The people's president

When Allan McMullen was approaching his 40th birthday, he decided to leave the building business founded by his late father. He wasn’t sure where he would end up, but hoped it would be in construction.

A foreman asked him what he wanted to do and he replied: management training. It proved to be a wise decision as he ended up working as a training adviser for the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) in Northern Ireland. Fifteen years on, not only is McMullen its chief executive, but also the new president of the CIOB.

For him, it’s an honour to be president. His father had urged him to become a member of what was then known as the Institute of Building. Both his father and grandfather were carpenters. In his office, a picture of his grandfather at the age of 85, and still working on site, hangs proudly on the wall. His father would have been very proud, he says.

CIOB presidents usually hail from the mainland, and tend to be contractors or educationalists. Recently, though, the institute has chosen people to reflect the growing breadth of CIOB membership. We’ve just had a client, and before that, a consultant. Coming from a training organisation, McMullen is unique. And, he is only the second member from Ireland to become president. He knows Northern Ireland represents a small portion of UK construction, but he regards this an advantage. He has no commercial irons in the UK fire and hopes he can look at things more objectively.

McMullen already has a clear vision of what he would like to achieve. It includes an activated, motivated membership. He describes it in words reminiscent of JFK: “A lot of members think the institute is about the staff we employ, but it’s about the members. I would be keen for members to put themselves forward to represent the institute. So, instead of saying we want a member of staff to sit on our regional development agency or whatever, it should be a member.”

A moderniser

McMullen is also a “modernist” when it comes to CIOB qualification and he wants to continue reforming the routes into membership.

“Not that long ago the idea was, unless you were an absolute expert in building technology you could not become a member of the CIOB. But there are so many professions in industry now who don’t need to know about technology. So, how you become a member and what qualifications and experience you need has changed dramatically and I think that’s a good thing.

“It’s been difficult over these past few years to convince some of the more traditional members, who had to go through and do a lot of exams based on building technology, that now this is no longer needed. The point is, these other new people who do not come through the traditional route are as equally well qualified.”

McMullen also wants the CIOB to play a role in solving the skills crisis through ConstructionSkills – a partnership between the Learning and Skills Council, the CITBs in Northern Ireland and Great Britain, and the Construction Industry Council. The aim is to create a world class standard of competence, and you can only do this by setting standards at the highest levels, he says.

The CIOB is already a supporter of lifelong learning. It recently introduced a new method of policing members continuing professional development (CPD) through random spot checks. No one is excluded from the process and McMullen has already been targeted himself. He reassures CM that he’s up to date and will not be facing the music at Englemere, just yet.

McMullen hails from the fishing village of Kilkeel, County Down, an area he describes as the most beautiful place in the world. He joined his father’s firm in 1969. A decade later it had a turnover of £1m a year and 100 staff. But trading was difficult. Northern Ireland was going though one of its most troubled periods and interest rates soared.

“The industry went into major shock and the company became a casualty of that,” he said.

In 1988, he made the decision to get away from the stresses and strains of running a business. By then he’d amassed a lot of knowledge, particularly in contract management. He was also very driven and passionate about setting high standards – qualities instilled in him by his father.

A lot of people in Northern Ireland would not say I was a nice guy. I was driven. It was not possible to take prisoners all the time.

Allan McMullen

He joined CITB NI as a training adviser and completed a degree in building, and an MA. He rose through the ranks to chief executive but says he’s just as passionate about training as he was on the day he joined.

But it has not always been plain sailing.

When McMullen joined the organisation it was in financial difficulty, had lost support from the industry and was in danger of losing support from Government. With help from staff who got on board, he turned it around.

It was a difficult time. He had to take decisive action, and admits there is likely to be hard feelings still out there still.

This bucks a common perception that he is an all round nice guy.

Take no prisoners

“A lot of people in Northern Ireland would not say that Allan McMullen was a very nice guy. I was driven. It was not possible to take prisoners all the time and you had to get focus.”

His real passion is apprenticeships. He loves his job at the CITB but would leave if Number 10 offered him the role of Apprenticeship Tsar.

“If someone said, Allan sort this out, I would sort this out,” he says. He is at pains not to criticise work being done, but believes industry must not leave it to Government and colleges. It must provide jobs, proper wages … and training. He knows there may be people who think the president of the CIOB should keep quiet on the matter but McMullen feels the CIOB should lead the campaign to bring back proper apprenticeships.

“It’s more of a CITB issue than CIOB, but I think that the industry for a long time has lost its way on apprenticeships. I am not going to in anyway allocate blame, but as the leading professional body, if we are going to take credit for managing the industry, we’ve got to make sure that the workforce we are managing is properly competent.”

Can the CIOB do it during McMullen’s tenure?

It will be interesting to see. After all, he’s got focus, drive and a track record of getting things done.

He enjoys a laugh, though, and owns up to his limitations. Who else would admit, while chief executive of a major organisation, that your two biggest fears are flying and public speaking? He says he has conquered them, but see for yourself at his first national level gig: the Construction Manager of the Year Awards 2005 in London in October.