President
Robert Knight MCIOB, MRICS, CEnv, MASI, Ffbe -National Construction Director, igloo Regeneration Ltd
Robert has responsibility for procurement strategies and the operational delivery of igloo's direct developments across the UK in conjunction with the Development Directors. Robert is a Chartered Builder, Chartered Surveyor, Chartered Environmentalist and Corporate Construction Surveyor with over 25 years managerial experience in the construction, civil engineering, house building and mixed use development businesses. Following on from his success with Mowlem PLC delivering a large number of complex projects across SW England and Wales, Robert worked as an Executive for developer Crest Nicholson for 8 years establishing and delivering major mixed use developments with a combined development value over £1 billion.
Robert is currently a Board Member of the Construction Clients Group and the President of the Bristol Constructing Excellence Club which he was involved in establishing and running as Chairman for 3 years between 2003 and 2006. During this time, he and the team were responsible for ensuring that the Bristol Club became the premier Constructing Excellence club in the UK.
Robert has regularly commented in the media on urban regeneration and sustainable developments and has spoken on these issues plus community engagement, value management, project delivery, collaborative working and supply chain integration on a number of occasions.
Chairman
Rebecca Tregarthen - National Business Development Manager, Capita Architecture
Based in Bristol, Rebecca's role combines strategic marketing analysis, the raising of company profile and the generation of business relationships across the company's ten offices in the UK.
A strong advocate of the benefits of diversity within marketing and business development for knowledge and market understanding, Rebecca has recently been Chairman of the SW Branch of the Association of Women in Property and now Chairman of the Bristol Constructing Excellence Club. She has been involved in the Bristol and South West construction and property market for over 10 years.
Vice Chairman
Karsan Vaghani BEng(Hons), MBA, CEng, MICE, MIOSH, MIHT- University of Bristol, Capital Projects Office
Karsan was born in the northwest state of Gujarat, India, on 6 June 1967. He spent his early childhood in a small village called Sukphur. During the territorial conflicts between India and Pakistan in 1971 Karsan's family decided to emigrate to Britain for a better life. He attended Kitchener Road Junior School in Cardiff and later Fitzahlan High School where he developed the importance of education to progress in life. Karsan then spent five years at the University of Glamorgan, first to obtain a H.N.D. in Civil Engineering then an honours degree.
With his degree in his back pocket he was now ready to face the world and July 1991 he was employed by Mid Glamorgan County Council as a graduate Highway Engineer. After spending seven years in local authority designing new roads and bridges Karsan decided to experience the commercial world and joined Bovis Lend Lease as their Planning Supervisor on the £450 million Railtrack Station Regeneration programme. During this time he achieved his second ambition in life and in 1999 achieved Chartered Civil Engineer status. After a brief spell with a small consultancy in Bristol, Karsan was introduced to the University where he was initially employed as a consultant Planning Supervisor. Soon an opportunity arose in the Capital Projects Office as the Capital Projects Director. As the Capital Projects Director, Karsan manages the University's complete capital programme with the help of his team of Project Officers, Clerk of Works, Commissioning Manager, Planning Supervisor and Secretaries. From conception to handover he ensures projects are delivered within budget, meets the university's requirements and within programme. The University's current annual spend on capital programmes is in excess of £65 million. Karsan completed his MBA in Real Estate and Construction Management in September 2005 and is looking forward to the challenge of delivering the university's ambitious £300 million capital programme over the next few years.
Karsan is married to Kastur; his school time sweet heart and has two boys, aged 16 and 17. Much of his spare time is dedicated to his family and religious activities. He is Chairman of the youth club at his local Hindu temple and his life is dominated by his faith in which non-violence is a core belief.
Secretary
Stephen Willaims - Rydon Construction
Stephen has over 30 years in the construction industry working for consultants, contractors and hands-on experience working on site. With this extended knowledge and expertise he has been involved in the procurement and delivery of numerous prestigious building contracts across the full spectrum of the construction sectors.
At present he is Business Development Manager for the Rydon Group, which is an established and successful construction, development, maintenance / asset investment and management company operating throughout the south and south-west of England.
The Group is composed of four major operating companies which include
Rydon Construction - a reputation for building to high quality standards combined with the commitment to completing project on time and within budget.
Ryhurst - an asset investment and management company developing bespoke solutions to provide, maintain and manage health and social care facilities.
Rydon Maintenance - a property services and hard facilities management company that specialise in social housing and healthcare.
