School of Architecture, Technology and Engineering Industrial Advisory Boards

Chair - Nigel Clifford

Nigel graduated from Manchester University in 1990 with a Civil Engineering MEng degree. He is a Chartered Civil Engineer (FICE) with over 30 years of continuous industry experience.

In his early years, Nigel enjoyed experience ranging from site labourer (during student summer holidays), Design Engineer, and Site Engineer.  He progressed to becoming the client’s Project Manager / Resident Engineer on multi-million pound schemes in both the UK and overseas (Hong Kong and UAE). Now he has become more involved with the commercial and contractual aspects of construction projects. Nigel is currently a construction claims delay analyst drawing on his experience in the assessment of construction programmes and project delays.

He has recently been involved with the Crossrail scheme as a delay analyst, as well as other infrastructure projects. Nigel regularly talks to students and makes presentations about all aspects of a career as a civil engineer.

Nigel was invited to become a member of the Industrial Advisory Board in 2015, and elected as Chairman in 2019.

DGA Group

DGA Group deal with all aspects of project planning, expert delay analysis and scheduling.

Board member - Irene O’Riordan

Irene graduated from the University of Reading with a BSc in Human Geography in 2008, and started her career working as transport planner, primarily focusing on development planning. She was then a project manager and team leader for a traffic survey company before joining the spatial planning team in AECOM.

At AECOM Irene worked on large-scale, UK wide transport and highway projects for clients such as Highways England and Transport for London. Whilst working full time, Irene completed a MSc in Transport Planning and Management from the University of Westminster in Autumn 2017.  Irene is now a Principal Transport Planner at Curtins working on a range of private and public-sector projects including the White City masterplan for Imperial College and a million square ft mixed-use development in west London. Irene regularly works with the civil engineering teams to design and resolve highway design issues.

Irene joined the Industrial Advisory Board in 2018 to provide a transport/highways perspective and has been a guest lecturer at the University of Brighton.

Curtins

Curtins is a leading consultancy specialising in civil and structural engineering; transport planning; environmental engineering; infrastructure; geotechnical; conservation and heritage and principal designer

Board member - Glyn Evans

Glyn graduated from Kingston Polytechnic in 1983 with a BSc in Civil Engineering and an MSc in Geotechnical Engineering. Glyn started his career at Binnie and Partners, working on the Thames Barrier project before moving to Soils Limited in 1984, where he worked his way up to Technical Director. In 1996 Glyn started his own company, Geo-Environmental Services, initially working solely in housing development, but now also active in the rail, road, utilities, education and public sectors. The business has a head office in Hurstpierpoint, with satellite offices in Bristol and Birmingham.

Glyn has always placed great importance on corporate social responsibility and believes that it is important to give something back to the community you serve. As well as providing sponsorship and support for a number of charities, Glyn has also fostered a close working relationship with the University of Brighton, providing work experience opportunities for students and with Albion in the Community’s Want to Work scheme, providing work experience opportunities for the long term unemployed.

Geo-Environmental Services

Geo-Environmental Services is an environmental consultancy which provides services for housing; healthcare; community; education; commercial; rail; road; energy; utilities; local government and central government projects.

Board Member - Tristan Banks

Tristan graduated from the University of Portsmouth in 2008 with a BEng (Hons) degree in Civil Engineering which included a ‘sandwich’ year working with the contractor BAM Nuttall. In 2012 Tristan gained a Post Graduate Certificate at the University of Sussex and achieved Incorporated Engineer (IEng MICE) status with the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE). Following several years in consultancy and having worked though ICE ‘Further Learning’, Tristan achieved Chartered Engineer (CEng MICE) status in 2015.

Tristan worked with Mott MacDonald for 5 years gaining experience in ports, bridges and heavy civils sectors. He was heavily involved with Crossrail projects at Paddington Station and also gained overseas experience in Bermuda and the USA.

Tristan joined HOP consulting in 2014 and is heavily involved in various port, marine, lock, coastal, seaside pier, river wall and bridge structures. He is now a Board Director and leads one of the Marine teams. Tristan is also an ICE Supervising Civil Engineer (SCE) and leads the company training programmes.

HOP Consulting

HOP Consulting is a multi-disciplinary practice of Consulting Civil, Structural & Marine Engineers based in Hove. Their expertise extends across all engineering disciplines, on all types of structural, civil and marine engineering projects, from inception to successful completion.

Board member - Ruth Chapman

Ruth comes from a Public Relations and Communications background with a focus on stakeholder engagement for major construction projects. In 2006 she worked alongside Mackley Construction, Hollandia, POMA and HOP on the Brighton i360 project, and has since gone on to support multiple developers engage with stakeholders at the pre-planning stage as well as throughout delivery. Ruth has a special interest in STEM development amongst young people, improving the talent pool through diversity, equal opportunities, and community engagement.

In 2024, Ruth moved to Mackley Construction where she hopes to motivate more people from diverse backgrounds to begin a career in engineering and construction.

