2021 Judges

Andrew currently works with Structural Timber Association as Chief Operating Officer and is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operational functions of the association and ensuring the delivery and development of the membership quality and competency assurance programme, STA Assure. This innovative programme is at the heart of the structural timber industry setting the standards for quality and best practice principles.

Brendan Geraghty is one of the founding members of Geraghty Taylor. He brings a broad range of senior level experience drawn from projects in the UK and around the world and is a residential council member of the Urban Land Institute.

He leads Geraghty Taylor's work in master planning, residential design and branding, as well as the practice's ongoing R&D. He has huge energy with an attuned strategic sensibility and was instrumental in bringing forward the Livinhome flexible house type.

Brendan enjoys proposing dynamic, often lateral solutions communicated in a clear and effective manner whilst fostering a strong team ethos. 

Darren Richards, MD of Cogent Consulting - the UK's leading offsite construction consultancy - is an offsite manufacturing expert with nearly 25 years' experience developing offsite businesses, processes and products. Formerly Manufacturing Director at Elliot Group producing modular buildings, he worked in Japan with leading modular housing manufacturers and had an advisory role on the Egan Taskforce. In 2000 he founded Mtech Group, spearheading the Advantage Offsite initiative and founding Buildoffsite before selling the business in 2008. Darren founded Cogent Consulting in 2009. Cogent is a specialist building technologies consultancy focused on new construction product/system development, manufacturing strategy and lean manufacturing and process improvement within the offsite manufacturing and offsite construction arenas.

Elaine is Head of Architecture at The Concrete Centre and has been a qualified architect for nearly 25 years. Elaine provides architectural advice, project and technical guidance related to the use of concrete, with a particular expertise in sustainable and visual concrete. Elaine authors technical guidance which has included Concrete and BREEAM and Material Efficiency publications and is a regular contributor to Concrete Quarterly, of which she is joint editor.

Elaine sits on working groups for the DEFRA Property Level Flood Resilience Action Plan and The London Climate Change Partnership as well as the RIBA Sustainable Futures expert advisory group.

Gary Ramsay has been writing, editing, commissioning and managing B2B publications both print and online since 1998 and notably works as editor on the Offsite Magazine. He has worked on many titles covering the building and construction industry and has specialist knowledge of the timber and forest certification sectors, eco-construction, sustainability, self-build and offsite construction

As Director of the multi award-winning www.supplychainschool.co.uk, Ian leads the team that provides advice to over 3,000 construction suppliers annually.

In addition, Ian provides strategic leadership for our Offsite, Digital, Fairness, and Inclusion workstreams. Having worked in supply chains since the late-1980s, Ian has a deep understanding of the dynamics of supply chains and how these can bring social and environmental benefits to the communities the serve. Ian has used this knowledge to successfully launch and run a number of skills and construction related businesses since he started his first business in 1991, all of which are still flourishing.

Ian combines his passion for sustainability with a passion for sport. As every true Yorkshireman does, Ian spends his summers playing cricket and his winters being chairman of the local rugby club and coaching his local under-18 football team in their meteoric rise through the north London leagues (well, in his dreams!)

Jackie Maginnis CEO of the Modular & Portable Building Association (MPBA) – a great ambassador for MMC with 35years experience in the volumetric/modular industry.

Prior to her role with MPBA she worked for a manufacturing and hire company. With her passion for the industry sector and the help of the committees from within the member companies, part of her role is to promote the features and benefits of the use of offsite volumetric buildings.

Jeff comes from a strong technical background having worked in a variety of architectural and surveying practices since 1973. At BLP, where he became Technical Director in 2005, he has overseen the technical auditing and risk management services that underpin BLP's latent defects insurance products for the residential and commercial sectors and guided the company's development of life cycle costing and mobile auditing technologies.

More recently Jeff has presided over the development of Butterfly, BLP's low carbon design and decision making tool for the residential sector. Now Director of Technical Consultancy, one of Jeff's main roles is the promotion of advanced construction techniques through BOPAS, the Build Offsite Property Assurance Scheme.

Julia took up the role as CE BSRIA in May 2014 and is involved in the development of BSRIA's future growth and prosperity. Prior to her role at BSRIA, Julia was the CE of the National Federation of Builders.

During her time at the NFB, Julia has worked to secure more favourable conditions for members in a number of areas including public sector procurement, utilities, access to finance, health and safety, training and innovation.

She has also forged close links and partnerships across industry and was the founder of the Construction Alliance. Julia has also maintained a high public profile as a leading spokesperson and commentator on the industry, the economy and Government affairs in the UK and Europe.  Julia also serves as Chairman of Leeds College of Building and takes a keen interest in the role of Further Education in the sector.