Rydon Homes - a residential development company providing stylish and practical modern living environments within attractive and architecturally harmonious buildings.
My main goal in business is to identify the need and provide a service to fulfil the need. This fulfilment needs to include quality, whole life costing, delivered in a safe manner and above all protect the environment. This is why I believe that Constructing Excellence is the ideal vehicle, through the regional clubs, to spread the word and bring about change for the good, across the construction industry .
Treasurer
Gary Fisher - Associate, Davis Langdon
Gary's position on the Committee is that of Treasurer. Gary qualified in 1998 from Loughborough University with a 2:1 in Commercial Management and Quantity Surveying. Since then he has become MRICS qualified and has worked on all sides of the industry (client, contractor and now PQS) giving good all round experience, particularly in retail, residential, commercial and major office development work.
His current role is that of Associate for Davis Langdon, based in the Bristol office, although working on projects in Bristol, London and out in Doha. Two of the larger prestigious projects that he is involved with is the Shard in London and the Heart of Doha.
His previous role was that of running the Bristol office for Franklin+Andrews and is a well known face in both the local Bristol and the London construction market.
Events Co-ordinator
Andrew Carpenter - Abbey Environmental Services
Andrew spent the first 28 years of his working life with CRH in a variety of sales, marketing and commercial management roles mainly with Forticrete but latterly with FI Systems, a joint partnership between Forticrete and Ibstock Brick dealing with off site manufacturing. In 1998, whilst Business Development Manager for Forticrete, Andrew became involved with the aftermath of the Egan Report, Rethinking Construction, and this was to change his life.
In 2000 he led the formation of the Bristol Best Practice Club, which has gone on to be one of the biggest and most successful in the UK. At the same time he was invited to take Forticrete through a Construction Best Practice Programme 'Change Management' Two Year Course and these two things led to Andrew joining the Board of Constructing Excellence in 2003 and at the same time becoming the inaugural chair of the national clubs committee for Constructing Excellence. In 2006 Andrew went to work for Constructing Excellence full time as Business Development Director, responsible for membership, marketing, communications and events. In his two years at CE he saw membership grow from c 200 to c 300. However with the Government withdrawing funding for CE, Andrew was forced back into the industry and worked most recently for a sub contracting business, Abbey Environmental Services, based in Glastonbury.
However he maintains his interest and involvement with CE by doing some consultancy work for CELL and CWC and maintaining his position in the Constructing Excellence Bristol Club with responsibility for events. Andrew is also a member of the UK Green Building Council, a judge for the Built Environment Marketing Awards and one of the organizing committee for the SW Built Environment Awards.
Sustainability
Kevin Couling - AECOM
Kevin started work in the construction industry 20 years ago as an electrician before moving on to managing projects and eventually stepping sideways into consultancy 11 years later. Whilst at Hoare Lea Consulting Engineers, he gained a 1st class BEng(Hons) degree in Building Services Engineering and became the Sustainability Representative for the Bristol office as well as becoming a qualified BREEAM Assessor.
Kevin joined Faber Maunsell | AECOM in 2005 in order to develop the Sustainable Development Group in the South West of England and Wales and now leads the development of BREEAM and Code for Sustainable Homes services in the region. He also offers specific low carbon building design advice on projects in all sectors. Working in association with The Carbon Trust, Kevin delivers their Carbon Management product and acts as a Technical Support Consultant on the Low Carbon Buildings Programme. Alongside this work he also undertakes independent verification of company CO2 reporting and advises on a range of other sustainability issues in industry.
Kevin is passionate about sustainability and the role the construction industry has to play in addressing the significant impacts of our built environment and hopes to build the capacity of the industry to reduce those impacts by being part of the CE Bristol Club.
Innovation & Research
John Rich - Stubbs Rich Architects
My focus on technical excellence led me to join Constructing Excellence, the pan-construction industry body that was formed following the Egan Report - Rethinking Construction. Sir John Egan saw that the full breadth of the industry - clients, designers, constructors, suppliers - had much room for improvement. As an active member of the Bristol Club, I have tried to promote industry improvement. I chair the Research Group. Our current three year research project is investigating value in Higher Education, not in the minds of the professionals, but in the eyes of the users - students and academics.
Delivering exceptional value to clients has become a predominant theme for me. It builds upon my understanding of how buildings can fail and therefore where we need to provide extra resilience, and conversely where savings can safely be made. It builds upon my experience as client advisor, from which I understand how difficult it is to raise capital and therefore how important it is not to waste money. It builds on the understanding I have gained through involvement with Constructing Excellence, the industry can be wasteful but through collaboration remarkable improvements can be achieved.
