Alan

What is your role at the ODA?
I ensure an appropriate allocation of funding from the ODA and private sector (the private sector are developing and delivering the Olympic Village together with the adjacent new Stratford retail centre) for the effective and timely delivery of approximately £600m of supporting infrastructure. This infrastructure includes initial demolition works, earthworks, utilities, highways, bridges, rail tunnels and landscaping.

What is your background?
I am a chartered civil engineer by profession and my early career was spent in bridge design and highways projects for a large local authority. I then concentrated on project management of engineering infrastructure with British Waterways during the ‘canal boom’ in the north west, when restoration of redundant canals and construction of new canals acted as a catalyst for regeneration.

I was manager of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal for two years and promoted the new canal link into Liverpool South Docks, before leaving to take a role with English Partnerships, the National Regeneration Agency.

I then took a more property focused role dealing with the regeneration of complex ‘brownfield’ sites and delivering the Housing agenda in the Milton Keynes and South Midlands growth area. This involved me in being responsible for the delivery of enabling infrastructure and negotiating land and property transactions with private sector developers.

Describe a typical day?
The majority of the day involves a combination of internal meetings and external meetings (with the private sector developers) covering aspects such as coordinating progress of Olympic Park projects where they interface with the Stratford City and Olympic Village projects.

It is important that we interface closely with Olympic Park teams, particularly in terms of connecting highways, bridges and utilities. We cover shorter term (2007-2012) construction logistics coordination, Games-mode operation and legacy (post 2012) layout of infrastructure to serve the Olympic Village and the new Stratford retail centre.

With the private sector, meetings deal with the allocation of funding, design, procurement and cost-risk responsibility for the £600m of infrastructure, and capturing these responsibilities in legal agreements.

I typically leave the office at 6pm for the trip home to Northamptonshire, arriving home between 7.30pm and 8pm.

What is your favourite aspect of the role?
The challenge of dealing with substantial infrastructure funding and delivery in the context of major private sector-led property developments including the Olympic Village. This provides a fascinating mix of civil engineering, project and programme management, procurement, construction and property issues to deal with, ensuring that no one day is the same.

What inspired you to join the 2012 team?
On the day of the announcement that London had won the bid to host the Games I knew that I wanted to be part of one the largest projects in the country that would act as a catalyst for regeneration for a whole generation. There is no better job to have following my background and interest in civil engineering, property and regeneration.