Mark Farmer, founder of Cast consultancy and author of the hard-hitting report Modernise or Die, has been appointed a joint chairman of Constructing Excellence.
He takes up the role along Phil Wilbraham, and David Whysall, who will succeed Murray Rowden as co-chairs with immediate effect.
Wilbraham is director of expansion for Heathrow Airport Ltd, where he has worked for more than 15 years as a champion of collaborative working and intelligent client capability. He is also a leading member of the Infrastructure and Project Authority’s Infrastructure Clients Group.
Mark Farmer
Whysall sits on the UK board of Turner & Townsend where he is head of national cost and commercial services and runs its infrastructure business across the south of the UK.
Between 2008-2010 he was chair of G4C, the Generation for Change next generation movement of Constructing Excellence. In this capacity he worked with Andrew Wolstenholme OBE in authoring CE’s 2010 report Never Waste a Good Crisis.
Farmer’s independent review of the UK construction labour model was published by the Construction Leadership Council in October 2016. This report challenged the sector to do things differently through embracing innovation in delivery models which reduce both waste and the demand for increasingly scarce traditional onsite labour.
Constructing Excellence is the not-for-profit best practice and knowledge transfer organisation and nationwide movement which champions excellence through collaboration in the built environment sector.
In 2016 Constructing Excellence became part of the BRE (Building Research Establishment) Trust’s group of companies.
Don Ward, chief executive of Constructing Excellence, commented: “Following our merger with BRE we are delighted to announce the new leadership of our organisation, and I look forward to working with them all to lead and support the sector in a period of major opportunity for sector transformation.”
Outgoing chairman Murray Rowden said: “I am delighted that Phil, Mark and David have accepted our invitations to take over the leadership of Constructing Excellence. With their strengths in infrastructure, housing, offsite and performance measurement, and strong links with government initiatives, they are ideally placed to drive growth in our influence, profile and participation including membership.”
Ward also put on record his gratitude to Rowden for his leadership and support as chairman: “Murray worked tirelessly to further our aims and has revitalized the organisation through his leadership. He has ‘walked the talk’ of industry change and development of the younger generation, and I am personally delighted that he has agreed to remain closely involved in our work and to take over the leadership of our international arm.”
