Infrastructure-speakers
Michael Bull, Director, Arup
Michael is the Global Environmental Skills Leader and Director of Arup’s Environmental Consulting Practice. He has worked in Environmental Consultancy for nearly 30 years and at Arup for 20 years where he is responsible for directing environmental assessments on projects such as High Speed rail, Stansted Airport, Stratford City and major road schemes. He has recently been project director for Arup’s environmental impact assessment contracts on HS1 Phase 1 and is currently advising on HS2 Phase 2a.
Diarmad Campbell, Chief Geologist Scotland, British Geological Survey
Dr Diarmad Campbell is the British Geological Survey's (BGS) Chief Geologist, Scotland responsible for the onshore geological surveying and 3D subsurface modelling of Scotland. He has recently led the BGS’s flagship multi-disciplinary Clyde-Urban Super-Project (CUSP), which developed 3D and 4D models of the subsurface of the Glasgow City-region, in partnership with Glasgow City Council(GCC) and other organisations.
Following on from this, he and a BGS colleagues (Helen Bonsor) are now supporting GCC’s development of a pioneering planning system and related Statutory Guidance for the subsurface of Glasgow, GCC’s use of BIM, and a subsurface data and knowledge exchange network (ASK) involving industry, government, academia and BGS which is expanding from the Glasgow area, to major infrastructure providers across Scotland, and further afield in the UK. He is also Chair of the European Cooperation on Science and Technology (COST) Action, Sub-Urban, dealing with the sustainable use of the subsurface of major European cities, and involving over 30 countries.
Before that he was Head of the Hong Kong Geological Survey, within the Planning Division of the Civil Engineering and Development Department of the Hong Kong SAR Government. There he provided geological advice to Government on urban development, large-scale infrastructure projects, and landslides. That followed an earlier attachment to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, to provide assistance to the gold mining industry in Zimbabwe, and involvement in a range of BGS projects in the UK.
Stephen Dance, Head of Infrastructure Delivery, Infrastructure and Projects Authority
Stephen is Head of Infrastructure Delivery at Infrastructure and Projects Authority, the part of HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office that is charged with supporting planning, prioritisation, enabling and effective delivery of infrastructure across sectors in the UK. He leads the Infrastructure Delivery team which supports delivery of major economic Infrastructure projects across sectors, including those in the governments “top 40” such as HS2, Mersey Gateway Bridge, Thames Tideway Tunnel, Hinkley Point and the Northern Line Extension to Battersea. He is also engaged in the delivery of infrastructure to major housing and regeneration schemes such as the Ebbsfleet Garden City and Barking Riverside.
Stephen has a private sector background. He was for 15 years a director of the international property advisers DTZ, before joining Partnerships UK and then Infrastructure UK (now Infrastructure and Projects Authority) in 2010.
Marc Davies, Director & Head of Environment, WYG
Marc Davies is Head of Environment at WYG. A geo-environmental consultant by background with 20 years experience, he acts as project director on large, often multidisciplinary regeneration schemes. National Grid and HS2 are among his key clients. He has been an active advocate of the Northern Powerhouse, lobbying on behalf of regional consultancies to ensure they play an influential role in its successful delivery. He also leads on the Northern Powerhouse agenda for WYG.
He was appointed Chair of the ACE Northern Region Group in September 2014. In this role, he coordinates the activities of the association in Yorkshire, Humberside and the North East of England, with the aim of supporting the development of both technical and social infrastructure in the region.
WYG are founding members of Business North, at which Marc acts as their representative.
Matthew Farrow, Executive Director, The Environmental Industries Commission (EIC)
Matthew’s background combines an in-depth understating of environmental policy with long experience of representing business interests to policy makers at devolved, UK and EU levels.
Before joining EIC, Matthew spent three years as Director of Policy at the Environmental Services Association, the trade association representing the UK’s waste and resource management industry.
Before that he had a number of policy roles at the CBI, including stints as Head of Environment and Climate Change Policy and Head of Infrastructure Policy. He also spent five years as Head of Policy for CBI Scotland, where he was responsible for all the CBI’s policy and lobbying interaction with the Scottish Government.
