Steve Rufus
President
Alex Gee
Vice President
Andrew Rowe
Finance Director
Mark Dunne
Scrutiny Director
Greg Keeling
Events Director
Declan Douglas
Joint Head of Profession (Architecture)
Nicola L. Prandini
Joint Head of Profession (Architecture)
Mark Appleyard
Head of Profession (Construction)
Shaun Lunn
Head of Profession (Surveying)
Richard Daniels
Technical Advisor
Helen Newman
Heritage Advisor for Awards
James Bourne
Co-opted member and Special Projects
Steve Rufus - President
Steve Rufus, Service Manager for Engineering Services, Dorset Council.
Steve has 35 years of experience in building services working for contractors, consultants and local authorities. For the past 20 years he has led the engineering team which is part of the multidisciplinary in-house construction consultancy team at Dorset Council (formally Dorset County Council).
Alex Gee - Vice President
Alex is a strategic director with experience working across the public, private and international sectors.
He has spent the last 18 years in senior roles, leading and transforming multi-disciplinary teams into successful commercial operations.
For the last 10 years, Alex has been Operations Director at the Norse Group, with responsibility for the successful delivery of multi-disciplinary property services, leading two Joint Venture companies: NPS Peterborough Ltd with Peterborough City Council, Norse Evolve Ltd with the London Borough of Waltham Forest; and Norse Archaeology.
In addition to his responsibilities in Peterborough, Alex has spent the last 18months as Interim Head of Property at Cambridgeshire County Council, working closely with the Energy Investment Unit supporting the implementation of zero carbon projects.
Prior to the Norse Group, Alex was Head of Project Co-Ordination for UNEP-WCMC leading on the commercial viability of international environmental projects that ranged from preserving International Protected Areas to Climate Change, working across Institutions such as the UN, the EU and International NGOs.
Alex specialises in delivering strategic projects that require multi-partner collaborations to facilitate change and building high performing teams that focus on delivering commercial benefits.
Andrew Rowe - Finance Director
Andrew is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Building Service Engineers.
He has delivered and managed many capital projects during his career in the public and private sector; including leading the technical and delivery elements of Suffolk County Council’s Building Schools for the Future programmes and two large TUPE transfer of services from County Council’s.
Andrew has managed the in-house consultancy team at Suffolk County Council, offering multi-disciplinary design services, project and programme management, and estates advice on acquisitions, disposals and ratings. And then went on to lead the outsourcing of services in 2013 to Concertus Design and Property Consultants Limited becoming its Chief Executive for nearly 10 years.
Andrew is currently a trustee for the Engineering Council, he Chairs the Education, Training and Membership Committee for CIBSE and is currently sits on a number of industry groups.
Mark Dunne - Scrutiny Director
Mark Dunne BEng (Hons) CEng FCIBSE MSLL MIAM, is a property industry professional with over 40 years’ experience in all aspects of the built asset life cycle. Mark’s experience covers a wide range of property related services from Strategic Asset Management, Design Services, Estates Management, FM and Energy Services. A high proportion of his experience has been gained in the Public Sector working with both Local and Central Government across the UK.
Mark is a Chartered Building Service Engineer and has full membership of the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineering is a Member of the Society of Light and Lighting, Member of Institute of Asset Management and a Member of SPACES.
Mark currently works for Atkins and is a Director within their Infrastructure division. He has previously sat on CIBSE’s main Technical Committee and currently sits on the IET Joint Technical Committee JPEL/64 Electrical Installations of Building.
Greg Keeling - Events Director
Greg Keeling, BEng (Hons) CEng MCIBSE MIET LRPS has over 30 years’ experience in building services engineering, including design, the procurement of professional consultancy and contracting services and the management of frameworks.
Greg heads the technical team within Infrastructure Delivery at Essex County Council which is responsible for delivering the county councils (construction) capital programme. Areas of responsibility include architecture/design, building services engineering, strategic planning, cost management, technical and environmental standards, contracts, construction/engineering/health and safety inspection, management of the Essex County Council Construction Framework, external professional and construction framework management, performance management of external project managers, client cdm and cost management services.
