Construction and Building Services Division: How we are governed

CFD Manager, RED Engineering

Maira joined RED Engineering as their CFD Manager in 2022, after 10 years working as a CFD Engineer in the data centre industry. Straight out of her degree in Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London, she spent her early career with Future Facilities as a Consultant Engineer working on client projects and contributing to the design and testing of the 6SigmaDCX software package.

She now leads a diverse team of talented CFD Engineers at RED across the UK, Dubai and the Philippines – guiding them in their projects, and supporting their professional development. The project-management and business-strategy components to her day-to-day work have allowed her to work closely with other teams within the firm – so the typical wish for an engineer to never stop learning still stands.

After becoming Chartered in 2017, Maira looked for a technical volunteering opportunity (to accompany her STEM outreach work with schools), and was welcomed into CBSD to bring a voice to the data centre industry. She has been co-Chairing the division with David Smith since 2021.

As former Chair of SheCanEngineer, she volunteers with the non-profit diversity & inclusion initiative designed to encourage girls into Engineering and highlight the roles and achievements of women in the sector. This is a subject close to her heart; she is passionate about raising awareness on the power of diverse teams and inclusive environments.

David spent the first part of his career in the aerospace industry working for Rolls Royce on the development of small gas turbine engines for helicopter applications.

In 1991 he moved to BRE (then Building Research Establishment) working to promote energy efficiency in commercial buildings. Over time the scope of his work broadened to encompass a wide range of environmental issues associated with the built environment. He led BRE’s Environment Group where he was responsible for the delivery of a wide range of research and consultancy programmes.

David has been an active member of the Boards of IMechE’s Energy, Environment and Sustainability Group (EESG) and the Construction and Building Services Division (CBSD) of which he was chair from 2009 to 2012.

He was a member of the team that introduced the Chartered Environmentalist registration scheme to the Institution and was one of the first IMechE members to achieve the CEnv award.

David is now retired and in addition to his continuing membership of the CBSD Board he is involved with a range of community voluntary activities associated with conservation in his local area.

Principal Technical Expert Modularisation – Projects Global Discipline, Shell

As PTE Modularisation, David leads Shell’s Modularisation Centre of Excellence maintaining the modularisation body of knowledge and supporting projects, predominantly pre-FID with modularisation assessment, concept selection and strategy development, and modularisation definition and execution planning. Alongside this role he is also a lead in workstreams around future project delivery, and sustainable and decarbonised construction execution.

David has 21 years experience in project delivery, predominantly focussed on modularisation and construction planning and execution for industrial projects in energy and chemicals. He holds a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Strathclyde, and an MSc in Project Management from the University of Liverpool. He is an incorporated engineer and member of the IMechE, and holds an APM PMQ. David is an active member of the both the CII MCBA, and AWP + Lean JWG.

David Llewelyn graduated from Bristol University in 1971 and started work with BP on the North Sea Drilling rigs. After 8 years developing offshore drilling and subsea completion technologies, he worked in Abu Dhabi onshore and then with the wells being drilled in north Alaska. In 1984 he led BPs drilling research program to improve extended reach drilling techniques.  

After another spell in management in Aberdeen, he was assigned to Norway to lead the BP research alliance with Statoil. In 1994 he was appointed Operations Manager for BP’s deepwater production project West of the Shetlands.   

On leaving BP in 1999 David became a consultant in Norway working for multiple clients including Shell and Esso and at various locations including Brasil and Singapore focussing on Floating Production techologies including FPSOs and subsea production.  Much of this time was spend on new projects and in shipbuilding yards where the challenge was to build steel structures to survive 25 years of offshore operations.

He was also responsible for the Norwegian FPSO and Subsea experience networks and spent 12 years assisting with training courses around the world.

In 2010 he became the founding chair of the Scandinavian IMechE group based in Oslo, and in 2020 a member of the board of the IMechE Construction and Building Services Division.