Josh Fothergill, Policy & Engagement Lead, IEMA
Josh’s portfolio as Policy and Engagement Lead for the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment’s (IEMA) covers: impact assessment (e.g. EIA, ESIA, SEA), resource management (e.g. efficiency, security & the Circular Economy) and the sustainability skills needed to deliver a sustainable economy.
Highlights of Josh’s career in impact assessment include: authoring IEMA’s report into The State of EIA Practice in the UK; developing the EIA Quality Mark scheme (for which IEMA won the coveted International Association for Impact Assessment’s (IAIA) Institutional Award); leading the development of IEMA’s 2010 Principles on the consideration of climate change (mitigation & adaptation) in EIA; and its briefing on Incorporation Ecosystem Services into EIA.
In the past 18 months, his Impact Assessment leadership has included:
- Creating IEMA’s new Impact Assessment Network - the next step in catalysing the active practitioner community to drive more effective and proportionate IA practice.
- Presenting IEMA’s 2015 State of EIA Practice in the UK analysis to global practitioners at IAIA15 in Florence.
- Chairing an international knowledge exchange series between UK, Hong Kong and International Finance Institution EIA and ESIA practitioners in London (April 2015).
- Directing IEMA’s engagement on the 2014 amendments to the European EIA Directive and work to prepare practice for its transposition in the UK.
- Keynoting the Hong Kong Institute of EIA’s 2014 symposium on Shaping EIA for the Future
Josh joined IEMA, in 2008, from the Environment Agency’s head office, with previous experience of EIA and SEA experience from consenting authority, developer and consultant perspectives. He has also undertaken various voluntary roles, including:
- Co-authoring the SEA of a Neighbourhood Plan for a Parish in Lincolnshire (2014-15)
- Chairing the Ireland & UK Branch of the IAIA (2008-2010)
- Co-ordinating the Embedding Climate Change in Professional Practice theme at the IAIA10 symposium on Climate Change & Impact Assessment (Aalborg, Denmark).
Maeve Fryday, Senior Manager, Ramboll Environ
Maeve Fryday is a Senior Manager in Ramboll Environ’s Environmental Planning Practice. She has over 20 years of consultancy experience in areas including environmental impact assessment (EIA), strategic environmental assessment (SEA), environmental due diligence (EDD) and compliance auditing, waste management and environmental permitting. Maeve is currently leading a number of grid connection and major transmission infrastructure route selection and EIA projects in Scotland, totalling approximately 400 km at voltages of 33 kV to 400 kV. Her involvement in these projects covers included project oversight, strategic environmental planning advice and technical advice and assessment of soils and land use issues, including management of peat. Maeve leads consultation with statutory and non-statutory stakeholders, and has recently led the development of a Consultation Strategy for a major transmission infrastructure project.
Maeve’s EIA and stakeholder engagement experience includes that gained in her involvement in over 50 EIA development projects across a range of sectors including energy generation and transmission, minerals, urban regeneration, industrial, and greenfield developments.
Maeve has assisted several UK power generation clients in the development of Electricity Act (>50 MW) and local (
Nick Giesler, Head of Environment, Crossrail 2, Transport for London
Nick is acting Head of Environment and Consents on Crossrail 2. As well as overseeing the EIA strategy, Nick is managing the environmental design team (responsible for on-going design support and integration of mitigation) and driving sustainable design during the early stages of the project.
Crossrail 2 is seeking to champion proportionate EIA and Nick has established the strategy that is being implemented by the EIA consultants and by the supporting transport and economic work streams. Nick has worked on HS2 since its inception and has been integral to the appraisal of sustainability for each phase, leading in environmental appraisal of options and in the reporting phase.
Over 25 years, Nick has led or been closely involved with EIAs for many of the major rail schemes in the UK including HS1, Thameslink programme, Crossrail and Airtrack.
