Who are the UKIS speakers for 2020?

Over a turbulent past three years, in terms of politics and economy, infrastructure has been one of the few sectors to perform consistently despite wave after wave of uncertainty. This year is planned to be no exception, with upcoming strategies and projects set to be discussed at length during the UK Infrastructure Show (UKIS) 2020, which takes place at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham on 9th September.

During this year’s UKIS event, infrastructure sector professionals are given the opportunity to integrate with one another and gain insight into other public and commercial strategies as well as learn about major infrastructure projects such as HS2 and Crossrail. In doing this, individuals and companies can also engage with their existing supply chains and prospective supply chain partners, providing small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) with the opportunity to grow and offer a hand in delivering these major infrastructure projects.

This year the UKIS speakers will include the likes of:

• Nick Smallwood, the Chief Executive of the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA)
• Emma-Jayne Gooch, the Head of Supply Chain Development and Innovation at Sellafield Ltd
• Jacqui Rock, the Commercial Director of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO)
• Allan Wilen, the Economics Director of Glenigan
• Hannah Vickers, the Chief Executive of the Association of Consultancy and Engineering (ACE)
• David Brown, the Associate Commercial Director of CompeteFor
• David Hughes, the Director of Strategy and Programme at Transport for the North
• Marion Samler, the Partnership Manager of the Data and Analytics Facility for National Infrastructure (DAFNI)
• James Harris, the Policy and Networks Manager for the Royal Town Planning Institute
• Professor William Powrie, the Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Southampton.
• Lord Anthony St John, the Independent Non-Executive Director of Geobear, the Chairman of Advisory Board, and a Crossbench Member of the House of Lords.

Taking a glance into the background of one of our UKIS speakers, Nick Smallwood, before joining the IPA, was the Vice President for Projects Engineering and was also Chief Projects Engineer at Shell. Furthermore, up until November 2019, Mr Smallwood was also a trustee on the board of the Association for Project Management (APM), wherein he played a hand in managing the future of the project management profession in Britain.

In contrast to these public sector linked speakers, the representative for Sellafield Ltd, Emma-Jayne Gooch, has previously sat on the board of Britain’s Energy Coast Business Cluster, which is a private sector orientated organisation that represents other organisations of varying size, from SMEs to global companies, all of which have interests in West Cumbria.

Some of the UKIS speakers who have a much broader employment history include the representative from the DIO, Jacqui Rock, who actually had an extensive career in investment banking before taking on the management of a vast construction contract portfolio, as well as Lord Anthony St John, who qualified as lawyer in South Africa before ascending to the business world and then on to the House of Lords. Whereas speaker James Harris, from the Royal Town Planning Institute, has dedicated his career towards researching methods of strategic planning.

And finally, Professor William Powrie of the University of Southampton is a highly regarded geotechnical engineer who was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2009. Known for his commitment towards sustainability, his addition to the list of UKIS speakers, in a new era of ‘climate awareness’, is one that should not go unnoticed.

Needless to say, with a list such as this, UKIS this year is all set to be a hub of knowledge and expertise within the British infrastructure sector.

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