Another year of dredging and Outstanding Contribution Award 2025

Jason Boulter

Jason Boulter MEng CEng MICE is a client-side Project Manager for Associated British Ports (ABP). After 10 years working on the Isle of Wight Highways PFI contract,

Jason left his Senior Project Manager role having delivered a wide portfolio of interesting and challenging highway infrastructure projects.

Since joining ABP Southampton in August 2023, Jason has delivered the £17.5M Solent Gateway marine infrastructure project and is part of the engineering team leading the Solent Gateway 2 development.

James Maclean

James Maclean is the CEO of leading wet civil engineering firm Land & Water Group, which has a 30-year history of providing a range of civil and environmental solutions to the UK’s network of rivers, streams, wetlands and waterways.

Having founded the Group in 1994, alongside its chairman Richard Melhuish, Land & Water has since grown into a family of businesses including Land & Water Plant, providers of specialist machinery, a national specialist contracting business (Land and Water Services ltd) and a remediation business building London’s largest wetland habitat ever.

With a focus on innovation and dedication to safeguarding the environment, James is influencing change within the civil engineering and construction industries by reconsidering the way projects are planned and delivered with whole carbon impacts as part of the decision-making process.

He has been a driving force when it comes to our own and industry thinking on managing and reducing waste in everything we do and even how we think.

With the combined effects of an ever-increasing global population and climate change, James alongside his team at Land & Water Group is driving new ideas and strategies to ensure the world is left in a better place.

Thomas Vervoort

Thomas Vervoort has a degree in civil engineering from the university of Hasselt and joined the DEME Group in 2011 (after doing his internship with DEME in 2010), where he first spent 8 years in the Engineering, Design & Technology department, a group responsible for developing transport, installation, and mission equipment for their diverse maritime projects and providing production calculations for tenders.

Since 2019, Thomas has been managing tenders for DEME’s activity line Dredging North Europe region, focusing primarily on the UK and Ireland. Thomas’s role does not end with tender submission; he remains a lead team member through any negotiation stages and as the link between project delivery teams and the DEME support departments during project delivery.

Thomas is based in the DEME head office near Antwerp, Belgium.

Tim Milner

Tim currently heads the Maintenance Sector at Boskalis Westminster UK & Ireland as Operations Manager. 

As Operations Manager with over 17 years of experience in civil engineering and maritime infrastructure, specialising in high-value dredging, coastal defence, and port maintenance projects across the UK and Ireland.

Tim is fully responsible for contracts ranging from rapid single vessel operations to multi-year, multi-million pound frameworks for government and commercial port authorities. 

Managing nationwide site teams, a satellite office in the North West, and complex marine operations.

Dan Hoare

Dan Hoare leads the Broads Authority’s integrated programme of waterways management and habitat conservation across the UK’s largest protected wetland. With a PhD focused on aquatic ecological responses to contamination events in the Broads, he brings a strong research foundation to shaping biodiversity and sediment management strategies. 

He oversees a multidisciplinary department comprising operational teams, managers and technical specialists working across dredging, engineering, ecological enhancement and visitor access. A champion of evidence-led practice,

Dan has been with the Authority since 2006 and continues to apply scientific insight to real-world environmental challenges.