Alan Hendry, Director of Sustainability, Jacobs
Currently Alan is the Director of Sustainability at Jacobs and is based in Glasgow. He has 29 years of experience, starting as a town planner and moving to work in sustainability 1996. Alan has a wide appreciation of the application of sustainability within both the public and private sectors having worked in both and supported a wide range of organisations with their embedding of sustainability in their operations and policies. Recent projects Alan has worked on include the Scotland’s Way Ahead Low Carbon Infrastructure Report and the Low Carbon Resilient Cities Project as well as helping with the Sustainability Strategy for the A9 upgrade. Alan is the Chair of the UK Business Council for Sustainable Development in Scotland and is also a Director of the Scottish Energy Association, a former Regional Board Member of the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency as well as the former vice chair of the Sustainable Scotland Network. Alan supports Jacobs’ Global Community of Practice on Sustainability and runs the monthly Jacobs Global Sustainability Call which features senior presenters from leading businesses and business organisations, such as Unilever, Coca Cola Enterprises, O2, McCains and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Through this Alan has developed an excellent network of contacts across Government, Government Agencies, NGO’s, businesses, business organisations and local authorities to create a strong knowledge exchange network.
Davinder Hothi, Head of Environment (Phase Two), HS2
Davinder Hothi is a planning and environmental leader with broad experience in both public and private practice. He currently leads the environmental work on Phase Two at HS2 Ltd. He has experience of enabling sustainable, strategic major development, regeneration and infrastructure projects.
Tony Grayling, Director, Sustainable Business and Development, Environment Agency
Tony Grayling is Director, Sustainable Business and Development, at the Environment Agency, the principle environmental regulator in England. He leads the Environment Agency’s work on cross-cutting issues including climate change, natural capital and sustainable development. He is currently also leading the agency’s work on onshore oil and gas.
He was previously a special adviser to David Miliband and Hilary Benn, successive Secretaries of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, helping to design the UK’s Climate Change Act 2008. From 2002 to 2006 he was an associate director and head of the sustainability team at the Institute for Public Policy Research, a UK think tank, which he joined in 1999 as a research fellow.
He was a special adviser to the Minister for Transport, Gavin Strang, from 1997-98 during the development of the UK governments 1998 transport white paper and before that a researcher successively to Labour MPs Ron Davies and Anne Campbell. Educated at Thorpe St Andrew School, Norwich and Fitzwilliam College, he has a first class degree in natural sciences and a PhD in plant sciences both from Cambridge University.
James Harris, Managing Director, Water & Environment, Mott MacDonald
James is the Managing Director of Mott MacDonald’s Water and Environment business and a director of its subsidiary companies Bentley Holdings Ltd and Mott MacDonald Bentley Ltd. As Managing Director, Mott MacDonald Water & Environment, James is responsible for the overall control and direction of Mott MacDonald’s Water & Environment businesses (comprising J N Bentley Ltd, Mott MacDonald Bentley Ltd, Water Consultancy and Environmental Consultancy) employing some 1,500 staff delivering a wide range of consultancy and construction services to the water and environment sectors, in UK and overseas.
Mott MacDonald Bentley (MMB) is an award winning joint venture company formed by contractor J N Bentley and Mott MacDonald. MMB provides clients with a one-stop-shop for programme management, feasibility, design and construction services for customers including Anglian Water, United Utilities, Welsh Water, Yorkshire Water, Severn Trent Water, Scottish Water, Waste Recycling Group, Yorwaste and Cambridge Water.
James has extensive experience in the UK water industry and specialist expertise in the establishment of systems and processes for the efficient delivery of large programmes of design and build schemes. James is a champion of collaborative working.
Helen Lancaster, Senior EIA and Land Rights Advisor, Major Applications and Plans, The Planning Inspectorate
Helen is an experienced ecologist who worked as an advisor for Natural England before moving into their national planning team. Since 2012 she has been working for the Planning Inspectorate, mainly providing advice to both applicants and inspectors involved in nationally significant infrastructure projects on matters relating to both environmental impact assessment and the Habitats Regulations.