Michelle has 16 years’ experience working in the residential sector. Michelle began her career as a specialist consultant supporting Housing Associations & Local Authorities with Strategic Needs Assessments as well as with their business and financial planning. In 2016 Michelle supported Mark Farmer in the preparation of his 2016 Independent Review ‘Modernise or Die’.  Following the launch of this review Michelle has actively been promoting the use of Modern Methods of Construction to delivery housing and the creation of alternative delivery models moving away from the traditional forms of procurement and transactional relationships. Michelle often speaks at events on the integration (both opportunities and barriers) of Modern Methods of Construction into the residential sector, and has worked with several Local Authority and Housing Association clients to develop an alternative approach to housing delivery. 

I am passionate about productive design, manufacturing, assembly and construction of buildings using prefabricated offsite construction systems. I believe that productivity in our built environment is not only about the ratio of economic outputs to inputs expressed by GDP data, but that is it based on people with the right creative mindset, technical knowledge and collaborative ways of working.

This is exactly the kind of high-achiever that I am. I fast-tracked by RIBA Architecture Part 1 with outside-the-box design and construction solutions, landing a first-class BA with Honours with RIBA certified work experience in 3 years instead of 5. I declined an unconditional offer from the University of Cambridge for a Masters, to jump straight into a technical PhD at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. By doing this I accelerated my knowledge on manufacturing processes, quality management, productivity measurement and construction management in offsite construction. I analysed the performance of 15 panelised and volumetric manufacturers across 7 countries and afterwards I was on construction sites for 3 years working on four construction projects. These included the tallest timber building in Scotland and the first residential development to target 'Gold' Section 7 Sustainability rating.

Now I apply my skills in the award-winning Built Environment Exchange (beX) programme in which I connect students and businesses to facilitate employability opportunities and help drive innovation in the construction industry. I manage a team of 40 people in the creation of flexible industry-relevant knowledge on a half-million project funded by CITB. I help architecture entrepreneurs implement change in their products and business models towards a Circular Economy. I transform outdated procurement practices to enable our transition to Modern Methods of Construction and NetZero… and many more as part of my role at the Centre for Offsite Construction + Innovative Structures. 

Oliver has worked on innovation in the construction sector with clients such as Audi, M&S, Sainsbury, British Gas and BASF for over 20 years. With Barratt his current role is to assess and roll out innovation across the business under their leading construction principle, this includes integrating offsite methods of construction and delivering BIM. In his current role he has led a team that have assessed many of the different offsite systems and introduced a New Production Introduction process to Barratt. His team have assessed over 150 offsite technologies in the last 2 years and trialled a number of these which he is now looking to rolling out some of the successful technologies. He worked on both the Barratt’s AIMC4 project and the Green House on BRE’s innovation park – the first home built by a mainstream house builder to achieve outstanding environmental performance which applied offsite technologies. 

Professor Robert Hairstans is head of the Centre for Offsite Construction + Innovative Structures (COCIS) within Edinburgh Napier University's Institute for Sustainable Construction, where he leads on research, innovation and knowledge exchange activities designed to deliver construction technologies for tomorrow's communities within a circular economy. His specialist expertise is in the fields of timber engineering and technology with a focus on adding value to the timber supply chain with an emphasis on engineered timber products and offsite (modular) construction.  Professor Hairstans is academic lead of Offsite Solutions Scotland a cop-operative of lead offsite operators in Scotland collaborating to scale and his most recent book has been published by the Timber Research and Development Agency (TRADA) “Off-site and industrialised timber construction” 2nd edition: https://bookshop.trada.co.uk/bookshop/view/6284EB77-027B-4D45-99FC-E84A6B3EC9F8

Senior Lecturer/Programme Leader, School of Architecture at University of Lincoln

Rosi currently leads year 1 and contributes to professional practice courses for at University of Lincoln. She also undertakes BREEAM assessment for a selected number of projects each year for Simons Design Ltd.

With extensive retail design and construction experience culminating in Rosi acting as sustainability manager for the Cheshire Oaks development for Marks and Spencer built by Simons Group Ltd in 2010-12. This ground-breaking and iconic project has won many accolades for sustainability performance and has provided a rare case study for effective post occupancy evaluation with a negative performance gap.

Her interest in biodiversity and responsible sourcing having worked for Ken Yeang in the late 90's in Kuala Lumpur and further developed these ideas and others working toward a PhD at University of Newcastle upon Tyne whilst working as an Architect for Simons Design Ltd. More recently she has published articles with a range of academics and practitioners on whole life carbon and climate change resilience.

