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Speakers

Linda Scott, Causeway and CodeClan

Linda Scott is on the Causeway Management Board and is Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Industry Engagement of national digital skills academy, CodeClan. Linda first began collaborating with Causeway in her previous role with West Lothian Chamber of Commerce, where she was CEO for seven years and involved on several trade missions between Scotland and Ireland. Linda has had a wide and varied career. She started her first catering business at 16 years of age, which she sold by the time she was 20. She then for period was a professional horse rider, before returning to a catering career, with a business she ended up having for 20+ years. This led to a role as Vice President of West Lothian Chamber and eventually becoming CEO of West Lothian Chamber of Commerce, where she was instrumental in developing West Lothian’s Developing the Young Workforce skills and training programme (DYW), which went on to be used as the template for the national solution on behalf of the Scottish Government. She has also been a member of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce Board for three and a half years.

Saffron Grant, Digital Construction Skills

Saffron is a Causeway member and an experienced Civil Engineer who, during her twenty years in the construction industry, has worked for contractors, designers and clients. She is an Approved Trainer for the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) and an Associate Lecturer for Glasgow Caledonian University. Ten years ago, she set up a construction training business, Setting Out for Construction (SOFC), specialising in practical training for site engineers and providing training and consultancy to colleges, universities, construction companies, local authorities, sector skills councils and social enterprises. Saffron is a Master Practitioner in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and is an accomplished consultant, coach and trainer in a wide range of disciplines including practical construction training, communication, employability skills and team performance. Her holistic approach to coaching, facilitating and training means that she is flexible and able to accommodate audiences of any kind. She has an exceptional ability to explain complex concepts in a simple way and to put things into a context that is relevant to the learner. She is continually seeking new applications for her successful professional services and training models and opportunities to make a positive and lasting difference to the industry. She has recently brought together a team of partners to deliver the CITB-funded Digital Transformation through Leaders Project under the new branding of Digital Construction Skills (DCS).

Eugene Mullan, Causeway & Smith Scott Mullan Assoc

Eugene Mullan is a Causeway Director and a qualified architect and urban designer. He is a founding director of architectural practice Smith Scott Mullan Associates in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was educated at Queen’s University Belfast, Ireland and has worked in both London and Edinburgh. Smith Scott Mullan are a design-orientated architectural practice based in central Edinburgh. They produce inspiring spaces and bring a creative and dynamic approach to the design process, supporting it with precise management systems. They enjoy challenging projects, encourage clients to have high aspirations and are positive and enjoyable people to work with. Eugene has been Secretary of the Parliamentary Cross Party Group on Architecture and the Built Environment in Scottish Parliament for ten years. He is a Board Member of PAS (Planning Aid Scotland) and Convenor of the CRAGS Community Sports Centre, a social enterprise SCIO in Edinburgh. He recently joined the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre, Advanced Construction Group.

John Hunt, Enterprise Ireland

John is the ‘Digital Construction’ lead at Enterprise Ireland, working with a portfolio of 30+ pre and post investment Irish technology companies. Over the past decade, John has also been an advocate of Building Information Modelling and the transition from traditional approaches to the design, construction and operation of built assets.

Nick Turberville, Invest Northern Ireland

Nick joined Invest Northern Ireland as the GB in-market construction advisor in November 2011 after three years with London 2012. The role at 2012 focused on identifying and promoting construction related sub-contracting packages from across the Olympic venues via the CompeteFor web portal. He also worked on the legacy project to ensure that sub-contracting packages of other major projects were made publicly available. This led to TfL and Metropolitan Police adopting the platform for low level spend and major construction projects including Crossrail, Northern Line Extension and Bank upgrade. He continues to work with major buyers and supply chain professionals to identify opportunities for Northern Irish construction companies, promote innovation and capability of these firms and introduce likeminded companies. Nick has been instrumental in helping Northern Irish firms secure new work on major projects over the last nine years and hopes there are plenty more to come. Living in Edinburgh and working for Invest NI, Nick is an enthusiastic new member of the Causeway Network.

Chris Grant, Digital Construction Skills

Chris has 22 years’ experience working for construction companies including Balfour Beatty and Galliford Try. His experience spans projects including buildings, roads, bridges, petrochemical and tunnelling projects. More recently he has specialised in the construction management and delivery of multi-disciplinary civil engineering and water projects.

George Harold, Integrated Facilities Solutions

George Harold is a Co-Founder and CEO of Integrated Facilities Solutions Ltd. (IFS) IFS is an award-winning Irish company that has developed a structured methodology and software platform for managing Building Information for the entire Building & Asset Lifecycle. The IFS solution enables everyone to store, share and update all building and project information on a secure platform, accessible online from any location and on multiple devices. IFS is 20 years in business and has built up significant experience assisting blue-chip customers across mission critical sectors addressing problems associated with the lack of visibility, traceability and certainty in Building Information management from planning and design, through to handover and close-out, to operations and maintenance. Working on projects and supporting clients in Ireland, Scotland, England, EU & US, ensuring digital transformation in both the Construction and FM Industry's is a big focus for IFS.

Nick Young, Scottish Government

Nick took up his role in the Digital Economy Unit, Economic Development Directorate at Scottish Government in May 2019 where he currently focuses on three key policy areas: development of the technology sector, digital skills and adoption of digital technologies. Prior to joining Scottish Government Nick spent his career in the private sector designing and implementing large scale social inclusion programmes across the UK. During this period he has enjoyed a 2 year secondment with UK Government negotiating City Region Deals and also for 2 years in the Middle East advising on policy.