know what recruitment and construction were all about. My one focus then (and it still is now in my 40’s) is delivering on what I say without compromising on service. Going home at the weekend knowing we've done a great job for our clients and candidates is and always will be one of the biggest rewards I get from my career in recruitment at whatever level I have sat.

People development is a huge passion that I share with my leadership team and I am a big believer that if you look after & develop your staff and help them reach their potential then results will follow.

I get a massive buzz when we bring new staff into the teams and love seeing them grow into their role and start their journeys, just like I did many years ago.

I run the construction brand with all branches reporting directly to me - Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds, Essex and Nottingham. I'm very proud of what my teams deliver every day and I thoroughly enjoy every minute I spend in each office.

Outside of work, family is everything. I am married with two kids and have a passion for Rugby - I'm a keen supporter of Gloucester Rugby which, much like recruitment, has it's up’s and downs.