Conference Speakers - Radar Booking

The only specialist event of its kind, Focus on Framing provides a solution for construction professionals looking to gain a greater understanding of the latest advances and best practise principles from sector experts.

Through informative speakers and case study presentations the conference will focus on the fast-track non-combustible solutions that are having a significant impact delivering outstanding buildings across all construction sectors. Architects, Engineers, Specifiers and Developers are looking for ways to reduce environmental impact – as the most recycled material on the planet, this event will bring to the fore steel’s sustainability credentials.

Click here to view the 2024 Speaker Programme!

Ben Towe – Group Managing Director, Hadley Group

Conference Chair

Ben is the Group Managing Director of Hadley Group, a Chartered Engineer and Chairman of the Light Steel Frame association with almost 20 years’ experience in delivered large-scale manufacturing and construction solutions globally. Examples of these projects include Heathrow Terminal 5, Middle Eastern Palace’s, Euro Tunnel and Athlete’s accommodation for the UK hosted Olympics innovatively designed for simple and sympathetic conversion post-Games.

Andrew Way – Associate Director, SCI

Andrew is a structural engineer with over 25 years of experience in the steel construction sector. He manages the Light Gauge Construction and Product Assessment parts of the SCI business. He has been involved in many areas of technical development, in particular cold-formed steel, structural robustness and product assessment and certification. As well as product development projects for clients, Andrew also presents SCI courses, writes SCI publications and runs the SCI Light Steel Forum.

Anastasia Stella – Associate Consultant (Sustainability), Waterman Group

Anastasia has a solid academic background in Architectural Engineering and her key professional focus areas are Circular Economy and Net Zero. She has been the key author of the Waterman Materials Passports Framework which was developed in collaboration with CIRCuIT (EU Horizon Programme) and BRE (as the CIRCuIT project partners), which is an initiative to standardise Materials Passports across the industry. She is involved in the development of European and national Standards for Circular Economy in construction, and the UKGBC committee for Materials Passports. Anastasia led the implementation of Materials Passports at the sustainability-focussed commercial office scheme Edenica in London, and this saw the Materials Passports initiative being awarded “Best Net Zero Project” by ACE in 2022. She is also the co-founder of Circuland, a digital platform for the production and life-cycle management of Materials Passports.

Tim Sims – Partner, Rider Levett Bucknall

Tim is a chartered safety professional with over 24 years of health, safety, fire, quality and environmental consultancy experience providing leadership on complex projects up to £500m. He has excellent knowledge of health and safety legislation, specialising within the built environment and fire sectors. Tim has provided a wide range of compliance programme support to clients across a broad spectrum of business and sectors. He delivers service excellence to his clients on high profile and ‘flagship’ projects across the UK.

Paul Scott – Partner, Trowers and Hamlins

Paul is a specialist in the resolution of complex construction and engineering disputes, through litigation, arbitration, adjudication, and various forms of alternative dispute resolution. Amongst other matters, in the years that have passed since the Grenfell Tower tragedy, Paul has been involved in advising parties at all levels of the construction supply chain in relation to complex multi-party disputes regarding alleged building safety defects on a number of developments across the UK.

Patrick Hayes – Technical Director, Institution of Structural Engineers

Patrick is Technical Director at the Institution of Structural Engineers. He leads in the areas of climate action, computational design and structural safety. He oversees the management of the CROSS-Reporting Scheme on structural and fire safety. He has senior level oversight into all IStructE’s technical activity. He leads the Institution’s Building Safety Act initiative. This involves assessing the needs of members to meet the requirements of The Act and working with other PEI’s to produce guidance. He was previously Head of Structures and Board Director at Meinhardt UK and Head of DfMA for Meinhardt Group. Patrick has been an engineer since 1988 and chartered since 1993. Patrick has designed structures in both the UK and overseas. His experience covers schools, universities, laboratories, commercial, residential and mixed-use developments. He has led designs of buildings in steel, concrete, pre-stressed concrete and traditional materials. He has also designed bridges and civil engineering infrastructure.

Dr Peter Forsyth – Director Strategic Initiatives, McCarthy Stone

Peter is leading the strategic development and industrialisation of MMC for McCarthy Stone.

Dr Evangelia Palkanoglou – Director Strategic Initiatives, McCarthy Stone

Dr Evangelia Nektaria Palkanoglou is currently Solution Technical Specialist at Graitec. Previously she worked a graduate structural civil engineer at Haydn Evans consultancy, based in Ipswich. She was based in the structural team; however, she spent time rotating several teams and worked on a variety of projects, including railway and maritime structures. She also holds a Ph.D. from Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical, and Manufacturing Engineering, at Loughborough University, UK. Prior to that, she graduated from the School of Civil Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens after having followed the option of Structural Engineering. In 2018, she obtained her Master’s degree in Analysis and Design of Earthquake Resistant Structures from the National Technical University of Athens.

Amanda Long – Chief Executive, Construction Product Information

With 25 years professional experience nationally and internationally, Amanda brings not for profit and private sector experience including working within a global charity championing consumer and public protection and national not-for-profit voluntary standard setting organisations for the built environment including in the past, the Considerate Constructors Scheme and now, in current post leading the Code for Construction Product Information (CCPI).

Danny Johnson – Head of Sales, Intrastack

Danny Johnson is the Head of Sales for Intrastack, part of the Saint-Gobain Off-Site Solutions division. Danny has extensive experience of working with MMC solutions, and is an advocate for off-site construction methods that provide cost-effective, efficient and safe solutions for the building industry. Intrastack’s panelised light gauge steel frame (LGSF) solution has been developed to support the delivery of multi-storey, multi-occupancy residential and low-rise housing projects.

