Our Board

Nirmal was appointed Chair of the Major Projects Association in April 2025. He is a Partner at Allora Infrastructure and an Independent Non-Executive Director on the Board of Thames Water. He has held senior roles in several Major Infrastructure Client organisations across a number of sectors including, Energy, Roads, and Water, and led the transformation of their procurement, commercial and programme delivery capability.

He stepped down from UK Power Networks in 2024 after serving over 12 years on the Executive Team as the Director of Capital Programme & Procurement, having successfully delivered its ED1 major capital programme via the ED1SON Alliance.

Nirmal was previously on the Board of the Highways Agency for four years, as their Major Projects Director, having joined on the back of the Nichols’ Review in 2007, and is credited with transforming the Agency’s commercial and programme delivery capability.

Prior to that, he was at Anglian Water where he developed the @One Alliance which is still regarded as an exemplary model for collaboratively delivering a large and complex programme of works.

Nirmal is the immediate past Chair of the Infrastructure Client Group Management Board and is a Fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Civil Engineers and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing Supply and is an Alumnus of the London Business School.

Andy is the Executive Director of the Major Projects Association, prior to which he spent 30 years as a practitioner, consultant and assurer of complex projects and programmes for public, private and third sector organisations both domestically and internationally. He has a focus on project governance, the treatment of inherent project complexity and organisational development of project capability.

Andy is a respected author, having worked with HM Treasury, Cabinet Office, the Association for Project Management (APM) and Axelos to develop best practice guidance on their behalf. Publications include PRINCE2, P3M3, Routemap and the Governance of Co-Owned Projects. He was cited in the Sunday Telegraph’s business supplement as one of the most influential people in project management. He is the Chair of the APM’s Governance Special Interest Group, the Chair of the IPA’s independent project advisory group for the Project Initiation Routemap and is the engagement workstream lead for the Project Data Analytics Task Force.

Andy is a collaborative and inclusive senior leader with a track record of building high-performing teams both within his organisation, across partnerships and with voluntary groups.

Outside of work Andy spends his time mountain biking or helping out Willaston FC (a community football club) as treasurer and manager of the Under 14s team.

Sadie Morgan OBE is a co-founding director of dRMM, a RIBA Stirling Prize-winning architecture studio.

Working as a design advocate, educator, and advisor for over two decades, her personal practice within the architectural industry occupies several roles. These include chairing the Cross Cutting Committee for Homes England, for which she is a board member; and acting as commissioner for the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC). She is also a member of the Net Zero Building’s council and the Major Projects Association. She joined New London Architecture (NLA) as a Senior Advisor with a particular focus on enhancing the organisation’s voice and influence at a political level and is Chair of their New London Sounding Board.

Sadie lectures internationally about her practice and the role of design in infrastructure and large-scale development and has held professorships at the University of Westminster, and Cambridge University. She was the youngest president of the Architectural Association, was named ‘New Londoner of the Year’ by the NLA and won the ‘Female Architectural Leader of the Year’ BD award. In 2018, Sadie established the Quality of Life Foundation – an independent body prioritising wellbeing in the built environment. In 2020, she was awarded an OBE for services to design advocacy.

Emma is a Director at Deloitte and has a track record for delivering major programmes and leading effective, multi-disciplinary teams. She specialises in programme delivery of large-scale, Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP) programmes and has supported a breadth of government and public sector organisations to deliver successfully.

She primarily focuses on technology-enabled transformation, including programmes that are delivering new technology-enabled services, upgrading legacy systems, COVID-19-recovery enabled by technology and technology sourcing. Emma was awarded TechWomen100, WeAreTechWomen Awards.

Al is the Managing Director of Advance Consultancy Ltd, a business focused on supporting organisation to deliver outcomes more effectively in complex environments. The focus for the business in recent years has been supporting the development of professional collaboration in project teams delivering complex projects in the infrastructure and transport sector.
Prior to joining Advance, Al has been a Project Management functional director and has been involved in complex project and programme management for 15 years including the delivery of complex projects, programmes and portfolios as both a client and a supplier, developing new collaborative ways of working across the client-supplier interface in the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Al’s background is as an Aerospace Engineer with 20 years as a Royal Air Force Engineer Officer, subsequently shifting into the aerospace industry, across into transportation and now into a multi-sector consultancy. Al’s interest in the topic of Sponsorship comes from many years’ experience of working in and around many different types of project sponsor and seeing a lack of consistent guidance and direction for the role. With Advance, Al has supported teams, projects and organisations to develop appropriate and effective leadership and collaborative environments. He sees effective Sponsorship and Leadership as key to the successful delivery of Major Projects.

