The Construction Industry Council inaugurated Professor John Nolan as its new Chairman at the 100th meeting of its Council Members yesterday afternoon. John succeeds Tony Burton, Senior Partner at Gardiner & Theobald, in this role for a two year term of office starting with immediate effect. Tony Burton now becomes Deputy Chairman for a year, in accordance with CIC’s rules and byelaws.
John Nolan is a Past President of the Institution of Structural Engineers and a Fellow of both that Institution and the Institution of Civil Engineers. He is also a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor of Innovation at the University of Birmingham and he is a Chartered Engineer with over forty years experience in the construction industry. John started his career as a labourer and progressed from there to become one of the founders of two successful engineering consultancies, one of which, Nolan Associates, he still chairs. He has been responsible for projects up to the value of £300 million, including almost all elements of the built environment. He is also one of the founders and chairman of a property development company and is a non- executive director of a power company. John’s particular interests are innovation, factory engineered construction and value engineering.
On taking up his new role, John Nolan said: “To be the advocate and representative for one’s own profession was a great honour which I didn’t think could be surpassed, but I must say that to find oneself trusted to be the advocate and representative of 50 built environment professional bodies with their 500,000 members, responsible for 7% of our GDP, is an even greater honour. It is my fervent hope that at the end of my two year tenure as chairman of the Construction Industry Council the members will feel that I have justified that trust. It has been a privilege to learn from Tony Burton as his Deputy for the last year and I am delighted that I will still have his wise council for the coming year.
“Last week’s referendum result heralds a seismic change in the way our country does business with Europe and the rest of the World and will particularly affect the trading environment of our built environmental professionals. It is my intention to see that their voice is heeded in the negotiations with the EU and subsequent negotiations with our other trading partners throughout the World. We have the opportunity to consign UK OJEU to the dustbin of history with it’s ridiculously inflated bid costs that squeeze out the SMEs and it’s massive deleterious effect on the cost and quality of public sector projects.”
Out-going CIC Chairman Tony Burton responded by saying: “I am delighted to be succeeded as Chairman of CIC by Professor John Nolan. John is a deep thinking and very capable individual who I know will relish his time as Chairman. I look forward to working closely with him as his deputy during the next 12 months to embed the strategic changes approved at the 100th Council meeting. These changes will enable CIC to play a strong thought leadership role on behalf of its members representing the built environment professions together.”
