ICEF preview: Gaining a competitve edge

The International Construction Economic Forum (ICEF) is designed to give contractors a competitive edge, through a programme of speakers and networking events covering key issues in the global industry.
Held from November 20 to 22 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the conference will bring together key stakeholders in the global construction industry, including contractors, materials producers, equipment manufacturers, rental companies and other key stakeholders.

The keynote speaker will be former Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar, who will discuss infrastructure investment in austere times, with globalisation and the importance of Latin America among the topics.
The programme includes forecasts from IHS Global Insight, legal issues from Pinsent Masons, and the world of project finance as presented by HSBC, along with speeches from industry leaders and world-renowned figures.

They include CEOs from across the global construction industry supply chain – Miguel Jurado Fernández of contractor FCC Construcción, Zeng Guang’an of equipment manufacturer Liugong, and Norty Turner of rental company Riwal, to name just three.
ICEF will also see the announcement of the International Construction Project of the Year Award, from a shortlist of five major schemes.

Speakers

Zeng Guang’an is vice chairman and president of equipment manufacturer Liugong, overseeing the company’s operations and strategy.

He started his career at Liugong as an engineer in 1985. From 1992 to 1995, he was vice director of the chief engineer office in the company. He was then appointed vice president and promoted to his current role in 1999.

During his career, he has received numerous awards and honours. In 2009, he was elected as one of China’s Top 10 Outstanding CEOs at the China CEO Summit Forum. In 2010, the State Council of China awarded him the title of National Model Worker. In 2013, International Business Daily named him as one of Top Ten Business Men of the Year 2012.

Miguel Jurado Fernández is general manager of FCC Construcción, a global infrastructure company headquartered in Spain, which operates under parent company Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC).

In 1988, he joined FCC and held the positions of head of production, site manager and then production manager. In March 1997, he joined aqualia, FCC’s water management company, where he held several top-level positions in operational management before being appointed vice president in 2005, continuing in this role until 2013.

In March 2013, he was named general manager of FCC Construcción, replacing Avelino Acero Díaz who was appointed corporate manager.

Jules Janssen is treasurer of European International Contractors (EIC), the trade association representing European construction companies that work outside their national borders, and head of Construction at Besix, Belgium’s largest contractor. He has almost 40 years experience of the global construction industry, having begun his career with Besix in 1975. His career has included four years as deputy general manager of Besix subsidiary Sixco, based in Dubai, UAE.

Gregory J Owens, chairman and CEO of IronPlanet, is responsible for the online equipment auctioneer’s development, refinement and overall strategy.

Before joining IronPlanet, Mr Owens served as managing director at Red Zone Capital, a Washington, US, private equity firm. Previously, he was chairman and CEO of Manugistics Group, where he doubled annual revenues to US$ 300 million for the supply chain management software company.

Before that, he served as global managing partner for supply chain management at Accenture, where he was a founding member of the company’s supply chain group.

Norty Turner, CEO of specialist rental company Riwal, will speak about the opportunities and challenges for equipment rental companies in an increasingly globalised construction market.

Before joining Riwal in 2012, Mr Turner spent 17 years working for Hertz Equipment Rental Corporation (HERC), holding a variety of positions with increasing responsibility in sales, operations, and general management. His most recent position at HERC was that of vice president for Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA), based in France.

The Riwal Holding Group, established in 1968 and headquartered in The Netherlands, is an international rental specialist of aerial work platforms and power generators.

Scott Hazelton is the director of the IHS Global Insight Construction & Manufacturing Industries Practice. He developed and is responsible for the quarterly Global Construction Outlook as well as the US Construction Quarterly Briefing and the US Construction: State and Metropolitan Focus forecasts and commentary. He has also developed specific forecasting models for US renovation and infrastructure markets.

Trevor Sturmy is head of infrastructure & PPPs at HSBC, and has been involved in the financing of numerous large infrastructure and Public Private Partnership (PPP)-style schemes since joining the bank in 2006. He was previously a senior director in the project, energy and infrastructure team at CIT in London. Before joining CIT, Mr Sturmy was a director at Deutsche Bank, where he had worked in the Project Finance team as advisor and arranger in the PPP, power and infrastructure sectors since 1995.

Virginie Colaiuta joined Pinsent Masons as a partner in 2011, having previously practised law in France. She is a member of both the New York and Paris Bar. Pinsent Masons is one of the largest legal firms in the world in the construction sphere. It counts more than half of the world’s 100 largest contractors among its clients.

Paul Howard has been a consultant with Off-Highway Research since 2011. He has responsibility for quantifying and analysing several European markets, as well as conducting research further afield. In 2013, he will be analysing the emerging Mongolian market for construction machinery. Mr Howard previously edited Off-Highway Research reports from China and India for five years.

David Miller is operations manager at global contractor Brookfield Multiplex. He has over 25 years’ experience throughout various parts of the world covering a wide range of construction and engineering projects.

In 1998, he joined Brookfield Multiplex, working on projects which included the Emirates Towers, the Taj Palace Hotel, the 50-storey residential UP Tower in Dubai, and Emaar’s Dubai Marina Phase 1 complex.

Miller recently completed the prestigious and technically challenging twin 80-storey JW Marriott Marquis in Dubai – the world’s tallest dedicated hotel and Marriott’s flagship hotel in the Middle East – as project director. He is currently based in Doha, Qatar, on the complex Qatar National Library, which forms part of the Qatar Education City development.

Simon Purchon, Business development director for mobile assets at Babcock International since 2011, is a leading authority on whole life asset management in the public and industry sectors. His knowledge and 25 years of experience have helped Babcock develop ALCAMiE, a transformational asset management system, which is delivering significant benefits in the management of complex fleets.

Murray Pollok, editor of International Rental News (IRN) magazine will talk on key trends and events in the global rental industry. A journalist with more than 20 years’ experience, Mr Pollok is recognised as a global authority on the rental industry. In addition to editing IRN, he is responsible for key market studies. These include the quarterly RentalTracker survey, which is produced in co-operation with the European Rental Association and the annual IRN 100 league table of the world’s largest rental companies.

Dr Roz Buick, Vice president of Trimble’s heavy civil construction division will give examples of how contractors have realised significant business benefits through the adoption of technologies like machine control and modern surveying systems, Dr Buick will explore the extension of this trend to more connected, site-wide solutions. She will argue that using technology to provide greater connectivity and transparency has the potential to dramatically change how projects are executed.

Today’s technology can connect all stakeholders in a project over its entire life, providing greater insight and operational information in real time. Dr. Buick will discuss how real-time integrated information management on-site will transform the civil construction the industry. She will outline a vision of how this expanded richness of information can empower stakeholders to save time and costs at every stage, and virtually eliminate steps in the plan design, construct and operate process, resulting in the earlier completion of a higher quality project at
a lower cost.