At the end of another busy year, here is a reminder of some of the interviews that stood out for our readers
鈥楾his industry is absolutely fine鈥︹�� Andrew Davies on the naysayers, rescuing Kier and what the firm plans to do next
Andrew Davies has one or two things that he wants to get off his chest. The industry is not broken, as others have claimed, and it鈥檚 just not true that the industry can鈥檛 build large projects.
鈥淭his industry is absolutely fine,鈥� Kier鈥檚 chief executive says. 鈥淚 do get a little bit irritated. This industry is not broken. People should stop saying that. I get frustrated by people saying this stuff because it鈥檚 simply not true.
鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to attract people into the industry, trying to portray it as a great industry with career prospects 鈥� and there are great career prospects.鈥�
鈥極n some levels, it鈥檚 a straightforward industry but it has significant challenges鈥� 鈥� Wates鈥� new(ish) CEO on what he鈥檚 learnt so far
鈥淚 grew up in a large family: 10 boys, two girls. They called me 11 of 12. They can鈥檛 be bothered with my name.鈥�
Wates chief executive Eoghan O鈥橪ionaird likes to deadpan. Take his first name. To be clear, is it pronounced Owen?
鈥淵ou are pronouncing it perfectly correctly,鈥� he happily confirms when asked. 鈥淭here is a lot of redundancy in the name, but I鈥檝e explained it, I think, once or more every day since I left Ireland. That鈥檚 a long time ago.鈥�
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鈥楤id for everything, always haggle鈥�: The life and times of John F Hunt鈥檚 John Hall
John Hall remembers where he was when he told his bank manager to go and do one. His demolition business, John F Hunt, had just lost 拢2m on a 拢1m scheme, a strip out at a building called Park House at Finsbury Circus in the City of London.
He was already under special measures from NatWest, his bank at the time, who were putting the squeeze on him further. He had just won a job, a scheme to demolish Mondial House, then the main telecoms hub in central London, and he was explaining to his bank manager that he could see a way out in the next few months if only he would stand by him.
鈥淚 was stood on the roof of Mondial House, telling him this and he said: 鈥榊es, I鈥檝e heard that before.鈥� I reared up and said: 鈥業f that鈥檚 the case, I suggest you go f**k yourself鈥�. The next call was to Lloyds. I changed banks. Been with them ever since.鈥�
鈥業 was shouting all sorts鈥︹�� Aecom鈥檚 Jo Streeten on working at the BBC, the Davis Langdon deal and dealing with egg attacks
鈥淵ou can take the girl out of Chatham, but you can鈥檛 take the Chatham out of the girl.鈥�
Jo Streeten is talking about her recent battles with the local kids in the area of north London where she lives. Her house, and others, have been egged recently and she has had enough. 鈥淲e came under a consolidated egg attack on our road. I was found haring down the road, shouting all sorts of language.鈥�
She thinks for a moment, before adding: 鈥淵ou do get that sort of fear in London. Do you go out and confront them? Or do you worry whether they鈥檝e got a knife or a bigger brother? But they were quite young. We found them in the local shop rearming. We said to the shopkeeper, 鈥榗ould you at least stop selling them eggs?鈥� 鈥�
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Standing your ground: Mott MacDonald鈥檚 global MD Cathy Travers on her plans for the engineering giant
Cathy Travers is explaining how she was the youngest of five children, with four older brothers, and how this has equipped her for a career in the construction industry.
鈥淚鈥檓 not afraid to stand my ground and express my opinion,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 started my career 36 years ago and there were very few females that worked in the business 鈥� that grounding, the rough and tumble with four older brothers, has helped me to do that.鈥�
She may have been the most junior member of her family but these days Travers is very much a senior figure in construction.
Adjaye London CEO Lucy Tilley: 鈥榃e鈥檒l work even harder to carry on our legacy. We鈥檒l keep going鈥�
What happens when accusations of egregious wrongdoing hit the founder and globally recognised face of a leading architectural practice? This is not a hypothetical question on a management course, but the real-word scenario that last summer seemed on the verge of destroying David Adjaye鈥檚 career and bringing down the hugely successful practice he founded.
When the Financial Times鈥� story alleging abusive and professionally inappropriate behaviour with three black women broke on 4 July, it triggered a wave of clients from Liverpool to the UAE to drop Adjaye Associates. Adjaye himself acknowledged relationships with three women whom he went on to employ, but said they were consensual and that key abusive and coercive incidents set out in the article had simply not taken place.
The FT says the version of events it reported was corroborated by the women鈥檚 colleagues, friends and families, and that it spoke to 13 members of staff, some of whom referred to 鈥渢oxic鈥� working hours within the firm. While many clients did stand by Adjaye, the business was forced to cut staff and retrench in order to manage the financial impact.
One of the people at the forefront of managing the practice鈥檚 response was Lucy Tilley, a longstanding and trusted colleague of Adjaye鈥檚. She has been a central 鈥� but previously low-profile 鈥� figure in the practice鈥檚 evolution. She has rarely spoken to the press but agreed to speak to 黑洞社区 Design, 黑洞社区鈥檚 sister title, to address the allegations and set out her vision for the London studio.
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鈥業t鈥檚 an amalgamation of everything we have鈥� 鈥� Richard Robinson and the AtkinsR茅alis rebrand
鈥淎nd then, here at Atkins鈥pause] R茅alis, I nearly missed that!鈥�, says Richard Robinson with a laugh as he realises he is still not always in the habit of remembering to use his company鈥檚 new name. Sometimes a rebrand can take a while to sink in after all.
Think Marathon becoming Snickers, Opal Fruits morphing into Starburst or, more recently, Twitter transforming itself into X. New names can take a while to get used to even if you are the president for UK & Ireland of a huge firm that has dramatically rebadged itself in the past few months.
The rebranding of Canadian engineering services firm SNC Lavalin Group as AtkinsR茅alis 鈥� along with its subsidiaries, including household UK names Atkins and Faithful+Gould 鈥� made headlines last September.
Following another recent restructure, which has seen Robinson鈥檚 role recently re-badged as president of UK & Europe, we caught up with the AtkinsR茅alis鈥� executive to talk about the rebrand and the engineering firm鈥檚 plans for the future in the UK and elsewhere.
鈥楶erfect, see you Monday鈥� 鈥� McLaren鈥檚 Paul Heather on tier ones and being headhunted on holiday
Paul Heather can see the funny side when it is pointed out to him.
Happily ensconced at Skanska, where he was in charge of its London building business, with the Heron tower and The Gherkin among the notches on his CV, he was on holiday in Spain when a call from an unknown number came through.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e never out of reach now,鈥� he says, so he thought he had better answer it 鈥� just in case. It was a headhunter.
The person at the other end of the line was sounding him out about a job. 鈥淚 said, 鈥榡ust tell me who it is, or it will be a very quick conversation鈥�,鈥� Heather recalls.
The headhunter stalled, adding that he couldn鈥檛 and, even if he could, Heather would have to sign an NDA. 鈥淚鈥檓 not signing an NDA, just tell me who it is or it鈥檚 game over.鈥�
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