Mackley

Mackley delivers civil engineering projects in coastal, fluvial, waste, water, ports, harbours, energy and infrastructure sectors for public and private clients.

Board member - Tom Christy

Tom graduated from the University of Brighton in 2010, with a first class Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering (MEng), becoming Chartered in 2015 (CEng) and admitted as a Fellow with the Institution Civil Engineers in 2024 (FICE).

He has over 14 years continuous experience with design, construction and client organisations within the UK, Europe, Middle-East, and Africa, in Water and Wastewater sectors.

In 2010 he joined MWH Global as a Civil Design Engineer, Site Engineer, Temporary Works Coordinator and Technical Manager working on various multi-million pound projects in Design and Build Joint Ventures in Southern England for Southern Water’s Asset Management Programme 5 (AMP5 – 2010-2015).

During this period he travelled overseas to help facilitate Hazard and Operability studies on large Reverse Osmosis Desalination Plants for water supply in North Africa, and large Membrane Bio-Reactors for wastewater treatment in Oman. He gained a broad range of design and construction experience including a site-based residency on a complex wastewater non-infrastructure project in East Sussex. He was also Regional Discipline Lead for MWH, providing Technical Leadership to over 30 Civil Design Engineers on the company’s frameworks in the South.

In 2017 Tom joined Southern Water as a Principal Civil Engineer, providing technical design and management on a range of water and wastewater engineering projects in AMP6 (2015-2021).

In 2021 he changed roles to focus on client-based engineering design management as a Senior Project Design Lead in their AMP7 water quality programme.

Tom joined the Industrial Advisory Board in 2021, and is keen to ‘give-something back’ to the University that ignited his career.

Southern Water

Southern Water is the private utility company responsible for the public wastewater collection and treatment in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, West Sussex, East Sussex and Kent, and for the public water supply and distribution in approximately half of this area.

Board member - John Clark 
Asset Management Advisory

John graduated from Liverpool John Moores University with a Civil Engineering BEng first class degree. He started his career by undertaking a placement year with Mouchel in 2008, before returning to his degree on a part-time basis, and continuing to work in Mouchel’s water business. Mouchel has since been acquired by WSP where John established the Utilities Services Business.

In April 2023 John joined the KPMG Infrastructure Advisory Business and now works in business planning and financing projects related to infrastructure construction and maintenance.

John has worked on a number of high profile projects including the United Utilities Asset Management Plan (AMP5) capital programme, Southern Water AMP6 Developer Services offshoring team, High Speed 2 Utilities and Stations, and most recently PR24. John joined the University of Brighton Industrial Advisory Board in 2019 to promote the exciting opportunities that civil engineering offers to students.

KPMG

KPMG is a global audit and consulting firm, working across all sectors in infrastructure and it is one of the Big 4 Management Consulting firms.

Nick Bean - Engineering Manager

Nick graduated from Liverpool University in 1995 with a BEng degree in Civil Engineering and obtained an MSC in Estuarine and Coastal Zone Management in 1999 from the University of Kent. He is a Chartered Civil Engineer (MICE).

Nick began working for West Sussex County Council Highways and then moved onto Posford, Duvivier as a graduate Coastal Engineer, Binnie Black and Veatch to lead the GIS delivery team, CIRIA as a Project Manager, the Environment Agency as a coastal specialist, Mott MacDonald as the FCERM lead for Coastal Engineering. He has spent time working for London Underground and several Local Authorities.

Nick now works for Brighton and Hove City Council where he has the privilege of heading up the Engineering team, his portfolio includes Highway design, Highway Infrastructure, Flood Risk Management, Coast Protection and Streetlighting.

Brighton & Hove City Council

 

Board member – Karl Taylor

Karl is a Chartered Civil Engineer with over 30 years in the water industry and in local government, and joined the IAB in 2023. He started his civil engineering career as a Graduate working on the Channel Tunnel project before moving back home working with Southern Water to gain design office experience to become Chartered. Karl held a number of engineering, operational and senior management roles at Southern Water before moving to East Sussex County Council in 2009 as Director of Operations, responsible for highway maintenance, as well as the Council’s waste disposal PFI contract, transport, parking and rights of way operational teams.

East Sussex County Council

Board member - Dan Rouse

Dan graduated from University of Plymouth with a degree in Civil Engineering.  He has specific interests in Water, Public Health and Coastal Engineering and is a Chartered Civil Engineer, registered Professional European Engineer and Career Mentor.   He started his career working in Consultancy designing major pipelines, networks and pumping stations for UK Water companies and over the last 28 years has worked on a variety of water and environmental projects for clients nationally and globally.

Dan has worked in both Client organisations and Consultancy and has taken a wide range of projects through from needs identification, to optioneering, outline and detailed design.  He has worked under traditional professional services contracts and Design and Build Joint Ventures in the role of Design Manager.