Richard began his career as a construction planner with a major main contractor specialising working on number of large projects before moving in to project and programme management where he developed his keen interest for programme efficiency and innovation as a way of reducing construction cost. Richard has led a number of high-profile role out programmes for large retail and banking sector clients as well complex mixed use development schemes and has held board positions with a large fit out contractor.

Richard founded Blacc Ltd five years ago with a number of senior industry leaders to specialise in efficient Construction Management and project Leadership of major projects and programmes, Blacc has successfully helped to deliver programmes such as the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and the Department for Educations off site component frameworks which influenced the government's decision to procure in favour of offsite construction. Richard also sits on the government cross departmental working group advising in offsite construction methods.

Richard Lankshear is the Innovation Manager at NHBC, responsible for setting policy on innovative building systems and managing a specialist team that reviews Modern Methods of Construction. Richard is a chartered structural engineer having worked in both design consultancy and in industry for a steel manufacturer. He has led product development and the design of innovative construction techniques for the UK, India and New Zealand as well as the delivery of offsite solutions for construction projects across the globe.

With a focus solely on the quality of homes built with MMC, Richard shares best practice and lessons learned through engaging in multiple networks, conferences and published articles. He is embedded in a series of industry working groups on MMC, including the Construction Leadership Council Smart Buildings, MHCLG’s MMC Working Group and the Institution of Structural Engineers’ Committee in Business Practice and Regulatory Compliance.

Roy is a Director of Success Train Ltd, now trading as Roy Casey Consulting, since having returned to the company after leaving his role as joint Managing Director of a lift design, manufacturing, installation and maintenance company September 2019.

In Success Train, Roy's role is a bid writing and business improvement specialist. He is expert in submissions for PQQs, Tenders and Awards. However, many of his commissions have been to help SME business owners develop and take back control of their business when growth in sales has resulted in them outgrowing their founding processes or overwhelmed the owners.

His close contact with industry best practice, through voluntary roles which he has held since the late 1990s through the Constructing Excellence movement, ensure he has a wide network and keeps abreast of industry improvement. Roy has been a regular judge for Constructing Excellence Regional and National awards since 2007, which is testament to his Peer's acknowledgement of his devotion and knowledge of construction best practice and change.

Sam Stacey is Challenge Director – Transforming Construction at UKRI. He is leading the Transforming Construction Challenge, a £170 million research and innovation investment, matched by £250 million from industry, to create high-performing, cost-effective buildings for the UK and beyond.  Linked to the Construction Sector Deal, the programme includes the Active Building Centre supporting the wide-scale roll-out of energy-positive buildings, the Construction Innovation Hub to propagate standardised building products and processes, plus a Construction Network and funding for piloting of new construction solutions.

Before joining UKRI, Sam was Director of Innovation, Industrialisation and Business Improvement at Skanska UK, a Trustee of the Building Research Establishment, and Chairman of the National Platform for Construction. Sam has also worked for Wates Construction and Buro Happold Engineering. He is a Chartered Structural Engineer with an MBA from Henley Business School and degrees in Civil Engineering, Architecture and Philosophy from Imperial College and Cambridge University.

Stephen Wightman is a Regional Director at Faithful+Gould. Leading their Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) offering, Stephen provides advice and support to existing and new clients on delivery of MMC projects, strategic business planning and business case writing. Stephen has over 22 years' experience in the offsite construction industry. Having managed multiple factory and construction site based activities, he has specialist knowledge in volumetric and panelised systems in both steel and timber frame. His offsite expertise span a wide range of market sectors including residential, healthcare, military, education, commercial, retail and infrastructure. 

Tim Snelson is an Associate Director at Arup, with 25 years' experience of delivering innovative structural solutions to landmark projects. He has recently designed a number of fast-track timber buildings, taking timber into new market applications, including Sky's Believe in Better Building, modular housing and new film studios at Pinewood.

He actively promotes timber design skills in Arup through their global knowledge systems and across the industry through conferences and papers.

Trudi Sully is the Impact Director for Manufacturing for the Construction Innovation Hub - a £72m programme funded by Government through the UKRI Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. The Hub is a catalyst for change in the way buildings and infrastructure are designed, manufactured, integrated and connected within our built environment.

Trudi works with key industry partners and across Whitehall to provide critical insight and influence over the programme's strategic planning to ensure delivery of impact, value for money, and to evidence transformation at scale.

With over 20 years of experience of innovation management, strategic stakeholder engagement and transformational change programmes in both public and private sector roles across a range of industries, Trudi brings a diverse breadth of perspective to support transformation in the construction sector.