Building launches first CEO summit

Leading Over 50 construction leaders attended Building’s first CEO Summit at the Savoy this week. The Summit was the first of Building’s quarterly networking events for chief executives.

Thursday’s event saw the launch of Building’s CEO White Paper, which will be available on Building.co.uk this week.

Industry bosses including Terry Morgan, John Frankiewicz and Jeremy Horner heard key findings from the report, which features a survey of 75 construction CEOs and other company executives.

Report author and Building assistant editor Will Hurst revealed that nearly 50% of CEOs were expecting to be involved in industry consolidation, with 18% expecting to aquire and 9% to merge. Hurst said the report revealed a widening north/south divide, a huge commitment to BIM and a desire to move into Western European markets.

The CEOs also heard from KPMG partner Richard Threlfall who said that world governments would have to spend £40tr on infrastructure to meet the requirements of the global population by 2050.

Threfall poured scorn on health secretary Andrew Lansley’s assertion that bad PFI deals had put 22 hospital Trusts in jeopardy. He said the reason Trusts were facing financial ruin was that the government had cut their budgets by 20%.

Building economist Brian Green added a note of optimism to the breakfast summit explaining how a construction-lead recovery could stimulate growth. He said quantitative easing should be used to build thousands of homes to help boost construction and the wider economy.

The next event will take place in early December.

Video from the CEO Summit

The Summit was held in association with AON, Fenwick Elliott and KPMG.

In association with

Aon is the leading global provider of risk management, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and human resource consulting and outsourcing. The Design & Project Professionals Practice forms part of Aon Risk Solutions’ Professional Services practice and is committed to servicing architects, engineers, surveyors, project/construction managers and other design professionals, including design and build contractors.

Fenwick Elliott is the largest specialist construction law firm in the UK working with clients around the world in the building, engineering and energy sectors. Fenwick Elliott  provide a range of legal services on every aspect of the construction process including procurement strategy; contract documentation and negotiation; risk management and dispute avoidance; project support; and dispute resolution.

KPMG is a global network of professional firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. KPMG have 138,000 outstanding professionals working together to deliver value in 150 countries worldwide. KPMG’s Infrastructure, Building & Construction sector provides an extensive range of industry focussed services for private and public sector clients covering all aspects of financial advice and assurance.