Dan has worked with Mott MacDonald, a leading global engineering, development and management consultancy since 2012 and currently heads up the Southern Regional Portfolio for Water Sector work.  Based in Mott MacDonald’s Brighton office, Dan leads client relationships with major water companies and other clients and is responsible for leading and winning and delivering major framework tenders.

Dan is passionate about promoting careers in Civil and Environmental Engineering locally and joined the University of Brighton Industrial Advisory Board in 2024 to help promote better links between industry and the university.

Water and Environmental Engineering

Board member - Danny Hoyle

Danny has decades of experience in the Telecommunications sector, having held technical commercial roles in distribution, specialist manufacture, towers and vendor specific companies.

Initially beginning his career as a fibre optics engineer holding city and guilds qualifications, Danny moved into commercial activities, distributing some of the worlds market-leading fibre optic cables and associated products across Europe and Africa.

Moving on to work for a leading specialist fibre optics company in Switzerland, Danny was a key account manager looking after the major UK network operators and secured multi million, multi-year, fibre optics contracts with Vodafone and Telefonica (now VMO2) for their 4G, and then 5G deployments. In fact, if you drive along any motor way in the UK and see a telecoms tower – there’s a very high chance it has fibre optics supplied by Danny! He also worked very closely with Telefonica, helping design their internal fibre optic cabling solution for small cell 5G street work deployments.

Most recently he has moved into the wireless space, particularly with the advent of 5G. Wireless Private Networks is now where he applies his vast industry knowledge, working for Belgian software company Accelleran.

Accelleran

Board member - Nigel Clifford

Nigel graduated from Manchester University in 1990 with a Civil Engineering MEng degree. He is a Chartered Civil Engineer (FICE) with over 30 years of continuous industry experience.

In his early years, Nigel enjoyed experience ranging from site labourer (during student summer holidays), Design Engineer, and Site Engineer.  He progressed to becoming the client’s Project Manager / Resident Engineer on multi-million pound schemes in both the UK and overseas (Hong Kong and UAE). Now he has become more involved with the commercial and contractual aspects of construction projects. Nigel is currently a construction claims delay analyst drawing on his experience in the assessment of construction programmes and project delays.

He has recently been involved with the Crossrail scheme as a delay analyst, as well as other infrastructure projects. Nigel regularly talks to students and makes presentations about all aspects of a career as a civil engineer.

Nigel was invited to become a member of the Industrial Advisory Board in 2015, and elected as Chairman in 2019.

DGA Group

DGA Group deal with all aspects of project planning, expert delay analysis and scheduling.

Board member - Paul Rawlinson

Paul Rawlinson studied BEng (Hons) Electronic and Software Engineer at the University of Brighton and graduated in 1994.

His current role at Paxton Access Ltd is very varied. As well as heading up Manufacturing and Supply Chain he is also the Quality Officer and is always involved in cross departmental projects to help aid continuous improvement.

Paul has been at Paxton since 1995 and seen its growth from a team of around 12  to an international organisation with over 400 employees and a turnover of around £50M. So Paul has experienced a great deal of change and has adapted and reinvented his role many times over.

As part of the IAB he has taken part in many discussions with promising engineers as well as discussing a variety of challenges with the group. He has also given presentations to undergraduates on manufacturing and process engineering.

Paul attributes a great career to having such an exceptional lecturer and mentor at the University of Brighton.

Paxton Access

With over 30 years of experience, Paxton designs and manufactures market-leading security solutions for a range of buildings. Around 25,000 buildings each year are secured globally with Paxton products.

With the global head office based in Brighton, Paxton utilises the latest technology to provide powerful, yet easy to install and use security solutions. Paxton’s products are designed for a wide range of sectors including education, healthcare, retail, leisure, commercial, the public sector and more.

Board member - Tony Mace

Tony works in the Engineering & Construction directorate of Southern Water Services Ltd on Electrical Instrumentation Control Automation (EICA) design for clean and wastewater capital works engineering projects. He also looks after various associated company engineering standards, works on technical solutions with other disciplines and operational areas of the business, and is involved with mentoring junior engineers.

After starting his career as an apprentice industrial electrician in the late 1970s, Tony moved into the water industry in the 1980s, taking on increasingly technical roles, becoming Incorporated Engineer and subsequently Chartered Engineer within South East Water and then to Southern Water, holding his second role there now as a Principal Engineer.

Tony joined the Engineering IAB in 2017, primarily to help link industry to the University of Brighton and with a two-way process to tap into the skills and knowledge of each other’s organisations. With the IET being the professional institute for the EICA discipline, we have developed a MPD scheme for graduates with our mechanical colleagues and the IMechE, to provide an IET & IMechE accredited graduate scheme.

Southern Water Services Ltd

Southern Water’s purpose is to provide water for life. They are committed to making a positive impact for the good of their customers and communities. And provide essential services to 2.6 million water customers and 4.7 million wastewater customers across Sussex, Kent, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.