Marketing
Sarah Dibley - Willmott Dixon
Sarah is a regional Business Development Manager for Willmott Dixon Construction. Based in the Bristol office she has responsibility for the marketing and business development for the South West regions including Bristol, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. Sarah is from Penzance and over the last ten years has slowly worked her way up the region living and working in Cornwall and Devon to the capital - Bristol.
Her previous role was with Northcroft Construction Consultants and she has been in the construction industry for 4 years having come from a marketing and events background in the car industry and charity sector.
In addition to her BDM role with Willmott Dixon, Sarah is also responsible for all their Community Engagement projects, which run alongside each commercial project in the South West - a privilege which she enjoys immensely.
When not at work Sarah enjoys travelling and telling anyone who will listen how great the South West of England is... which is not particularly dissimilar to the day job....
Martyn Jones - UWE
Martyn is a Principal Lecturer in Construction Management in the Department of Construction and Civil Engineering at the University of the West of England in Bristol. He is currently Programme Leader for the department's undergraduate construction courses. During the past twenty years he has taught, consulted, researched and published extensively on construction's response to the opportunities and challenges associated with post-Fordism. His recent work has focused on helping inexperienced and less frequent clients to adopt the most appropriate ways of procuring construction services. For over ten years he has been associated with Constructing Excellence having been a founder member of the Bristol Club and for a time the Regional Manager and Interim Director for Constructing Excellence in the South West. He is currently facilitator for the Bristol Club's `Here to Learn' workshops in which practitioners from the region are helping to shape the next phase of construction's change agenda.
Membership
Huw Morgan - Veale Wasbrough
Huw Morgan is a construction lawyer and Partner at Veale Wasbrough Lawyers, providing legal advice to funders, building owners, developers, contractors and construction professionals upon their rights and obligations in all aspects of the construction process. He advises upon projects procured through PPP/PFI Design and Build, Bespoke Partnering arrangements and under more traditional forms of contract.
Huw is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Technology and Construction Court Solicitors Association, Society of Construction Law, and is a CEDR registered mediator. His Dispute Resolution work has covered domestic and international arbitration, Technology and Construction Court litigation, adjudication and mediation. He has been involved in a number of reported cases: Thomson -v- Clive Alexander and Partners; North Thames RHA -v- Sheppard Robson and Whiteways Contractors (Sussex) Limited -v- Impresa Castelli Construction UK Limited. Huw regularly lectures upon construction law topics.
Committee Member
Martin Lynch - Managing Director of Churngold Building Services Ltd
Martin, a chartered builder & quantity surveyor, is Managing Director of Churngold Building Services, part of the successful Churngold Group.
Churngold Building Services offers a specialist service at all levels of the supply chain, including: concrete, masonry, brickwork & blockwork, general build and carpentry & joinery.
Martin started work as bricklayer and has over 25 years experience in the construction industry, predominantly in specialist contracting. He followed the traditional building management route and has wide experience of general contracting. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Building.
He is continually developing the potential specialists can offer to the industry and firmly believes for Best Practice to truly work it must be developed and encompassed within all levels of the supply chain.
Martin's interests outside of work are his family and rugby. Although his true love is his wife, Tracey, and children, Callum & Erin, Tracey would strongly argue that the real love of his life is rugby! He is chairman of Old Culverhaysians RFC and on the committee of Bath & District Combination. Martin is heavily involved in rugby coaching and the development of young rugby players within the local community.
Committee Member
Steve Griffiths, Preconstruction Manager - Kier
Steve has 20 years experience within the procurement arena, his knowledge extends across all procurement routes, with projects ranging from £800,000 refurbishment schemes to £110 million PFI projects. During 12 years at John Laing Construction, he gained a BSc(Hons) degree in Construction Management working from their Bristol and Birmingham Offices.
Steve joined Kier in 2001 and has responsibility for the front end of the procurement process combining the Estimating, Planning and Design Management expertise of the work winning function of the Kier Bristol office with an annual turnover of £50m. More recently Steves role has extended to the framework management of the Construction Framework South West, CFSW which covers seven Kier offices and will deliver £500m of work during the next 4 years.
To support the preconstruction process Steve became the Sustainability Representative for the Bristol office becoming a qualified BREEAM Assessor specialising in the education sector.