Technical Director, Colt International Limited

Since joining Colt in 1987, Conor has gained extensive knowledge and experience in the design installation and application of: 

• Smoke Control Systems
• Pressurization Systems
• Fire Engineering Strategies
• Computational Fluid Dynamics
• Climate control Systems
• Louvre and Solar Shading systems

Previously, Conor worked for Colt in Singapore and was instrumental in the start-up of Colt Ventilation East Asia Pte Ltd, he has also worked as a Fire Engineering Consultant with International Fire Technology (a Colt Group Fire Engineering Consultancy).

Conor has thorough and extensive experience in the design, application and performance of smoke control systems and was Chairman of the Smoke Control Association for 8 years up until 2017. He currently sits on BSI Committees for Fire Safety, Fire Engineering and Smoke Control along with several European Standards Committees, helping to formulate BS 9991, BS 9999, The new pressurization standards EN 12101-6 & 13, PD 7974-2 and various Smoke Control Association Guidance Documents.

As Technical Director, he has responsibility for design standards and compliance at Colt UK&I and represents Colt at The Smoke Control Association, The Association of Specialist Fire Protection (ASFP), and sat on their technical committee drafting the ‘Black Book’ on fire curtains.  He was responsible for Colt being the first smoke control company to be certified by a third party (IFCC) as competent for the installation of smoke control systems, as well as smoke and fire curtains.

More recently, he has also been appointed Head of Product Development for Colt UK.

In addition, Conor sits on the board of the Construction and Building Services Division of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, is a Director of the National Association of Rooflight Manufacturers and sits on the Eurolux task forces for smoke ventilation and daylighting.

Director at T-SQUARED

Connor is a Chartered Engineer and experienced construction professional with a balanced perspective, having spent time in contractor, consultant and client-side roles. Recent experience in leading large scale capital delivery programmes (£100m+) within the higher education, healthcare and research sectors has given him insight into the application of engineering principals at significant scale.

He is passionate about creating career pathways from vocational backgrounds, ensuring that engineering excellence at all levels is recognised and developed.

Alongside his primary role as project director, he has an active interest in cleanroom technology, biocontainment design and aseptic manufacturing environments.

Connors current role is to manage the operation and development of the T-SQUARED business in the south of England. 

T-SQUARED design, build and maintain highly specialised facilities for clients in regulated industries.

Partner, Head of Fire Safety
Foster + Partners

Benjamin Ralph is a Chartered Engineer, Member of the Institution of Fire Engineers, and Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Paramount among Benjamin’s primary drivers is early and integrated conscientious fire safety design. He has led fire safety designs for projects with value up to £7 billion and undertaken multiple research fellowships, including with the Building Research Establishment (UK) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (USA). Benjamin is passionate about diversity and inclusion - especially advocating design of spaces for all abilities and neurodiversities. He obtained his civil engineering undergraduate from the University of Southampton, fire safety engineering postgraduate from the University of Ulster, and fire science PhD from the University of Edinburgh.

Ruth graduated with an MEng in Engineering Design from the University of Bristol in 2006, she is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. 

Ruth’s career is rooted in the construction industry, where she works with clients to create buildings and spaces which are comfortable for people, use limited resources and are resilient to our changing climate.  Ruth has a passion for sports buildings and a particular career highlight was her work on the stadium cooling strategy for Qatar 2022.    In her current role she leads the delivery of specialist engineering on major projects world-wide.  

Ruth started her volunteering career with the Young Members’ board (YMB), chairing the board from 2013 – 2015.  Upon stepping down from the YMB, Ruth was invited to join the Education Skills and Strategy Board (ESSB) and the Construction and Building Services Division (CBSD).  Ruth has been an elected member of Council since 2015, and in 2020 she was invited to join the Real Estate Strategy Board (RESG). 

Ruth was elected as an Ordinary Member of the Trustee Board in 2023 and is the Trustee Representative on the Technical Strategy Board (TSB).