Head of Aviation, Consultancy, UK
I fell into construction by accident. I was due to head to university to undertake an accountancy degree when I answered an advert in the local paper for a summer job at a small quantity surveying practice. Within a few weeks I’d switched my degree from accounting to quantity surveying, and then qualified through a part-time route, while gaining valuable industry experience. Within my first year of working, I was lucky enough to be involved in a major airport redevelopment programme and was then hooked. Since then, I’ve been fortunate to work on some of the most prestigious projects in the industry, all over the world.
Mace is an easily navigable business with a beating British heart and a fantastic reputation in the aviation marketplace. We’ve got some great people who work tirelessly for our clients and I love the ‘can do’ attitude that runs through the project teams. Access to senior decision makers in the business is refreshingly straightforward and I really feel a personal affinity with our culture and values.
I’ve had the opportunity to be involved in some really exciting initiatives and opportunities, but meeting the King of the Ashanti region of Ghana and the Ghanaian President, while leading a UK delegation to the region, will certainly stay with me for a while.
A lot of my day-to-day activities are around managing internal teams, processes and our service delivery to our clients, so the skill of multi-tasking is probably the one that I draw on the most.
With the role requiring me to make judgements and manage people (internally and externally) each and every day, I find that my diplomacy, communications and decision making skills are regularly put to the test, all within the context of maintaining a clear professional integrity.
Experience is underrated and being able to ‘walk the walk’ is hugely important. I honestly believe that I got to my current position through hard work and determination – you make your own luck in this life – and I think that sometimes you have to be brave and expose yourself to as many opportunities and the best experience that you can in order to succeed.
I’d love to still be doing what I’m doing at the moment, with a larger Mace client portfolio and broader geographical spread. Running a business unit that spans continents is a real proposition over the course of the next ten years.
My family and Formula 1. My wife and two daughters are my inspiration and motivation; they are what get me out of bed every morning.
Formula 1 is a great sport for a devoted petrol head – I enjoy the complex team dynamics and the engineering complexity just as much as the outright speed of man and machine at its most extreme.