Entering the industry on a placement from a non-construction background, in just six and a half years, Jack has risen from a graduate marketing officer to head the business development for Kier Construction across the entire North East and Yorkshire & Humberside, sitting on the senior management team for both regions with a remit covering a business in excess of £110m per annum.
Jack has shown incredible determination, resilience and leadership throughout his career so far. At 17, a life changing illness and major surgery forced him to drop back a year during his A-Levels which could have derailed his life, however he persevered to University to achieve a first-class honours degree which set him on his path to becoming one of the youngest senior leaders within Kier Construction.
Just a few of Jack’s achievements are summarised below and are expanded on throughout this submission:
• Leadership & Influence
o One of the youngest senior managers in Kier, having risen quickly at both organisations he has worked at. Jack now heads the BD for Kier across the entire North East and Yorkshire & Humber regions, which was previously the responsibility of three individuals.
o 2-year tenure as G4C NE co-chair
o Currently in the final year of a Senior Leader Master’s Degree Apprenticeship MBA programme at Teesside University. He is the class rep for the cohort and one of the youngest ever participants on the course with a class leading current average of 83%.
• Collaboration
o Currently involved or a member of:
▪ CMI (Chartered Institute of Management)
▪ CENE Advisory Board (including Skills theme group and Marketing Communications group)
▪ Governor at local SEN school the Beacon Centre and working with them to set their new careers strategy to increase engagement with industry, enhancing STEM and employability skills
▪ CIOB North East Regional Committee
▪ North East Chamber of Commerce Development Group
▪ STEM and CITB Ambassador
o Previously involved or member of:
▪ Advisory board for national award-winning social enterprise, The Skill Mill
▪ FBE Forum for Tomorrow
▪ CIOB Novus
• Innovation
o He created, established and developed the ‘Virt-Dual Mentoring Programme’.
o Initiated the G4C ‘well-being’ survey that was circulated across the industry and used within CENE’s ‘well-being theme group’.
o Developed a bespoke offline business development CRM (customer relationship management) system at previous company which eventually became the foundation for part of their £10m overhaul of IT systems called ‘Project Gateway’.
• Sustainability
o In his Senior Leader’s MBA module ‘The Sustainable Organisation’, Jack was awarded the highest mark attained on the course with 90%. His assignment looked at the impact upon sustainability of social value in the construction sector and his module leader asked for the assignment to be used as an exemplar for future cohorts.
o One of the selected individuals nominated by CO2nstructionZero’s business champions to contribute towards the Youth4Climate summit to present solutions to the CLC to engage a wide young audience on tackling climate change.
• Legacy
o Established G4C Tees Valley committee
o Led engagement of G4C involvement with North East Construction Strategy
o Jack has developed the next generation of professionals on G4C committees across NE, TV and Yorkshire by working closely with the committees to develop their strategic plans
Jack is a perfect example of someone who has risen quickly internally through the ranks at his previous company and now Kier, as well as devoting huge attention to his external activities which has hugely benefitted the wider North East construction industry and developed the G4C voice for young professionals, alongside attracting the next generation of talent in to the built environment sector.
