More Interviews – Page 25

  • Leeson meets Stef Stefanou
    Features

    Relax – it could be so much worse

    2005-10-21T00:00:00Z

    Nick Leeson learned a lot about stress when he lost £862m, went on the run and ended up a Singapore jail. Now he’s sharing his coping strategies in a new book and executive workshops. Nick Jones introduced him to the famously relaxed Stef Stefanou, and felt his own blood pressure ...

  • Features

    Alun Michael

    2005-10-14T00:00:00Z

    Once upon a time, the government saw construction as a vital lever for regulating the economy, and gave it an entire minister. These says it gets an average of seven minutes of Alun Michael’s day. So what can he accomplish in that time?

  • Stephen Williams
    Features

    I’ll be seeing you …

    2005-10-07T00:00:00Z

    Stephen Williams has just been appointed head of construction at the Health and Safety Executive. As Building discovered, he is a man with an intense interest in the industry – and plans personally to visit as many sites as possible.

  • Ian Livsey
    Features

    Do you trust this man?

    2005-09-30T00:00:00Z

    Ian Livsey, head of the new TrustMark accreditation scheme, wants to banish cowboy builders from the market. But how will he get the industry on side?

  • Features

    Ed Balls

    2005-09-23T00:00:00Z

    The man who crafted Labour’s economic miracle used to be famous for being unknown. Now he’s emerged from the shadows to become an MP, he tells Building why a housing recession is not imminent and how he still has the ear of the chancellor.

  • Features

    Jasper conran: The new Wayne hemingway?

    2005-09-16T00:00:00Z

    Fashion guru Jasper Conran is already known for interior design, but with links to the Open House scheme and some heavy hints being dropped, it seems he may be moving into architecture. So do we have another fashion designer architect on our hands?

  • Barrington Billings, the first black person to hold the presidency of the Chartered Institute of Housing
    Features

    Mr precedent

    2005-09-09T00:00:00Z

    Barrington Billings, the first black person to hold the presidency of the Chartered Institute of Housing, spent years championing the cause of black and ethnic minorities. Now he’s giving firms run by them the chance to win public sector work.

  • Jennie Price
    Features

    She’s back

    2005-09-02T00:00:00Z

    Jennie Price, the famously combative former boss of the Construction Confederation, has been absent from the industry for some years. Now she’s returned, accompanied by … a row

  • Brighton developer Josh Arghiros
    Features

    The man who kidnapped Gehry

    2005-08-12T00:00:00Z

    Brighton developer Josh Arghiros is the kind of man who knows what he wants and sets out to get it. And if what he wants happens to be the world’s most famous architect, well … He tells George Hay what happened next.

  • Sir Neville Simms
    Features

    The green knight

    2005-07-29T00:00:00Z

    Sir Neville Simms has made an epic personal journey from vilified motorway contractor to champion of sustainable procurement in the public sector. He tells Building about his plans.

  • Neil Deely and David Prichard
    Features

    Not the David Prichard show

    2005-07-15T00:00:00Z

    Architectural firm Metropolitan Workshop is not about star architects, even though it has been set up by one of the starriest. We found out why from David Prichard and Neil Deely.

  • Simon Vivian
    Features

    Simon Vivian begins

    2005-07-08T00:00:00Z

    Most of Simon Vivian’s six months in charge of Mowlem have been spent struggling with disastrous projects, boardroom bloodletting and a predecessor who didn’t leave. Now he’s finally ready to do it his way. Tom Broughton finds out what he has in mind.

  • Valerie Bragg
    Features

    Head first

    2005-07-01T00:00:00Z

    Former headmistress Valerie Bragg has been a leading player in implementing Labour’s schools strategy. Here she tells us about why architecture doesn’t really matter – and how she got on with Norman Foster at the Bexley academy.

  • Lord Hunt
    Features

    Lord Hunt

    2005-07-01T00:00:00Z

    John Prescott might have trouble remembering who he is, but safety minister Lord Hunt is determined that the construction industry’s big hitters will take on board what he has to say.

  • Henry Pitman
    Features

    Do you want to join my tribe?

    2005-06-24T00:00:00Z

    Henry Pitman is the Eton-educated businessman who founded Tribal as the universal solution to the public sector’s property problems. And he wants you to help him

  • The fact I picked up so many jobs afterwards seems to mean people didn’t think I was to blame. As far as I was concerned, I wasn’t to blame
    Features

    No regrets

    2005-06-17T00:00:00Z

    Nobody knows better than Sir Martin Laing, former chairman of Laing, how a wafer-thin margin can turn into a catastrophic loss. He tells us about how a contract used to be a gentlemen’s agreement and why he wasn’t to blame for that £1 sale.

  • Doing good by stealth
    Features

    Doing good by stealth

    2005-06-03T00:00:00Z

    The new chief executive of the Prince’s Foundation is a quiet American. But Hank Dittmar’s lack of showiness is well suited to a charity that is aiming to slowly and subtly transform urban England.

  • Stars and stripes
    Features

    Stars and gripes

    2005-05-27T00:00:00Z

    When Emcor lambasted its failing UK subsidiary Drake & Scull, US-based boss Frank T MacInnis asked Tony Whale to turn the firm around. Whale has, but he isn’t out of the woods yet. We met the two to discuss their future.

  • Kate's expectations
    Features

    Kate’s expectations

    2005-05-20T00:00:00Z

    When Kate Barker’s report into housing undersupply was published last year, it was greeted with intense public and industry interest – after which nothing much seemed to happen. We found out whether the author was disappointed with her reception

  • Daniel Libeskind
    Features

    Daniel Libeskind

    2005-05-13T00:00:00Z

    As rumours circulate of year-long delays and complete redesigns at Ground Zero, we talk to the man responsible about why his long, bitter struggle with rival architects, the New York press and the site owner (among others) is a sign that things are going pretty well …