Engineering Excellence Community Forum: Building safeguards with the ICE Safety Risk Advisory Group

Darren James

The CEO of Aureos (formerly Keltbray Infrastructure Services) since December 2024, Darren James oversaw its private equity purchase from Keltbray, where he was group CEO from April 2020.

Previously he’d served Costain for more than three decades, starting as an industrial placement student and finishing as chief operating officer.

James is also a seasoned non-executive director. After ending a six-year stint with the Port of London Authority in that capacity, he was appointed to the board of Welsh Water in January 2025 as chair of its performance and safety committee. He is also a director of the Railway Industry Association and a member of the Rail Supply Group’s council.

An ICE Fellow, he sits on ICE’s Learning Society Committee as the co-lead for engineering excellence.

Andy Alder

In his current role at Anglian Water, Andy Alder leads the company’s strategic projects to secure future water supplies, enhance the environment and enable economic growth.  

He was previously vice president and head of major programmes for Jacobs in Europe, during which time he served as programme director on the main construction phase of the Thames Tideway Tunnel.

Earlier in his career, Alder spent six years with Crossrail, initially as chief tunnel engineer and later as director of its western tunnels project. He was responsible for design and construction of major transport infrastructure including the Channel Tunnel, Kuala Lumpur’s Light Rail Transit system, Dublin’s tram network and extensions to the Jubilee Line and Docklands Light Railway in London.  

Alder is a Fellow of the ICE, the Association for Project Management and the Royal Geographical Society.

Dr Hazel McDonald

Dr Hazel McDonald has been immersed in the management of highway structures for more than three decades, mostly with Transport Scotland.  

After completing her PhD thesis on temperature effects in concrete box-girder bridges at the University of Strathclyde, she worked for Cumbria County Council, Capita Symonds and Mott MacDonald, specialising in bridge design, inspection and maintenance.

She then moved to Transport Scotland, where she has been for 20 years. In her current role, she leads a 17-strong team that manages the upkeep and upgrading of trunk road structures.  

A Fellow of the ICE, McDonald also chairs the UK Bridges Board.

Chris O'Regan

Starting out as an apprentice technician, Chris O’Regan has spent nearly 40 years in structural engineering. He has worked on the design and construction of projects ranging from an art gallery refurbishment to the delivery of the second Wembley Stadium.

In his current role, he is Frankham Group’s lead structural engineer for the operation, inspection, maintenance and modification of higher-risk buildings in England.

A technical author who has written more than 60 guidance notes, he has shared his expertise across the construction industry on behalf of organisations including the Engineering Council, the Health and Safety Executive and the British Standards Institution.

O’Regan holds fellowships with both the ICE and the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE). These were awarded in recognition of his knowledge-sharing work and his authorship of the second edition of Structural Use of Glass in Buildings (IStructE, 2014).

Chair of the ICE-IStructE committee that oversees assessments for the higher-risk buildings register, O’Regan co-developed the Engineering Council’s UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence and Commitment Contextualised for Higher-Risk Buildings.

He received the IStructE’s Lewis Kent Award in 2021 for services to structural engineering.