Kay joined HS2 as Design Director in 2019 and leads a multidisciplinary team of architects, landscape architects, urban designers, design managers and art and culture specialists within HS2. The team works to deliver the Design Vision for HS2 and establish a legacy vision.

Kay was has worked with the National Infrastructure Commission, the GLA and was the Principal Design adviser and Head of Design for London 2012, Senior Sponsor at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and part of the Major Projects team at Sport England as well as chairing design review panels for Otterpool Park Garden Town and Havering Borough Council.

Kay believes that the design strategy for infrastructure projects and the quality of design delivery is fundamental to achieving social, economic and environmental benefits. She more recently studied Infrastructure Investment and Finance at UCL and is a keen supporter of active travel and environmental sustainability.

Jim started his career at British Airways serving an apprenticeship as an aircraft mechanic and then carrying out front line maintenance on the aircraft fleet. He has kept this affinity for front line staff throughout his career caring deeply about their safety and the expectations that organisations and senior leaders place upon them.

In an 18 year career with British Airways he held a number of operational and engineering posts. He was Technical Director for the airline, Chief Engineer for Concorde leading the largest maintenance check ever performed on a civil airliner at around 200,000 manhours. He was also Vice President for the B777 leading the development and $4bn delivery programme while based at Boeing in Seattle.

He spent nine years in utilities, including 3 years as Safety and Engineering Director at National Grid where he initiated the national gas mains replacement program and 4 years as Operations and Capital Delivery Director at Eon’s electricity Distribution Network. During this period he was also a Non-Executive Director on the Board of the ORR. After this he was with Heathrow Airport Holdings where he was Managing Director of Edinburgh Airport during it’s sale process and then oversaw the sale of their regional airports.

He served as Chief Executive at Highways England from 2015 to 2021 He led the newly established company to the successful delivery of the Government’s first Road Investment Strategy including the delivery of a £13bn capital programme, major advances in road user, contractor, and staff safety, and a new focus on treating road users and transport companies as customers. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the staff network programme focusing on inclusion and fairness.

Jim is currently a Non-Executive Director for Macquarie Asset Management at Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton airports and has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
He has a degree in Air Transport Engineering at City University in London. He holds an MBA from Lancaster and is an Alumni of the Senior Executive Programme at MIT in Boston USA.

Joanna is a Director at Arup where she leads Integrated City Planning, a group of urban designers, landscape architects, economists and planners. She leads projects linked to economic development, social value, funding and finance, masterplans and strategic city plans and governance. Currently she is the Project Director for the consortium supporting the Government to deliver the £4bn Towns Fund programme.
Previously, Joanna was the Assistant Director for Regeneration for the Mayor of London, with responsibility for major investment programmes linked to economic growth and community benefits.
Joanna has authored reports on subjects including equalities, competitiveness and growth. She has spoken at international conferences covering topics such as sustainable place making, aviation, economic development and regeneration.

John is an Executive Director of Devonport Royal Dockyard Ltd, part of Babcock, and has accountability for the Major Infrastructure Projects at Devonport.
On graduation John joined BP plc and worked in a variety of technical and commercial roles before moving to a number of US Energy companies to develop and deliver energy projects in the UK, US and Eastern Europe. He joined BAA as Project Leader on Terminal 5 and on the successful completion of the project moved to BG Group as Global Head of Projects. In 2013 he was seconded to Karachaganak Petroleum Operating Company in Kazakhstan to lead the development of the Karachaganak Field. He joined Sellafield Ltd in 2016, initially as the Director responsible for the High Hazard Retrieval programmes, and latterly as Director of Projects before moving to Babcock in 2020.
John is Chartered Engineer and is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Association for Project Management and the Institute of Directors and is a Freeman of the City of London.

As a Director within the Major Projects division of Balfour Beatty, Sabina is on the Senior Leadership team for the Civil Works Alliance working on Sizewell C.

With experience of managing complex and large-scale infrastructure projects such as HS2 and AWE at various stages of the project lifecycle, she is experienced at navigating and managing relationships at the most senior levels and across Government.

Sabina is an active STEM ambassador and passionate about the future skills workforce.