ICE Strategy Session - Future of civil engineering: delivering differently to deliver better

Ed McCann

A past ICE President, Ed McCann is an experienced project director. He was fundamental in growing Expedition Engineering from a startup to Building magazine’s Engineering Consultant of the Year in 2012. 

With a deep understanding of the construction process, McCann is particularly skilled in strategic consultancy, feasibility studies and design. He has led projects all over the world, including the award-winning Infinity Bridge at Stockton-on-Tees and London 2012’s Olympic Velodrome. 

In his most recent projects, McCann has worked with infrastructure clients to improve processes and implement new technologies. This has included creating and delivering a productivity workstream for High Speed 2; designing the Rolls-Royce small modular reactors programme factory for BAM Nuttall; and developing the Berkeley Homes modular housing system.

His interests include developing talent in the built environment sector. This led him to co-create the Constructionarium, a not-for-profit provider of education and training. He is also a co-founder of the Get It Right Initiative, an organisation working to eliminate avoidable errors in construction.

A renowned thought leader, McCann is often invited to write articles and speak at industry events. He has also made TV programmes about civil engineering.  

Emma-Jane Houghton

Hayley Jackson

Hayley graduated with a First-Class Honours master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Nottingham in July 2018, receiving the Golden Jubilee and Chris Maxwell Prize for her significant contribution to the department throughout her degree. She was an Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Undergraduate QUEST Scholar, sponsored by Taylor Woodrow from September 2014-2018, completing three summer placements on Victoria Dock Portal and Whitechapel Station, both part of Crossrail and the M5 Junction 4a-6 Smart Motorway Upgrade.

In July 2023, Hayley moved into a site agent role with Coffey delivering water infrastructure projects across the Severn Trent Framework, including a reservoir repair in the Peak District and a new pipeline in Nottingham.

Hayley joined ICE East Midlands Graduates and Students Committee in September 2016 as secretary, being elected as vice chair and chair in consecutive years until October 2019. Most recently, Hayley was selected by Paul Sheffield as one of his ICE President’s Future Leaders for 2019-20 and continues to be involved in regional and national committees.

Katherine Bew

Mark Enzer OBE FREng

A former chief technology officer at Mott MacDonald, Mark Enzer advises the company’s key clients on digitalisation and broader industry transformations. He was previously director of the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Digital Built Britain, where he led the national digital twin programme. A champion of outcomes-focused systems thinking, the circular economy and collaborative delivery models in the built environment, Enzer is a visiting professor at both Cambridge and Imperial College London. He is also a member of the prime minister’s Council for Science and Technology.

Prof David Richards

Serving as head of the University of Southampton’s School of Engineering in 2018-23, Professor David Richards has technical interests including the geotechnical aspects of ageing infrastructure, the engineering behaviour of landfill waste and the mechanical characterisation of chalk.

He has conducted detailed studies into the rate loading effects of electricity transmission tower footing systems. More recently, he has addressed the costly foundation design problems affecting the delivery of overhead lines on Network Rail’s Great Western electrification project.

Richards was principal investigator for the government-backed £26m National Infrastructure Laboratory for the UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities. He worked on a networked suite of national test facilities studying infrastructure performance, resilience and renewal.

He is a co-recipient of the ICE’s Telford Premium, Bill Curtin Medal and Geotechnical Research Medal.

Andrew McNaughton

With 40 years’ experience in the infrastructure sector, Andrew McNaughton has held senior project management and executive positions at Systra, Kier Group and Balfour Beatty, where he served as CEO in 2013-14. 

After joining the Atomic Weapons Establishment as a non-executive director in 2021, McNaughton became executive director of the firm’s capital programme, taking responsibility for delivering its infrastructure investment projects.

In 2022, he was appointed adjunct professor at the John Grill Institute for Project Leadership at the University of Sydney. 

A Fellow of both the Royal Academy of Engineering and the ICE, McNaughton has served as a vice president of the latter, which named him Civil Engineering Manager of the Year in 2002 for his work on the Channel tunnel rail link. 

In 2020, he chaired a research project on the institution’s behalf that culminated in A Systems Approach to Infrastructure Delivery – a report that was welcomed across the sector. 

Mark Coates

A former quantity surveyor, Mark Coates started out in the construction industry more than 35 years ago. He has worked for organisations including Crossrail, Highways England, ICI, the Olympic Delivery Authority, Thames Water and United Utilities.

At Bentley Systems, Coates advises government and business decision-makers around the world on the benefits of digital transformation. He has worked on a range of infrastructure projects over the past 15 years, advising asset owners on the best technologies to use to optimise what these deliver under the given budgetary and scheduling constraints.

Coates chairs the international forum of industry body British Water and is a member of the Digital Twin Hub’s strategic board. He sits on the Institute of Government and Public Policy’s advisory board and the ICE’s Inspiring Engineering Excellence community advisory board.

Coates is also a trustee of the Chartered Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors and a member of its council of management.