Oliver Lancaster, Principal Environmental Engineer, Wales & West Utilities Ltd
Oliver is Principal Environmental Engineer at Wales & West Utilities Ltd (WWU), based in Newport, South Wales. His main responsibility is to manage the portfolio of former gas production sites under the ownership of WWU across the gas distribution geography from Anglesey to Penzance. Oliver’s other responsibilities include managing the environmental aspects of WWU’s gasholder demolition programme, delivering innovation, managing WWU’s climate change adaptation operations, representing the gas industry before Ofgem for Contaminated Land and supporting property disposal, leases and acquisitions.
Some of Oliver’s current projects include an extensive site investigation and statutory remediation programme, continuing to develop the concept and delivery of climate change driven remediation and the treatment and re-use of gasholder sludge. He is also working with CL:AIRE on a study to report on existing, untested and developing remediation technologies, which can be used to support the delivery of a more effective and efficient reduction in risk profile across gas distribution network contaminated land portfolios.
Oliver graduated from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth in 2003 with a BSc (1st) in Environmental Earth Science and from the University of Wales, Cardiff in 2004 with an MSc (Dist.) in Geoenvironmental Engineering. Despite studying, living and working in Wales, Oliver was born and bred in Greater Manchester and gets upset with himself when moments of accent deterioration creep in.
Dr Bill Sheate, Technical Director Collingwood Environmental Planning Ltd
Bill is a Technical Director of CEP, and also part-time Reader in Environmental Assessment at Imperial College London in the Centre for Environmental Policy. Bill has worked, lectured and published widely on environmental assessment and policy for over 30 years, in consultancy, academia and the voluntary sector. He holds a PhD based upon published work in accountability and EU environmental assessment law, policy and practice.
He has extensive experience in EU policy and legislation, assessment and evaluation procedures, methodologies, and public and NGO participation. Most recently, he led the evaluation of Defra’s Biodiversity Offsetting Pilot Programme and the Counterfactual study of the Nature Improvement Areas evaluation. He is also a member of the Academic Panel of Francis Taylor Building barristers' chambers and an Honorary Professorial Research Fellow in the School of Environment, Education and Development at the University of Manchester. He was Founding Editor of the Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management (1998-2009), now one of the leading journals in the field.
In 2014 he was appointed Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee inquiry into HS2 and the Environment. He is recognised as an international expert in advising on environmental assessment and compliance matters, e.g. for judicial review, and in 2015 testified at the International Court of Justice on behalf of the applicant in Nicaragua v Costa Rica (Border Road).
Richard Turney, Barrister, Landmark Chambers
Richard was called to the Bar in 2007 and specialises in planning, environmental and public law. He has a broad High Court, public inquiry and advisory practice. He also regularly appears in tribunals and in the criminal courts. He is a member of the Attorney-General’s “C” panel of counsel.
Richard’s practice covers all areas of planning and environmental law. He regularly appears at planning inquiries, in the High Court in statutory challenges and judicial review proceedings, and in the criminal courts in planning and environmental cases and has a broad advisory practice. His work covers all types of development.
Richard has extensive experience in enforcement work, for both landowners and local authorities, representing them at inquiries and in the High Court and county courts.
Richard’s work also includes compulsory purchase, representing the acquiring authority in major retail-led CPOs in Clay Cross (led by Christopher Lockhart-Mummery QC) and Sunderland (led by David Elvin QC), and acting for landowners in seeking compensation before the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber).
Richard regularly appears in the criminal courts, prosecuting and defending proceedings for breaches of enforcement notices, water pollution and other environmental offences in the magistrates’ and Crown Courts. His work in the criminal courts often involves proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
Richard has a busy advisory practice in all aspects of planning and environmental law. He provides strategic advice to developers and others on planning matters and environmental liabilities; advises local authorities in respect of compulsory purchase, enforcement and the handling of planning applications; and advises householders on planning issues relating to their homes. Richard’s advisory work regularly includes mixed questions of property, public and planning/environmental law. He is able to accept instructions through the Public Access scheme.
Richard has been ranked by Planning Magazine as one of the top 5 planning barristers under 35 for the past 3 years.