Dave Chapman – Head of Technical, ArcelorMittal

Dave is a Chartered Structural Engineer working in the steel industry since 1986. Firstly, with the fabricators Wescol Glosford, and Dyer, involved in stadia, warehouse, office projects etc, where he became Technical Director. Subsequently, 20 years at Corus/Tata Steel/BCSA as Technical Manager. In 2023 joining ArcelorMittal Steligence, in a similar role, responsible for the specification of the company’s various products within the UK.

Joe Campion – Director, Quandrant Building Control – Part of the Socotec Group of Companies

Joe has almost 30 years’ experience working in Building Control. This includes 11 years spent at Lincoln City Council and as the Technical Manager for Butler & Young Ltd, responsible for interpretation of Approved Documents, liaison with Government departments, and bodies such as the BRE. He is a qualified Fire Engineer and energy assessor for both commercial and domestic buildings. Joe was a founding Director of Quadrant Building Control in 2007. Joe’s role at Quadrant includes the running of the Lincoln office, and the oversight of the financial performance of the business, as well as an active portfolio of Building Control work.

Peter Burchill – National Business Development, Remagin

With some 20 years’ experience in construction industry having worked with fire and acoustic products Peter has a full understanding of the importance on test evidence. Peter went form modular manufacture (fire and ballistic requirement) to light steel frame manufacture and was brought in to Etex over 5 years ago. Focusing on Housing / Education / Healthcare / Modular / Pre-Assembled Frames. As Remagin we look to shape the future of sustainable construction

Dr Peter Hodgson – Manager, Sustainability Policy & Assessment, Tata Steel

Dr Peter Hodgson graduated as a physicist with a background in environmental applications. Following spells with several environmentally-focussed organisations, he is currently Manager, Sustainability Policy & Assessment in the Corporate Sustainability & Environment function at Tata Steel in the UK, where he leads a team engaged in a broad range of sustainability and circular economy issues in the metals industry, particularly following the principles of life cycle thinking. He is leading Tata Steel’s global engagement in a number of initiatives supporting the steel sector’s transition to net / near zero GHG emissions. He has a Postgraduate Certificate in Environmental Life Cycle Management from the University of Surrey and represents UK Steel on several national sustainability standards committees. He is a Chartered Physicist and a Fellow of the UK’s Institute of Physics.

Dr Katherine Adams – Director, Reusefully

Katherine is a co-founder of Reusefully Ltd, set up to assist companies in research and consultancy in sustainability, low carbon and circular economy, predominately in the construction sector. She also works as Technical Director for the Alliance for Sustainable Building Products (ASBP). Prior to this she managed the Resource Efficiency work area at BRE and SmartWaste (now SmartSite), a suite of web-based tools to measure and monitor environmental impact on construction sites. Katherine has over 20 years’ experience in the construction sector and throughout her career, has been instrumental in raising the importance of construction resource efficiency within the UK through the development of research and the provision of data and has developed influential partnerships and networks and encouraged collaboration across the supply chain and with Government.

Jimmy Collins – Head of Technical, Knauf

Jimmy Collins brings over eight years of invaluable experience to Knauf, where he has navigated through various roles, each contributing to his comprehensive understanding of the industry. Beginning his journey in Business Development, he quickly rose through the ranks to Project Specification and subsequently National Specification Director. Currently serving as Head of Technical, Jimmy oversees critical areas of Knauf such as Technical Services, On-Site Technical Support, Technical Advocacy, and spearheads Research and Development Initiatives. With his wealth of experience and strategic leadership, Jimmy is instrumental in driving Knauf towards innovation and excellence in the field.

Daniel Leech – CEO, Design4Structures

Daniel is the CEO of Design 4 Structures, a Civil and Structural Engineering Consultancy with a difference. As the first practice of its kind in the UK, he has led on developing an approach, that transforms the way traditional and offsite construction programmes are delivered on a national and global scale. With an entire team, dedicated to DfMA, taking projects from concept, through to manufacture, Daniel offers valuable insight into proven optimisation and collaboration strategies, that enable us all, as a collective industry, to construct with greater accuracy, cost certainty, sustainability and efficiency.

Charlotte Garrett – Strategic Inustry Strategy, KOPE

An Architect with extensive experience in Offsite Construction. Charlotte has led design, managed multi-disciplinary teams, and advised on the delivery of many projects across the UK. Charlotte is Head of Industry Strategy at KOPE, a purpose-built software platform for the Offsite Construction Industry. Charlotte works closely with professionals in the industry to identify what is coming and what they need, using those insights to inform KOPE’s strategic direction and solutions. Charlotte takes great pride in working together and is passionate and committed to driving and supporting the Offsite Construction sector, advocating and employing standardisation as well as introducing and developing digital technologies to make our industry more scalable and productive.

Shaun Weston – Managing Director, British Offsite

Shaun Weston spent four years in the automotive industry, following a degree in engineering, before joining Weston Homes. In his early construction career, he gained grass roots experience in multiple trades, while also achieving a 1st class BSc degree in Construction Management. From there he became a site manager, holding this position for three years before moving into senior management and joining the Weston Homes board in 2017. In the position of Managing Director of Weston Logistics, Shaun developed The Weston Group’s first MMC systems, which led to the incorporation of British Offsite in 2020. Since then, Shaun has overseen offsite construction of 1,000 new homes and the completion of British Offsite’s second factory, with capacity to deliver 4,000 homes every year. Shaun’s personal philosophy of innovation and continuous improvement is driving British Offsite’s reputation as a leading high-tech manufacturer, where automotive, construction and logistics industries meet.