Speakers

• Sir William Francis CBE, LLD, FREng
  Former President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, UK

  
  

  Sir William Francis has extensive experience in major construction projects both in the UK and overseas including petrochemical, manufacturing and steel fabrication plants, bridges, power stations and offshore platforms. He has a long and distinguished career in industry which has included:

  • Over 25 years with Tarmac where he became Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of Tarmac Plc
  • Main Board Executive Director of Trafalgar House Plc responsible for Construction in the UK and overseas
  • Non-executive Director of Trafalgar House Oil and Gas Ltd
  • Serving for some 30 years on a number of Government Advisory Boards including the British Overseas Trade Board and the Export Credit Guarantee Department
  • President of the Institution of Civil Engineers
  • In semi-retirement a number of non-executive appointments including Director of British Rail Board and Chairman of the Black Country Development Corporation.

• Andrew Goddard QC, Atkin Chambers, London

  
  

  Andrew Goddard QC has been in practice at the English bar since 1985 and took silk in 2003. He specialises in the law of commercial obligations and professional negligence, particularly in the context of disputes concerning major construction and engineering contracts and IT projects. He has had much involvement in energy, infrastructure and telecommunications disputes and has acted for main contractors, sub-contractors, professionals and employers, including national and foreign governments.

  He has significant experience in international commercial arbitration and has appeared in many disputes referred to arbitration under the auspices of the ICC, the HKIAC, the LCIA and the LMAA. Andrew has a developing interest in international investment disputes and is currently instructed in an Investor-State arbitration proceeding before the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

• Akbar Ali, Principal AFA Law, London

  
  

  Akbar Ali is a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales and the Senior Partner with the UK law firm of AFA LAW. He has practised for over 30 years exclusively in the Energy and Construction law fields both in the UK and internationally, representing Owners, Contractors and Consulting Engineers in relation to contentious and non-contentious matters. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, the International bar Association and an accredited Arbitrator with the Dubai Chamber of Commerce. He lectures widely on process engineering and construction law topics.

• Dr Chris Elliott, FREng, FRAeS, Pitchill Consulting Ltd, London

  
  

  Dr Chris Elliott is an engineer and a barrister, working at the boundary between engineering and law on the governance of system risk. He works with companies, associations and government bodies to find practical solutions to problems that arise from the regulation of technology. His clients come from transport, energy and the environment, construction, manufacturing and defence.

  After 20 years in high-technology consulting, helping to build the company that became Detica plc, he qualified as a barrister and practised in environmental and public law. He found ever-growing demand for an engineer who understands law, rather than the other way round, and left the bar to establish Pitchill Consulting Ltd. Since then he has worked extensively with the railways, in the UK and across Europe, and is a non-executive Director of the Office of Rail Regulation. He has also worked closely with clients in other fields, particularly the construction industry and other modes of transport, and teaches engineering and law at several universities, including as a Visiting Professor at Imperial College and Bristol.

• Winston Riley, PE, President of the Joint Consultative Council for the Construction Industry of Trinidad and Tobago

  
  

  Winston Riley is President of the Joint Consultative Council for the Construction Industry of Trinidad and Tobago, and has held this post since 1998. He is also a Fellow and Past President of the Association of Professional Engineers of Trinidad & Tobago, is registered with the Board of Engineering of Trinidad and Tobago, is Past President of the Trinidad & Tobago Contractors Associations, and is a Member of the following organisations: SAVE International, The Value Society, Caribbean Academy of Sciences, and the Project Management Institute, USA. A futuristic leader, Winston Riley continues to redefine the landscapes in which the organisations he leads operate. As Managing Director/Project Principal of Planning and Stantec Ltd, Endeco (Trinidad Ltd) and Planning Associates Ltd, he continues to set standards in line with best practices.

• Steven Coppack, Principal, Construction & Engineering Law Limited

  
  

  Steven Coppack is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor and Solicitor with more than 25 years experience in construction and engineering issues in many overseas jurisdictions advising on measurement and quantum issues for the quantification of claims for additional costs and losses. From joining James R Knowles Contract Consultants in in 1990 he rose through the ranks and was appointed Executive Director in February 2002 with full responsibility for the Italian market. He has conducted FIDIC training for the European Union in Romania and is currently publishing a book on FIDIC Forms of Contract. he has acted as an Expert Witness in a major quantum dredging and rock replacement arbitration in the UK.

• Dr Stuart Carmichael, Executive Director, Critical Path Limited

  
  

  Dr Stuart Carmichael is Executive Director of Critical Path Limited specialising in project planning, forensic planning, risk assessment and project control. He has worked on arbitration and adjudication cases undertaking programme reconstructions, retrospective delay analysis and programme recovery. Stuart was a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Salford responsible for managing research projects which included the development of a Delay Analysis Process and Event management toolkit to assist in the preparation and presentation of delay and disruption evaluations and the development of Offsite Manufacturing Implementation Processes. Lately, he has been undertaking training programmes on behalf of the European Union for Eastern European Government on project planning, programming/ scheduling and methods of contemporaneous and retrospective delay analysis. He is the author of many papers and a prolific speaker at construction conferences.