As well as being a founding member and director of SPACES, he is past president of both the Society for Construction and Architecture in Local Authorities (SCALA) and the Society of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (SCEME).
He is a CIBSE Committee member for the Schools Design Group and the Natural Ventilation Group and a member of BSRIA soft landings group. Greg has published various technical articles in journals and was the principal author (client chapter) for the CIBSE TM 57 publication 'School Design'.
Declan Douglas - Joint Head of Profession (Architecture)
Declan Douglas is an ARB-registered architect with solid exposure to a wide variety of projects, including commercial, retail, residential, industrial, rail and venue design. Currently he works for Essex County Council.
ContactNicola L. Prandini - Joint Head of Profession (Architecture)
Nicola L. Prandini MScArch USI AAM ARB RIBA is a chartered architect with experience in both the private sector and Local Authorities. He has also worked for private practices in Switzerland and in Finland.
He is currently the principal architect for the London Borough of Havering where he manages a small but highly dedicated in-house RIBA Chartered architecture team. There he champions good, sensible, sustainable and healthy design.
Mark Appleyard - Head of Profession (Construction)
Mark RM Appleyard BA (Hons) [International] Dip/M Arch RIBA and is Head of Technical, Design & Innovation at Kier Construction.
Shaun Lunn - Head of Profession (Surveying)
Shaun Lunn BSc(Hons), MSc(Hons), MRICS, MCIOB, MCABE, MIAM is a property surveyor with over 35 years experience with most of this gained working in the Public Sector with both Local and Central Government across the UK. He was previously a member of the Society of Building Surveyors and is a current member of SPACES.
Shaun’s experience covers the full ranges of surveying services in Property, Asset and Estates Management including volume asset surveys (including CAFM systems), maintenance, refurbishment, improvement and strategic asset management. Shaun has also advised on outsourcing, integrated delivery, corporate landlord commissioning models and estates reviews to meet service needs, maximise investment and realise capital receipts.
During his career, Shaun has had extensive experience of system buildings and modular construction. Particularly common defects and remedial options including reviews to identify lifecycle obsolescence and replacement programmes.
Shaun is currently a Director of Faithful+Gould and is the National Head of Building Surveying with over 180 experienced and passionate surveyors located in offices across the UK including Northern Ireland. He is also a Director leading on key national Public Sector Frameworks including Pagabo, CCS and SBS.
Richard Daniels - Technical Advisor
Richard Daniels BA(Eng) CEng MSc (Structural Engineering) BSc (Arch) MCIBSE AMIMechE is an engineer with over 35 years experience within the industry. Having worked in the Department for Education since 1987 he took partial retirement in October 2019. He is currently a Technical Manager for the Design Technical Team in DfE. His role is in advising the DfE Design Team on engineering design and technical building issues.
He has been instrumental in developing a number of Building Bulletins, including BB87: Guidelines for Environmental Design in Schools, BB93: acoustic design of schools - performance standards, Building Bulletin 100: design for fire safety in schools, BB 101: Ventilation, thermal comfort and indoor air quality 2018, as well as a number of standard specifications and design guidance for schools.
He has either previously been or currently is a member of a number of committees within CIBSE and was a founding Member of the CIBSE Schools Design Group. He sits on the CIBSE Technical Committee representing SPACES and the DfE. Interests include networking on engineering, sustainability and low energy/zero carbon pathways.
Helen Newman - Heritage Advisor for Awards
Helen Newman BA(Hons) Dip.Arch (Cambs), ARB, RIBA CA, is an Architect and chartered RIBA Conservation Architect. Whilst in practice she has designed and delivered numerous award- winning public buildings over a wide variety of sectors and for local authorities and other public clients over the last 25 years.
Projects have ranged from regeneration-led performance buildings, Building Schools for the Future, high profile University projects on brownfield sites and BREEAM Excellent Blue Light schemes.
Helen is a panel member of Design Review West providing heritage advice within the panel. This not-for-profit organisation works collaboratively with the development sector and decision-makers to help shape better places.
As Head of Profession for Architecture, Helen is keen to support and celebrate design quality and to encourage sustainable, low carbon design approaches for both new build and heritage projects.