Trustee board update – June 2025

As President, Jim Hall, was unable to attend in person, Senior Vice President, David Porter, chaired the meeting.

The trustee board had decided to dedicate a whole day to this meeting to ensure there was enough time to do a deep dive into the ICE strategy and the 2026 plan, given their importance to the institution.

Updates were also received from the chair of the Thomas Telford Ltd (TTL) Board, the chief financial officer and ICE’s director of communications.

Strategy review

Over the past three months, the executive team has been developing the first draft of the 2026-2030 ICE Strategy based on the input of trustees, council and committee members.

During the meeting, trustees used breakout sessions to discuss the current version and suggested amendments which will be incorporated ahead of sharing the strategy with council in July.

To support the delivery of the strategy the director general and secretary took us through the initial draft of the 2026 plan which is being developed further by the executive.

I would like to thank the executive for their work so far and I look forward to seeing the next iteration of these important documents.

TTL annual update

Rachel White, chair of the TTL board, provided trustees with an update on TTL’s progress over the year.

It has been a very busy and productive year for TTL, finishing 2024 ahead of target.

It was good to hear that they are already making significant progress on the 2025 business plan with all requirements of the shareholder letter already met or exceeded.

In the first six months of 2025, they have launched NEC in Peru and enlarged their contracts portfolio though the acquisition of two new contracts, FAC-1 and TAC- 1, helping to cement TTL’s position as the home of collaborative contracting.

TTL’s investment in digitalisation is proceeding well. NEC Digital has ‘beta’ launched, and is in testing with a group of core customers. It will formally launch to the market later this year.

TTL is also developing its offer for the Greater Bay area in China, including Chinese translations, and is developing well in Singapore.

A review of the One Great George Street business model is also underway to ensure we are making the most of the commercial opportunities offered by this cherished asset.

Trustees congratulated Rachel and the board on TTL’s performance and asked that their thanks be passed onto the team.

Financial update

The chief financial officer talked the trustee board through the annual report and accounts highlighting that the group’s overall financial position was positive at the end of April, and ahead of budget.

The discussion was particularly timely given the trustee board has also been discussing the 2026 plan and the budget envelope available for that.

The first draft of the budget will be submitted to the trustee board in September and for final approval in November.

Profile raising campaign

The director of communications presented a proposal to introduce a profile-raising campaign in the run up to the 200th anniversary of the ICE charitable charter in 2028.

The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness of the ICE and demonstrate how it is living up to its charitable objectives by helping to improve the lives of people and the planet through infrastructure.

Trustees were very supportive of the idea, endorsed the campaign, and agreed a topic that would focus on building awareness and understanding of the role of infrastructure in people’s daily lives.

This campaign will build on the work done in 2018, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the ICE and campaigns such as Time is Running Out.

The next step will be for the communications team to research the topic and develop an implementation plan for the campaign with the expectation it will launch in 2026.

This is something we hope all members can get involved with in the future and more information will be provided in due course.